Nigeria: The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) says it has received formal approval from the Securities Exchange Commission and the Federal High Court for its merger with Kalambaina Cement. It added that the scheme of the merger was effective from 24 December 2018. New CCNN shares have been issued to and allotted to Kalambaina Cement’s shareholders at an agreed ratio.

Belarus: The Architecture and Construction Ministry has supported the country’s use of a commodity exchange to sell cement. Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister Alexander Sidorov said that his ministry was prepared to support an increase in supply to the exchange if demand allowed, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). It was previously announced that the country was planning to make 0.2Mt/yr of 10% of the country’s cement exports available to purchase via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) from the start of 2019.

Russia: South Ural Mining and Processing Company has purchased a 77% stake in Gornozavodsktsement in Perm region. It intends to buy the rest of the company at a later date, according to the Kommersant newspaper. The acquisition was supported by Gazprombank.

Chile: Colbún has signed a deal with Grupo Polpaico to supply the cement producer with 183GWhr/yr of renewable energy for a 10 year period. Cementos Polpaico will start using renewable energy at its Cerro Blanco integrated plant and its Coronel cement grinding plant in 2019 to allow energy efficiency upgrades to be implemented. Other plants in the group’s portfolio will start using the renewable energy supply by 2022.