Israel: Nesher Israel Cement has dismissed 20 workers at its Haifa plant. The redundancies took place in October 2018 due to a fall in production, according to the Globes newspaper. The company is also considering making staff change at its Ramla plant. Previously, Israeli cement producers have blamed Turkey and Greece for declining business and have lobbied for anti-dumping tariffs.

Russia: Eurocement has hired Turkey’s Dal Teknik to upgrade a production line at its Zhigulovskiye Stroymaterialy plant in Samara so that it can manufacture white cement. The project has a budget of around Euro13m. Once complete the line will be able to produce 0.3Mt/yr of PCB 1-500-D0 or just below 0.4Mt/yr PCB 1-400-D20 white cement. The new product will be sold in big or regular sized bags. First deliveries are expected in the summer of 2019.

US: A fire at Argos USA’s Martinsburg cement plant in West Virginia is being investigated. The fire followed an explosion at the site on 25 November 2018, according to the Herald-Mail newspaper. A spokesman for the cement producer said that the incident occurred in the coal-mill dust-collector bag house. Although damage estimates are not available yet, repairs following the fire include replacing blast doors. No injuries have been reported. Production at the plant has been suspended while the cause of the fire is investigated.

Sweden: Cementa says it is has supply problems delivering its Bascement product. The delivery issues have been caused by frequent power cuts to its Slite plant, weather-related delays to its shipping schedule and high cement demand. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement said that it was keeping its customers regularly updated.