Pakistan: The Peshawar High Court has stopped construction of a cement plant by Fecto Cement at Palai in Malakand. Opponents of the project cited environmental and health concerns, according to the News International newspaper. Fecto Cement announced plans for its new 6000t/day plant in February 2018.

Vietnam: A joint venture between Vinaconex Engineering Construction and Investment and Lilama will supply equipment for the Tan Thang cement plant in Nghe An province. The contract is worth US$66m, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The new plant will have a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr. Vinaconex and Lilama will join European companies Bedeschi and FLSmidth on the project.

France: Jacob Waerness, the former security chief at Lafarge Syria, has been arrested in Paris. He was taken into custody in early May 2018 while transferring between planes at the Charles de Gaulle airport, according to Le Monde newspaper. He was arrested on charges of financing terrorism. Waerness worked as the head of security for Lafarge in Syria from 2011 to 2013. He published a book about his experiences in 2016.

Kyrgyzstan: Data from the National Statistics Committee data shows that local cement producers manufactured 1.5Mt of cement in 2017. Previously, the country produceds 1.3Mt in 2016 and 1.5Mt in 2015, according to the Central Asian News Service. The top three cement companies in terms of tax payments were South-Kyrgyz Cement, Kant Cement and the Southern Combine of Building Materials.