Honduras: Cementos del Norte has spent US$29m on upgrades for its Rio Bijao cement plant in Choloma. The project includes increasing the unit’s capacity for production, storage capacity and alternative fuels, according to the La Prensa newspaper. The cement producer is installing a new cement grinding mill at the site. This will enable it to raise its cement prouction capacity to 2.5Mt/yr from 1.5Mt/yr.

South Africa: PPC has revealed details of a US$176m black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction. The transaction, together with the BEE shareholding from the two previous transactions, will result in an effective 30% BEE shareholding in PPC South Africa Holdings, making the company compliant with the Mining Charter, according to the Pretoria Times newspaper. Called PPC Phakama, meaning ‘rise up’ in Zulu, the transaction will result in PPC's equity shareholding in PPC South Africa being reduced from 100% to 74.6%.

Sibonginkosi Nyanga, an analyst at Momentum Securities, said that the cement producer was required by the Mining Charter to implement the transaction. It requires companies to have at least a 26% BEE shareholding. Non-compliance could have had the potential put PPC’s mining rights at risk.

India: The Fly Ash Council of Maharashtra has asked state power generation company Mahagenco to plan how to give fly ash for free to industrial users. The initiative follows the decision by the state government to adopt its Fly Ash Utilisation Policy, according to the Indian Express newspaper. An official said that the power company would give away fly ash for free within 100km of the plant if it is affordable. The measure was introduced to encourage cement manufacturers and construction companies to use more fly ash by offsetting the transportation cost. At present smaller companies receive the fly ash for no charge.

In 2015 - 2016, Maharashtra used 69% of the fly ash generated in thermal power plants in the state. With an installed capacity of 20,976MW, the state generated 18.6Mt of fly ash during this period, of which 13Mt was used, mostly to make bricks and to build roads. With the new policy the government is targeting a 100% utilisation rate.

US: Mexico’s Cemex says that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating whether the cement producer violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in relation to a new cement plant being built by Cemex Colombia at Maceo in Antioquia. Previously, the cement producer received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2016 as part of a probe also checking whether the FCPA had been breached.

Cemex says it is cooperating with both requests. However, it also said that it does not know how long either investigation will last or what impact the results of either investigation might have upon the company in terms of eventual sanctions.

In late September 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members in relation to the Maceo project and its subsidiary’s chief executive resigned. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20.5m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights, and benefits of the tax free zone for the project.