Global Cement News

South Korea: Hanil Cement has appointed its chief executive officer (CEO) and vice-president Jeon Gun-Sik as its president. He first joined the company in 1991, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper. He worked as the vice plant manager of the Danyang Plant, the head of the business planning department, the head of the business division and the executive vice-president of the head office of Hanil Hyundai Cement. Notably in 2017 he oversaw the acquisition of Hyundai Cement, a subsidiary now known as Hanil Hyundai Cement, that he also runs as CEO and president.

US: Bunting has appointed Robert Bunting as its president and chief executive officer. He succeeds his father, Bob Bunting, in the role. Bunting Senior has now become chair of the company.

Robert Bunting joined Bunting’s Elk Grove Village magnet sales team in 2007. He later became the company’s Global Product Manager for Metal Detection in 2014 and then General Manager of Bunting Elk Grove Village in 2016. He previously sat on the business intelligence committee for PMMI (The Association for Packaging and Processing) and is the marketing director of the Process Equipment Manufacturers' Association (PEMA) at present. He holds a degree in business management at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri and previously worked for Sun Life Financial.

Bunting is a designer and manufacturer of magnetic separators, metal detectors, magnets, magnetic assemblies and magnetising equipment. The company has its headquarters in Newton, Kansas. It was originally founded in 1959 in Chicago, Illinois by Walter F Bunting, the grandfather of Robert Bunting.

China: China Resources Cement’s turnover fell by 21.5% year-on-year to US$3.08bn in the first nine months of 2022 from US$3.93bn in the same period in 2021. Its profit dropped by 65% to US$234m from US$677m. Cement and concrete sales volumes decreased by 17% to 52.5Mt and 26% to 8.04Mm³, although clinker sales volumes grew slightly. Sales by geographical region fell in all provinces, with the exception of Hunan. The company blamed falling profits on production costs and falling sales.

Germany: Ireland-based CRH has agreed to sell its subsidiaries Opterra Zement and Opterra Beton to Thomas Gruppe. Thomas Gruppe expects to complete its acquisition of the businesses later in 2022. Opterra Zement owns the 1.4Mt/yr Karsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt, cement plant and 0.5Mt/yr Sötenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, grinding plant, the latter of which is closed. Opterra Beton operates the Neufahrn, Bavaria, ready-mix concrete batching plant.

Thomas Gruppe said "For years, we have been pursuing a steady and long-term growth course in the field of cement and precast and ready-mix concrete. In the cement segment, our competitive position improved significantly with the purchase of the Erwitte (North Rhine-Westphalia) plant in 2017. Together with the grinding plant in Dorndorf (Thuringia), we have achieved a significantly larger area coverage in Germany, and also in the Netherlands, and benefit from synergy effects." It continued "We would like to continue on this growth course. An opportunity like the one to take over the cement plant in Karsdorf does not come often. The Karsdorf plant, with its gigantic limestone deposits, its market position of well over 1Mt/yr of cement and its experienced team, enables us better to supply our customers, and to leverage improvement potential. In addition, Karsdorf is of sufficient size for us to install CO₂ separation technology in its production of clinker for the Dorndorf grinding plant." Thomas Gruppe concluded "We are convinced that cement will become a clean building material and believe in its future."

China: Data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China shows that cement output fell by 12% year-on-year to 1.56Bnt in the first nine months of 2022 from 1.78Bnt in the same period in 2021. However, output started to pick up on a monthly basis in September 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 1% to 207Mt. Despite national increases in infrastructure development, the China Cement Association revealed that real estate development investment decreased by 8% to US$1.44tn in the first nine months of 2022.