Burundi: The government of Burundi says that it is ready to sign a credit letter with Dangote Cement for the establishment of a cement plant in the country. In this way, the government hopes to provide a long-term solution to the on-going national cement shortage. In the meantime, the government urged Dangote Cement to devise ‘modalities for the supply of construction materials’ into the country.

Burundian delegates at a meeting with Dangote Cement on 8 July 2022 said that Northwest Burundi is endowed with abundant limestone reserves.

Romania: Holcim Romania has announced its acquisition of independent ready-mix concrete market leader General Beton Romania. The latter operates eight batching plants with a total of 160 employees. Its markets include Arad, Bucharest, Constanta and Sibiu. Holcim Romania says that it plans to use the acquisition to grow its ECOPact green concrete’s footprint.

Europe, Middle East Africa regional head Miljan Gutovic said “General Beton provides an excellent addition to our strong and diversified ready-mix concrete operations. Over more than two decades, General Beton has been a long-standing Holcim partner as well as a growing and highly successful business. I am delighted to welcome them to the Holcim family.”

Nepal: Palpa Cement Industries has exported cement produced at its 3000t/day Sunwal cement plant to India. Indo-Asian News Service has reported that the shipment consisted of 3000 bags of the company’s Tansen brand cement. The producer says that it will continue with daily despatches to India, subject to demand.

The Nepal government offers 8% subsidies to cement exporters which use Nepali raw materials.

Argentina: Holcim Argentina says that it will invest US$40m in capital expenditure in 2022. It plans to invest US$15m in its cement and concrete operations and US$15m in subsidiary Geocycle's three waste management plants, which supply alternative fuel for its cement production. Of the remainder, US$5m will go towards the construction of a new dry mortars plant in Córdoba, which the company plans to inaugurate in December 2022.