Australia: A report commissioned by the Queensland Ministry of Mines has investigated the causes of all 47 deaths in mines and quarries in the state between 2000 and 2019, concluding that systemic, organisational, supervision or training failures caused the deaths in almost all cases. The report proposed that the state government should require quarry operators to use the Serious Accident Frequency Rate (SAFR) as their metric for health and safety monitoring, calling the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) unreliable because it is prone to manipulation, being “a measure of how the industry manages injuries after they have occurred. It is possible, therefore, to reduce the LTIFR without making the industry safer,” said the report’s author Sean Brady.

In the Australian 2019 financial year, ending 31 July 2019, six people died in Queensland’s quarries and mine.

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan produced 0.19Mt of cement in January 2020, down by 24% from 0.25Mt in January 2019. Trend News Agency has reported that this is due in part to a shift in construction towards the ready-mix concrete with a lower clinker factor and the use of other materials such as brick. The total value of building materials produced in January was US$30.8m, up by 35% from US$22.8m in January 2019.

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has reported a profit of US$1.23m in the second quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, between 1 October 2019 and 31 December 2019. This corresponds to a drop of 82% year-on-year from US$6.83m in the corresponding period of Pakistan’s 2019 fiscal year. The Express Tribune newspaper attributed the plunge to currency depreciation, lower retention prices and higher electricity tariffs. Sales in the three months to 31 December 2019 were US$34.4m, up by 5.5% year-on-year from US$32.6m to 31 December 2018.

The company said that the second quarter saw a 20% jump year-on-year in cement dispatches to 0.93Mt from 0.77Mt in the second quarter of the 2019 fiscal year. It expects a return to profitability in 2020.

Tunisia: Carthage Cement has submitted a statement to Tunisian police in which it alleges false testimony by FLSmidth’s lawyer who advised the Danish supplier in a criminal case which saw one employee sentenced to five years for illegal payments to Carthage Cement’s owners in 2017. Ritzau Finans newspaper has reported that FLSmidth’s management admitted to knowledge of the payments on 21 February 2020, something it had denied to authorities when under investigation prior to the trial, which concluded in November 2019.