Global Cement News

Cambodia: Thai-based Thai Boon Rong Cement is conducting pilot testing at its newly constructed 1.3Mt/yr integrated cement plant in La’ang, Kampot province, with a view to it entering production in November 2019. Asia News Network has reported that the cement plant, located in the Thai Boon Rong Special Economic Zone, will be the fourth in Kampot, bringing the province’s total production capacity to 6.4Mt/yr. Fellow producer Chip Mong Insee, whose plant in Kampot, owned jointly with Siam City Cement, produces 1.5Mt/yr of cement, released a statement expressing hope that the new plant will help to “slash imports by a great amount, which means that we can be nearly 100% self-reliant.”

Including the fifth plant in Battambang, Cambodia’s cement production capacity will stand at 8.2Mt/yr as of the November 2019 inauguration of the new plant by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The figure confronts a rapidly growing domestic demand which is 7.7Mt/yr and shows no signs of slowing. Figures from Chip Mong Insee estimate that national cement demand in 2020 may be as high as 9.0Mt/yr.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement achieved a US$12.2m third quarter net profit in 2019. This compares with losses of US$12.3m in the corresponding three months of 2018. The company reported a 73% leap in revenues year-on-year to US$49.7m from US$28.7m.

China: China Tianrui Group Cement has secured a new agreement with Ruiping Shilong for the supply of its clinker. The company announced that under the new arrangement, valid until 31 December 2021, it will buy clinker at a rate possibly exceeding the US$74m/yr cap stipulated in the 1 April 2019 agreement which covered the same period.

Argentina: Loma’s new line at its L’Amali plant in Olavarría Province, involving a kiln, two vertical mills and a bagging and palletising unit, will create 120 jobs, 80 of which will go to plant staff. The company had previously estimated that 220 people would work on the line. In a statement, it emphasised the importance of maximising gender parity in its recruitment process.

Loma Negra estimated that the upgrade will enlarge the plant’s capacity by 40% to 2.4Mt/yr from 1.7Mt/yr. The declaration follows the announced relocation of 45 staff members with the closure of the 1.5Mt/yr integrated Olavarría cement plant, also in Olavarría province.

Syria: Two Coalition F15s performed a targeted precision airstrike on a Lafarge Syria cement terminal near Kobane on the Turkish-Syrian border. Myles Caggins, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson, told Sputnik that the operation succeeded in its aims of “destroying an ammunition cache and reducing the facility’s future military usefulness.” The facility had been used by Coalition and Kurdish forces, and was destroyed following the removal of all personnel and ‘essential tactical equipment’ as part of the US’s withdrawal from northern Syria.