Global Cement News

Romania: LafargeHolcim has signed an agreement with Oresa to buy Somaco, precast concrete producers. The transaction will allow LafargeHolcim to develop its position on the Romanian building materials market, where the company is already present in the cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates segments. No value for the transaction has been disclosed. It is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in late 2019.

“This is our sixth bolt-on acquisition this year and we are delivering on our commitment to further develop our Solutions & Products business segment as part of Strategy 2022 – ‘Building for Growth.’ The acquisition enables LafargeHolcim to enter Romania’s fast growing precast concrete market and to become an integrated solutions provider for our local customers,” said Jan Jenisch, chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim.

Somaco operates five precast concrete plants and one plant for aerated blocks in Romania. The company reported net sales of Euro56m in 2018 and has 750 employees. It has a portfolio of precast products for bridges, tunnels, subways and logistics platforms and supplies products for the residential sector.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has completed the upgrade to its integrated cement plant at Davao. The expansion involved the activation of a finish mill and installation of a new pipe for loading cement to the silos from the pier, eco-hoppers to improve dust emissions and an overhead crane. Cold commissioning started in April 2019 while full production began in late June 2019. The improvements add 0.7Mt/yr to the cement production of the plant.

The expansion of the Davao plant is part of the company’s on-going program to improve operations to better support the positive growth of Mindanao. In March 2019, the company launched in a new blended cement product, Solido. It also opened its first construction laboratory outside Metro Manila at Davao in 2018. Holcim Philippines will hold a ceremony in August 2019 to inaugurate the facilities with partners from the public and private sector.

Philippines: The Philippine Competition Commission says that its investigation on alleged violations of competitive practice by the cement industry will be kept separate from a review of the acquisition of Holcim Philippines by San Miguel Corporation. The commission made the statement in a reply to questions raised by consumer group Laban ng Konsyumer, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. However, the commission’s Mergers and Acquisitions Office said that, although both cases are being considered independently, this would not preclude them from considering the pre-merger activities of the companies.

Azerbaijan: Turkey’s Dal Teknik Makina is set to start work on an upgrade project at Akkord Cement’s integrated plant at Gazakh. It will increase the clinker production capacity to 3300t/day from 2500t/day. The supply of equipment is expected to be completed in six months and the shutdown period is planning to be five weeks. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The first phase of the upgrade project will be the retrofit of the raw mill unit. A static drying separator will be placed in front of the raw mill to dry clay and some of limestone. Equipment to be replaced in the raw mill unit include a dynamic separator, ball charge modification, all parts of separator cyclones and the raw mill fan. The raw mill grinding capacity will be upgraded by drying the raw materials and enhancing the separation efficiency.

The next phase will consist of replacing the raw mill/kiln bag filter and filter fan to reach the desired upgraded capacity. Finally, the pyro-processing system unit will be modified. In order to reach the target production capacity the equipment to be changed will be the first four stage cyclones with the modification of the calciner-TAD connection and new splash boxes will be installed.

Nigeria: Oyebamiji Dauda, the chairman of the Lagos State Bricklayers’ Association, has urged the government to cut the price of cement. He wants it to make cement manufacturing more competitive by allowing more producers to operate in the market, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. He added that the ‘high’ cost of cement was negatively affecting building construction. Dauda’s ideas to ease the price of cement include government subsidy, tax breaks for local producers of building materials and further penalties for imported products.