Brazil: CSN Cimentos is planning to spend around US$390m on building a new 3Mt/yr cement plant in Paraná. Eduardo Bekin, president of the Paraná State Development Agency, said that the company already had the authorisation to conduct economic viability studies and should confirm the plant by late August 2019, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. CSN is also considering building the plant in Sergipe state, where it operates a limestone mine. The final decision will depend on the best tax environment for the cement producer.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has delayed publication of its annual results for 2018. It blamed the delay on ‘pending actions required for the resolution of key matters relating to the closure of its annual financial statement. It says it will release its audited financial statement by the end of June 2019. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim reported a net loss of US$28.8m for the first nine months of 2019 compared to an income of US$2.61m in the same period in 2017, although it managed to grow its revenue on a year-on-year basis.

France: Cem'In'Eu plans to raise Euro55m by the end of 2019 to support building new cement grinding plants in Europe. It opened its first 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant at Tonneins, Lot et Garonne in 2018, according to Les Echos newspaper. Construction of a new plant at Portes-lès-Valence, Drôme is scheduled to start in mid-2019. Construction of a larger 0.5Mt/yr plant at Montreuil-Bellay, Maine-et-Loire is anticipated to start in September 2019 for a commissioning date of February 2021. This project will cost Euro35m. Other projects are planned for Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône et Loire and Ottmarsheim.

International projects include a plant at Ottmarsheim, Haut-Rhin in Switzerland and Thamesport in the UK. The former is expected to gather all the necessary permits by September 2019 with construction to follow by the end of the year. An additional project is being planned at the port of Gdynia in Poland.

Trinidad & Tobago: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is continuing to hear arguments about whether Rock Hard Cement should be exempt from higher taxes applicable to third party goods. Both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) previously ruled that Rock Hard Cement imports from Turkey and Portugal were correctly classified as ‘other hydraulic cement,’ according to Barbados Today. However, lawyers on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago and Trinidad Cement have dismissed this classification of the imports, insisting that the classification of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and COTED were ‘unsafe, unreliable and incorrect.’ As such the imports should be classified as ‘building cement grey’ and liable to a tariff of 15% instead of 5%. The case continues.