Global Cement News

US: Solidia Technologies has appointed Jules Kortenhorst to its board of directors. Kortenhorst is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Prior to this he was the founding CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and he also served as a member of the Dutch parliament for the Christian Democratic Party.

Kortenhorst was the CEO for International Operations of ClientLogic Corporation and he worked for almost 10 years for Royal Dutch Shell, including managing director at Shell Bulgaria. He began his career as an analyst at McKinsey & Co.

He currently serves on the Energy Transition Commission and is the co-chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Energy. He also is a non-executive board member of the Energy Web Foundation and an advisory board member of Land Life Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a Master’s in Economics from Erasmus University, Netherlands.

India: UltraTech Cement has declared the scheme of arrangement between itself and Century Textiles and Industries as part of its merger process. It will issue one equity share worth US$0.14 each for every eight equity shares of the same value held by the shareholders of Century Textiles and Industries. UltraTech Cement received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the acquisition of the cement business of Century Textiles and Industries in late August 2018 but it faced legal challenges subsequently.

The acquisition further strengthens UltraTech Cement’s lead in the Indian market. It says it is now the only company outside of China to have a production capacity of more than 100Mt/yr in a single country. It also claims that it is the third largest cement company in the world excluding those based in China.

Nigeria: Aliko Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Cement, plans to increase his company’s cement production capacity in Africa by 29% to 62Mt/yr. It aims to add 6Mt/yr in Nigeria in 2020 to support exports to grinding plants in Cameroon and West Africa, according to Bloomberg. The cement producer previously said it had a production capacity of 45.6Mt/yr in 2018 from operations in 10 countries.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has marked nine years in a partnership with Transnamib, Namibia’s state railway company. The partnership covers coal transportation from the Port of Walvisbay to Ohorongo’s integrated cement plant at Otavi and despatches of palletised cement. Transnamib also arranged additional train services between Tsumeb and Ondangwa to support shipments to the north of the country.

“We highly value our relationship with Ohorongo Cement as their increased utilisation of rail transport allowed for the implementation of our road-to-rail strategy which have resulted in a reduction of approximately 150 trucks on the road between Tsumeb and Ondangwa,” said Zebby Mukungu, Marketing and Sales Manager at Transnamib.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement plans to sell its production lines 1 – 5 as part of a move to a new site. The old lines have a combined clinker production capacity of 5600t/day. The lines were ‘temporarily’ shut down in early 2017 due to poor market conditions.