Global Cement News

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies and Bouygues Construction have signed a 30-month initial technical and commercial collaboration agreement to develop and test concrete formulations using new cement made from Hoffmann’s H-EVA technology. Hoffmann Green Cement inaugurated its pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée in late 2018. The unit will manufacture cement products using flash-calcined metakaolin and blast-furnace slag. Bouygues Construction is a global construction company with a presence in over 60 countries.

Brazil: InterCement is to stop production at its integrated Pedro Leopoldo plant in Minas Gerais. It plans to temporarily run the unit as a cement terminal, according to Por Dentro De Tudo. The plant has 53 employees. 28 will be relocated to other plants in the company and the remaining 25 will be made redundant.

Somaliland: Oman’s Raysut Cement has agreed to build a 1Mt/yr grinding plant with MSG Group. The project will have an investment of US$40m. Raysut Cement will own 55% of the joint venture with MSG Group holding the remainder. Raysut Cement previously had plans to build a cement terminal in the country with Barwaaqo Cement Company.

Finland: Metso and Outotec have agreed to merge Metso Minerals and Outotec to create a company specialising in process technology, equipment and services serving the minerals, metals and aggregates industries. The new company will be called Metso Outotec. Metso Flow Control will be excluded from the merger and renamed as Neles and run as a separate company. The companies comprising Metso Outotec had combined sales of around Euro3.9bn in 2018.

The merger will be implemented through a partial demerger of Metso, in which all assets and liabilities of Metso that relate to Metso Minerals will transfer to Outotec in exchange for newly-issued shares in Outotec to be delivered to Metso shareholders. Outotec shareholders will continue to own their shares in Outotec.
The transaction will be dependent on shareholder and regulatory approval. The process is expected complete in the second quarter of 2020.

The current chief executive officer (CEO) of Metso, Pekka Vauramo, will become Metso Outotec’s CEO, and the current CEO of Outotec, Markku Teräsvasara, will become the Deputy CEO of Metso Outotec. Eeva Sipilä will become the chief financial officer (CFO) and Deputy CEO of Metso Outotec. The board of Metso Outotec will include board members from both companies. It is proposed that Metso Outotec’s chairman will be Mikael Lilius and that the Vice Chairman will be Matti Alahuhta.

“Today is an exciting day as we announce the transformational combination of two great companies and simultaneously create an independent leader in flow control. The combination of Metso and Outotec is a unique opportunity to deliver significant value for our shareholders with a broad presence across minerals, metals and aggregates value chains and an even stronger platform for growth and innovation,” said Mikael Liliu.

India: Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, says that the cement industry has a capacity utilisation rate of 67%. In a written reply to the Indian Parliament, he said that the country had an installed production capacity for cement of around 510Mt/yr and that 337Mt was produced in the 2018 – 2019 financial year.