Peru: Chile’s Cementos Bío Bío’s has sold its 50% share in Cementos Portland (Cempor) for US$14m. The cement producer originally purchased a stake in the company in 2010, according to the La Tercera newspaper. The Chilean company had previously intended to build a cement plant in Lima in a joint venture with Brazil’s Votorantim but this was delayed by legal opposition from Unacem.

India: Kesoram Industries has received approval from the state government of Karnataka to buy 675 acres of land for mining limestone reserves. The subsidiary of BK Birla Group plans to use the acquisition to increase its existing limestone reserves, according to the Hindu newspaper. The amount the cement producer will pay for the land is still being negotiated and will be paid over a two-year period.

India: Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation plans to start commercial operation of a new 1Mt/yr production line at its Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu in early 2019. Construction work on the US$100m project was originally started in May 2016 and it is due to be completed in October 2018, according to the Hindu newspaper. Testing and trial runs will then start in November 2018. Following the upgrade, the state-owned plant will have a total production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr.

China: Jianghua Conch has launched a 5.9MW solar plant project. Its subsidiary, Jianghua Conch New Energy, will build the unit. No date for the completion of the project has been disclosed. Jianghua Conch is a subsidiary of Anhui Conch based in Hunan province.