Zambia: BBMG Corporation and Tangshan Jidong Cement have resumed work on the development of a cement plant in Zambia, which requires a total investment of US$290m. The facility will produce 3000t/day of clinker and have a cement capacity of 1.3Mt/yr.

Up to 60% of the funding will be secured from Bank of China (BOC), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and South Africa-based Nedbank. Aside from the 20% project capital that has been invested by the project owners, Tangshan Jidong Cement will raise the remaining 20% funding from other banks after February 2019.

The original contract was made prior to 2015 between Tangshan Jidong Cement and Zambia-based Suhails International Ltd. and the cement plant was supposed to commence operations by the end of 2017. The IFC also launched due diligence at the beginning of 2015, according to reports published by Hebei government website and Tangshan local media. In April 2015 regulators from China and Zambia approved the project. However it was delayed due to the restructuring of Tangshan Jidong Cement.

Ukraine: Ukrainian cement production in October 2018 increased by 13.8% year-on-year to 0.96Mt in October 2018, according to the State Statistics Service. The figure was 7.4% higher than in September 2018. Over the first 10 months of 2018, the production of cement increased by 0.1% year-on-year to 7.86Mt.

South Africa: PPC reports that its strategy to expand into the rest of Africa has started to bear fruit, despite continuing challenges in many markets. Johan Claassen, the chief executive of PPC said that the group's diversified portfolio had enabled the company to offset the weaker South African performance with robust growth in its rest of Africa segment.

"We are very pleased with our rest of Africa operations, which grew volumes by more than 34%, increased revenues by 36% to US$120m and improved earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 18% to US$36.7m. "This performance was supported by robust volume growth in Zimbabwe and a positive contribution from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” said Claasen.

Claassen added that the first phase of PPC's Cimerwa plant upgrade in Rwanda, which involved de-bottlenecking the plant to increase production capacity, was successfully completed in the six months to September 2018 and that PPC began to realise the benefits towards the end of the reporting period when record volumes were achieved.

However, the revenue achieved by the Cimerwa plant declined to US$29.1m from US$31.9m in the prior period because of a 7% reduction in volumes. PPC’s Rwandan EBITDA slumped to US$6.7m from US$12.2m, because of unexpected maintenance associated with clinker imports costs. Claassen added that its operations in the DRC continued to encounter challenging market conditions, which were characterised by overcapacity and muted cement demand due to political uncertainty.

India: Dalmia Bharat is reported to be planning a 4Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Rajasthan to cover the north Indian market. It was earlier reported to have secured limestone mining rights in the area surrounding Chittogarh and it has recently missed out on the purchase of northern cement maker Binani Cement to its rival Ultratech Cement.

Speaking to Business Standard, a Dalmia Bharat spokesperson said, “If we aren’t able to foray into North India via acquisition, we’ll do it via a greenfield project.” He added that the plant will start with a single 2Mt/yr line, with a second to be added later.

This new proposal gives Dalmia Bharat exposure to Rajasthan and neighbouring Gujarat, opening the wider nothern region up to the company. “The region is expected to register good growth in the next 10 years, which makes this market lucrative for us. It has always been our endeavour to be present across the country,” concluded the spokesperson.