Global Cement News

India: The employees union of state-owned Meghalaya Cherra Cement has given the government two weeks to pay back salary from 2015 to 2016 and overtime payments since 2013. Union president S Diengdoh criticised the state-owned plant for poor management and low production, according to the Sentinel newspaper. The union alleges that the plant has an utilisation rate of only 30% and poor levels of safety.

Honduras: Cementos Argos and Cementos del Norte have agreed to cut the price of cement for government-backed reisdential and infrastructure projects following a request by President Juan Orlando Hernández, according to the El Heraldo newspaper. The price will fall by around 15% when the agreements between the cement producers and the government is finalised.

France: Ciments Calcia has launched Hop’ pour les Pros, a dissolvable cement bag product. Cement sold in the bags can be placed directly into a mixer to make ready-mix concrete. Its puported beneifts include reduce spillage, time savings and no packaging. CEM II 32.5 R cement will be used in the product manufactured at he company’s Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime.

Colombia/US: Edgar Ramírez, the former vice president of planning for Cemex in Colombia, has been summoned by the US judiciary in relation to the Maceo cement plant corruption case. Ramírez reportedly fled to the US following calls for his arrest in Colombia earlier in 2018, according to W Radio. Another suspect in the case - Eugenio Correa Díaz, the former representative of CI Calizas y Minerales, which sold the property to the cement producer, is also being questioned by the US authorities. Ramírez and accomplices allegedly paid over US$13m to Correa, despite being aware of the fact that the property was in the process of being expropriated over unpaid taxes.

Spain: Jesus Ortiz, the president of Oficemen, says that the local market has ‘worrying’ levels of uncertainty. His comments follow a reduction in cement consumption growth since 2017 and falling export markets. The Spanish cement associaton is concerned that growth has mainly been driven by residential construction. The Cement Demand Index (IDC) grew by 8.5% year-on-year in September 2018 but this was a slight decline month-on-month. From October 2017 to September 2018 an estimated 13Mt of cement was consumed, a rise of 1Mt from the previous year. However, exports have fallen conscutively over the last year and a half.