India: ACC’s net sales rose by 13% year-on-year to US$1.45bn for the first nine months of 2018 from US$1.3bn in the same period in 2017. Its sales volumes of cement grew by 8% to 20.9Mt from 19.3Mt. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 6% to US$212m from US$200m and net profit after tax rose by 10% to US$107m from US$98m. The cement producer attributed its performance to growing cement sales that were able to offset rising input costs including coal, petcoke, diesel and slag.

Philippines: Cemex Philippines says that its subsidiary Solid Cement has chosen China’s CBMI as the main contractor for an upgrade project at its plant in Antipolo, Rizal, according to ABS-CBN News. The new US$225m production line will increase cement production by 1.5Mt/yr to 3.4Mt/yr.

Pakistan: Thatta Cement has approved a waste heat recovery project with its associated company, Thatta Power, at its annual general meeting. The two subsidiaries of the State Cement Corporation of Pakistan have ratified a waste heat utilisation agreement. The cement producer operates a 0.6Mt/yr plant at Thatta near Karachi.

Uzbekistan: Eurocement has started building an upgrade to its Akhangarancement plant at Akhangaransky. Botir Zaripov, chairman of the board of Uzstroymaterialy, and Mikhail Skorokhod, the president of Eurocement, attended a ceremony laying the foundation stone. The project has a cost of over US$160m and it will increase the production capacity of the plant to 3Mt/yr. The first batch of products from the new production line is expected in mid-2020. China’s CNBM is the main contractor on the project.