Russia: HeidelbergCement Russia has held an opening ceremony for a new despatch system at its Slantsev ‘Cesla’ plant in the Leningrad region. Mihail Polendakov, General Director of HeidelbergCement in Russia, Anton Hadjiiski, General Director of the plant, Mikhail Moskvin, Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Region Government for Construction, and Deputy Prime Minister Leningrad Region - Chairman of the Committee for Economic Development and Investment Activities Dmitry Yalov attended the opening.

Following the upgrade the plant now uses an automated loading system for its trucks. The investment for the project was around Euro13m. The unit has a cement production capacity of 0.8Mt/yr.

Guinea: La Société Guinée Industries (GI) Ciment has doubled the production capacity of its plant at Kagbélen near Dubréka to 1.4Mt/yr. The upgrade is intended to support cement consumption in the country, according to Mosaique Guinee. The work has originally scheduled for completion in July 2018. The capacity boost has increased the unit’s workforce by 17% to 450 direct employees and over 1500 indirect jobs.

Guinée has four cement plants, including grinding plants, operated by Cemenco, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, in Conakry and Ciments de l’Afrique (CIMAF) in Dubréka. LafargeHolcim Guinée also runs a unit locally. GI Ciment says it operates the largest plant in the country.

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies’ pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée is set to start commercial production of low-carbon cement products in January 2019. Construction of the 50,000t/yr unit is due to be completed in October 2018 with its inauguration scheduled for late November 2018, according to Batiactu. The plant will employ 10 workers initially and this will rise to 15 – 20 as production ramps up.

The producer intends to make cement products using metakaolin and blast-furnace slag. If the pilot plant is a success it then intends to raise funds to build a 0.5Mt/yr plant.

South Africa: Germany’s Haver & Boecker has entered into a joint-venture with Southport-based Portland Packaging. Through the joint venture, the Portland Packaging plant will start producing Haver & Boecker products and equipment alongside its own products, retaining the brands of both companies. The German company says that this is the first time a multinational full line packaging company has manufactured product for Africa, in Africa. It will be the minority partner in the joint venture.

Portland Packaging was founded in 2002 by Barry Buist, a former employee of a Haver & Boecker partner company in South Africa. It sells packaging machinery, parts and service to more than 100 customers across Africa and beyond, primarily in the cement industry.