Burkina Faso: The Ministry of Mines and Quarries has signed a limestone mining deal with Sahelian Mining, a subsidiary of Diamond Cement Burkina. The deal covers mineral rights for the Sahel region, according to the Sidwaya newspaper. The agreement is intended to diversify the country’s mineral production. Diamond Cement Burkina oprates a cement grinding plant at Ouagadougou.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s revenue rose by 11.7% to US$1.22bn in 2017 from US$1.09bn. The building materials producer said that the boost, although aided by acquisitions in 2017, was due to ‘strong’ demand in east coast markets, improving demand in South Australia and stabilising demand in Western Australia. However, its net profit after tax fell by 2.2% to US$142m from US$145m. It blamed this on one off provisions, acquisition costs and restructuring expenses.

For its cement business, the company said that cement and clinker sales volume rose by 9% in 2017, assisted by a ‘particularly’ strong second half. Strong volume growth continued in 2017 in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.
Sales volumes in Western Australia and Northern Territory declined in the first half but stabilised in the second half to be modestly lower for the year. Cement sales in South Australia improved, supported by the ramp-up of major infrastructure projects in the second half.

The cement producer also reported that in April 2017 its Birkenhead plant experienced a temporary issue with the quality of cement that incurred rectification costs of US$2.8m during the first half of the year. The quality issue arose due to lower grade feed making its way into the cement milling process. Fixes to inventory management and quality processes were made to address the issue and production and quality returned to normal shortly after the incident.

Thailand: Siam City Cement Group has hired US company Avaya and Thai technology company Loxley to upgrade its communication infrastructure. The project was intended to help the cement producer manage the transformation into a multinational company with operations in Thailand, Sir Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam and 1500 workers. Products from Avaya have enabled employees in different regions to connect via a range of devices and channels via varied internet connections in different territories. The project has also enabled employees to use video conferencing to collaborate and to reduce the need for travel.

“With our rapid expansion across the region, we wanted a cost-effective solution that would enable us to meet our sustainable development objectives while driving our digital transformation journey,” said Khun Ittaya Sirivasukarn, chief executive officer (CEO) of Insee Digital, the IT subsidiary of Siam City Cement.

Australia: Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) and the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) are working together to encourage the use of low carbon cements in infrastructure projects. This follows ISCA’s Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme and the release of the BZE Rethinking Cement report that presents a roadmap on how Australia could develop the world’s first zero carbon cement industry.

ISCA’s Infrastructure Sustainability Rating scheme will introduce two new incentives aligned with BZE’s approach: a new Innovation Challenge will encourage greater use of low-carbon content within Portland cement; and an updated Infrastructure Sustainability Materials Calculator for ISv2.0 will award points for the use of geopolymers. ISCA already rewards projects for replacing a proportion of Portland cement clinker with alternatives such as fly ash. Their analysis indicates that IS rated projects have achieved an average of 21 - 25% Portland replacement.