Global Cement News

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has appointed Zlatko Todorcevski as a non-executive director. He has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and holds an MBA. He has worked for more than 30 years in the oil and gas, logistics and manufacturing sectors in Australia and overseas and has a background in finance, strategy and planning. He has previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer with BHP Billiton’s Energy business, Oil Search Limited and most recently at Brambles.

US: HarbisonWalker International (HWI) plans to build a new monolithic refractories plant at the Point Industrial Park in South Point, Lawrence County, Ohio. The site is subject to completion of the company’s due diligence and finalisation of one additional grant application that is in process. HWI announced in February 2017 that it was spending US$30m on building a new 80,000t/yr refractory plant to start operation by early 2018.

Russia: Mordovcement, part of Eurocement Group, has commissioned a new bagging line using equipment from Newtec Bag Palletizing and OMS Systems. The pallet-free palletiser has a rate of 130t/hr or 2600 bags/hr processing bags of 40kg or 50kg. The cement producer invested over Euro950,000 on the new line and the upgrade is expected to increase the plant’s cement delivery volume to 9000t/day.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim and employee representatives in Europe have established a new European Works Council (EWC). The forum for consultation and dialogue at a transnational level will bring together worker representatives from 19 countries with senior leaders from LafargeHolcim.

“People are essential to the success of LafargeHolcim and our commitment to social dialogue through the new European Works Council is testament to this. During a period of transformation, we recognise that ensuring the full commitment, mobilisation, and engagement of our employees is a key building block for success,” said Eric Olsen, chief executive officer of LafargeHolcim.

The EWC was established based on an agreement signed by Olsen and Executive Committee members Caroline Luscombe, responsible for Organisation and Human Resources and Roland Köhler, responsible for Europe, Australia / New Zealand and Trading as well as Sam Hägglund, General Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers EFBWW, among other management and employee representatives. Chaired by Köhler, the EWC replaces the previous European Works Councils. Countries represented in the EWC include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Afghanistan: A Czech company plans to invest US$70m towards building a cement plant in Zenda Jan district of Herat province. A deal is expected to be signed in early April 2017, according to a Sirus Alaf, an Afghan presidential adviser on the economy, quoted by the 1TV Afghanistan television channel. Local companies are also expected to match the foreign investment. The planned plant will have a cement production capacity of 1600t/day.