Global Cement News

Nigeria: Lafarge has announced the appointment of Guillaume Roux as the Country Chief Executive Officer for Nigeria and Benin Republic effective from September 2013. He succeeds Jean-Christophe Barbant.

Roux, a joint French and US national, is a graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He joined the Lafarge Group in 1980 as an Internal Auditor.

After holding several key positions in the Finance Department in France and the United States, he was appointed as Vice President, Strategy and Marketing for North America in 1996 and later as Chief Executive of Lafarge operations in Turkey in 1999.

In 2002 he was given responsibility for Lafarge's cement operations in South-East Asia, a position he held until he joined the Executive Committee of Lafarge Group as Executive Vice President and Co President of the Cement Division, with the responsibility for the cement business in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2006.

Roux is a member of the Executive Committee for Lafarge Group and combines this role with his current responsibility for Lafarge's operations in Nigeria and Benin Republic. This is the first time a member of the Group Executive Committee will also be a Country CEO.

China: Sinoma International has announced that its subsidiary Sinoma Construction has signed a US$277m contract to build a 6250t/day clinker production line for the United Cement Company of Nigeria's Calabar plant. Sinoma will be responsible for equipment and steel structure supply, design, installation, civil construction, commissioning and training in the whole process from mine crushing to cement shipping. Construction of the cement mill is planned to be completed by the end of 2015. Construction of the clinker line is planned to be finished by mid-2016.

Portugal: Cimpor wants to focus its Portuguese operations on exports, according to its CEO Ricardo Lima. The cement producer's market in Portugal is shrinking and its cement production capacity is increasingly being used for exports, Lima has told newspaper Diario Economico.

Cimpor has a cement production capacity of around 9Mt/yr in Portugal but its domestic demand is only 1.5Mt/yr. Meanwhile, export volumes have doubled since 2011. Cimpor exports to Algeria, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon and northern Brazil.

Camargo Corrêa became the majority shareholder of Cimpor in 2012. Through subsequent restructuring almost 200 employees, mainly administrative staff, left the company. At present Cimpor has no plans to shut down plants in Portugal.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Cement Association has said that Vietnam's cement production capacity will reach 70Mt/yr after three new cement plants start operation before the end of 2013. The three new projects include X18 cement project in Hoa Binh province, Phuc Quang cement project in Quang Binh province and Dong Lam cement project in Thua Thien, Hue province. Domestic consumption of cement is estimated to be approximately 45Mt/yr in 2013 giving the country an overcapacity of 25Mt/yr.

Armenia: The National Statistical Service of Armenia has reported that cement production dropped by 3.5% year-on-year for the first six months of 2013, from 186,300t to 180,000t. Exports doubled in the same period to 92,000t from 46,000t. A crisis in construction in Armenia has been blamed for the fall in production, whilst growth in neighbouring Georgia has been linked with the growth in exports.

"Domestic demand is also low, so we are working at low capacity. We are going to suspend our work shortly as there is no demand for cement in winter," said Naira Martirosyan, CEO of Mika Cement, one of Armenia's leading producers. She added that Mika Cement has not exported cement since 2010 due to growing energy and transportation costs.

In 2011 Armenia was reported to have exported 98,000t compared to 34,000t in 2010. In 2011 a 13.4% drop in construction to some 422,200t was also noted.