Global Cement News

Tunisia: Jalel Ben Othmane has been appointed Director General of Ciments de Bizerte in replacement of Ibrahim Sanaa who in turn has been appointed Director General of the Carthage Cement.

India: The succession battle within the Chettinad group of companies has culminated in the removal of chairman MAM Ramaswamy from the board of its flagship enterprise, a position he has held for more than three decades.

A resolution to reappoint Ramaswamy was defeated at the 51st shareholders meeting of the Chettinad Cement Corporation on 27 August 2014. However, Ramaswamy was later named as chairman emeritus by his foster son and managing director MAMR Muthiah, who has taken over the reins.

An official statement from the group said, "In acknowledgement of his contribution at the helm of the company's operations until 1999, the managing director announced that Ramaswamy would be appointed as chairman emeritus for life."

Muthiah, who has powered the group's expansion over the last decade in cement, healthcare and logistics, has instilled a managerial culture that is in sharp contrast to the conservative approach favoured by Ramaswamy. Muthiah has announced that the group would push itself into newer geographies in north India. Currently all of the group's cement assets are located in the south.

Germany: ARVOS Group, the former Alstom Auxiliary Components business, has become a standalone corporation with Triton as its new shareholder. ARVOS Group is a global manufacturer of regenerative heat exchangers for thermal power generation facilities, process critical applications in the chemical and petrochemical industry and grinding mills. Over the course of the transition, the company's headquarters will be relocated from Mannheim, Germany to Heidelberg, Germany.

"As a standalone company, we are able to focus more effectively on strengthening our global market and technology leadership position in order to enhance thermal power plants through sustainable energy efficiency and the chemical industry through innovation," said ARVOS Group CEO, Thorsten Holl.

Colombia: The president of Cemex Colombia, Carlos Jacks, has provided details of the US$340m plant the company plans to build in Maceo, Antioquia Department. The plant will be the first that Cemex constructs entirely from scratch outside of Mexico; in the past it has simply expanded existing plants abroad. The plant will increase Cemex's Colombian production capacity from 4.50Mt/yr to 5.50Mt/yr.

The plant will be able to use 50% of alternative fuels, either biomass or tyre residue, although initially the plant will use coal. Maceo has been chosen due to its central location in reference to the Prosperidad roads, which will connect it well with the rest of the country.

The plant has great potential due to the 4G road projects, which require US$26bn of investments from 2016. As cement makes up 10% of the investment costs, this means US$520m will be spent on 2Mt of cement each year. When combined with Colombia's established cement market, demand in the country will reach around 14Mt/yr.

Egypt: An official source in Egypt's Ministry of Electricity revealed that ItalGen, one of Italcementi Group affiliates, plans to build a 200MW wind power plant to increase its production capacity to 320MW. The plant will cost around US$220m. The project will be the first privately-built wind power plant to supply energy to plants of Suez Cement, an Italcementi subsidiary. Production capacity for the first phase would be 120MW, which would increase to 400MW in the future.