Global Cement News

Thailand: Siam City Cement has appointed Ranjan Sachdeva as its Acting Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from the start of January 2024. He succeeds the former Group CEO Aidan Lynam in the position. Lynam had been in post since 2019.

Sachdeva has worked for Siam City Cement since 2017, first as the Group Head Internal Audit and Compliance and then as the Group Chief Financial Officer, from April 2023. Prior to this he worked in procurement and audit roles for Holcim in India. He has also worked for Vedanta and Nestle during his career. He holds a bachelor of engineering from the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the University of Leicester, among other qualifications.

Saudi Arabia: Arabian Cement has appointed Mutaz Kusai Hassan Al Azzawi as its chair. It has also designated Saud Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Sulaiman as its vice chair. Both roles start in January 2024 and run until the end of 2027.

South Africa: China-based Huaxin Cement completed its acquisition of Brazil-based InterCement’s South African business on 27 December 2023. MarketScreener News has reported that financial services firm JPMorgan Chase acted as advisor to InterCement. The deal concludes the Brazilian company’s exit from Africa, after it sold its Egyptian and Mozambique businesses earlier in 2023.

Spain: Cementos La Cruz plans to build a new unit to produce reduced-CO₂ cement at its 1.5Mt/yr Abanilla grinding plant in Murcia. In a video posted on YouTube, the producer said that the new unit will produce cement using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) derived from industrial waste streams. Additionally, it will source 100% of its electricity consumption from biofuel-fired generators. Cementos La Cruz has secured Euro4.5m in European Union funding for the project.

General director Juan Luis Porrúa said that cement from the upcoming unit will have a specific carbon footprint below 200kg/t, and will eliminate over 400,000t of CO₂ emissions from Spanish construction in its first 10 years of operation.

Portugal: The competition authority has opened a 10-day window for public comment after receiving notification of Taiwan Cement Corporation’s proposed outright acquisition of Cimpor. The procedure is open to companies and members of the public interested in registering criticism or favourable opinions on the effects of the deal on competition.

Taiwan Cement Corporation agreed to buy current majority shareholder OYAK Çimento’s 60% stake in Cimpor for Euro480m in November 2023.