Global Cement News

Colombia: A court has ordered Grupo Argos to hand over 490 hectares of land in Sucre. The El Colombiano newspaper has reported that the land’s original owners sold their land to Grupo Argos between 2005 and 2007, amid civil conflict. The company argued that it had made the purchase in good faith, however the court rejected this, given that paramilitary violence in the area was a matter of public knowledge. Grupo Argos subsidiary Tekia subsequently planted teak trees on the land as part of the group’s carbon offsetting efforts. The Colombian Land Restitution Unit will now use the land to generate funding for repatriation programmes for people who fled the war.

UK: First Graphene and Breedon Group have entered into a development and commercialisation agreement. Together, the companies aim to enhance Breedon Cement’s CEM II Portland limestone cement (PLC) through the use of First Graphene’s graphene enhanced grinding aids and cement admixtures. Breedon will provide increased access to cement production lines in order to optimise the understanding of the processing environment and operating conditions.

Breedon Group’s Hope cement plant in Derbyshire previously conducted a 24-hour graphene-enhanced cement production trial on 28 June 2023.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement reported sales of US$65.2m during the first nine months of 2023. This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 4.8% from US$68.5m in the corresponding period of 2022. Steppe Cement forecast a year-on-year decline in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in full-year 2023 from US$30.9m in 2022, due partly to the impact of inflation on costs, including energy costs.

CEO Javier del Ser Perez said "Despite a slightly smaller domestic cement market so far in 2023, we remain confident that the company will continue to deliver strong sales figures going forward."

West Africa: Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) plans to produce limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) at cement plants in West Africa. Parent company Omnium des Industries et de la Promotion (OIP) plans to build a calcined clay production facility in Burkina Faso to supply the material. Gulf Oil & Gas News has reported that OIP secured a Euro45m loan from World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation on 10 October 2023. It will invest Euro32.4m in construction of its upcoming calcined clay production facility and Euro12.6m in
construction of solar power plants for three CIMAF subsidiaries in Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali.

CIMAF CEO Anas Sefrioui said "IFC's green loan provides essential long-term financing for our projects in Africa. Through the green loan structure, we are bringing the best practices in financing decarbonisation initiatives in the region. We look forward to reducing our carbon footprint and replicating these best practices in our African operations.”

Kenya: East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has won a legal dispute for the right to evict squatters from 1740 hectares of limestone-bearing land in Machakos County. Nation News has reported that the court struck out the case after claimants failed to produce requested documents. It also ordered the claimants to pay EAPCC’s legal costs.