Global Cement News

India: Wonder Cement says that its Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, cement plant’s electricity consumption fell by 1.8GWh year-on-year in 2021. It attributed the reduction to its use of an ACS880 slip power recovery system (SPRS) supplied by ABB India.

ABB India’s Motion business president Sanjeev Arora said “This project puts forth how we are one of the most trusted partners for customers when it comes to energy efficiency. He said that the company ‘has constantly promoted technologies that help in driving country’s carbon-neutral future,’ concluding “Our solutions are aiding businesses across India to cut energy expenses and decarbonise their operations.”

Belarus: The Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange says that it expects to auction 1.5Mt of cement in 2022. BELTA News has reported that the figure corresponds to 50% of the annual production of Belarusian Cement Company.

Egypt: A report from the Export Council for Building Materials, Refractory and Metallurgy Industries (ECBM) has revealed that Egyptian cement exports rose by 151% year-on-year in 2021. The value of cement exports was US$456m in 2021 compared to US$182m in 2020, according to the Al Mal News newspaper. Local producers have focused exports on African markets.

Benin: The Council of Ministers plans to commission a feasibility study from a third party to look into building a 5000t/day clinker plant with a cement production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr. The government wants to preserve local limestone deposits through the creation of a national integrated cement plant that could supply the market, according to La Nouvelle Tribune newspaper. Cement sales increased by 30% in the country from 2016 to 2021 and this trend is expected to continue. The government hopes to build a new cement plant by 2026.

Austria: RHI Magnesita says that customer demand and sales volumes to above pre-pandemic levels have driven revenue growth in 2021. It added that, at the same time, unprecedented supply chain disruptions resulted in higher freight, energy and purchased raw materials costs. Its adjusted revenue grew by 12.9% year-on-year to Euro2.55bn in 2021 from Euro2.26bn in 2020. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7.7% to Euro280m from Euro260m.

Stefan Borgas, chief executive officer of RHI Magnesita, said, “This has been a strong year of progress for RHI Magnesita in challenging conditions. Customer demand recovered much faster than was anticipated, creating an unprecedented strain on global supply chains and significant increases in costs and logistics lead times. Despite logistics difficulties and market volatility we have progressed the strategic investments which will deliver long term growth and margin improvement. We enter 2022 with restored margins and ready to build further on our sustainability and technology leadership position in the global refractory industry.”

The group said that merger and acquisition progress has been accelerated in the reporting year with an agreement to buy Turkey-based Sormas Refrakter and the establishment of a new joint venture in Chongqing, China to widen the product range for cement customers in the region.

Finally, RHI Magnesita reported that it has 63 staff based in Russia and Ukraine but no refractory production sites. Approximately 3.4% of group revenues were from the Commonwealth of Independent States region in 2021. It said that this business would be impacted by economic sanctions but that the main financial effects for the group as a whole were expected from higher energy costs.