Oman: Oman Cement Company has invited contractors to submit bids for work at its integrated Rusayl plant. It wants to build a new 10,000t/day production line (Line 4) and upgrade an existing line (Line 3) to 5000t/day from 4000t/day. The plans were originally released in September 2021. The company also intends to shut down Lines 1 and 2 once work is completed.

It was previously reported in October 2021 that the cement producer was spending US$300m on the project and that it had hired Switzerland-based PEG Resources. At this time the project had a commissioning date of 2024.

India: UltraTech Cement has announced its decision to temporarily suspend production at its Awarpur cement plant in Maharashtra after it became impossible to operate the plant due to the activities of sit-in protestors. The Times of India newspaper has reported that informal union Vijay Kranti Kantrati Kamgar Sanghatna (VKKKS) organised sit-ins at all five cement plants in Chandrapur district. The organisation is protesting workers’ pay.

India: State Bank of India (SBI) has acquired a minority stake in JSW Cement with worth US$13.2m. The bank acquired the stake as compulsorily convertible preference shares. JSW Cement plans to add the capital infusion to its on-going investments in a planned 79% expansion of its total capacity to 25Mt from 14Mt.

Mexico: Cemex has signed a five-year agreement with India-based HCL Technologies for information technology (IT) services related to employee services, increased automation and analytics. HCL will work on IT managed services, infrastructure and application services and end-user support. It will also collaborate with Neoris, a subsidiary of Cemex, on customer services and supply chain resiliency. HCL will use its DryICE and Software products, along with various other automation products.

“Cemex selected HCL Technologies because we have a vision of working smarter to cater to the global company’s fast-growing operations,” said Fausto Sosa, vice president of Information Technology of Cemex.