Global Cement News

Bangladesh: Seven Rings Cement has secured a contract for the supply of cement to the site of the upcoming Sylhet Osmani Internation Airport in Sylhet. Chief marketing officer Gautam Chatterjee signed the contract with Beijing Urban Construction Group on behalf of the company.

Seven Rings Cement is currently also supplying cement for the new Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport Terminal 3 in Dhaka.

Mozambique: West China Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mozambique government for four upcoming ‘industrial investment and development’ projects including a cement plant worth a total of US$800m. Local press has reported that another of the projects will be the construction of a power plant.

President Zhang Jimin said Zhang thanked the government for its past support of subsidiary Dugong Cimentos. He added “Due to this support we have, we are confident to continue the implementation of the development projects in Mozambique, as the government shows its concern to improve the investment conditions and environment.”

US: Martin Marietta Materials has completed its US$2.3bn takeover of Lehigh Hanson’s West Region business. The acquisition enlarges the company’s cement assets by two new plants and related distribution terminals, as well as targeted downstream operations, in California and Arizona.

Chair, president and CEO Ward Nye said "We are pleased to complete the Lehigh West Region acquisition and welcome a talented group of new employees to the Martin Marietta team. These assets serve as a new growth platform for our continued geographic expansion and are uniquely positioned to benefit from favourable market dynamics and accelerating public and private construction activity in California and Arizona.” He added “We are confident in our ability to quickly realise the benefits of this transaction and deliver significant value creation for our shareholders, customers and employees following the same proven approach we took with our acquisitions of TXI and Bluegrass."

India: Ambuja Cements has commenced commercial production at its new 3Mt/yr Marwar cement plant in Nagaur, Rajasthan. The plant has and an additional 2Mt/yr of grinding capacity. The Orissa Diary newspaper has reported that the producer invested US$316m in its construction. The Marwar cement plant increases Ambuja Cement’s installed capacity by 20% to 29.7Mt/yr.

Managing director Neeraj Akhoury said “Ambuja has ambitious growth plans to expand its capacities in India, and the Marwar plant is a step in that direction. We are very proud that it is a ‘green plant’ designed to meet our ambition for a sustainable future. The plant has deployed all modern equipment and technology to produce cement in a more environmentally friendly manner. It has a waste heat recovery (WHR) system that converts waste heat derived during the production process into energy.”

France: France-based Saint-Gobain has acquired Chryso from financier Cinven for Euro1.02bn. The Le Moniteur newspaper has reported that the group will operationally integrate Chryso into its high performance solutions division. It said that it intends to develop Chryso in markets already served by Saint-Gobain, and to accelerate cross-selling between Weber and Chryso.

CEO Benoit Bazin said "Chryso strengthens us significantly in the growing construction chemicals market, in which we have made 10 acquisitions and opened 16 plants in 18 countries over the past three years to now exceed more than Euro3bn in turnover in 66 countries.”