India: KT Rama Rao, the Industries and IT Minister, has lobbied the central government to help reopen the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant at Adilabad in Telangana. In a letter sent to Mahendra Nath Pandey, the Minister of Heavy Industries, Rao noted that several previous attempts had been made to reopen the unit, according to the Hindu newspaper. He added that the plant continues to hold a mining lease for 48Mt of limestone locally, has a dedicated electricity supply and has water resources. The 4Mt/yr integrated plant was originally built in 1984. Operations stopped in 1996 due to a lack of funds and the site was formerly closed in 2008.

Colombia: Cement production grew by 33% to 6.50Mt in the first half of 2021 from 4.89Mt in the same period in 2020. Data from DANE, the Colombian statistics authority, shows that local despatches rose by 34% to 6.20Mt from 4.61Mt.

Germany: Claudius Peters has reported strong order intake for the first half of 2021. Parent company Langley Holdings said that, “if the forecast to year end is met, [it] will be the highest since 2008.” It added that Claudius Peters’ France-based subsidiary was reorganised during the reporting period. Langley Holdings’ revenue fell by 2% year-on-year to Euro363m in the first half of 2021 from Euro370m in the same period in 2020. However, its operating profit increased significantly and it has forecast revenue growth of 15% for the year as a whole.

Thailand: Siam City Cement says that coronavirus-related public health measures reduced demand for cement towards the end of the second quarter of 2021. The group noted that the domestic market for cement ‘softened’ despite strong sales overseas in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Its overall net sales fell by 3.6% year-on-year to US$616m in the first half of 2021 from US$639m in the same period in 2020. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 4.4% to US$142m from US$149m. It also reported reduced sales from its ready-mixed concrete and aggregate business lines due to the pandemic’s effects on construction markets and the related closures of construction worker camps.