Global Cement News

Germany: Aumund has taken over all customer support services for KoWey conveyors and bucket elevators. The company assured customers that it would be there ‘anytime, worldwide’ to provide services, spare parts, conversions or support for their KoWey products.

UK: Archaeologists have completed the excavation of a 52-grave cemetery dated to 3rd century Roman Britain at Ireland-based CRH subsidiary Tarmac’s Knobb’s Farm quarry in Cambridgeshire. The company said that the find is remarkable for its high proportion of decapitated bodies (33%), indicating the proximity of an execution site. The graveyard is situated near a settlement on a peninsula in the Fens wetland area. The settlement itself is lost to the quarrying activities of the previous owner.

India: JK Cement has targeted a 10% year-on-year sales growth in its 2022 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2022. The Economic Times has reported that the company foresees sales growth due to the on-going government infrastructure investment push, minimal monsoon disruptions and pent-up cement demand following Covid-19-led disruptions. Cement chief operating officer Rajnish Kapur said that growth momentum from the end of the 2021 financial year will likely continue throughout the coming nine months, despite a Covid-19 led sales drop in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year.

The cement producer also expects that its new cement plant project at Panna in Madhya Pradesh is likely to be completed in the 2023 financial year due to Covid-19 related delays. The plant will bring its total cement production capacity to around 20Mt/yr from nearly 15Mt/yr at present once it is finished. The company is also considering acquisitions to further increase its capacity to 25Mt/yr by the mid-2020s.

India: The Kerala state government aims to establish 25% state ownership of the cement industry locally. The New Indian Express newspaper has reported that the policy aims to control rising cement prices. The government said that state-owned Malabar Cements and Travancore Cements will increase their cement production. The former has already lowered its cement prices, according to the administration.

India: The government of Andhra Pradesh will subsidise the purchase of cement for 122,000 new houses in rural Guntur district under its Housing for All scheme. The Hans India newspaper has reported that builders have laid the foundations of 14,000 of the properties, and will have completed a further 46,000 by the end of the working day on 9 July 2021. District revenue collector Vivek Yadav said that the administration will announce further housing projects under the scheme after builders complete 116,000 units.