Global Cement News

Italy: Zoomlion Europe has appointed Petre Babiceanu as its general manager. He will be responsible for the development of the company’s forklift, aerial work platform, tower and mobile crane business lines, as well as for the operational coordination of the company’s production plant in Italy.

Babiceanu holds over 20 years in senior management roles. His first post at Terra Holding was as Country Manager, when he was responsible for setting up the group's business in Romania. He later acted as South-East Regional Director and then as Group General Manager for Lifting Machinery, overseeing the development and distribution of various brands in the construction sector and starting a new lifting division. He holds a master's degree in civil engineering from the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest.

China-based Zoomlion established its European subsidiary in 2018 as a regional hub for the production and distribution of its branded product lines.

Russia: Mikhailovsky Building Material Works (Mikhailovsky KSM), part of Smikom Group, has received conditional approval to acquire Eurocement. Interfax has reported that the Federal Antimonopoly Service made its approval on a number of conditions including the requirement that Mikhailovsky KSM submits to it a quarterly performance report. If prices rise by more than 5% in a month then the company will be required to explain why to the regulator. The producer will also be obliged to fulfil any existing contracts and preserve the technological capability of its production base.

Eurocement currently holds a 35% market share in Central district, the region where Mikhailovsky KSM produces its building materials.

India: Anjani Portland Cement has completed its acquisition of an 83% stake in Bhavya Cements. The transaction’s value was US$83.2m

Brazil: Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) has entered talks to acquire Cimento Elizabeth. The Valor Econômico newspaper has reported the potential value of any future deal as up to US$250m. An agreement is reportedly expected in June 2021.

Farallon Capital acquired Cimento Elizabeth and Elizabeth Mineração from the Crispin family for US$185m in 2020. It operates the 1.2Mt/yr Cimento Elizabeth cement plant in Paraíba. CSN currently does not have a presence in the region.

Czech Republic: Mexico-based Cemex plans to install a 2MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant using supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) at its Prachovice cement plant. The unit is intended to provide up to 8% of the plant’s electricity requirements.

The producer is part of a consortium studying new sCO₂ WHR systems. The EU Horizon 2020 Industrial Heat to Power fund awarded Euro14m in financial backing to the consortium. The project is intended to demonstrate a cheaper and more flexible method of waste heat valorisation compared to the steam or organic rankine cycle approaches conventionally used in WHR.

Plant director Karol Czubara said, “The new sCO₂ technology has a smaller footprint and higher operational flexibility than conventional power plant cycles, which produce power from turbines using water or steam.”