India: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Ambuja Cement has begun a trial of bio-diesel fuel blends for its shipping fleet. It says that the fuel change will reduce the fleet’s CO₂ emissions by 25%.

Managing Director and chief executive officer Neeraj Akhoury said, “With the introduction of bio-diesel blends, we are significantly contributing towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by introducing a suitable alternate green fuel that helps achieve our parent, LafargeHolcim’s, sustainability vision of ‘net zero pledge 2030’.”

Lebanon: The Ministry of Industry has reversed a recent decision to allow cement imports into the country. Following a meeting with local cement producers, Minister Imad Hobballah declared that allowing imports would decrease official selling prices rapidly, according to the L'Orient-Le Jou newspaper. Local producers have reported low sales due to a strict coronavirus-related lockdown that started in January 2021. Cimenterie Nationale reportedly stopped production in early February 2021 due to a lack of raw materials.

Democratic Republic of Congo/Uganda: The Democratic Republic of Congo has increased its imports of cement from Uganda by 30% to 90,000t in the two years since 1 February 2019 compared to the two prior years. The Daily Monitor newspaper has reported the reason for the increase as a Rwandan ban on Ugandan goods across the East African countries’ border. This contributed to a 3% fall in Uganda’s value of cement exports to US$59.9m in the 2020 financial year from US$61.5m in the 2019 financial year.

Guatemala: Local cement producers have expressed concern over the quality of rising imports from Asia. Issues over quality standards and packaging have been raised, according to the El Periódico newspaper. According to data from the Bank of Guatamala, cement imports worth around US$57m were reported in the first 11 months of 2020. Imports from Turkey and Vietnam represented 85% of this. The country has a cement production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr and domestic consumption is around 3Mt/yr.