Global Cement News

China: China National Building Materials has submitted a letter of intent of cooperation to its subsidiary Sinoma International Engineering, in which it proposes the sale of several engineering businesses to the latter. ET Net News has reported that the assets in question are under negotiation, but may include Beijing Triumph Building Materials, Nanjing Triumph International Engineering and Sinoma Mining Construction.

India: LafargeHolcim subsidiary ACC’s profit in the first nine months of 2020 was US$130m, down by 13% year-on-year from US$149m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales also dropped, by 17% to US$1.31bn from US$1.58bn. Cement sales totalled US$1.24bn from US$1.45bn. An 18% decline in expenses to US$1.14m from US$1.39m failed to offset the effects of a price drop in the first half of 2020 due to decreased demand.

India: Motilal Oswal Securities predicts that Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement’s second-quarter profit is likely to rise by 100% year-on-year in the 2021 financial year, which began on 1 April 2020, to US$161m from US$80.5m in the second quarter of the 2020 financial year. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the analysts expect an increase in sales of 3.5% to US$1.36bn from US$1.31bn, an increase in cement volumes of 3.9% to 19.4Mt from 18.7Mt, a price drop and a fall in costs in the quarter, which ended on 30 September 2020. The analysts added that cement makers may show volume growth in the seasonally weak quarter due to pent-up demand as the economy has reopened following coronavirus-related disruption.

Global Cement apologies to UltraTech Cement for the previous version of this article that wrongly suggested that the company had made the forecast

India: BK Birla Group subsidiary Mangalam Cement has launched Mangalam ProMaxX, a premium fly ash Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) that it says boasts “high one-day strength and also high 28-day ultimate strength.” The company says that the new cement is “an environmentally-friendly alternative with all the performance abilities of Mangalam Cement’s Birla Uttam cement.”

India: JK Cement has increased the capacity of its Katni wall putty plant in Madhya Pradesh to 700,000t/yr from 400,000t/yr. Projects Today News has reported that the putty consists mainly of JK Cement white cement. The company now has a wall putty production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr.