Global Cement News

Azerbaijan: Germany-based Sustained Visions has announced the commissioning of Akkord Cement subsidiary Qazax Sement Zavodu’s 1.3Mt/yr-capacity integrated Gazakh cement plant in Ganja-Gazakh region following a phase-two upgrade completed in collaboration with the owner and DAL Holding subsidiary DAL Teknik Makina. The plant, built in 2013, had an original capacity of 0.9Mt/yr.

Sustained Visions praised the collaborative effort, which has resulted in a “significant reduction in specific energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions” for the plant, and “shows very stable performance.” Managing director Ralf Slomski noted that, in spite of the coronavirus outbreak, the company was able to maintain a project management team of five staff on the site at peak periods.

Canada: Public pensions and insurance fund Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has bought the debt from “all present and future accounts receivable arising from contracts” of McInnis Cement. The Journal de Québec newspaper has reported that the move is intended to benefit the company’s liquidity position. CDPQ first vice-president Michel Nadeau said, “It’s a solution to find cash quickly.”

CDPQ injected US$152m into McInnis Cement on 2 July 2019 as part of a total US$380m private capital refinancing.

Ukraine: The Interdepartmental Commission for International Trade (ICIT) has pursued a complaint by multiple domestic cement producers including Buzzi-Unicem subsidiary Dyckerhoff, HeidelbergCement subsidiary Kryvyi Rih Cement and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement in opening an investigation into imports of cement from Turkey. The Uriadovy Kurier newspaper has reported that, on its preliminary assessment, the ICIT deemed the complaint to provide “sufficiently substantiated evidence on the basis of which it can be considered that the importation of cement into Ukraine originating in Turkey could be at dumped prices, the margin cannot be considered minimal and the import volumes are not insignificant in accordance with the law.” It added, “The complaint also provides sufficiently substantiated evidence that imports were made to an extent and under conditions such that they may cause material injury to the domestic producer.”

China: Cement companies produced 220Mt of cement in July 2020, up by 3.6% year-on-year from 230Mt in July 2019. Production was 1.2Bt of cement in the first seven months of 2020, down by 3.5% year-on-year from 1.3Bt in the corresponding period of 2019. Revenues over the period declined by 5.5% to US$74.7bn from US$79.0bn.

Kazakhstan: EuroChem subsidiary EuroChem Karatau has entered into talks with Zhambyl Region governor Berdibek Saparbayev over plans for the construction of a mineral fertilisers plant at a total investment cost of US$800m. Kazakhstan Newsline has reported that the facility will additionally produce aggregates for use in cement production. The plant will exploit the region’s Karatau-Zhanatassky phosphorite basin, from which the company has already extracted and carried out primary processing on phosphorite ore.