Nigeria: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Africa says that it has signed an agreement with the Cross River State government to build a 38km concrete road connecting its local cement plant to the wider network. Chief executive officer (CEO) Khaled El Dokani said the project was a major contribution of Lafarge to the state at large with the purpose of making the roads safer for the citizens. The road is intended to divert trucks away from a nearby city centre once it is completed.

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.

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: 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