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.

Italy: Buzzi Unicem says that it has implemented a number of measures to enable it to deal with any economic downturn resulting from the financial impacts of the coronavirus outbreak. The Il Sole newspaper has reported that the company’s strategies fall under two headings, namely increasing efficiencies and improving products and services. As such, the company is targeting a medium-term increase of Italian cement plant capacity utilisation of 70 - 75% from 55 - 60%, while also increasing its product range to offer custom concrete blends “to best suit the needs of the customer.”

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.

Kazakhstan: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer says that it has secured a contract for the supply of an MVR 5000 C-4 vertical grinding mill to SemeyCement’s 1Mt/yr integrated Semey cement plant in East Kazakhstan. Gebr. Pfeiffer says that the 200t/hr capacity mill will have a drive power of 4000kW and be equipped with an SLS 4500 BC classifier. Delivery of the vertical roller mill is scheduled for autumn 2021.