Global Cement News

Bolivia: Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) has announced that no cuts will be made to transport spending until after the end of the coronavirus lockdown. Plans to reduce operating expenditure in this area have been opposed by the company’s drivers. Fancesa head of transportation Jhonny Palma said, “Both parties now have the time to analyse the proposals. In due course we will present our operating cost sheets and these will be put up for debate.”

Pakistan: The government has announced plans to complete the construction of the Daimer-Basha Dam on the River Indus in Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan. Daimer-Basha Consultants Group holds a consultancy contract worth US$169m for the project, and the government has awarded the energy supply contract for the dam’s 21MW hydroelectric power plant to a joint venture of the military Frontier Works Organisation and China-based Power China. Besides power generation, the aims of the project are to increase the area of land useable for agriculture and to stop floods and droughts. Flare Business News has reported that the dam, construction of which first began in 1998, will generate a demand for ‘huge quantities’ of cement and steel and create 16,500 jobs.

Burkina Faso: In response to Burkina Faso’s blood shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic, Cimasso has begun giving away one bag of cement to each person who attends blood donation clinics in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Sputnik News has reported that, as a result of Cimasso’s efforts in partnership with the National Centre for Blood Transfusion (CNST), medical staff have so far collected 400 bags of blood towards Burkina Faso’s World Health Organisation (WHO)-verified blood needs of 202,000 bags/yr. Cimasso director general Abdoul Rahim said that the initiative will continue, “since no one is immune to diseases that can trigger blood needs, and these actions can save lives.”

Germany/Vietnam: Loesche says that it has dispatched two LM 53.3+3 CS vertical roller mills from its plant in North Rhine-Westphalia for a new line at Thanh Thang Group Cement’s integrated Bong Lang cement plant. The mills have a combined capacity of 180t/hr and grind clinker to a fineness of 4000 Blaine. The new line, installed by Sinoma-NCDRI, will be commissioned in late-2021. Loesche will also supply two cellular wheel feeders, metal detectors and sealing air blowers.

Uzbekistan: Huaxin Cement has announced that 112 of its employees took the first charter flight from Hubei Province since the coronavirus lockdown began, arriving in Jizzakh, Jizzakh Oblast on 6 June 2020. Hubei Daily News has reported that Huaxin Cement’s upcoming 1.5Mt/yr integrated Jizzakh cement plant, previously scheduled for commissioning in March 2020, will now start operation in June 2020. Huaxin Cement thanked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Civil Aviation authority for their support.