Global Cement News

US: Cementos Argos has won its case before the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Spartan Construction accused it of unlawfully selling cement at a lower price to a competing buyer in the US Virgin Islands. Mondaq reports that Argos traded with both Spartan and Heavy Materials on St. Thomas between 2010 and 2013, when Spartan withdrew its ready-mix concrete business from the island. Only the latter received a 10% volume discount. The court found Argos not in violation of competition law due to lack of proof of harm attributable to discriminatory prices.

Russia: After two years of transporting its product by land only, Siberian Cement has reported a busy summer shipping window in 2019. In the two months to the end of August 2019, it shipped 15,500t of cement to Novy Port on the Gulf of Ob, Arctic Ocean. The company has announced its intent to move 17,000t in 2020 and 13,000t in 2021 by means of it 1000t-capacity barges.

North America: Cemex’s venture capital division has invested an undisclosed sum in the construction materials delivery and logistics brand GoFor. Gonzalo Galindo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex, has stated the importance of improving efficient on-site delivery as ‘a critical point in the construction value chain’ of its North American divisions.

Brazil: A research team at the University of São Paolo (USP) has concluded a study of cement hydration and pozzolanic activity when using 10% sugarcane bagasse (SB) and bamboo leaf ash (BLA) mixture. A paper released by the team has stated that the additive lowered the calcium hydroxide and heat required for hydration, saving on costs and emissions in cement production. Both binary and ternary concretes had higher compressive strengths with than without the mineral-rich additive. The study was supported by public and private funding.

Kenya: PricewaterhouseCoopers has rejected Rai Group’s bank guarantee of US$12.5m as part of its US$62.6m bid for ownership of ARM Cement. The bid constituted an attempt to forestall the latter’s sale to Devki Group subsidiary National Cement, which remains under the scrutiny of the courts. Business Daily has reported that Rai Group’s offer failed due to an insufficient expiry period of nine months on the guarantee, exposing the seller to untenable risk.