Gabon: Ciments de l’Afrique (CIMAF) Gabon has assured the government that it can increases national production to over 1Mt/yr from 0.65Mt/yr at present. Carmen Ndaot, the Minister of Industry, and other government representatives visited the CIMAF’s grinding plant as part of an assessment of a memorandum of understanding signed with the subsidiary of Morocco’s CIMAF, according to the L’Union newspaper. The company plans to spend Euro100m towards building a new plant. It is scheduled to be completed by mid-2021.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) plans to launch CP 2-C 40, a cement product intended for use in structures such as bridges and roads. The new product is scheduled to be released in June 2019, according to IP Paraguay. Following the launch the cement producer will have four main cement products.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos plans to open a limestone grinding plant at Nobres. in Mato Grosso state to produce agricultural lime. The unit will have a production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr, according to the Valor newspaper. Once the new plant is opened in the second quarter of 2019 the company will have a total agricultural lime production capacity of 4.5Mt/yr.

The initiative is part of the building materials group’s plans to diversify its business. For the agricultural lime market it is targeting Central-West, Central-North and Northeast parts of Brazil. The Nobres plant can also produce 0.25Mt/yr of limestone filler for farm use. Following the upgrade to the Nobres plant it will be able to produce 0.75Mt/yr of dolomitic and calcitic limestone. These limestone products both have agricultural applications as soil nutrients.

China: Anhui Conch’s revenue grew by 63% year-on-year to US$4.53bn in the first quarter of 2019 from US$2.79bn in the same period in 2018. Its net profit rose by 27% to US$903m from US$710m.