Tajikistan: Tajikistan exported 1.44Mt of cement in 2018 with a value of US$65.4m. This marks a rise of 48% year-on-year from 0.97Mt in 2017 with a value of US$45.9m, according to the Azernews newspaper. Tajikistan exports cement to Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Sweden: LafargeHolcim has been named by Sasja Beslik, the head of sustainable finance at Nordea, as the second worst company for increasing CO₂ emissions in the five years between 2011 and 2016. Other cement companies in the list that Beslik published via his Twitter account include CRH, HeidelbergCement and Shree Cement. The list, entitled ‘The CO₂ Culprits Top 100’, was assembled using data from financial services company MSCI.

India: Nuvoco Vistas’ Construction Development and Innovation Centre (CDIC) has been granted accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). It is the third cement producer after Ambuja Cement and RMC (India) to receive the accreditation, according to the Hindu newspaper. CDIC can now conduct more than 100 mechanical tests, out of which 55 tests come under the NABL accreditation covering a range of materials including cement, fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), concrete, aggregates, bricks, blocks, and construction chemicals.

Spain: The Department of the Environment has fined Cemex España Euro52,000 for emissions from two of its limestone and marl quarries in Valencia. The cement producer is being penalised for dust emissions from the sites, according to the El Mercantil Valenciano newspaper.