Cement News tagged: International
Lafarge Zambia boosts Ndola plant by 100,000tpa
Lafarge Zambia has successfully commissioned a plug-and-grind cement plant in Ndola which will produce 0.1Mta of cement, bringing the plant’s total capacity to 500,000tpa. Speaking at the event Lafarge Zambia CEO, Emmanuel Rigaux, said the plug-and-grind project was yet again a new innovation by Lafarge Zambia as the company places strong focus on sustainable development and utilisation of r...
Angolan government maintains import ban
The government of Angola has decided to maintain the cement import ban in 2016 in 15 provinces, claiming that the installed capacity in the country far exceeds domestic needs, according to Angolan state news agency Angop. This decision does not apply, however, to the border provinces of Cabinda, Cunene and Kuando Kubango, which will continue to have an annual quota of 150,000t. (Source: Maca...
Spain: demand up 5.3% in 2015
Cement consumption in Spain has increased by 5.3 per cent to 11,408,287t in 2015, according to Oficemen, the country's cement association. Variability in the second half of the year depressed annual growth. Exports have also fallen in 2015 and were 4.4 per cent lower YoY at 9,233,979t. "During these years of hard crisis, exports have been the only lifeline to compensate for the loss of dome...
Egypt issues licences for new cement factories in Upper Egypt
Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry has issued new 14 licences for cement factories in Upper Egypt governorates, Minister Tarek Qabil announced Wednesday. According to the minister, the factories are set to operate with coal, providing them with the necessary energy security for stable cement production. Mr Qabil added that there are six factories currently operating with coal and are comm...
Algeria: PM lays foundation stone for new plant
Prime Minister of Algeria, Abdelmalek Sellal, on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of the project of a cement plant in the commune of El-Beidha, 170km north of Laghouat. The cement plant will have a capacity of 6000tpd, or 2Mta and is due to be commissioned in 32 months. It will be built in Djebel Laaleg over an area of 63ha and is the first of its kind in the region. The plant is owne...
JK Cement halts production from Bagalkot unit, India
JK Cement Works, in Bagalkot in Karnataka, has stopped production due to the damage caused by the roof of the clinker silo suddenly caving in, the company told the exchanges yesterday. To ensure safety and avoid collateral damage, the company has temporarily stopped clinker extraction and cement production at the unit, it said. Cement available in depots will serve the market for the time be...
Cemex announces retirement of Vice President of Energy
Cemex has announced that its current Vice President of Energy, Luis R Faris Martinez will retire from office. He will leave the company with effect from 1 February 2016, said the cement company in a filing to the Mexican Stock Exchange. The company did not disclose the reasons for the separation nor who will take Mr Faris Martinez’s place.
UK: new figures on coal ash show uptake continues to climb
UKQAA (UK Quality Ash Association) – the representative organisation for the producers and users of coal ash in the UK – has released statistics on the production and uses of coal ash from 1999 to 2014. These figures span a decade and a half and highlight important trends in the supply and beneficial use of fly ash and furnace bottom ash by the construction and engineering sectors. Key findi...
Jordan cement demand at 4Mta in 2015
Jordan’s consumption of cement declined to 4Mt in 2015, down by 300,000t from a year earlier due to weaker construction activities and government projects, the head of the Future Society for Cement Traders, Mohammed Ghazi Abu Soufa, said. He added that production capacity of cement plants reached 10Mt. Only a small surplus is exported due to closing borders with Syria and Iraq. (Source: ...
SFIC: French cement sector to stabilise in 2016
France's cement sector in 2016 is showing "some signs of optimism" and pointing therefore to a stabilisation of the markets after eight years of decline thanks to a pick-up in the housing segment, said Raoul de Parisot, president of the Syndicat français de l’industrie cimentière (SFIC). In 2015 the market contracted around 1Mt with consumption falling from 18Mt to 17.1Mt. In the 2007-15 de...
Efforts to revive CCI unit underway, India
The state government of Hyderabad on Monday appointed a consultancy firm to prepare a draft DPR (Detailed Project Report) in an effort to revive the Cement Corporation of India's (CCI) factory in Adilabad district. The DPR will explore the funds required, available assets and the condition of equipment at the plant which has been closed since 1998. The government is said to be committed to...
South Africa: domestic cementitious volumes up 7.8% YoY
Domestic cementitious volumes in South Africa increased by 7.8 per cent YoY to 3.6523Mt in the third quarter of 2015, according to an update posted on PPC’s website. Total year-to-date volumes were recorded at 9.602Mt. Meanwhile, PPC yesterday said cement sales over the first quarter (October-December 2015) of the current trading year in its South African business were down by 1.6 per cent...
PCA Regional Forecast: coasts to see strongest cement consumption growth
PCA's recently released Winter 2015-16 State Forecast maintains expectations for the strongest rates of cement consumption growth to occur in the West with YoY growth of six per cent. The South (4.3 per cent) and Northeast (4.2 per cent) are expected to grow roughly in line with national averages for 2016. The Midwest (2.0 per cent), undermined by weak commodity prices, is projected to expand ...
Sumitomo Osaka 9M operating profit seen rising 11%
Japanese cement producer Sumitomo Osaka Cement likely will report an 11 per cent rise in operating profit of around JPY17bn (US$142m) for the nine months ended in December, as lower coal prices lift profitability. The Nikkei reported that sales are expected to have increased by about two per cent to around JPY176bn as weaker demand in Japan amid a construction shortage was offset by exports...
CMA publishes final cement price announcement order
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its final order prohibiting cement suppliers in Great Britain from sending generic price announcement letters to their customers. The CMA first consulted on the proposed order in September 2015 and following changes made as a result of responses received, consulted on an amended version in December. The order sets out that suppliers o...
Siam Cement Group eyes Vietnam expansion
Thailand's Siam Cement Group plans to expand its operations in Vietnam, especially in the cement and petrochemical sectors. "Our target is that we must have a cement factory here, but by when we still cannot say. We're studying if we should invest on our own or through a joint venture," Dhep Vongvanich, SCG's Vietnam executive director, told The Nation newspaper. Meanwhile, Vongvanich a...