Cement News tagged: International
US June shipments down slightly YoY
Total shipments of Portland and blended cement in the US and Puerto Rico during June 2013 were about 7.6Mt, down slightly from the same month of the year before, data from the US Geological Survey shows. Shipments through the year were 37.2Mt, essentially unchanged. The leading Portland cement producing states in June were Texas, Missouri, California, Michigan and Florida, in descending orde...
Algeria: Chlef to double capacity to 4Mta
Algeria’s Chlef cement works in Oued Sly intends to double its production capacity to 4Mta as the country’s Minister of Industry, Cherif Rahmani, launched the project for a new line during a visit to the area. Output from the new unit is earmarked for the domestic market, which currently has a 5Mt supply deficit. As a result, the government expects to curtail the present imports needed to s...
Poland sees double-digit declines, Jan-Aug
Cement production and sales in Poland have seen a double-digit drop in the first eight months of the year, latest data from the country’s cement association, SPC, shows. Between January-August 2013, cement output declined by 15.2 per cent to 9.092Mt while sales were down by 14.8 per cent to 9.295Mt. In August alone, production in Poland fell by 1.9 per cent YoY in August 2013 to 1.576Mt. Sal...
Carthage Cement lights up, Tunisia
Tunisia’s Carthage Cement lit up its precalciner for the first time on 4 September 2013, in the presence of international experts. The new line is expected to produce 2.2Mta of cement to meet the demand of the local construction sector as well as neighbouring countries. The first bag of cement is expected to be available at the factory gate in October.
Argentine monthly shipments rise 24% YoY
During August 2013, Argentine Portland cement factories shipped 1,076,148t (including exports), representing an increase of six per cent compared to July 2013 and a rise of 25 per cent against the same month of last year. Data from local association AFCP showed that domestic cement consumption, including imports, reached 1,074,393 t , exhibiting a r ise of 6.9 per cent compared to th...
Pakistan export earnings fall
Pakistan exports have had a disappointing start to the current fiscal, falling 1.98 and 3.46 per cent in terms of quantity and dollar value, respectively on a MoM basis. During July 2013, Pakistan exported 854,477t of cement and earned US US$51.49m compared to 871,764t at US$53.33m in corresponding month last year, according to data from the country’s Bureau of Statistics. In terms of the...
Najran to connect WHR unit, Saudi Arabia
Najran Cement has extended the maintenance period of line No 2 so it can connect the production line to its waste heat recovery (WHR) plant currently under construction, the company said in a bourse statement yesterday. The maintenance was scheduled to be completed by 6 September but the company decided to extend it to 10 September 2013 to link production line 2 to the WHR power plant curre...
Roanoke Cement recognised for environmental achievements
Roanoke Cement Company, a subsidiary of Titan America, has been formally recognised as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise within the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP). VEEP was established in 2000 and RCC was "accepted" as its initial cement producing facility. The facility-based track promotes the use of environmental management systems (EMS) and pollution prevention an...
Dangote plans to invest in new Kenya plant
Dangote Cement plans to invest in a new cement plant in Kenya, according to the country’s president’s office. Aliko Dangote was part of a business delegation that was visiting Kenya with Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan. The countries signed bilateral deals in sectors including tourism, agriculture and oil and gas. "(President Uhuru Kenyatta) particularly cited the ... the decision b...
Mika Cement to resume operations, Armenia
Armenia-based producer Mika Cement plans to resume operations, having been idle for a year. The kiln will be launched on 10 September 2013, plant director Naira Martirosyan told Arminfo. The 1.2Mta cement plant, situated in the city of Hrazdan, has been shut down since September 2012. The plant has been able to resume operations following a loan it recieved from VTB Bank (Armenia) in July th...
ASEC consortium wins Iraq plant contract
A consortium of ASEC Cement and Iraq's Qemmet El-Iraq has won a contract to rehabilitate and manage for 14 years the Muthanna cement plant in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. Representatives of the consortium, including Abulla Hussein of Qemmet El-Iraq as well as ASEC Cement Chairman and CEO Giorgio Bodo, attended a signing ceremony in Baghdad with Southern Cement Co., the state holding company t...
Iran increases output by 3% in first five months
Cement output in the first five months of the current calendar year (started on 21 March 2013) continued its upward climb to reach 31.475Mt, information from Iran’s Cement Producers Association showed. "The figure shows a three per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year," the IRNA News Agency quoted Abdolreza Sheykhan, an official of the association as saying. Some 30...
Bolivia’s Tarija government studies new cement plant option
The government of Tarija, Bolivia, is studying the possibility of building a cement plant on the back of limestone deposits in the department, said Cyrus Rose, Tarija’s productive development director. “We will start by signing an agreement to the quantification and qualification of the limestone,” he said. It is expected that the study will take 12 months and according to Mr Rose, the...
Pakistan monthly sales fall
Pakistan cement dispatches fell seven per cent YoY in August due to the Eid holidays and wet weather conditions. Sales were down to 2.15Mt in August 2013 compared to 2.6Mt in the same month of the previous year. Meanwhile, on a sequential basis, August sales fell by 17 per cent compared to July 2013 dispatches of 2.6Mt. Domestic sales were hardest hit as volumes were down 19 per cent to 1....
Malaysian fuel price hikes to impact production costs
Lafarge Malaysia Bhd, the country's leading cement producer, said an increase in fuel prices due to the government's recently-announced cut in subsidies, will have a definite impact on production costs. “The increase would naturally have an impact on businesses in terms of transportation cost for both production and delivery to the market,” a spokesman from the company told The Star newspap...
Cemex starts affordable housing construction project, Dominican Republic
Cemex has launched the construction of 186 units of affordable housing in the province of San Pedro de Macoris, during a ceremony headed by the President of Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina. The 186 homes are part of the first stage of Altos del Higuamo project, which includes the construction of 568 houses with a total investment of approximately US$18m. The first 60 units will be delivere...