Cement News tagged: International
Puerto Rican cement sales up 42% in June
Cement sales in Puerto Rico advanced 42 per cent YoY in June, according to date from the country’s Statistics Institute. Sales reached 68,180t in June 2020, compared with 48,138t in June 2019. The increase is the second since October last year. Cement sales have fallen throughout 2019 and the first months of 2020. In March they fell 55.1 per cent YoY and this was followed by a 60.6 per cent ...
South African cement sector is operating in survival mode
Bheki Mthembu, head of the inland business unit of PPC, says the lack of large-scale construction projects in South Africa has left cement producers heavily dependent on residential construction. "The sector has had issues for a while and government needs to support us through infrastructure maintenance and other projects. We were in survival mode and COVID-19 almost served as the fi...
Bamburi Cement donates KES15.6m in the fight against COVID-19
Bamburi Cement (LafargeHoldim group) has donated KES15.6m (US$145,600) in the fight against coronavirus to the Kenyan government's COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. KES5m of the donation is a direct cash contribution for immediate assistance, KES5.2m is directed at personal protective equipment (PPE) and KES2.4m will support communities in Mombasa, Kilifi, Machakos, Kwale and Kjiado which ne...
Swiss cement dispatches down 3% in 2Q20
Cement deliveries in Switzerland fell by 3.3 per cent YoY to 1,138,804t in the second quarter of 2020, according to the latest data published by Cemsuisse, the Swiss cement association."The cement industry was able to ensure the supply of cement despite the coronacrisis," said the association in a statement. The supply of low-carbon CEM II cements, which accounts for 88.7 per cent of dema...
Bureau of Indian Standards issues first licence for microfine OPC production
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has granted the country’s first licence for the manufacture of microfine ordinary Portland cement and ultrafine ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) to Counto Microfine Products. The company is a joint venture between Ambuja Cements and Alcon group and has one of the largest manufacturing facilities for microfine materials in Goa. The Goan firm will...
Brazilian cement demand up 24% in June
Cement sales in Brazil rose 24.2 per cent YoY in June 2020. Domestic offtake reached 5.2Mt in June, according to the country’s cement association, SNIC. In the first half of 2020, sales advanced by 3.6 per cent YoY to 26.9Mt. “COVID-19 caused several changes in our lives, habits, and priorities. The crisis showed the cement industry that taking care of the house and using savings and investme...
Peru's cement demand to recover in 2H
Scotiabank forecasts a recovery in Peruvian cement consumption with 3Q demand expected to be close to 2Mt, double the demand reported in 2Q. "We estimate that domestic cement consumption has exceeded 500,000t in June, the highest level in the last three months, but still notably less than 984,000t in June 2019," predicts Scotiabank. However, consumption in 3Q20 should remain 30 per cent bel...
Bolivian cement demand falls 34% in 4M20
Cement consumption in Bolivia has declined 34.2 per cent YoY in the 4M20 as a result of the quarantine imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Bolivian statistics agency, INE. Total consumption in the January-April 2020 period reached 787,586t. In January demand was 10.2 per cent YoY to 303,589t while in February consumption fell 11.3 per cent YoY to 262,895t. However, on 22 M...
BUA Cement plans new 3Mta plant in Adamawa
Nigeria’s BUA Cement has announced that it is planning to establish a 3Mta cement facility and 50MW power plant in the Guyuk and Lamurde areas of Adamawa state. While visiting the state governor, Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Cement, reportedly referenced preliminary findings which show that the two areas have good quality limestone deposits and said the company is ready to begin investm...
Moroccan cement demand expands 33% in June
Cement consumption in Morocco increased 33 per cent YoY to 1,129,708t in June 2020 when compared with June 2019, when demand stood at 849,524t, according to data by the country's cement association, APC. However, in the first half year of 2020 domestic sales fell 18.5 per cent YoY to 5.473Mt, down from 6.718Mt reported in the 1H19.
Colombian cement demand declines 33% in May
Domestic dispatches of grey cement in Colombia fell by 33.1 per cent to 705,900t in May 2020 when compared with May 2019, when they stood at 1.055Mt, according to the country’s statistics office, DANE. Ready-mix companies represented the largest drop as their offtake declined by 52.5 per cent YoY, followed by the concrete products segment, which contracted by 46.6 per cent. Building companie...
JSW Group reportedly set to reduce imports from China
Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Cement, has announced on social media that JSW Group plans to reduce its net imports from China. "The JSW Group have a net import of US$400m from China annually and we pledge to bring this down to zero in the next 24 months," said Mr Jindal. In the comment, Mr Jindal referred to the clash on the border of both countries, which took place earlier in Jun...
BCIC and EDII to build cement plant in Bangladesh
Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corp and Saudi-based Engineering Dimension International Investment have agreed to build a cement plant under the name of Saudi Bangla Integrated Cement Co Ltd. The new plant will have a clinker capacity of 12,000tpd and a cement capacity of 3000tpd, based on the supply of limestone from Meghalaya, India. In addition to producing cement from its own clinker, th...
Work on Potosí to resume
Construction work on the new state-owned Potosí cement works in Bolivia will resume in July, according to House of Representatives member Gonzalo Barrientos. "In July, the works of the Potosí cement factory will restart, which is part of the economic reactivation measures. In five months, the project for provisional delivery will be completed," said Mr Barrientos. Pending resources will be ...
Cement production falls 29% in Fiji
In the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s economic review for June 2020, it has found domestic cement production to have fallen 28.7 per cent YoY in the 5M20. The results have been largely attributed to weak demand. Cumulative domestic cement sales also declined 18.8 per cent YoY in the year up to May 2020.
University of Seville and FLACEMA sign power cost research collaboration
The University of Seville and the Andalusian Labour Foundation for Cement and Environment (FLACEMA), Spain, have signed a scientific collaboration agreement to launch an industrial research project into a tool to optimise the electricity cost of cement plants using artificial intelligence (AI). Power accounts for around 18 per cent of total production costs in Spanish cement plants, signific...