News

The Indonesia Cement Association (ASI) has predicted the cement demand in Indonesia will increase by 5% from 2015 to 63 million tonnes in 2016. Meanwhile, cement output capacity is estimated to reach over 100 million tonnes in the next several years due to the opening of new factories by local and foreign cement makers.

UK Mineral Products Association (MPA) sales of mineral products in the first-quarter of 2016 are said to provide hard evidence that recent construction activity has flattened out. While overall activity is still positive on an annual basis and higher than Q1 2015, sales of aggregates, ready-mixed concrete (RMC) and mortar have been static in recent months and asphalt sales have continued to decline.

According to the Spanish association Anefhop, in 2015, production of concrete in the country increased by 2.7% on the previous year to 16.363 million m³. It was the first time in eight years that the industry registered an increase in outputs.

Lafarge intends to further increase its replacement rate of fossil energies on the biggest cement plant in France at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour. The replacement rate of those fossil fuels currently used could reach 83% thanks to a new shredded solid waste recovery workshop which was inaugurated in March 2016.

German building materials company HeidelbergCement has announced a project for sustainable cement making at its Lixhe facility in Belgium. The project, which has been granted funds worth €12 million (US$13.48 million) from the European Union, calls for the construction of a cutting-edge testing facility to study a new technology for the capture of CO2.

Turkish Sabanci Holding has merged its industry group and cement group departments.
The new department is now named the Industry Group and the head of the department is Mehmet Hacikamiloglu, who used to be the cement group department's president.

After recording a loss of US$1.9 million (€1.69 million) in 2015, Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe hopes to return to profitability in 2016. It is reported that Lafarge's sales volume for 2015 grew 2% year-on-year to US$61.55 million (€54.81 million).

For the first-quarter ended 31 March, 2016, Nigeria’s Dangote Cement recorded a 22.3% decline in net profit to NGN 54.4 billion (€243.17 million/US$273.16 million) from NGN 70.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Metso has entered into a five-year, long-term strategic services partnership agreement with Tata Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners to repair, rebuild, and service existing pyro-processing equipment and systems in its Green River, Wyoming, USA, operation.

Sandvik has launched SanRemo for Crushers, a system the company says builds on Sandvik’s highly successful ASRi automation system. Adding a wide range of additional control and monitoring features, SanRemo is already in place for other Sandvik product groups, such as drill rigs. As with Sandvik’s ASRi, SanRemo for Crushers ensures the desired closed side setting (CSS) is always maintained, compensating for moisture/hardness of feed material.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir, India, has issued a directive to all departments in the state to only purchase cement from Jammu and Kashmir Cements (JK Cements), it is reported.

Cemex has reached an agreement in principle for the sale of certain assets in the US to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) for US$400 million. The assets, which would be sold to a US affiliate of GCC, mainly consist of Cemex’s cement plants in Odessa, Texas and Lyons, Colorado, three cement terminals and the building materials business in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Holcim Mexico, subsidiary of Swiss global building materials and aggregates group LafargeHolcim, has reorganised its commercial operation into four divisions: Building, Infrastructure, Industrial and Distribution, in order to adjust its activities to the company's global strategy. Holcim targets to reinforce its clients operation and to consolidate its position in the market.

Spanish cement company Cementos Molins will invest US$189 million (€168.25 million) creating 130 new direct jobs in Argentina. Xavier Molins, the company’s president, met Argentine President Mauricio Macri to discuss the company's plans in Argentina, where it is the main shareholder in Cementos Avellaneda, a company with two cement factories in Olavarria and San Luis, respectively, and five concrete plants.