News

Six Kenyan cement producers have raised output from 4,637,081 metric tonnes in the first 11 months of 2013 to 5,208,934 metric tonnes during the same period in 2014, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

KNBS said that the cement companies are operating at excess capacity and output already exceeded 5,059,129tonnes in the full year of 2013. The domestic market used 87% of total cement produced on average and it is expected that road projects, construction of Terminal Four in Jomo K

A strike at Chakrey Ting Cement factory in Cambodia's Kampot province ended on 31 December 2014 after workers agreed to go back to work. Nearly half of the 200 workers at the Chinese-owned plant went on strike on 30 December 2014, demanding higher wages, health insurance, yearly bonuses and equal treatment for Chinese and Cambodian employees.
Workers' representative, Heng Chen, told national media that Chakrey Ting Cement promised to address allegations that preferential treatment was given to Chinese work

Pakistan’s cement producers have revised down their products’ prices in line with failing international oil prices, with Dewan Cement and Bestway Cement reducing the respective price of their cements from US$5.05 (PKR 510) to $4.84 (PKR 490) and from $4.96 (PKR 502) to $4.86 (PKR 492) per bag.
Similarly, the price of cements from Lucky Cement and Cherat Cement are down from PKR 520 to PKR 497 and from PKR 520 to PKR 497 per bag, respectively. Cements in the city of Lahore are now sold at PKR 490 per bag (

Pioneering carbon negative aggregate specialist Carbon8 Aggregates is set to more than double production after gaining planning permission to build a second manufacturing facility at Avonmouth, near Bristol, southwest England.

Work on the €5.1 million (£4 million) project will begin later this year and the plant is expected to be fully operational by early 2016, more than doubling Carbon8’s ability to meet rising construction industry demand for its high quality, lightweight aggregates.

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Germany-based cement sector companies such as Loesche and ThyssenKrupp are offering their eco-friendly technology in Vietnam. Loesche, which operates cement mills in the country, hopes to attract more partners. Meanwhile, second-generation cement grinding solutions will be sold by ThyssenKrupp, which is looking for domestic partners for this purpose. The solutions are currently being used by ThyssenKrupp at its Cong Thanh cement plant in Thanh Hoa. Knauf Vietnam, which will complete its US$40.5 million plan

Financial analyst Darryll Castle is the new CEO of South African cement manufacturer PPC, effective 12 January 2015. Castle was previously COO of mining firm Metorex, and before that CEO of Trafigura Mining Group and Anvil Mining, with significant experience in various parts of Africa. The appointment is tied to a board reshuffling prompted by a conflict with former CEO Ketso Gordhan who left in September 2014.

HeidelbergCement, the German building materials producer, has restarted cement milling operations at its plant near Donetsk in Ukraine. The company also hopes to resume clinker production. According to HeidelbergCement CEO Bernd Scheifele, logistics is the plant's biggest problem as roads and railway lines are destroyed.

The first edition of MS Marmomacc Samoter Africa and Middle East has been hailed a success – attracting more than 3,000 attendees.

The debut Veronafiere event for the natural stone, quarry and site machinery sectors held in the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre 11-14 December 2014 attracted 3,000 specialist operators, as well as official delegations from 16 countries from all over the African continent, the Middle East and Europe. Buyers took part in a series of B2B meetings with more

China-based China Resources Cement has been granted a US$64.49 million (HKD 500 million) loan, with the repayment to the granting bank to be settled within three years. Following the approval, the cement firm will be given one-month withdrawal period. Under the loan agreement, the parent firm of China Resources Cement, China Resources, is required to hold at least 51% issued share capital of its cement subsidiary. A breach to the contract will be taken if China Resources has failed to do.

Lafarge has been ranked first in the Investor of the Year category of the Moscow Times Awards 2014 awards. The French cement manufacturing giant was recognised for the launch of its cement plant in the Kaluga region (Central FD) in May 2014. The two million tonnes/year capacity site is the largest investment project by the company in Russia, and is said to have helped to strengthen Lafarge’s market position in the Kaluga region.

The Angolan government is to begin limiting the import of cement into the local construction sector from 2015, excluding border provinces such as Cabinda, Cuando Cubango and Cunene. Angola's Construction Minister, Waldemar Pires Alexandre, said the provinces each have an annual import quota of 150,000tonnes. The move is being taken as a result of higher production capacity of 8 million tonnes against a demand of 6.6 million tonnes.

Egypt-based Suez Cement will invest US$83.74 million (EGP 600 million) in 2015 to allow two of its cement plants south of Cairo to be powered by coal, negating the country’s natural gas supply shortage.