14 December 2017

Argentina: Loma Negra plans to spend US$350m on building a new 2.7Mt/yr production line at its Amalí plant in Olavarria. Production on the new line is scheduled to start in early 2020. Once operational it is expected to create 220 new jobs. The new line will include a new kiln, two new two vertical mill for raw and cement grinding and a bagging and palletising unit.

Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) cement sales volumes increased by 18.2% year-on-year to nearly 4Mt in the first 11 months of 2017 due to high US cement sales in October and November. The US generates around 75% of GCC’s revenues.

October and November US cement sales volumes rose by 31.2% compared to the same period of 2016. Overall, for the first 11 months of the year, US cement volumes increased by 28.8% from 2016. The increase reflects strong demand and GCC’s acquisitions in Texas and New Mexico in late 2016. October and November sales volumes in Mexico also grew by 10.2%, rebounding from decreases earlier in the year. However, for the first 11 months, Mexico’s cement volumes fell by 1.6%.

“GCC reached record cement sales volumes as a result of strong demand and high level of backlog in our core markets, especially West Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, and the state of Chihuahua. In addition, builders and contractors enjoyed favourable weather in October and November, which offset the effect of some weather and project-related delays in the third quarter. As a result, we are confident that GCC will significantly exceed our US volume outlook for the year and, as a result, also surpass our earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) growth target,” said GCC´s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Enrique Escalante.

South Africa: LafargeHolcim has ended its talks with PPC regarding a possible transaction in Africa. The Switzerland-based building materials company originally said it was discussing a possible bid for PPC in October 2017. Fairfax Holdings stopped its bid for PPC in December 2017 and expressions of interest by CRH and Dangote Cement have also ceased.

India: ABB India has won an order from Emami Cement for an automation and electrical system for a new 2Mt/yr plant in Odisha. ABB will be undertaking complete project implementation including supply, erection, testing and commissioning for the electrical distribution and distributed control system (DCS), according to the Press Trust of India. The 800xA DCS is intended to help monitor, control and optimise the cement manufacturing process while maximising plant uptime.

India: The Supreme Court has lifted a ban on petcoke and furnace oil to the cement and power industries in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The court also directed the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to set regulations for the sale of petcoke and fix emission standards for thermal power plants, according to the Indo-Asian News Service agency. Representatives of the cement industry have welcomed the ruling. The Central Pollution Control Board and the MEF issued the ban following a directive from the Supreme Court in late October 2017 prohibiting industries in the three neighbouring states of Delhi from using the polluting fuels.