23 November 2018

Saudi Arabia: Cement despatches dropped by 5.4% year-on-year to 37.3Mt in the first 10 months of 2018 from 39.4Mt in the same period in 2017. The local industry’s utilisation rate has declined in consecutive months since October 2017 to just 54.8% in October 2018, according to Aljazira Capital. At the same time clinker inventories increased by 1.6% month-on-month to 41.6Mt in October 2018.

India: The employees union of state-owned Meghalaya Cherra Cement has given the government two weeks to pay back salary from 2015 to 2016 and overtime payments since 2013. Union president S Diengdoh criticised the state-owned plant for poor management and low production, according to the Sentinel newspaper. The union alleges that the plant has an utilisation rate of only 30% and poor levels of safety.

Honduras: Cementos Argos and Cementos del Norte have agreed to cut the price of cement for government-backed reisdential and infrastructure projects following a request by President Juan Orlando Hernández, according to the El Heraldo newspaper. The price will fall by around 15% when the agreements between the cement producers and the government is finalised.

France: Ciments Calcia has launched Hop’ pour les Pros, a dissolvable cement bag product. Cement sold in the bags can be placed directly into a mixer to make ready-mix concrete. Its puported beneifts include reduce spillage, time savings and no packaging. CEM II 32.5 R cement will be used in the product manufactured at he company’s Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime.