21 February 2018

India: LafargeHolcim plans to spend US$214m towards building a new cement plant in the state of Rajasthan. The 3.1Mt/yr plant will be operated by its local subsidiary, Ambuja Cement, and it will target markets in the north of the country, including Delhi. Commissioning for the plant is scheduled for the second half of 2020.

"India is the second biggest global cement market and is forecasted to continue to see high growth rates. We are excited to invest in this highly attractive market to further strengthen our footprint and to reinforce our leading building materials position in India," said Jan Jenisch, Group chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim.

Honduras: Cementos Argos has ordered two Plug&Grind XL modular grinding units for a project in Honduras. Each mill has a production capacity of 220,000t/yr. The ball mills are 3.0 x 9.5m and they have a power of 1100kW. They also include 50,000m³/hr bag filters and classifiers. The scope of supply includes new cement storage silos for finished product, packing and dispatching equipment. The cement producer announced in early February 2018 that it was planning to spend US$20m on building a new cement grinding plant at Choloma.

Pakistan: DG Khan’s sales grew by 8% to US$154m in the second half of 2017 from US$142m from in the same period of 2016. However, its profit after taxation fell by 21% to US$31m from US$40m.