26 February 2018

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has obtained restraining orders from the Peshawar High Court to prevent its Pezu plant being closed by the Excise and Taxation Department for not paying a US$135,000 property tax bill. A team from the Excise and Taxation Department attempted to close the site on 23 February 2018, according to the News International newspaper. The cement producer says that the plant continues to produce cement and despatch its products. The tax office has launched a drive to target tax defaulters in the region. It alleges that it has been chasing Lucky Cement’s tax bill for the past six years.

India: Birla Corporation plans to launch its Perfect cement product across most of the country, except in the south. The brand was purchased by the cement producer in August 2016 when it acquired Reliance Cement, according to the Business Standard newspaper. The product launch is Birla’s first national rollout. Perfect brand cement is produced at the former Reliance Maihar plant in Madhya Pradesh. The cement producer is also planning to introduce a new variant of its Unique brand of premium cement, which will be sold in the northern region. This brand of slag cement is limited to its eastern market and is currently manufactured from the Durgapur plant in West Bengal.

Iran: Austria’s Fronius Solar Energy has installed an inverter for the 1.5MW photovoltaic solar plant at Shahrekord Cement Company’s plant. The engineering firm supplied its Fronius Symo 76 product for the site situated at 2300m above sea level that experiences a wide variation in ambient temperature between -10°C and 50°C. Using this system, the cement producer has achieved a total yield of 2953MWhr/yr, which it feeds back to the grid. The operator is also able to monitor the system using the Fronius Solar web analysis tool and it is using the provider’s Service Partner programme for ongoing support.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) plans to open its fifth cement plant in the first half of 2018. The move will increase its cement production capacity of 5500t/day, according to the Qatar Tribune newspaper. However, its sales of cement fell slightly to 3.4Mt in 2017 from 3.7Mt in 2016.

The cement producer’s sales revenue fell by 9.6% year-on-year to US$283m in 2017 from US$313m in 2016. Its net profit decreased by 31% to US$90m from US$130m. The company blamed the falling profit on a poor local economy causing poor demand and a reduced selling price since April 2017.

Colombia: Cementos Argos and Ibines Ferreo have been helping the National Agency for Infrastructure run freight train tests on the 257km railway line between Bogota and Belencito. To show that the refurbished line can handle different loads, a train travelled from Cementos Argos' Sogamoso plant in the department of Boyaca to Bogota, according to the Portafolio newspaper. It carried 204t of cement at an estimated speed of 20km/hr.

ANI has invested US$73.3m in the refurbishment of rail infrastructure between Bogota and the Boyaca department. Sections of track repaired by ANI between Bogota and Boyaca include La Caro-Zipaquira, Bogota-Facatativa and Bogota-Belencito. The line stopped operating due to damage caused by winter storms in 2010 and 2011.

Nigeria: Ashaka Cement plans to complete its 16MW captive power plant in early 2019. The subsidiary of Lafarge Africa and LafargeHolcim started the US$30.5m project in 2017, according to the Nigerian Guardian newspaper. Once operational the power plant will supply additional electricity to the national grid as well as supplying the neighbouring cement plant.

Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement has gained re-certification for ISO 14001 on environmental management system, and OHSAS 18001 for occupational health and safety. Company official Simon Peter ole Nkeri said that the achievement was part of the company’s around strategy, according to the Business Daily newspaper. He added that the adoption of an environmental quality management system was a strategic decision to improve the company’s performance.