03 May 2018

France: Vicat’s sales in Turkey, the US and Kazakhstan have driven its growth in the first quarter of 2018. Its sales revenue for its cement business rose by 10.9% year-on-year at constant scope and exchange rates to Euro290m in the first quarter of 2018. Its cement sales volumes rose by 6.5% to 5.2Mt from 4.9Mt.

“We posted significant business growth in Turkey, the US and Kazakhstan, excluding currency effects. The gradual recovery continued in France and India was boosted by the start-up of new infrastructure projects. Conversely, we recorded a business contraction in Switzerland during the first quarter as a result of adverse weather conditions, especially in March 2018, and the completion of a number of major projects. The group’s business trends in Egypt were hampered by the military operations underway to restore security in its production area,” said group chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos.

Egypt: A Saudi Arabian company plans to build a US$28m paper bag plant at Borg El-Arab in Alexandria. The plant will have three production lines including one exclusively for manufacturing cement bags, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. Ahmed Abdel Razek, head of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), said that the company plans to start production a year-and-a half after land for the unit is allocated.

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie’s (GICA) has made its first export to Europe. The Ministry of Industry and Mines said that 45,000t of cement was exported to Europe via GICA’s building materials distribution subsidiary, according to the L’Expression newspaper. The consignment was the last part of a contract to export 0.2Mt of cement to Europe.

Libya: German investors have met with the mayor of Al-Bayda to discuss building a cement plant in Cyrenaica. The proposed plant will have a production capacity of 4000t/day, according to the Libya Observer. The plant will be located south of Al-Bayda.

Paraguay: President Horacio Cartes has inaugurated a kiln upgrade to Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant. The project has converted the unit’s third production line to petcoke usage from fuel oil, according to La Nación newspaper. The upgrade work cost US$45m. The plant has three production lines but only one is used.

India: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has asked the Committee of Creditors (COC) of Binani Cement to consider UltraTech Cement's revised offer. It has also set 24 June 2018 as the completion deadline of the insolvency resolution process, according to the Press Trust of India. The NCLT also asked the COC to reconsider the resolution plan of Rajputana Properties if the subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Group was willing to raise its offer over UltraTech Cement’s.

A consortium led by Dalmia Bharat won an auction for Binani Cement with a bid of US$974m in early March 2018. UltraTech Cement then made a direct bid to Binani Cement a few weeks later. However, the Supreme Court blocked UltraTech Cement’s offer in mid-April 2018. UltraTech Cement has since made a raised offer to the resolution professional handling the insolvency process of Binani Cement.