21 June 2018

US: Ireland’s CRH has completed its acquisition of Ash Grove Cement. It agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement in mid-2017 for US$3.5bn. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its consent for the transaction on the condition that CRH sell the Three Forks cement plant in Montana. It also forced CRH to sell other assets in Montana, Nebraska and Kansas.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Coal producer Banovici plans to build a 1.1Mt/yr cement plant for Euro250m. It has already obtained the necessary documents and secured an environmental permit. Work on the plant is planned to begin in 2019, according to Ekapija. The company said that a strategic partner would provide the funds and ‘may’ build the plant or choose the contractor for its construction. Cement from the plant will be used locally and exported to Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia.

Kazakhstan: Gezhouba Shieli Cement plans to commission its 1Mt/yr plant in the Kyzylorda region in December 2018. The US$188m unit will be used to produce oil well cement, according to Interfax. The project is a joint venture majority owned by Chinese investors with a minority stake from a local cement company. The plant is being built by China Triumph International Engineering.

China: China National Building Material (CNBM) has agreed to buy a further 18.7% stake in Southwest Cement for US$295m from Zhonshai Trust. The building materials producer already owns a 70% majority stake in its subsidiary. The remaining stake in Southwest Cement is owned by Shanghai Zhentong (6.3%) and Beijing Huachen (5%).

Mozambique: Singapore’s Compact Metal Industries plans to buy a 51% stake in a partially built cement plant at Salamanga, Bela Vista in Maputo Province. Construction of the 5000t/day plant started in 2012 and it has been ‘substantially’ completed, according in a financial filing by Compact Metal Industries. The unit is owned by CIF-MOZ, a joint venture owned by SPI (54%) and Guhava (45%). Compact Metal Industries intends to buy 34% from SPI and 17% from Guhava. As part of the deal it will settle any existing debts to suppliers and then complete the plant. Completion of the plant is expected to take around eight months.

South Africa: Sephaku Cement says that its earnings for its 2018 financial year that ended on 31 March 2018 are expected to fall by up to 40% to US$3m. It has blamed this on a poor start to the year from its cement business, the impact of one-off income from a closure agreement with Sinoma regarding the opening of a new cement plant on the previous year’s results and poor results from its concrete business.

Oman: Oman Cement has been included on a list of Sharia-compliant companies for the first quarter of 2018 compiled by the Muscat Securities Market. The 32 companies on the list conform to the requirements of Islamic Sharia according to the rules approved by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, according to the Oman Daily Observer newspaper. Companies on the list cover a cross-section of industry including building materials, banking, food production and more.