11 March 2019

Namibia: Singapore’s International Cement Group has acquired a 100% stake in Schwenk Namibia for US$104m. Schwenk Namibia owns a 69.8% share of Ohorongo Cement and a 100% share of alternative fuel supplier EFF, according to the Business Times newspaper. The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Previously, a subsidiary of International Cement agreed to build a cement plant Almaty, Kazakhstan as part of a joint venture.

Rwanda: The government plans to sell its 49% stake in Cimerwa in March 2019. The 0.6Mt/yr integrated plant is run with South Africa’s PPC, which has a majority stake in the firm, according to Reuters. Prime minister Edouard Ngirente said that it would run an auction by the end of the month. He added that PPC had not yet said if it was interested in buying the remaining stake in the business.

Algeria: La Société des Ciments de Tébessa produced 0.6Mt of cement in 2018. This compares to 0.53Mt in 2013, according to the Algeria Press Service. Company president Djamel Benhafid said that the cement producer has made environmental improvements, including installing new filters. It has also commissioned a sewage treatment unit to provide alternative fuels for its plant.

China: China Resources Cement’s turnover rose by 29.5% year-on-year to US$4.94bn in 2018 from US$3.82bn in 2017. Its profit jumped to US$1.02bn from US$0.46bn. Its cement sales volumes grew by 9% to 82.6Mt from 75.9Mt. Cement sales volumes grew in all regions except for Hainan and Yunnan, where they declined slightly. Its concrete sales volumes increased by 5.7% to 14.2Mm³ from 13.5Mm³. No reason for its growth in 2018 was given but the producer’s average sales price of cement grew by 25%.

The cement producer is upgrading 106 cement bagging machines in the reporting year as part of its ‘digital’ cement-bagging project. It completed the construction of three sets of wet-process desulphurisation systems and 11 sets of composite desulphurisation systems. It launched co-processing projects in Changjiang County in Hainan, Tianyang County in Guangxi, Midu County in Yunnan and Fengqing County in Yunna.

Philippines: Companies including Japan’s Taiheyo Cement, Thailand’s Siam City Cement and China’s Anhui Cement have been linked to the sale of Holcim Philippines. Local companies include Eagle Cement and DMCI Group, according to sources quoted by the Philippine Star. Non-binding offers were have been submitted in February 2019 but it is not clear which companies were involved. However, no agreement has been reached on price yet. LafargeHolcim has reportedly looking at selling its business in the Philippines as part of a review of its operations in South-East Asia.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement’s sales fell by 16.5% year-on-year to US$237m in 2018 from US$283m in 2017. Its net profit after Zakat and tax nearly halved to US$52m from US$98.7m. The company blamed the fall in sales and profit on lowering prices, despite higher sales volumes.

The cement producer has also announced renewal of its export licence from the Ministry of Trade and Investment. It will export up to 1Mt of clinker and 0.5Mt of cement for a year from 13 February 2019.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar Company to export clinker and cement. After the completion of its 5000t/day Plant 5 the cement producer said it was considering targeting countries like Yemen and Iraq.

Mexico: Cemex Mexico’s Guadalajara cement plant has been awarded Clean Industry Certification by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA). The plant first received recognition for its environmental compliance in 1997, according to the El Informer newspaper.