15 March 2019

Egypt: Suez Cement’s Kattameya plant has been damaged by the collapse of a soil barrier around a nearby wastewater treatment lake. The incident caused a flood of 1.5Mm³ of treated water that reached the edge of the cement plant. The plant’s quarry, some power cables and lighting and a road was damaged. No members of staff at the plant were hurt.

The subsidiary of HeidelbergCement estimates that the flood caused around Euro0.5m worth of damage. It says that it previously raised the issue of the wastewater treatment lake with its owner in 2010 following a risk assessment. This led to the construction of the soil barriers.

Kuwait: Kuwait Cement has made its first delivery of oil well cement to National Petroleum Services. It is producing the product at its Shuaiba plant, according to the Arab Times newspaper. It holds API Monogram licencing from American Petroleum Institute (API) to produce this type of cement.

Ivory Coast: Imports of clinker rose by 2.3% year-on-year to 3.10Mt in 2018 from 3.03Mt in 2017. The value of the product increased by 9.7% to US$162m from US$148m, according to Connection Ivoirienne. Clinker surpassed crude oil as the most imported commodity by volume into the country in 2017.

Lebanon: Residents of Ain Dara near Aley have protested at the Industry Ministry against the decision to grant a licence to the Al Arz Cement plant project. The protestors object on environmental grounds, according to the Daily Star newspaper. In a statement the ministry said that the plant would conform to environmental regulations. The project was launched in 2017 by entrepreneur Pierre Fattoush.

US: Argos USA’s Harleyville cement plant in South Carolina and Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s (GCC) Pueblo plant in Colorado have been awarded Energy Star certification by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the first time. Altogether 100 manufacturing plants across different industries earned the certification in 2018.

24 cement plants received the certification in 13 states. These cement companies included Alamo Cement, Argos USA, Buzzi Unicem, CalPortland, Cemex, Continental Cement, GCC, Holcim US, Lehigh Cement, Salt River Materials and Titan America.

“America’s cement manufacturers’ commitment to sustainable manufacturing have led to improved equipment reliability, energy efficiency, and the increased the use of alternative fuels,” said Portland Cement Association president and chief executive officer (CEO) Mike Ireland.

Paraguay: Businessman José Ortíz says that Denmark’s FLSmidth will supply equipment for a new 1Mt/yr cement plant being built in Concepción. He made the comments in a radio interview, according to La Nacion newspaper. The unit is expected to be commissioned in mid-2021 and it has an investment of US$180m. The project is being financed by the Cartes Group, the Jiménez Gaona Group and José Ortiz. Jorge Mendez, the former president of state-owned cement producer Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), will be president of the new plant.

Portugal: Researchers at the Department of Materials Engineering and Ceramics at the University of Aveiro have developed a so-called ‘eco-cement’ that uses waste cellulose and clay. The cement type uses waste from the pulp industry such as ash and lime grains. This makes up 70% of its composition with the remaining 30% being metakaolin clay. The cement can be manufactured at room temperature reducing its energy consumption massively compared to Ordinary Portland Cement. The research team includes Manfredi Saeli, Rui Novais, Paula Seabra and João Labrincha.

India/Singapore: Shree Cement has closed down Shree Global, its subsidiary in Singapore. It said it had struck the company off the Registrar of Companies in early March 2019. Previously, the cement producer said that the subsidiary was being used to trade coal, petcoke, minerals, bags and other commodities.