28 May 2021

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has provided details of its upcoming 7200t/day-capacity Paikhel cement plant in Mianwali district, Punjab province. China-based Sinoma International Engineering Company will supply engineering, procurement and construction for the plant. The plant will have a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant.

Pakistan: Descon Engineering says it has been awarded the construction contract for Maple Leaf Cement’s new 7000t/day production line at its integrated Iskanderabad plant. Line 4 is scheduled to be commissioned in mid-2022. China-based Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry was awarded the equipment and engineering contact for the project in April 2021. Descon Engineering previously contributed towards the work on Line 3 at the unit in conjunction with Denmark-based FLSmidth in 2019. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Cuba: Cementos Cienfuegos’ Carlos Marx cement plant in Guabairo resumed production in late May 2021. Production had been suspended since 14 January 2021 due to a lack of petcoke, according to the Sierra Maestra newspaper. Fuel suppliers had been affected by a fuel shortage created by US trade sanctions. Despite the enforced shutdown the plant intends to meet its production target for 2021.

Spain: Turkey-based Çimsa Çimento intends to complete its acquisition of Cemex’s Buñol white cement plant in June 2021. Local government says that the purchase agreement has been in place since 2019 but has delayed by the international nature of the deal and competition concerns, according to Agencia EFE. Çimsa Çimento agreed to buy Cemex’s white cement business in Spain, including its Buñol plant, for around US$180m in March 2019. It was originally scheduled for completion in the second half of 2019.

Egypt: Suez Cement, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has begun its first round of staff inoculations against Covid-19 at its plants and offices. Government medical staff supervised the sessions, which the company said were well attended.

Human resources director Sherry Bishara said, "I am pleased to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Health and Suez governorate Preventive Medicine Directorate for their collaboration in providing the vaccine and medical staff needed for administering the vaccine for staff and also to thank the group's medical service for facilitating the campaign.”

UK: Hanson, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has supplied basalt from its Builth Wells, Powys quarry to the world’s first CO₂ sequestration field trial in the Brecon Beacons. The trial uses local live soil enriched with basalt for enhanced CO₂ sequestration in a reforested 11ha woodland. Enhanced rock weathering takes crushed basalt, a by-product of quarrying, and applies it to the soil to capture CO₂ and provide essential nutrients to fertilise trees and the fungi in the soil that support tree growth. The building materials producer says it is a method that has been proven to be successful in sugar beet and pea crops.

Sustainability director Marian Garfield said, “Hanson is focussed on climate protection and carbon reduction, and enhancing biodiversity net gain are two of our key 2030 commitments.” She added, “We are excited to be involved with this project, which aims to determine whether basalt can accelerate the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere in the creation of new woodland and could therefore potentially play a vital role in helping tackle the climate crisis.”