11 April 2022

Malaysia: Borneo Oil has increased its investment in the upcoming ILPP cement plant in Sabah to US$12m. The oil company has signed a deal to buy a 19.5% stake in the cement company from Makin Teguh. Borneo Oil previously bought shares from Makin Teguh in late 2021. The company said it is making the move to benefit from a positive outlook for the cement sector in the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area. It estimates that Sabah has a demand of 1.2 – 1.4Mt/yr of cement.

Borneo Oil says it is the largest private owner of limestone reserves of cement grade quality in Sabah. The ILPP plant is located next to a limestone quarry owned by Borneo Oil and a long-term supply contract for the unit is already in place. The ILPP plant will have a cement production capacity of 0.2Mt/yr when it is completed. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022. The owners say it will be the first integrated plant in Sabah. It will also be the first micro-cement plant in Malaysia that will use heat recovery and a mixture of fuels, including heavy fuel oil and biomass such as a palm kernel shells.

India: A shortage of limestone in the Jammu and Kashmir union territory since December 2021 has resulted in cement plant workers being laid off in Udhampur district. The local sector has lobbied the regional government to supply limestone from state-controlled quarries to fix the situation, according to Asian News International. One cement plant employee interviewed by the news agency said that his plant had laid off around 80 workers from a total of 200 due to the shortage.

Iran: Mehdi Dosti, the governor of Hormozgan Province, says that a new 3000t/day cement plant will be built in the region. Dosti met with the head of Cement Investment Holding to discuss the project, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The project is intended to increase cement production and create jobs in the province. Currently, Hormozgan Province has a 6000t/day cement plant at the Port of Khamir but cement is also imported into the region.

Zimbabwe: Kelibone Masiyane, the managing director of PPC Zimbabwe, has complained about the negative effects rising imports of cement could have upon the local cement industry. In an interview with Business Weekly he said that imports had doubled to 16% over the last year and that this is restricting PPC’s efforts to reach its desired capacity utilisation levels. PPC and other producers have lobbied the government to slow down imports. PPC operates two integrated plants in the country with a combined production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr. Selected retailers interviewed separately reported that they had experienced difficulty obtaining cement from PPC recently.

France/Egypt: France-based Vicat has issued a mandatory tender offer to buy an additional 42% stake in Sinai Cement. The proposal follows a final settlement agreement signed between Vicat and the Egyptian government in late March 2021, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. Following the completion of the transaction Vicat should own a 98% in the Egypt-based cement producer based on its reported ownership at the end of 2021.

In 2021 Vicat raised a case against the Egyptian government with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Media reports at the time alleged that the cement producer was being forced to reduce its shares in its subsidiary Sinai Cement due to a law stopping foreign ownership of companies operating in the Sinai Peninsula on the basis of security grounds. Around the same time Vicat also announced publicly that it was keen to continue operating in the country.

Ghana: Denmark-based Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande (IFU) and Norway-based Norfund have invested US$27.9m in CBI Ghana. The funding will support the cement producer’s upgrade of a clay calcination unit at its 0.6Mt/yr Tema grinding plant in Accra. Denmark-based FLSmidth is supplying the equipment for the project.

Pakistan: Three workers from DG Cement’s Dera Ghazi Khan cement plant who were kidnapped have been rescued following negotiation. Tribal elders spoke to the Laadi gang that abducted the workers and no ransom was paid, according to the Dawn newspaper. The gang’s demands included establishing a school and building water reservoirs in the area. The gang kidnapped the workers in early April 2022. 12 associates of the gang have been detained.

Panama: Cemex exported 3000t of bagged Ordinary Portland Cement to Jamaica from the Bahía Las Minas Grain Terminal in Colón. Data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industries shows that the company started exporting cement in January 2021 and recorded sales of over US$17m in 2021. In the first two months of 2022 Panama exported OPC to countries including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Guyana, Bonaire, Cuba and Curaçao.

Canada: Jean Boulet, the labour minister of Quebec, has called for an end to a long-running labour dispute at Ash Grove’s Joliette cement plant that has been running since mid-2021. Around 130 members of the Unifor union were locked out by management, according to Postmedia Breaking News. In a message on social media Boulet invited the parties to "concentrate their efforts at the negotiation table with a conciliator." The union alleges that company owner CRH has been importing raw materials to make cement from Greece or Turkey whilst the workers have been excluded from the plant. Negotiations will continue in mid-April 2022.