16 June 2022

Turkey: Ferpa İnşaat has acquired Çimsa Çimento’s 1Mt/yr Kayseri and 1.2Mt/yr Niğde integrated cement plants and Ankara grinding plant, as well as ready-mix concrete assets in Aksaray, Ambar, Basakpinar, Cirgalan, Ereğli, Nevsehir and Kahramanmaras. Reuters News has reported the pre-tax value of the deal as US$110m.

Ireland: CRH bought a further US$300m-worth of its shares between 17 March 2022 and 15 June 2022. The purchases bring the group’s total investment in its on-going share buyback programme to US$3.5bn since May 2018. It will now proceed with a further US$300m buyback, ending on or before 30 September 2022.

On 28 April 2022, CRH’s annual group meeting voted for the group to repurchase a total of 10% of its shares.

Mexico: Cooperativa La Cruz Azul has taken to Twitter to thank the executive and judicial authorities of Mexico City for their work in dismantling the criminal network which had previously taken control of the producer. Prosecutors have indicted former Cooperativa La Cruz Azul legal director Victor N, who went into hiding in July 2020, and an alleged accomplice, Joel N.

Argentina: A man has died in a concrete silo collapse at Holcim Argentina’s Malagueño cement plant in Córdoba Province. Pedro Rivero, 67, had been working on the site at 11am on 15 June 2022 when the disaster occurred. Local press has reported that the collapsing silo crushed the crane which Rivero had been operating.

An investigation by the Argentinian Judicial Police into the causes of the event is currently underway.

Uzbekistan: BekabadCement plans to launch a testing laboratory at its Bekabad cement plant, from which it will run a dedicated customer support service. The facility will focus on automatic sampling. BekabadCement expects to launch the service to customers in late 2022.