November 2024

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has predicted a 30% year-on-year decline in sales volumes in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. All Africa News has reported that Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe is expecting to rely on foreign investment-led projects to stimulate a base level of cement demand to sustain the company’s operations.

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe said, "The ripple effects of the lockdown and border closures are still to be fully quantified, but the business expects to continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak into the second half of 2020."

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of its Chairman’s Safety Performance Award for outstanding safety performance in Portland cement production in the US.

The winners were: Cemex USA’s Clinchfield, Georgia and Victorville, California plants; Lehigh Hanson’s Cupertino, California and Tehachapi, California plants; Titan America’s Medley, Florida and Troutville, Virginia plants; LafargeHolcim’s Morgan, Utah and Theodore, Alabama plants; Buzzi Unicem’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant; GCC of America’s Pueblo, Colorado plant; and Argos USA’s Atlanta, Georgia grinding plant.

PCA chair Tom Beck said, “We’re proud to highlight these top safety performers. Our industry is constantly focused on doing everything possible to assure our employees go home in the same condition as they arrived.”

Czech Republic: Cemex Czech Republic has reported the delivery of Multibat PLUS cement to ten intermediaries across East Bohemia from its Prachovice, Pardubice plant. Cemex Czech Republic says that the demand for Multibat arose following the discontinuation of the product in late 2019.

Vietnam: Lam Tach Cement has upgraded Kiln 1 of its integrated cement plant with a new Turbu-Flex burner supplied by FCT Combustion. The upgrade follows the successful installation of an FCT Combustion Turbu-Flex burner in Kiln 2 of the plant in late 2019.

UK: Global Cement Magazine's virtual CemProducer Conference on 19 May 2020 attracted 940 registrations from 84 countries worldwide, to listen to 12 presentations on the topic of 'cement plant maintenance in the time of coronavirus.'

The conference proceedings volume, delegate list, presentation PDFs and access to the full conference video are available for purchase

Image credit: creativeneko / Shutterstock.com

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has said that it will end 2020 with an agricultural lime production capacity of 1.0Mt/yr, up by 25% year-on-year from 0.8Mt/yr in 2019 following a US$12.6m investment in two new plants in Itapeva and Nobres and upgrades to plants in Itau de Minas and Nobres. SABI News has reported that the expansion will bring Votorantim Cimentos’ diversified products capacity to 4.3Mt/yr. The company says that it is ‘targeting value-added products’ to insure itself against a fall in demand for cement.

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo has reported a first-quarter profit of US$3.14m in the first quarter of 2020, down by 65% year-on-year from US$7.00m in the same period of 2019. Sales fell by 4.4% year-on-year to US$87.9m, from US$92.0m. Despite having increased by 13% year-on-year in the first two months of 2020, cement, concrete and precast sales volumes fell by 6.0% to US$81.5m from US$86.7m.

Cementos Pacasmayo said that it has suspended all production and sale of its products since 16 March 2020 in response to the national state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. It said, “We are unsure when operations will be allowed to restart.”

Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico’s two cement plants produced 37,100t of cement in March and April 2020, down by 55% year-on-year from 83,300t in March and April 2019. Domestic consumption over the period was 41,700t, down by 58% year-on-year from 98,800t. Esmerk Latin American News has reported that the decreases were caused by the suspension of construction work due to the government’s coronavirus lockdown.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) has reported sales of 79,800 bags/day of cement between 4 May 2020 and 8 May 2020. Demand had collapsed in April 2020 due to restrictions on construction resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. Esmerk Latin American News has reported that newly reopened distributors collected their orders and that a number of customers purchased more than their usual volume in anticipation of a further easing of lockdown. INC has placed an order for 40,000t of imported clinker to help production to meet demand.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement has reported sales worth US$39.3m in the first quarter of 2020, up by 12% year-on-year from US$35.3m in the corresponding period of 2019. Sales grew by 15% year-on-year to US$120m from US$104m. The company attributed the increased profit margin to greater demand, which offset higher general, administrative, selling and distribution expenses.