Displaying items by tag: Asia

India: Mahabal Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a US$1.26bn investment at the Advantage Assam summit.

The investment will have several phases. The first phase will be the construction of an integrated cement plant in Assam's Dima Hasao district, followed by a ready-mix concrete plant, which will produce autoclaved aerated concrete blocks. More than 3000 jobs will reportedly be created through the investment.

India: UltraTech Cement has projected that India’s cement demand will surpass 640Mt by the 2030 financial year, driven by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7-8% between the 2024 and 2030 financial years.

According to industry research and estimates, cement demand for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 stood at 424Mt. The growth is expected to be supported by rising infrastructure development and construction activity across the country.

Pakistan: Total cement despatches in February 2025 reached 3.6Mt, marking a 10% increase from 3.27Mt in February 2024, according to data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).

Domestic cement sales rose by 7% year-on-year to 3.1Mt, compared to 2.9Mt in February 2024. However, growth remained below expectations following a 12% month-on-month increase in January 2025. Exports increased by 34%, rising to 0.53Mt from 0.4Mt in the same month last year. In the first eight months of the current financial year, total cement despatches, including domestic and exports, stood at 30.4Mt, a slight 0.45% decline from 30.6Mt in the previous year. Domestic despatches dropped by 6% year-on-year to 24.5Mt, while exports increased by 32% to 5.9Mt from 4.5Mt.

Philippines: The Surigao City government has expressed optimism that the planned reopening of Pacific Cement Corporation (Pacemco) will revitalise the local economy and create jobs. Pacemco ceased operations on 5 May 2014 due to financial and operational difficulties. According to the Philippines News Agency, it owed US$1.5m to the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative, therefore its power supply was cut. At the time, 343 workers were reportedly placed on forced leave after the company stopped operations.

The mayor of Surigao City, along with other officials, conducted an inspection of the facility and groundbreaking activities are scheduled later in March 2025.

Georgia: The government has raised the mineral extraction limit for Kartuli Cement, amending the company’s mining license under a decree issued on 28 February 2025. The revised limit now allows for the extraction of 718,415m³ of sand and gravel from the Lezhbadin mineral deposit in Khanji-Gazlo, Marneuli Municipality, until the license expires on 24 October 2025. In return for the additional 287,630m³ of extraction, Kartuli Cement paid US$151,000.

Kartuli Cement formerly operated as HeidelbergCement Georgia, and rebranded as 'Hunnewell Cement' in August 2024 following its acquisition by the Georgian Co-Investment Fund and Hunnewell Partners.

India: Dalmia Bharat, through its subsidiaries, has announced a US$400m investment to expand its cement capacity in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The company will build a 3.6Mt/yr clinker unit and a 3Mt/yr grinding unit at its Belgaum plant in Karnataka, alongside a new 3Mt/yr greenfield grinding plant in Pune, Maharashtra. The expansion will be funded through debt and internal accruals. It is expected to increase Dalmia Bharat's total installed capacity to 55.5Mt/yr, including an ongoing 2.9Mt expansion in Assam and Bihar. The new units are scheduled for commissioning by the fourth quarter of the 2027 financial year.

CEO Puneet Dalmia said "This investment is a significant step in our Phase II expansion strategy, bringing us closer to strengthening our position as a pan-India player and reaching our goal of 75Mt/yr capacity by the 2028 financial year. The increase in our production capacity is primarily to meet the growing infrastructure demand in western India."

Türkiye: Cimpor Global has launched an initiative in partnership with Fizix to enhance operational efficiency and reduce energy losses in cement plants. The system will use 10,500 sensors for global machine health monitoring, enabling early detection of potential failures before they occur.

The initiative will be implemented across 25 facilities in 10 countries, including Türkiye and Portugal. The optimisation phase will begin in 2025, with initial deployment in six countries, followed by expansion to Cimpor’s operations in China and Taiwan by 2026.

Bangladesh: Chhatak Cement Factory has ceased production due to severe gas and limestone shortages, despite a modernisation project having reached 91% completion.

The Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) began a US$54.7m project to convert the plant’s production process from wet to dry in 2016, in order to increase capacity to 1500t/day (0.45Mt/yr). The project cost rose to US$116m, with US$68m spent by November 2024. However, the plant remains idle despite the completion of construction works over a year ago, due to the lack of a new gas pipeline and ropeway to import limestone from India. This ropeway was supposed to transport limestone from the Komorrah Limestone Mining Company in Meghalaya.

The project's committee has proposed extending the deadline to June 2026 and allocating an additional US$25m for a 43km gas pipeline from Sylhet to Chhatak. Trial runs are now being conducted every 15 days in order to prevent the plant’s machinery from rusting.

Project director Abdur Rahman Badsha said that the Chinese contractor responsible for the ropeway construction, Nanjing C-Hope Cement Engineering Group, is awaiting a subcontracting agreement with KLMC to begin work in India.

India: Star Cement will build a US$367m integrated cement plant in Assam.

The producer signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government on 26 February 2025, the final day of the Advantage Assam business summit. The summit attracted 164 investment proposals across 15 sectors on its opening day.

India: UltraTech Cement's board has approved the separation of Kesoram Industries' cement business, effective from 1 March 2025. Under this plan, Kesoram Industries cement business will join UltraTech Cement.

The producer will issue one equity share of US$0.11 for every 52 Kesoram Industries shares. The merger will increase UltraTech Cement's production capacity by 7Mt/yr. The companies' boards first approved the merger on 30 November 2023, with the demerger previously scheduled for November 2024.