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US cement consumption may have disappointed some in the first quarter of 2013 but solid growth lies ahead, according to the Portland Cement Association (PCA). Just how solid that growth will be remains open to interpretation.

PCA chief economist Ed Sullivan forecast 8% growth in cement consumption at the start of 2013. Now's its been halved to just 4%. Yet he's standing by the hint of good news ahead, upping the growth from 2014 to 9.7%.

Figures from the major US cement producers present a mixed picture. The major multinational cement producers mostly suffered from the weather in early 2013. Lafarge saw its cement sales in North America drop by 23% year-on-year for the first half of 2013 to 4.4Mt from 5.7Mt in the same period of 2012. Cemex's cement sales in the US rose by 3% but no specific figures were released. Holcim's cement sales in North America fell by 7% to 5Mt from 5.4Mt. HeidelbergCement's cement sales in the North America grew by 5% to 5.7Mt from 5.4Mt.

Of the rest, Texas Industries reported a rise in cement shipments of 29% to 2.23Mt from 1.73Mt for the six months to the 31 May 2013. Titan saw sales in the US rise by 10% to US$258m.

Preliminary United States Geological Survey data for June 2013 suggests that the increase in portland and blended cement shipments in the US slowed in the first half of 2013. In 2011 32.1Mt were shipped, in 2012 37.0Mt were shipped and in 2013 37.2Mt were shipped.

Meanwhile the construction figures US Department of Commerce mostly suggested growth but not without the odd jitter. Construction spending fell slightly in June 2013. Total construction spending adjusted seasonally fell by 0.4% to US$869bn due to a fall in non-residential construction. Since then though the July 2013 figure hit US$901bn, the highest since June 2009.

Accordingly, in his forecast Sullivan pins his hopes on the residential sector in the near term. It has seen consistent growth since October 2012. However other industry commentators, like the American Institue of Architects, have focused on poor growth in non-residential construction.

Let's hope Sullivan's got it right.

Austria: Ghassan Broummana has been appointed managing director of A TEC Group from 1 October 2013. As managing director Broummana will be responsible for sales and marketing within the A TEC and A TEC GRECO group.

Broummana started his career in 1987 designing and starting-up cement plants. In 1996 he joined Holcim Group Support in Switzerland where he developed and implemented various corporate initiatives. In 2004, he moved to Holcim's subsidiary in Thailand, Siam City Cement, to start up a new business unit preparing alternative fuels and raw materials from industrial and household waste.

In 2009 Broummana joined the managing committee and executive committee respectively of Holcim's subsidiaries in India, ACC and Ambuja Cements. Here he restructured Techport, the unified technical support service centre that provides expertise to both ACC and Ambuja Cements with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of over 25 integrated cement plants and grinding stations and managing all the major capital expenditure projects for both companies.

Broummana holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Wirtschafts-Ingenieur (MBA) from the University of Dortmund. He has also completed a 'Program for Executive Development' at IMD-Lausanne and 'Advanced Management Program' at Harvard Business School, US.

Iraq/Iran: Iraq has banned imports of Iranian white cement from the Iranian border towns of Shalamcheh and Chazabeh, according to Sadeq Sava'edi, the deputy head of Khuzestan's Cement Exporters Union. Iraq is still importing grey cement and other construction materials.

"Iran exports 8000t/day and 6000t/day respetively of construction materials from the Chazabeh and Shalamcheh borders areas to Iraq," said Savaedi to the ISNA news agency.

Previously Iraq banned imports of cement of Iran completely in June 2013 but trade resumed shortly afterwards. In January 2013 the Iran - Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Secretary General Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi said that the value of trade between the two countries was about US$10.7bn/yr. He added that Iraq is Iran's main trading partner for non-oil goods.

India: Mangalam Cement has started a trial run of a new 1.25Mt/yr grinding plant. In addition the Indian cement producer announced to the Bombay Stock Exchange that the kiln at its plant in Morak in Rajasthan had commenced operation after a break for renovation since May 2013. The cement plant's clinker production capacity has now risen to 2.21Mt/yr from 1.71Mt/yr.

Gaza/Israel: Israel has allowed a limited quantity of cement and other building materials into the Gaza Strip for the first time since 2007. Nazmi Muhanna, an official in the Palestinian Authority in charge of border checkpoints, said that efforts made by President Mahmoud Abbas to convince Israel to allow entry of construction material into Gaza for private sector usage had succeeded. Israel has promised to increase the quantity gradually.

"I welcome the decision which reflects our ongoing discussions with the Israelis," commented Quartet representative Tony Blair in a statement. "This is an important step in building a more positive environment for the diplomatic negotiations and in preparing the ground for the more comprehensive and transformative economic initiative, which we have been working on for the past few months."

Portugal: Cimpor intends to invest around US$1.33bn in Latin America by 2017, according to its CEO Ricardo Lima. The main objective of Cimpor is to reinforce its position in Brazil where it already operates in all regions, except in the northern parts of the country, Lima told the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

The Portugal-based cement producer will spend part of the investment building a new cement plant in northern Brazil, at either Belém or Manaus. Due to positive results in the Argentine market another plant is planned for Argentina's western province of San Juan. In October 2013 Cimpor will inaugurate a plant in Paraguay where it holds a 35% share of the market but where it currently sells its surplus Portuguese cement.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement has reported that its income rose by 4% year-on-year to US$54.3m in the first six months of 2013 from US$52.2m in the same period in 2012. The Kazak cement producer attributed the increase to a rise in prices in an interim financial statement.

Steppe Cement reported a profit before tax of US$3.82m for the period, up from US$391,000 in the same period in 2012. However, sales volumes declined by 8% to 0.56Mt from 0.62Mt. In its statement the cement producer confirmed that it had committed to spend US$7.7m on renovating its production line #5

China: China has released a plan to cap coal consumption to below 65% of its total primary energy use by 2017 in order to tackle air pollution.

"The pressure to curb air pollution is rising amid China's industrialisation and urbanisation and increasing consumption of energy and resources," said the government plan. The plan follows widespread public awareness of air pollution since levels of particulate matter smaller than 2.5μm (PM_2.5) recorded in Beijing broke World Health Organization safety limits in January 2013.

According to a plan published on the country's national website, new industrial projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in north China, the Yangtze Delta region in the east and the Pearl River Delta region in the south will be banned from building their own captive power plants. These regions will also be encouraged to replace coal use with power purchased from other areas or with power generated from natural gas or non-fossil fuels such as nuclear power. The plans follows previous measures to phase outdate industrial capacity.

However environmental activists and analysts quoted by Reuters have pointed out that the system could be undermined by loopholes such as allowing areas to import energy from elsewhere.

National: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a third list of 58 companies, including cement companies, which should cut their excess production capacity by the end of 2013 as a part of the country's economic restructuring drive. The ministry said that local authorities must ensure that overcapacity is eliminated, rather than transferred to other regions.

Regional: South-eastern Fujian province produced 52.1Mt of cement in the first eight months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%, according to data released by the local statistics bureau. Jiangxi Province produced 54.8Mt of cement in the first eight months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 21.1%.

Central Hubei province saw cement output increase by 8.3% year-on-year to 60.3Mt in the first seven months of 2013.

North-west Shaanxi province saw cement output total 53.9Mt in the first eight months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%.

Southern Hainan province has produced 10.5Mt of cement in the first seven months of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%. South-central Hunan province produced 9.47Mt of cement in August 2013, a year-on-year decrease of 2.8%.

Corporate: Gansu Qilianshan Cement Group plans to spend US$43.4m on acquiring a 100% stake in Longnan Runji Cement to expand into the Gansu province market. Runji Cement currently operates a 2500t/day dry-process cement plant.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has reduced its specific net carbon dioxide emissions by 21% to 607.5 kg/t of cement since 1990 according to its 2011/2012 Sustainability Report. Its alternative fuels rate increased to 21.7% in 2012. This is the fifth sustainability report that the German-based cement producer has published.

"Sustainable business practices are a fundamental condition as well as an integral component of our business activities and therefore central to the activities and decisions of our management teams on the ground," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement.

Despite increasing its alternative fuels mix, HeidelbergCement reported changes in its traditional fossil fuels mix for clinker production. Hard coal usage fell but petroleum coke and natural has saw rises in usage. NO_x, SO₂ and dust emissions all fell from 2011 to 2012.