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Plans for the former Shoreham cement plant on the south coast of England took an exciting turn towards the end of 2014. Zero carbon design firm Zedfactory announced its plans to regenerate the brownfield site into an eco-resort featuring holiday homes, performance space, affordable homes, a hotel and conference centre, a watersports venue, wildlife preserves and more. Or, ' hobbit homes' as the Daily Mail put it when it covered the story six months later.

This raises the question of what happens to cement plants when they close?

In the UK, where a housing shortage in certain areas collide with NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitudes and strict planning regulations, former industrial or brownfield sites are prime sites for new housing developments. Subsequently, old cement plants are attractive to builders to build houses. Two examples of current sites heading this way include the former Cemex plant in Barrington, Cambridgeshire and the former Lafarge Eastgate plant in County Durham. Both sites have gained planning permission and were still in the pre-building stage according to local press reports in mid-2015. Dylan Moore's website 'Cement Plants and Kilns in Britain and Ireland' provides a good resource on former plants in the UK and Ireland.

One of the jokes about classic UK science-fiction television series Dr Who was that during the 1970s it was either filmed on cheap studio sets or in quarries. Endless encounters with alien beings took place in cement plant quarries including Lafarge Northfleet (alien in spacesuits), Lafarge Aberthaw (tentacle faced aliens), Hanson Ketton (Arthurian knights who may in fact be aliens...) and many more. Indeed, one of the conditions of the proposed Lafarge Eastgate sale in March 2015 was that a television production company could continue to use the quarry to film an adaptation of Beowulf for five years!

On the more imaginative side of what to do with old plants, La Fabrica near Barcelona is a spectacular example. Architect Ricardo Bofill converted a 19th century plant into his firm's head office, La Fabrica, and his own personal residence. As Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura's website puts it, "Eight silos remained, which became offices, a models laboratory, archives, a library, a projections room and a gigantic space known as 'The Cathedral', used for exhibitions, concerts and a whole range of cultural functions linked to the professional activities of the architect." Architecturally the project refers to Catalan Civic Gothic style with surrealist elements.

This sense of entertainment from industrial architecture was continued by sculptor Bob Cassilly in St Louis, USA who decided to build Cementland. Cassilly purchased the former plant and slowly assembled his clinker-themed version of Disneyland. Unfortunately he died in 2001 following an accident with a bulldozer at the site before he finished.

More and more former cement plants will be seeking new purposes as Europe rationalises its cement industries and excess capacity is eliminated. China too faces similar issues as it consolidates its industry. Most will probably lie fallow before eventually being knocked down and then turned into something following the cheapest economic path forward. With luck though, some will follow the dreams of Zedfactory and people like Ricardo Bofill and Bob Cassilly.

Tell Global Cement what has happened to old cement plants that you know about via our LinkedIn Group.

Ireland: Senan Murphy, currently chief operating officer at the Bank of Ireland, has been appointed as group finance director at CRH, according to The Irish Examiner.

Murphy will take up his new role, as well as joining the CRH board, in January 2015. He will succeed Maeve Carton in the finance director role, who has been in that position since 2010. Carton will move to a newly-created wider role with the title of group transformation director. There, she will be charged with better integrating CRH's businesses, identifying operational and financial opportunities and cash generation opportunities.

Russia: Igor Nikolenko has been appointed as the new general director of EuroCement's CJSC Kavkazcement. Igor Nikolenko was born in Belgorod in 1965. He graduated from Belgorod Technological Institute of Building Materials in Mechanical Engineering in 1990 and then worked in the Belgorod cement plant.

Kavkazcement is one of the largest cement plants in southern Russia with a production capacity of 3.1Mt/yr. The raw material base is limestone from the Ust-Dzhegutinsky mine and clay from Karachay-Cherkessia. The company became part of EuroCement in 2004.

Europe: Following the successful completion of the LafargeHolcim merger, an exceptional scrip dividend of one new LafargeHolcim share for every twenty existing LafargeHolcim shares has been distributed to all LafargeHolcim shareholders. At the Extraordinary General Meeting on 8 May 2015, the group's shareholders voted in favour of an authorised share capital increase.

The last date to trade LafargeHolcim shares 'cum' scrip dividend was 7 September 2015. As of 8 September 2015, LafargeHolcim shares have traded 'ex' scrip dividend. The settlement and delivery of the newly issued shares will occur from 10 September 2015. No fractional LafargeHolcim shares will be issued. As a consequence, shareholders entitled to receive a number of LafargeHolcim shares not corresponding to a whole number will receive the rounded-down whole number of LafargeHolcim shares and the balance will be paid in cash. This will take place on 16 September 2015.

An application has been made for admission of the new LafargeHolcim shares to trade on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich and on Euronext Paris. The newly-issued shares of LafargeHolcim will carry the same rights and obligations as the existing LafargeHolcim shares and will be fully assimilated with them.

For the purpose of the scrip dividend, 28,870,252 new LafargeHolcim shares, representing 5% of the LafargeHolcim share capital and voting rights as of 3 September 2015, will be issued.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement has signed a contract with Germany's Loesche GmbH to supply complete raw, cement and coal grinding mills for its greenfield cement plant in Lasbella, Baluchistan. The cement grinding mills will be provided by a German company, while Denmark's FLSmidth has been contracted for engineering and equipment, according to DG Khan Secretary Khalid Chohan. The new 9,000t/day plant will be completed with a cost of around US$300m within three years. DG Khan has already signed an agreement with K-Electric for the supply of 40MW of electricity.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has reported a net profit of US$119m for the year that ended on 30 June 2015, some 9.6% higher than in the prior year. On a consolidated basis, Lucky Cement's net profit grew by 15.7% to US$132m for the year that ended on 30 June 2015.

Its net sales revenue improved by 3.9% to US$429m. The increase in net sales revenue was attributed mainly to an increase in sales volumes. Local sales volumes grew by 7% to 4.42Mt, while export sales fell by 4.5% to 2.37Mt.

Lucky Cement has also reported progress on its key foreign and local projects, including its integrated cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a 660MW supercritical coal-based power project, a 50MW wind farm, the electricity supply to PESCO and a waste heat recovery project at PEZU power plant.

Puerto Rico: Colombia's Cementos Argos has launched its brand in Puerto Rica following the purchase of a cement terminal in May 2015.

"Through this new receipt, storage and distribution terminal, we are making all of our experience, knowledge and innovation available to the local market. All of these elements together, in combination with our personalised technical advice and industrial professionalisation programmes, make up Argos' value promise: Support and accompaniment," says Mauricio Ossa, the vice president for Cementos Argos' Caribbean and Central American regional division.

On 1 May 2015 Argos took over the management of the terminal and began an integration to efficiently align the new operation with its existing structure and thus ensure unification processes and services. The terminal boosts the creation of synergies with the company's existing operations, further driving trading activities that were already on the rise.

"Puerto Rico complements our existing logistics platform, allowing us to efficiently interconnect strategic production assets with our main markets, providing us with an enhanced level of operational flexibility that fits in perfectly with our strategy," said Ossa.

Mongolia: The Senj Sant cement plant was opened on 13 August 2015 in Urgun Soum, Dornogovi, some 450km from the capital Ulaanbaatar, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The plant will be the first greenfield cement plant in Mongolia to use the dry process, which is especially significant in the Gobi region, where water is scarce. The plant will also use a waste heat recovery power plant, which will help save energy and water.

The project includes a gender action plan, which means there will be more opportunities for women. Most of the directors of Senj Sant are women. The plant will be overseen by Munkhnasan Narmandakh, the female CEO of its parent holding company, Monpolymet Group, one of Mongolia's leading mining operations. The holding company has an all-female board of directors.

The EBRD provided a financing package of US$85m, which consisted of a US$20m equity investment and a US$65m loan to Senj Sant. The Development Bank of Mongolia lent US$65m. The remaining US$80m of the total project cost of US$230m was funded by the Monpolymet Group.

"This project will be a major step towards establishing domestic cement supply and replacing imports. It is also important for the country's economic diversification," said the EBRD's senior banker in charge of the project, Azjargal Ulziitogtokh. "The EBRD is proud to highlight that the project meets EU requirements and will be using best available technology. Personally, as a Mongolian female professional, I am also very pleased to say that the company has a gender action plan to ensure equal opportunities, which goes beyond industry standards, not only in Mongolia but in the whole region where the EBRD works."

To date, the EBRD has committed over US$1bn to Mongolia's economy. All of the Bank's projects so far have supported private sector companies.

Chile/Peru: Peruvian mining company Volcan could sell its share in Chilean cement producer Polpaico if metal prices continue to fall, according to Volcan's CFO Jorge Murillo. Volcan could receive around US$27m for its approximate 20% stake in the business. Holcim, part of LafargeHolcim, owns 54.3% of Polpaico, which has 2.7Mt/yr of cement production capacity.

Lebanon: Holcim Liban has reported US$2m of unaudited net profits in the first half of 2015, a decrease of 78.3% from net earnings of US$9.4m in the same period of 2014. The company's sales fell by 28.5% year-on-year to US$66.7m in the first half of 2015. Its gross profits margin reached 28% compared to 30.7% in the first half of 2014. Holcim Liban's assets fell by 3% year-on-year to US$275m at the end of June 2015