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When a small cement market sits just off the coast of one of the world’s biggest producers, it’s not a recipe for a lot of column inches. Sri Lanka’s cement market, is particularly small, ranked 128th out of 141 clinker producing nations according to the Global Cement Top 100 Report 2015, and is dwarfed by a very dominant neighbour in India. Therefore, when two stories about plant projects and divestments came in from Sri Lanka this week, our interest was suitably piqued.

The first story came from global giant LafargeHolcim, which announced the planned divestment of its 0.6Mt/yr integrated Holcim Lanka plant at Puttalam, its 1.0Mt/yr grinding plant in Galle and associated packing facilities. The second story came from South Korea’s AFKO Group GMEX (AFKO), which has expressed strong intentions to reopen the Kankesanthurai plant in the north of the country.

LafargeHolcim stated that its move was part of its wider divestment strategy following the 2015 merger of Lafarge and Holcim. Considering that the company currently controls 1.6Mt/yr of Sri Lanka’s 3.6Mt/yr cement capacity (around 44%) the potential ramifications are big - A huge position is up for grabs.

Local newspaper The Nation stated that three locally-owned groups were already circling the assets as of Saturday 4 June 2016, but it’s still early days. A major player could easily step in to grab some high-quality assets in this rapidly-growing market, which grew by 4.5% in 2014 and is investing strongly in infrastructure. With its recent history or major purchases, CRH could certainly be interested. Larger Indian and Pakistani players, stifled by continued overcapacity at home, could also be in line to snap up the assets.

Up in the north, the AFKO project sounds massive. It could also have large implications for the shape of the Sri Lankan cement sector but there is a lot of work to be done. The Kankesanthurai plant produced its last cement in 1991 as the civil war raged in the north of Sri Lanka. It had a capacity of just 0.12Mt/yr at that time. However, AFKO chairman Keun Young Lee stated that the company was, “Ready to enter with US$450m as a start.” This is far more than the amount needed to re-start a small, presumably wet process cement plant. The amount strongly suggests an entire new, state-of-the-art facility, but no capacity has been announced.

AFKO sounds very serious but other projects have previously run into trouble on the island. A restart at Kankesanthurai has previously been mooted twice, once by a domestic player and once by a company from the UAE. Meanwhile Thatta Cement has suspended construction of a US$15m, 0.1Mt/yr grinding plant at Rajapaksa, Hambantota. It will be very interesting to see how the AFKO project develops over the coming months – It will also be seeing how the eventual price-tag for the project compares with the revenue that LafargeHolcim raises from its own divestment.

While Sri Lanka remains a small player, its cement sector is very similar to that of India when we take populations into account. Both have room for expansion. India has 310Mt/yr (according to the Global Cement Directory 2016) but, with a population of over 1.25 billion, it has a per-capita capacity of around 250kg/capita. Sri Lanka, with 3.6Mt/yr of capacity and 20.2 million inhabitants, comes in at just under 200kg/capita. There is clearly room for growth in both of these figures and further projects could yet be on the horizon for Sri Lanka. If they play their cards right, AFKO and the successful bidder for the LafargeHolcim assets could be in a great position to benefit from the island’s strong continued growth.

India: Sarat Kumar Jain, vice chairman of Jaiprakash Associates, has resigned from the group with immediate effect. Jain had been associated with the Jaypee Group for over 50 years. The firm said in a statement that the 78 year old had cited health reasons as his reason to resign.

China: Li Liufa has resigned from Shanshui Cement with effect from 31 May 2016. He held the positions of an executive director, the chairman of the board, and the chairman of both the nomination committee and the executive committee of the company.

Li stated that his resignation would reduce potential conflicts of interest in any future fundraising campaigns by the company. The company and its major shareholder Tianrui Group is exploring various fundraising options, including equity fundraising, to resolve the financial difficulties of the group and to restore the public float of the company.

Algeria: CILAS, a joint operation between Lafarge Algeria (49% stake) and Souakri Group (51% stake) located in the northeast of the country, has started commissioned its mill at its Biskra cement plant. Operation of the site’s kiln is scheduled to start in July 2016 according to the El Watan newspaper.

China’s CBM, a subsidiairy of Sinoma, signed a deal to build the plant in mid-2014. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract included design, equipment supply, civil construction, installation, training and commissioning of the project. The plant will have a cement production capacity of 2.7Mt/yr when fully operational.

Kazakhstan: China Gezhouba has announced that it intends to invest US$178m in a joint-venture cement project with local partners.

Nepal: Shivam Cement has received an ISI certificate, allowing it to export cement to India. The company said in a statement that it is now one of the few cement producers in Nepal that can export cement to India.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Banza Ngungu, the CEO of Cimenterie de Lukala, has blamed the closure on the company’s integrated cement plant on imports from Angola. He attributed the increase in imports from the neighbouring country to currency fluctuation, according to Africanews. The Minister of Economy Modeste Bahati Lukwebo added that cement imports crossing the Angolan border were not paying the required import tariffs.

Morocco: Ciments du Maroc has decided to abandon its wind farm project at its Safi cement plant. The subsidiary of Italcementi has decided to change its energy policy in response to a growing number of renewable energy projects in the country, according to SeeNews. CEO Mario Bracci said that the cement producer is considering various options including signing a deal with local developer Nareva for electricity supply to several of its sites instead of investing in a generation solution at just one site.

Ciments du Maroc commissioned its first wind farm at its Laayoune cement grinding plant in 2011. This wind farm consists of six 850kW turbines that joined an existing 150kW pilot turbine installed in 2003. A 150 kW pilot concentrating solar power (CSP) plant was inaugurated near its Ait Baha. Cement plant in October 2014. The site at Safi would have been the company's second wind farm, with a planned capacity of 10MW.

India: Shree Cement has ordered a pyro-processing line with KHD for its Raipur plant in eastern India. The order follows the commissioning and handover of a previous KHD pyro-processing system that was installed at Raipur in December 2015.

The order includes: a three pier rotary kiln (Ø = 5.2m, L = 70.0m); a Pyrojet burner; a two-string, six-stage PRZ 9576 preheater; and a Pyrostep PSC2 3-135.12T clinker cooler. Commissioning for the Raipur Line II is expected in third quarter of 2017.

US: Pruftechnik has opened a new office in San Diego, California. The new location will support the company’s product sales, tech support, training, consultation and machinery services. The opening of the new office follows the commencement of the firm’s North American operations from Philadelphia in March 2016. Pruftechnik specialises in laser alignment systems and it is a provider for the maintenance of rotating equipment.