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The last week marked a step change to the US industry with the news that Ireland’s CRH has agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement. The latter is the largest remaining cement producer still owned by an American company. Its history dates back 135 years to its founding in 1882, with links to the Sunderland family for over a century. Following the acquisition, each of the top five cement producing firms in the US will be operated by multinational corporations based in foreign countries.

Although this scenario is not new to many other countries around the world, it is rare for a nation with a cement industry of this scale. The US is the third biggest cement producer worldwide. Out of the top ten cement producing nations Global Cement Magazine identified in its Top 100 Report 2017 feature in December 2016 only Egypt doesn’t have a local company to match the multinationals. China has China National Building Material (CNBM), for example and India has UltraTech cement and so on and so forth.

The actual sale covers Ash Grove Cement’s eight cement plants and 23 cement terminals, as well as its ready mix concrete and aggregate businesses, for US$3.5bn. Altogether its cement plants have a production capacity of 9.5Mt/yr and this really puts into contrast the Cementir Italia deal last week. HeidelbergCement has agreed to buy that company for around Euro57/t. CRH is buying Ash Grove Cement for US$368/t. That’s more that five times as much!

To be fair they are very different markets, with Italy’s cement sector consolidating near the bottom of a business cycle and the US growing with some promise. For comparison with other recent US acquisitions, CRH is offering to pay about the same as Summit Materials did to Lafarge for a cement plant and seven terminals in mid-2015. Other than that a few of the more recent transactions have been between US$200 – 300/t. The gradual price inflation for cement production capacity indicates that there is confidence in the US cement market.

In terms of CRH’s enhanced presence in North America following the completion of the deal, it currently operates two cement plants in the US: the American Cement Sumterville plant in Florida, a joint venture with Elementia, and the Trident plant in Montana. The CRH US division also runs five terminals in the Midwest and Northeast. This compliments Ash Grove Cement’s presence in the West, Midwest and South. Throw in CRH’s Canadian cement plants in Ontario and Quebec and CRH has the makings of a seriously strong cement business in North America. The only obvious impediment could be the close proximity of the CRH Trident plant and the Ash Grove Cement Montana City plant. Both are in Montana within 115km of each other and they are the only integrated plants in the state. A Federal Trade Commission arranged divestment in this location seems likely.

Ash Grove Cement’s chairman Charlie Sunderland, described CRH as his company’s biggest customer when the acquisition was announced. Buying Ash Grove Cement fills in one more piece in CRH’s construction materials puzzle in North America. Its American divisions have generated more than half of its revenue since at least 2014 dominating asphalt, aggregate and ready mix concrete markets. Yet it has lacked a cement market presence to match this. This changes when the deal with Ash Grove Cement completes.

Indonesia: Hendi Prio Santoso has been appointed as the president director of Semen Indonesia following his approval at a shareholders meeting. He succeeds Rizkan Chandra, who died in July 2017. Santoso is the former president director of state-owned gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

Morocco: Hakan Gürdal has been appointed as the managing director of Ciments du Maroc, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement. He succeeds Nabil Francis, according to the Telquel newspaper.

Hakan Gürdal graduated from the Technical University of Yildiz in Istanbul in Mechanical Engineering and from the University of Istanbul with a MBA in International Management. He then joined Çanakkale Çimento in 1992. He became a member of the board of directors of HeidelbergCement in 2016 and has been in charge of the Africa-Eastern Mediterranean region since then. He has been responsible for Purchasing since the start of 2017.

Romania: Mădălina Gogorici has been appointed as the Health and Safety Manager at Holcim Romania, a new position within the company. A biochemistry graduate from the University of Bucharest with a Master’s degree in Ecology and Sustainable Development she holds over 20 years of experience in the field.

Germany/Italy: Stephan Oehme has been appointed as the Global Sales Director of both FLSmidth Pfister and FLSmidth Ventomatic. Oehme, aged 50 years, is an industry expert with more than 20 years experience in the respective business fields. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and has worked previously as a Director Sales and Technology. In order to support the combined sales force of both companies he will increase the cooperation between both sales teams.

FLSmidth Pfister develops high-end gravimetric dosing systems for the cement and minerals plants. FLSmidth Ventomatic specialises in packaging and delivering solutions for the same sector. Both companies are subsidiaries of Denmark’s FLSmidth.

US: Votorantim Cimentos is selling its 50% stake in Suwannee American Cement based in Florida. The sale is intended to focus Votorantim’s portfolio and reduce its debts according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. The effects of Hurricane Irma are expected to increase the selling time. Votorantim operates the 1Mt/yr Suwannee cement plant in Branford with Anderson Columbia. The cement producer supplies markets in Florida and Georgia.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Building Material Association estimates cement sales rose by 5% year-on-year to 59Mt in the first nine months of 2017. This represented 74% of its annual target, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. 45Mt of cement was sold domestically, an increase of 4%, and 14Mt was exported. Cement production capacity is 86Mt/yr but demand is estimated at 60Mt/yr. The country is predicted to face a surplus of 26Mt in 2017, according to the Vietnam Cement Association.

Canada: McInnis Cement has inaugurated its Port-Daniel–Gascons plant in Quebec. Provincial Prime Minister Philippe Couillard attended the ceremony. First cement at the 2.2Mt/yr plant was produced in June 2017 and the unit has started commercial production since then. Construction at the site started in mid-2014. However, cost overruns saw the government-backed project delayed and then taken over by an investor.

Argentina: Cementos Avellaneda plans to spend US$230m towards upgrading its La Calera and Olavarría cement plants. The company is a joint venture between Spain's Cementos Molins and Brazil’s Votorantim. US$200m will be used to increase the production capacity of the La Calera plant in San Luis to 1Mt/yr from 0.7Mt/yr by the second half of 2019. US$30m has been targeted to increase the Olavarría plant’s capacity by 0.3Mt/yr. Commissioning is planned for the end of 2017.

Nepal: The Nepal Electricity Authority and the Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal say that the new hydroelectric projects are stalling due to a lack of imported cement. The shortage has been caused by new standards set by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) for imported cement, according to the Himalayan Times. The NBSM made Nepal Standard certification mandatory for imported cement in July 2017. Foreign producers supplying cement to Nepal, principally from India, have to follow quality, packaging and labelling criteria fixed by the NBSM.

Jaypee Cement and Star Cement have received approval from the NBSM to supply cement to the country following the new standard. Three more Indian cement producers have also submitted applications.