Puerto Rico: Total cement sales in Puerto Rico expanded by 30% in July 2018, compared to July 2017, representing the seventh consecutive monthly increase. Sales of cement rose to 50,739t. Cement production rose by 19% over the same period.

Lithuania: Akmenes Cementas, Lithuania’s only cement producer, has announced that it expects improved cement sales in 2018 compared to 2017 and hopes to halve its annual loss.

The company suffered a net loss of Euro5.5m in 107, 21.7% lower than a Euro7.0m loss in 2016. Turnover in 2017 grew by 11% to Euro56.7m. The company sold 1.04Mt of cement, 4% more than in 2016.
In 2017 Akmenes sold 58% of its produce to the local market. It exported 35% to other EU countries and 7% to Belarus. The company hopes to increase cement sales and to halve its losses.

Italy: A 37-year old maintenance worker died on 9 August 2018 at the Buzzi Cement plant at Fanna, Pordenone, Italy. It was his first day on the job. Initial investigations have indicated that he was electrocuted by touching live electrical equipment. Investigations continue.

Nigeria: A team of US investors announced that it will seek to revitalise Nigercem, located in Nkalagu, Ebonyi State. Addressing a cross section of stakeholders on 9 August 2018, the Chief Executive of Ibeto Nigeria Limited, Chief Cletus Ibeto said, “I am standing before you with a team of American financiers, who are here on an assessment visit to the plant.”

In her remarks, the leader of the American foreign investors, Amanda Wester, said, “We extol Ibeto Nigeria Limited the core investor in Nigercem in its commitment to establish a new 6000t/day process cement plant and 45MW capacity power plant in this first phase of the project at Nkalagu.

Uzbekistan: Tajik-Chinese joint venture Chzhungtsai Mohir Cement is planning to build a cement plant near Tuda in the Boisoun district of the Surkhandarya region in Uzbekistan. The unit will have a production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr, according to Asia-Plus. The company operates a 1.2Mt/yr cement plant in Tajikistan than opened in 2016. Tajikistan exported 0.66Mt of cement in the first half of 2018 and 0.36Mt of this went to neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan: Local cement production rose by 11.5% year-on-year to 4.63Mt in the first half of 2018 from 4.16Mt in the same period in 2017, according to Kazakhstan Newsline. Previously, production rose by 1.5% in the first half of 2017 from 4.09Mt in the same period in 2016.

Philippines: Eagle Cement’s income rose in the first half of 2018, while its input costs also increased due to rising fuel prices and negative currency effects. Its net income grew by 4.6% year-on-year to US$43.8m from US$41.9m in the same period in 2017. Its net sales rose by 9.8% to US$155m from US$141m. The company operates an integrated plant at Barangay Akle, San Ildefonso in Bulacan and a cement grinding plant at Limay in Bataan.

US: Monarch Cement’s net sales fell by 3% year-on-year to US$74.3m in the first half of 2018 from US$76.8m in the same period in 2017. Its net income decreased by 42% to US$4.8m from US$8.23m. The building materials company operates a cement plant at Humboldt, Kansas and a terminal at Des Moines, Iowa.

Panama: Production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) has fallen due to a strike in the construction industry. OPC production fell by 15% year-on-year to 0.71Mt in the first five months of 2018 from 0.83Mt in the same period in 2017, according to the La Prensa newspaper. Production of other building materials, including concrete, have also been negatively affected.

Germany: ThyssenKrupp’s overall performance has suffered from the poor results of its Industrial Solutions division. In the first nine months of its financial year, which ended on 30 June 2018, the order intake of its Industrial Solutions division, which includes building cement plants, fell by 32% year-on-year to Euro2.82bn from Euro4.15bn. Its net sales decreased by 10% to Euro3.59bn from Euro4bn. Overall, the group’s order intake and net sales also fell slightly. However, most divisions and overall performance improved in the third quarter.

“We see a mixed picture. The bottom line is, that we are not satisfied with the current results”, said Guido Kerkhoff, chairman of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp. “There’s no point in sugar-coating it. Notably the cash flow is unsatisfactory, and that is not a situation which can be sustained long term. We have to improve significantly across all our businesses. That is what we are now working hard to deliver.”

With respect to the cement sector the group said that had received small and medium-size orders for plants and machines in Mexico, West Africa and India. Despite this it described the current market as beset by production overcapacity.