Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 21.6% year-on-year to US$114m in the nine month of its financial year to the end of March 2018 from US$145m in the same period in 2016. It noted that its cost of sales rose by 16.9% due to rising coal and other fuel prices. Its gross revenue rose by 7.1% to US$439m from US$410m. Cement production rose by 11.1% to 5.79Mt from 5.2Mt.

The cement producer added that it is expanding production at its Pezu plant by 2.6Mt/yr due to delays with its expansion plans elsewhere in the north of the country. Approvals from the government have been secured. The US$152m upgrade project is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2019. It is also building a US$109m integrated cement plant at Samawah in Iraq. The joint-venture project with a local partner will have a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr when operational. Commercial production is currently scheduled for end of 2019.

India: Dalmia Bharat has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Tourism to maintain the Red Fort heritage monument for US$0.75m/yr. The deal is part of the government’s ‘Adopt a Heritage project’ initiative to persuade private companies to look after the operations and maintenance of national monuments.

Peru: UNACEM’s cement despatches for the first quarter of 2018 have fallen slightly due to a contraction in the construction market, delayed infrastructure projects and political instability leading to lower private investment. The cement producer’s income rose by 8.9% year-on-year to US$147m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$135m in the same period in 2017. Its clinker production fell by 12.9% to 1Mt and its cement production fell by 0.6% to 1.2Mt. It attributed the fall in production to a scheduled maintenance shutdown of its Atocongo plant. However, clinker exports through the Port of Conchán increased to 0.28Mt in the period.

Russia: An investment deal has been signed between the Government of Bashkortostan, the Sichuan-Sibay Industrial Park and Jiunghe Sichuan Environmental Protection Company to build a 1.8Mt/yr cement plant in Sibay. The project has a cost of Euro168m, according to the RBC News Agency. Once operational the unit is expected to create around 200 jobs. The project as orignally scheduled to open in 2018 but construction work at the site has not started yet. Further repoting by the Russian Construction trade magazine says that the general contractor for the project will be Sinoma.

China: China National Building Materials' operating revenue rose by 40% year-on-year to US$394m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$281m in the same period of 2017. Its net profit more than doubled to US$77.4m from US$23.6m.

France: The French government reportedly asked the US not to target Lafarge Syria’s Jalabiya cement plant during military operations in 2014. Emails seen and reported upon by Reuters suggest that France's Syria envoy, Franck Gellet, asked the French Foreign Ministry to protect the cement plant while it was in Islamic State controlled territory. The request to ‘not to do anything about this site without checking with us first’ was then passed to US officials. Neither the French Foreign Ministry nor LafargeHolcim commented on the emails when asked by Reuters.

LafargeHolcim is being investigated in France over claims that Lafarge Syria had paid extremist groups to keep a cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria. Six former Lafarge executives have been charged so far with financing a terrorist organisation.

India: UltraTech Cement’s consolidated net sales rose by 34% year-on-year to US$1.39bn in the fourth quarter of its 2017 financial year from US$1.04bn in the same period in the previous year. Its profit before interest, depreciation and taxation increased by 20% to US$283m from US$236m.

The group benefitted from its acquisition of assets from Jaiprakash Associates in mid-2017. Its cement production capacity grew by 28% to 85Mt/yr from 66.3Mt/yr. However, its capacity utilisation rate fell slightly to 80% from 82%. Its local sales rose by 32% to 17.6Mt from 13.4Mt and exports increased by 15% to 0.82Mt from 0.72Mt. The cement producer also warned that a rise in petcoke and coal prices following a government ban had caused its input costs to inflate during the reporting quarter.

India: South Central Railway has signed a long-term tariff contract with Ramco Cements and Zuari Cements to transport freight at fixed rates. Ramco and Zuari have signed agreements for five and three years respectively. The railway company has previously signed similar deals with UltraTech Cement, India Cements, Orient Cements and Kesoram Industries.

Nigeria: Joe Makoju, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Cement, has revealed that the cement producer exports 0.21Mt of cement to Ghana, Togo and Niger in the first quarter of 2018. The company’s revenue grew by 16% year-on-year to US$668m from US$575m, according to the Vanguard newspaper. Its profit increased by 29% to US$199m from US$154m. Cement sales rose by 2.8% to 6.2Mt from 6.03Mt.

UK: Spain’s Cemengal is supplying a 0.5Mt/yr Plug & Grind Vertical mill to Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant. Work started in April 2018 and the project is expected to be completed by July 2019. The unit follows the Plug & Grind product line’s modular format and it includes a FLSmidth OK Mill 37.3. The mill will be used to grind clinker at the cement plant although the subsidiary of CRH may also use the mill to grind slag. The order is Cemengal’s first Plug & Grind Vertical in Europe.