Democratic Republic of Congo: South Africa’s PPC says it is talks with China National Materials (Sinoma) over selling a majority stake in its operations in the country. In an interview with Bloomberg chief executive officer Johann Claassen said that deal would depend on the price and implications on the on-going merger between Sinoma and China National Building Material (CNBM). He added that the PPC’s cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo had proven ‘challenging’ and that the company had arranged a ‘debt holiday’ with lenders after the market ‘didn’t pan out as envisaged.’

France/Switzerland: A technology roadmap by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) sets out a combination of technology and policy solutions that could reduce CO₂ emission from the cement industry by 24% by 2050. The Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry report updates the first global sectoral roadmap produced in 2009. It aims to identify and develop international collaborative efforts and provide evidence for public and private sector decision-makers to move towards a more sustainable cement sector that can contribute to long-term climate goals.

“The first exercise carried out in 2009 had demonstrated its added value to help the sector identify solutions and enablers to reduce its CO₂ emissions and it was essential to adjust this projection with the latest robust emissions data from the CSI’s Getting The Numbers right (GNR) database and the potential of latest technologies developed by the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA),” said Philippe Fonta, managing director, CSI of World Business Council for Sustainable

Development (WBCSD).The report aims to present a way to help the cement industry play its part it meeting the IEA’s 2°C Scenario (2DS) by 2050, which seeks to limit average global temperature increases to 2°C. The report forecasts that global cement production is set to increase between 12 - 23% by 2050 due to rising global population and urbanisation. Despite increasing efficiencies, direct carbon emissions from the cement industry are expected to rise by 4% globally by 2050 under the IEA Reference Technology Scenario (RTS), a base case scenario that takes into account existing energy and climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. The CSI and IEA argue that the low-carbon transition of the cement industry can only be reached with a supportive regulatory framework as well as effective and sustained investments. They say that meeting the RSI requires more investment, with a

potential doubling to meeting the 2DS. Governments, in collaboration with industry, can play a determinant role in developing policy and regulatory mechanisms that unlock the private finance necessary for such a boost in investment.The roadmap uses a bottom-up approach to explore a possible transition pathway based on least-cost technology analysis for the cement industry to reduce its direct CO₂ emissions in line with the IEA’s 2DS. Reaching this goal, the CSI and IEA say, would require a combination of technology solutions, supportive policy, public-private collaboration, financing mechanisms and social acceptance.

Improving energy efficiency and switching to alternative fuels, in combination with reducing the clinker content in cement and deploying emerging and innovative technologies like carbon capture and the use of alternative binding materials are the main carbon-mitigation methods available in cement manufacturing. Further emissions savings can be achieved by taking into account the overall life cycle of cement, concrete and the built environment. The roadmap outlines policy priorities and regulatory recommendations, discusses investment stimulating mechanisms and describes technical challenges with regard to research, development and demonstration.

Spain: Cementos Alfa, part of Cementos Portland Valderrivas Group, has received permission from the Ministry of Environment to expand its quarry. The approval also allows the cement producer to expand the area of its quarry, according to the El Diario Montañés newspaper. The quarry currently produces 0.6Mt/yr of limestone and marl that are used for clinker production at the neighbouring plant.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has publicly dismissed media speculation about its alleged plans to purchase Barro Group. The building materials producer said that whilst it had proposed transaction plans to Barro at ‘various times’ no agreement has been reached on any such deal.
Analysts at the investment bank Citi said that Adelaide Brighton’s management were keen to buy the US$384m cement business owned by its major shareholder, the Barro Group, according to the Australian newspaper. However, the analysts said they believed the complex shareholding structure could pose problems.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant has suffered damage to its equipment due to problems with the local electricity supply from state energy company ANDE. Issues including low voltage that damaged the main electric motor of the plant’s cement mill and other equipment at the site, according to the ABC newspaper. Consequently, cement is not being despatched from the Vallemi plant. Normal production is expected to resume in mid-April 2018. INC’s Villeta cement grinding plant has increased its dispatches to compensate increasing its deliveries to 80,000bags/day of cement from its normal level of 50,000bags/day.

Germany: Beumer Group has added the option of an ultrasonic sealing unit to its Fillpac R rotary packer filling system. The add-on is intended to improve the appearance of the bags filled with the packing machine. Once bags are filled they are sealed with ultrasound to keep the bags clean and company. This method of sealing also helps ensures that material is not spilled or contaminated during transport by truck.

Uganda: Tororo Cement and Hima Cement have blamed falling production on reduced electricity supplies. Morgan Gagranihe, the executive director of Tororo Cement, said that production from the company’s plant at Tororo had fallen by half to 0.6Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. However, local power company Umeme has rejected the claims. It suggested instead that the cement producers were prioritising cement production for large-scale customers.

Argentina: Cement despatches grew by 13% year-on-year to 3.08Mt in the first three months of 2018 from 2.72Mt in the same period in 2016. The Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP) forecasts that despatches will rise by 6% to 12.9Mt in 2018.

India: Sagar Cements has acquired two mini hydroelectric power plants from Sagar Power in Andhra Pradesh. One has a capacity of 4.3MW located at Guntur Branch Canal, Narasaraopet, Guntur District and the other has a capacity of 4MW located at Lock-in-sula, Atmakur, Kurnool District. No amount for the transaction has been disclosed. The cement producer operates two integrated cement plants and one grinding plant.

India: Binani Industries says it has filed an application to stop the insolvency process for its subsidiary Binani Cement. It received an offer from UltraTech Cement to buy its majority stake in the cement producer in late March 2018, according to the Press Trust of India. However, the deal was subject to the ending of insolvency proceedings against Binani Cement whose Credit of Creditors (COC) led by Bank of Baroda had previously approved a bid from Dalmia Bharat.

Meanwhile, Rajputana Properties, a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat, has asked the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to stay the settlement process considered by Binani Cement’s CoC. However the NCLAT refused the request. Previously the NCLAT asked the companies trying to buy Binani Cement to ‘amicably’ settle the dispute.