Türkiye: Osman Nemli has resigned as the general manager of Bursa Çimento. No reason for his departure has been disclosed. He had been in post for eight years according to local media. Barbaros Onulay, the head of subsidiary Bursa Beton, will act as the general manager until the company’s board of directors appoints a replacement.

India: Hemadri Cement has appointed G Ohm Prakash as its chief executive officer (CEO). He holds over 10 years of professional experience in marketing and sales roles across the cement, real estate, media and travel sectors. He holds a postgraduate qualification in Brand Advertising Management from the Indian Institute of Management in Tiruchirappalli.

Hemadri Cement operates a cement plant at Jaggayyapet in Andra Pradesh. The plant was originally commissioned in 1985.

Mexico: GCC’s consolidated sales rose by 17% to US$1.36bn in 2023. The group raised its sales by 30% in Mexico and by 12% in the US, with its regional cement volumes rising by 2.2% and 5.2% respectively. GCC’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also grew, by 31%, to US$472m.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Enrique Escalante said "GCC had an outstanding performance during 2023, achieving year-on-year growth in both top and bottom line. Our record-breaking financial performance was driven by strong client relationships and operational excellence." Looking to 2024, Escalante added "Our focus on executing strategic initiatives and enhancing competitive advantages will fortify our margins, aligning our vision for continued success with our commitment to sustainability."

India: Nuvoco Vistas recorded revenues of US$943m in the first nine months of the 2024 financial year (1 April – 31 December 2023). This represents a rise of 2% year-on-year from the corresponding period of the previous financial year. This enabled Nuvoco Vistas to turn a positive net income, of US$5.66m, compared to a loss of US$22.3m one year previously. Premium products constituted 1.45Mt (36%) of the producer’s total third-quarter cement sales of 4.02Mt. Nuvoco Vistas ended 2023 with 25Mt/yr in installed production capacity, making it India’s fifth largest cement producer.

Managing director Jayakumar Krishnaswamy said “Despite the challenging demand environment, the company continues to deliver strong growth in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). During the third quarter of the 2024 financial year, we achieved the highest EBITDA per tonne in 10 quarters, a testament to our operational excellence, focussing on cost efficiency and value-led growth.”

India: Nuvoco Vistas has commissioned a 1.2Mt/yr cement mill at its Haryana Bhiwani cement plant in Haryana. This expansion will help Nuvoco Vistas to raise its production volumes in Northern India and to diversify its product offering.

Managing director Jayakumar Krishnaswamy said “We are set to seize the opportunities. We continue to emphasise quality and innovation, and secure a larger market share in the North while retaining our leadership position in the East. On the ready-mix concrete end of the value chain, we have also commissioned five new plants in the current fiscal, bringing our total to 56 plants pan-India.”

Denmark: FLSmidth has discussed its decision to sell FLSmidth Cement. The company said that the cement and mining industries it serves have diverged, along with the appropriate operating models which best serve them. The continuing combination of FLSmidth Cement and FLSmidth’s mining business now presents ‘more operational friction than benefit.’ The supplier took ‘careful consideration’ of the best interests of all parties affected by the separation.

FLSmidth built its first cement plant in 1887, and pioneered the use of optimisation software in 1969. The FLSmidth Cement digital leadership team will now focus on delivering cement-specific smart and connected services for its customers.

FLSmidth Cement president Christopher Ashworth said “We have proven our ability to embrace change, and the prospect of new ownership will be no different. Working together as a team, we will ensure continued success by staying focused on our customers. Furthermore, our core mission remains: driving the green transition with both new technologies and helping existing plants optimise their operations.” Ashworth added “FLSmidth made its name as a full flowsheet provider of cement plants. It is a history that we value and will continue to build on. But today’s cement market is a vastly different world with vastly different challenges than what has gone before. It therefore requires a different operating paradigm that moves away from a projects-based approach to focus on specific products and services. The pure play strategy thus frees us to adapt to the specific market challenges facing our industry and prioritise the supply of core offerings. The prospect of operating under new ownership only reinforces our current transition.”

Kyrgyzstan: The state-owned Bishkek heat and power plant has secured a US$437,000 contract to supply its waste ash and slag to two cement plants in Kemin, Chüy Region. The cement producers party to the contract will be responsible for extraction and transport, commencing in August 2024.

The Bishkek heat and power plant has previously invested US$280,000 in clearing its waste dump. The government says that it has also received interest from a China-based autoclave aerated concrete blocks producer in its waste.

Germany: Heidelberg Materials has launched EvoBuild, a new brand for its range of low-carbon and circular products. It intends to apply globally consistent criteria and tiering for its sustainable products and aims to set new standards for decarbonised products. All countries in which the company is present will gradually integrate their sustainable products into the EvoBuild portfolio.

Dominik von Achten, chair of the managing board of Heidelberg Materials, said “After rolling out our new corporate brand Heidelberg Materials in more than 20 countries, harmonising our strong sustainable product portfolio on a global level is the next logical and important step.” He continued, “We recently introduced our EvoZero brand for the world’s first carbon captured net-zero cement. Now, we are adding EvoBuild to the Evo brand family with a new framework for all products that are characterised by their special contribution to carbon reduction and circularity. This also reflects the strong focus of our business activities on sustainable solutions for our customers.” Nicola Kimm, the chief sustainability officer at Heidelberg Materials added that creating the brand was, “an important step towards achieving one of our key targets on the way to net zero as we aim to generate 50% of our revenue with sustainable products by 2030.”

Products in the EvoBuild range will be available in all business lines and are either low-carbon (cement and concrete), circular (concrete) or feature a combination of both attributes. Low-carbon products must provide a CO₂ reduction of at least 30% compared to the reference value. Circular products must contain at least 30% recycled aggregates, or they must reduce material requirements by at least 30%.

China: China National Building Material (CNBM) expects to record a 65% year-on-year drop in its profit in 2023. This would correspond to a figure of US$393m, against a reported profit after tax of US$1.12bn in 2022. Reuters has reported that CNBM partly attributed the anticipated drop to low cement prices and changes in the fair value of its assets.

Denmark: FLSmidth says that its plans to sell its cement business. The business provides FLSmidth’s processing equipment and services for cement plants around the globe. FLSmidth will now explore its possible divestment options in order to ‘maximise’ the business’ ‘full potential,’ while also serving to strengthen the supplier’s remaining mining business’ market-leading position in its sector.

Chair Tom Knutzen said “I am truly proud of what we have achieved with our cement business for more than 140 years. I firmly believe the business is well positioned for future success and that it has a significant role to play in the decarbonisation of cement. However, when reviewing the long-term options for FLSmidth as a business, for our customers and for our shareholders, we have concluded that a separation of ownership could be beneficial for both the mining and cement businesses. Unlocking the full potential of the cement business requires substantial investments and dedicated management attention, which we believe will be more easily achieved under a different ownership than FLSmidth’s.”

Chief executive officer Mikko Keto said “Our cement business has shown robust performance and good strategic progress over past years. This gives me great comfort in the cement business’ ability to continue its positive journey, also – and maybe even more so – under another ownership than FLSmidth’s. We have a clear ambition of further strengthening our market-leading position in mining, and we see tremendous long-term opportunities for the business backed by strong industry fundamentals and a positive long-term market outlook. Consequently, today’s decision of exploring divestment options for our cement business constitutes a key step in unlocking the full long-term potential of both the mining and cement businesses.”