Ethiopia: Oromia State has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Mining and 20 cement companies to regulate the price of cement. State Deputy President Awolu Abdi said that the price of cement products had been ‘skyrocketing’ due to international and internal factors, according to Walta Media. He partly blamed the problem on ‘illegal’ cement brokers and the inability of cement plants to produce output at their full capacity. The state government has been working with cement producers and approved distributors on the problem. The regional move follows action by the central government to cut out dealers and distributors from the market in mid-May 2022.

Mali: A foundation stone has been laid for the new Atlas 0.8Mt/yr cement plant in Dio-Gare. The project had an investment of around US$80m, according to Mali Actu. It is expected to be completed in mid-2025. The project is being financed by Papa Oumar Samake, the head of Atlas. The President of the National Transitional Council, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Governor of the Koulikoro region and the local mayor attended the ceremony.

Russia: A study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers of Building Materials and the Construction Industry (NOPSM), SM PRO and Soyuzcement, the national cement manufacturing union, has found that 80% of components required for repairs and upgrades to cement plants in Russia are manufactured abroad. The research was intended to assess the sector’s requirement for foreign equipment and to determine the prospects for import substitution. The results of the survey were presented in late May 2022.

Anton Solon, the executive chair of NOPSM, noted that Russian cement sector holds a ‘critical’ dependence on imported equipment. He said that domestic analogues were either ‘significantly’ inferior to imports or simply not available. The main equipment affected included separators, burners, drives, compressors and grinding mills. Parts for packaging lines, some types of quarry equipment, grinding media, refractories, additives and linings were also negatively affected. However, he did point out that low-efficiency and large-sized gas cleaning plants (including bag and electrostatic precipitators) were produced domestically. Vyacheslav Shmatov, the chairman of Soyuzcement, called for the development of local engineering products to remedy the situation.

Germany: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions’ Polysius division says that it has been commissioned by Buzzi Unicem, HeidelbergCement, Schwenk Zement and Vicat to build a pure oxyfuel kiln system at the Mergelstetten cement plant as part of the Cement Innovation for Climate (CI4C) project. No dates of the start of construction or final project commissioning of the industrial trial have been disclosed. CI4C was originally formed in 2019.

The Polysius pure oxyfuel process is a new type of clinker production process in which the otherwise normal ambient air is replaced by pure oxygen in the kiln combustion process. One advantage of the technology is that atmospheric nitrogen is eliminated from the clinker burning process leading to much higher concentrations of CO₂ in the exhaust gas compared to a conventional kiln. As such the process aims to concentrate, capture and reuse almost 100% of the CO₂ produced in a cost-effective manner. The medium-term goal is to further process the captured CO₂ with the help of renewable energy into products such as kerosene for air traffic.

New Zealand: Golden Bay is spending US$6m on an upgrade to its Wellington cement terminal. The project will increased storage capacity, reconfigure the site for better traffic management, add new office facilities and upgrade ship discharge lines to reduce load times. Greater automation is also intended, as well as new branding for the site.

Nick Traber, Fletcher Building’s chief executive for concrete said, “Our Golden Bay Terminal has served Wellington well for many decades and has contributed to some of the region’s biggest infrastructure projects along with countless houses, driveways and other developments. The upgrade is a key part of our strategy to remove bottlenecks in our operations to drive growth and reduce costs, as well as increase the resilience of our supply chain using all modes of transport. It’s a demonstration of our commitment to local manufacturing as New Zealand's only and lowest carbon cement producer.”

Libya: The state-owned Ahlia Cement Company has launched a tender for the upgrade and restart of its lime plant at Souq Al-Khamis. It wants to run the restart as a joint-venture, according to the Libya Herald newspaper. The tender is for the renovation, operation and the marketing of the lime factory output for a renewable 10-year period. Al-Ahlia has invited interested parties to arrange for a site visit and collect the specifications sheet. The deadline for receiving tenders is 14 July 2022.

World: US-based Martin Engineering has announced the launch of its N2 remote monitoring system on European, Middle Eastern, African and South Asian markets. The system's position indicator works with any belt cleaner with a polythene blade, delivering continuous, real time feedback to the user.

Martin Engineering’s Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI) regional vice president Robert Whetstone said “With this smart yet simple upgrade, the technology does the legwork, providing real-time data on each belt cleaner blade to give an early indication of when servicing is needed. In the meantime, plant managers can be confident that material carryback, spillage and build-up is being controlled by the belt cleaner so they can keep the plant running to maximise productivity.”

France: Logistics software provider Everysens says that its Transport & Visibility Management System (TVMS) product has helped Ciments Calcia to improve its use of railway transportation. Philippe Labbé, the logistics director for the subsidiary of Germany-based Heidelberg Cement, said that the company had been using the software for three years. During which time it increased its productivity and saved time on the operational management of rail logistics. Labbé added that he thought the product would help the company meet its decarbonisation commitments by switching more trucks to rail.

Ciments Calcia originally chose Everysens to digitise of use of railway transport, to bring all the relevant data on to one platform and to improve its management of it. The building materials manufacturer sells around 5.3Mt/yr of cement and it operates 10 production sites. It uses over 400 railway wagons in France and Belgium.

Canada: CRH has signed an agreement to acquire residential railings and fencing producer Barrette Outdoor Living. The value of the deal is US$1.9bn. CRH will finance the acquisition through its existing financial resources, and expects it to conclude in the second half of 2022.

Mexico: Holcim and Habitat for Humanity have launched a digital platform for affordable housing renovations in the states of Bajio and Veracruz. Holcim expects the software to help to develop a sustainable and healthy built environment where everyone has a decent dwelling. The partners now plan to expand the platform to cover the rest of the Americas and the Asia Pacific region.