Malawi: Lafarge Cement Malawi, which Huaxin Cement acquired from Holcim in December 2021, has renamed itself Portland Cement Malawi.

The Nyasa Times newspaper has reported that company secretary Constance Musopole said "Portland Cement Malawi will remain the home of our trusted brands which include DuraCrete, SupaSet, Kumanga and Khoma. We wish to inform the general public that the reputable legacy and the superior quality of goods and services that have been built over 65 years of existence in Malawi will indeed continue and also improve.” She added "Huaxin is among the 10 largest cement manufacturing companies globally with 115Mt/yr in capacity. We are excited to begin this new chapter in the legacy of the company."

India: JK Cement recorded a third-quarter consolidated net profit of US$18.8m in the third quarter of its 2022 financial year. The figure represents a 35% year-on-year decline from US$29.1m in the third quarter of the 2021 financial year.

US: Total shipments of cement in the US in the first 11 months of 2021 were 99.2Mt, up by 4.1% year-on-year from 95.3Mt in the corresponding period of 2020. The country imported 15.2Mt of cement, up by 17% from 13Mt.

Domestic clinker production for the year totalled 72.2Mt, up by 0.4% from 71.9Mt.

Vietnam: Vicem Bút Son sold 3.2Mt of cement in 2021, 91% of the volume stipulated in its plan for the year. Its clinker sales were 2.8Mt, 96% of planned volumes. Viet Nam News has reported that the company is targeting a 14% increase in cement sales to 3.4Mt in 2022. Its clinker sales target is 600,000t.

Mexico: Holcim Mexico has replaced 11% of its concrete truck fleet with 61 new natural gas and Euro V diesel-fuelled Sinotruk vehicles worth US$6.2m. The company says that some of the trucks run on 100% natural gas, reducing both their CO₂ and particulate emissions by 25%. Parent company Holcim hopes eventually to roll out Sinotruk vehicles throughout operations in its Latin American region. Each truck has an 8m3-greater capacity than Holcim Mexico’s previous models, and also generates less noise.

France: Private equity firm EIM Capital has acquired precast concrete products company Bonna Sabla from Consolis. The producer says that the new ownership will help it to capitalise on its commercial, economic and social situation through an ecological, energy and technological transition.

Chief executive officer Eric Lobbé said “We have the right teams and set of manufacturing facilities in France to pursue and develop our drainage precast solutions through well-known brands as Bonna Sabla, MPB and ABM. To be a pure player will allow us to capture significant organic growth opportunities, as well as being ready for future acquisitions. We will keep on pushing innovation to serve our customers.”

Bangladesh: LafargeHolcim Bangladesh’s full-year sales were US$243m in 2021, up by 27% year-on-year. Its net profit was US$45.8m in 2021, up by 64%, according to the New Nation newspaper.

During the year, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh launched its new Water Protect and Shokti cements and continued to accelerate alternative fuel (AF) co-processing across its cement plant network.

US: Eagle Materials’ consolidated sales rose by 13% year-on-year to US$1.45bn in the third quarter of the 2022 financial year from US$1.28bn in the corresponding quarter of the 2021 financial year. Its sales of cement rose by 12% year-on-year to US$261m, while its earnings from the segment were US$79.8m, up by 13%. Cement volumes totalled 2Mt, up by 7% from third-quarter 2021 financial year levels.

Chief executive officer and president Michael Haack said that the results reflected both continued strength in US construction activity and excellent execution by Eagle Materials as Covid-19-related supply chain challenges continued. He said “We continue to see positive demand trends across our geographic footprint, driven by increased residential construction activity and expanded infrastructure investment. These trends should support growing construction activity and contribute to attractive pricing across our heavy and light materials businesses. We enter the last quarter of our fiscal year in a position of strength, with an excellent balance sheet enabling us to continue to execute on our core strategies.”

Haack added “I’m also proud to share that, during the first nine months of our fiscal year, we achieved the best safety performance in our history, demonstrating our deep commitment to our people and their wellbeing. During the quarter, we also continued to make strides towards our environmental stewardship goals. We are now producing and selling our eco-friendly Portland limestone cement (PLC) from four Eagle cement facilities.”

India: Sahyadri Industries plans to invest US$12.7m in the establishment of a cement board plant in Maharashtra. Reuters News has reported that the company expects to commission the unit by mid-2024.

India: Shree Cement has hired Denmark-based FLSmidth to carry out its digital transformation. The supplier will install its ECS/PlantDataManagement monitoring system at Shree Cement’s cement plants. It says that the technology will increase efficiency.

Shree Cement’s joint managing director Prashant Bangur said "We are always looking at ways to optimise production, and the decision to apply FLSmidth's information management system to all our sites is a natural next step." Whole-time managing director Prakash Narayan Chhangani said "FLSmidth is a trusted partner for us, as we demonstrated by the milling and pyro order we announced last year. And we are confident that this next step in our digital transformation will prove to be profitable."