Pakistan: DG Khan’s full-year profit after tax was US$22.1m in the 2021 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2021. The Dawn newspaper has reported that the company recorded a loss of US$29.2m in the 2020 financial year.

US: LafargeHolcim US says that the integrated 2Mt/yr Midlothian plant in Texas will become the first cement plant in the country to fully convert to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) production. The unit will switch to producing the company’s OneCem product, a blended cement manufactured with up to 15% of finely ground limestone. The move is intended to help LafargeHolcim US and its customers meet sustainable construction goals and lower carbon emissions.

“This is an important, but not unique, step for us. We were the first to produce OneCem, a PLC product, in one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, and fuel our industry’s step towards a zero carbon future,” said Patrick Cleary, senior vice president of sales, LafargeHolcim US Cement.

The company is promoting OneCem as an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement in terms of concrete workability, set time, durability and strength development. It can be incorporated into a broad spectrum of applications that will support foundational structures. The product is available in the Western and Southern regions of the US and the company plans to ‘rapidly’ expand production.

Australia: US-based Carbon Direct has bought a 7% stake in Calix. Reuters News has reported the value of the stake as US$17.7m. Reuters News has reported that Calix plans to use the proceeds to scale up its carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, as demonstrated at the LEILAC and LEILAC 2 installations at Lixhe, Belgium, and Hanover, Germany.

Calix chief executive officer Phil Hodgson said "As the world puts emissions trading schemes in place, CCS does start to look like a multibillion dollar addressable market.”

Finland: Betolar has launched Geoprime, an alkali-activated additive for slag and fly ash used in concrete production. The company says that the product will enable concrete production from raw materials with 80% lower CO₂ than ordinary Portland cement (OPC).It aims to meet the growing demand for sustainable and cost-effective construction materials. Geoprime enjoys fast global scaling potential thanks to Betolar’s intellectual property licensing business model, which enables the use of existing production facilities, according to the company.

Chief executive officer Matti Löppönen said “We have seen a massive shift in the concrete manufacturing and construction industries driven by investor pressure for environmental, social and governance data transparency and Net Zero commitments, and now people are keen to hear what we have to offer.”

Ukraine: The Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT) has introduced anti-dumping duties of 33 - 51% on cement imports from Turkey for five years. The rates are variable depending on the specific manufacturer and exporter, according to the Ukrainian News Agency. This follows an investigation that was launched in September 2020 following complaints by local producers including Buzzi-Unicem subsidiary Dyckerhoff, HeidelbergCement subsidiary Kryvyi Rih Cement and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement. ICIT concluded that there was the threat of causing ‘significant’ harm to local cement producers due to growing exports from Turkey, large amounts of idle production capacity in Turkey, lowered domestic consumption in Turkey and a pivot of Turkish manufacturers towards export markets.

Belarus: State-owned utilities provider Beltopgaz is targeting national peat production of 11Mt in the five-year period ending on 31 December 2025. BelTA News has reported that the new target is an outcome of an on-going comprehensive modernisation of peat production in the country. The 2021 peat season ended on 1 September 2021. During the year, Belarus produced 1.5Mt of peat, 14% of the five-year target.

The cement industry currently consumes 300,000 peat briquettes per year, 43% of the total produced nationally.

Asia: France-based Fives says it has commissioned a Pillard Novaflam Evolution burner for an unnamed cement plant in East Asia. Due to the travel restrictions linked to the coronavirus pandemic, the commissioning was carried out remotely with the cooperation of the customer. A 143MW coal and petcoke burner with oil as a start-up fuel was supplied as a replacement for an old burner. The aim of this replacement was to increase the kiln capacity to 9000t/day without impacting its NO_x emissions whilst maintaining a good clinker quality despite a high sulphur content in the petcoke. The installation is now in production and an intervention is planned in the coming weeks to further optimise the operation.

Austria: Germany-based Claudius Peters has supplied a conveyor and silos for Schretter & Cie’s integrated Vils Cement plant in Tirol. In the first part of the project Claudius Peters Projects delivered an aeroslide conveying system from the cement mill to the existing silos, including silo bottom aeration systems. For the second part, it built a silo group consisting of three 3500m³ units with expansion chamber technology equipped with truck loading facilities. Each of the silos can be operated at a loading capacity of 250t/hr by a mobile loader with a travelling range of 10m.

Oman: Oman Cement plans to upgrade its 4.2Mt/yr Rusayl cement plant. Reuters News has reported that the producers’ plans consist of a 25% capacity expansion of Line 3 of the plant to 5000t/day from 4000t/day and the construction of a new 10,000t/day Line 4. Lines 1 and 2 will subsequently shut down. Thus, the upgrade will increase the plant’s nominal clinker capacity to 15,000t/day from 8700t/day.

Kenya: Simba Cement plans to begin building a cement plant in West Pokot in 2022. The Star newspaper has reported that the Devki Group subsidiary believes the producer will complete the project 18 months after the start of construction.

Devki Group chair Narendra Raval said “The firm is currently holding public participation and consultative forums with residents and leaders of the area. We want to make sure the community makes the best out of this project.”