Egypt: Suez Cement, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has begun its first round of staff inoculations against Covid-19 at its plants and offices. Government medical staff supervised the sessions, which the company said were well attended.

Human resources director Sherry Bishara said, "I am pleased to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Health and Suez governorate Preventive Medicine Directorate for their collaboration in providing the vaccine and medical staff needed for administering the vaccine for staff and also to thank the group's medical service for facilitating the campaign.”

UK: Hanson, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has supplied basalt from its Builth Wells, Powys quarry to the world’s first CO₂ sequestration field trial in the Brecon Beacons. The trial uses local live soil enriched with basalt for enhanced CO₂ sequestration in a reforested 11ha woodland. Enhanced rock weathering takes crushed basalt, a by-product of quarrying, and applies it to the soil to capture CO₂ and provide essential nutrients to fertilise trees and the fungi in the soil that support tree growth. The building materials producer says it is a method that has been proven to be successful in sugar beet and pea crops.

Sustainability director Marian Garfield said, “Hanson is focussed on climate protection and carbon reduction, and enhancing biodiversity net gain are two of our key 2030 commitments.” She added, “We are excited to be involved with this project, which aims to determine whether basalt can accelerate the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere in the creation of new woodland and could therefore potentially play a vital role in helping tackle the climate crisis.”

Mozambique: Chinese West International Holding subsidiary Dugongo Cement has inaugurated its 2.0Mt/yr integrated Matutuine cement plant in Maputo province. The unit had an investment of US$330m, according to the Mozambique News Agency. The site includes a captive 36MW charcoal-fired power station and a residential complex for some of its 300 permanent staff.

President Filipe Nyusi said, “The Dugongo Cement plant will improve the economy of the cement industry, because it will reduce the import of inputs such as clinker."

Jordan: Lafarge Jordan has had its insolvency filing approved by a court in Jordan. The Jordan Times has reported that the company has capital of US$84.6m, while its accumulated losses are US$169m. It has blamed weak demand and an inability to cope with variable operating and administrative costs made worse by the coronavirus crisis.

The company said that it plans to continue its reform process so that it is able to meet its obligations under insolvency law. It added, “The company intends to adopt a well-thought-out and actionable financial plan to pay off its debts and meet its liabilities within reasonable legal periods and in agreement with creditors.”

The subsidiary of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim owns two integrated cement plants in the country. However, its Fuheis plant has been mothballed since the early 2010s. Its Rashadiyah plant has two production lines but one has been unused for over a decade and the other is reportedly operating at 40% of its capacity.

India: Anjani Portland Cement has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire a majority stake in Bhavya Cements. Bhavya Cements recorded a net turnover of US$41.9m in its 2020 financial year. It operates a 1.4Mt/yr integrated plant at Tangeda in Andhra Pradesh.

India: Star Cement has incorporated new subsidiaries in Assam and Meghalaya. It has set up Star Cement North East in Guwahati, Assam and Star Cement Lumshnong in Lumshnong, Meghalaya. Both business units are yet to start conducting operations. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has approved both incorporations.

Vietnam: Vicem recorded 9.72Mt of cement production in the first four months of 2021, up by 12% year-on-year from 8.67Mt in the first four months of 2021. The Viet Nam News newspaper has reported that the company is targeting 22.0Mt of cement in 2021, corresponding to a 1% rise year-on-year. Chair Bui Hong Minh said that the growth signals the success of Vicem’s coronavirus pandemic prevention measures at meeting their aim of maintained operational stability.

UK: Aggregate Industries has appointed Dragan Maksimovic as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Guy Edwards, who is leaving the company.

Maksimovic joins the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim from Sika, where he worked most recently as Country CEO in the UK. He holds an MBA from the University of Sheffield and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He has also completed an International Leadership Program at IMD in Switzerland.

HeidelbergCement confirmed the rumours this week with the announcement that it was selling assets in the western US to Martin Marietta for US$2.3bn. The deal covers subsidiary Lehigh Hanson’s US West region cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt businesses in California, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada. This includes two of its cement plants, with the exception of the 1.5Mt/yr Permanente cement plant in California, related distribution terminals, 17 active aggregates sites and several downstream operations. The companies expect to conclude the deal by 2022 but naturally it is subject to approval by competition bodies.

Well, this is a big one considering that one of the catalysts for the group’s divestment plan was the reduction of the value of its total assets by Euro3.4bn in July 2020 following a review. Depending on the exchange rate, the value of the divestment to Martin Marietta covers half to two thirds of that amount. Group chairman Dominik von Achten later told the media in February 2021 that the company was planning to sell the first of the five assets in early-to-mid 2021. However, cement isn’t the full story here since Lehigh Hanson operates three integrated plants in California and seven terminals. So, by elimination, the Tehachapi and Redding plants are the ones that are being sold along with some combinations of the terminals. Both of those plant have production capacities of around 0.8Mt/yr. Unless the terminals being sold have been valued highly, then the majority of the deal appears to encompass some or all of the 25-odd aggregate sites, 15 asphalt sites and 30 ready-mix concrete sites the company operates in the four states.

On the cement side it doesn’t seem unreasonable at face value for the authorities to allow Martin Marietta to take over most of Lehigh Hanson’s business in the region since it should broaden competition from a production angle. Instead of five companies in California with integrated plants, there will be six. For Martin Marietta, the deal also carries the feel of unfinished business in the region since it briefly held a cement business there for around a year in the mid-2010s. It acquired Texas Industries (TXI) in July 2014 and then sold the cement business in California to CalPortland in September 2015.

Both companies are pursuing different strategies. HeidelbergCement says it is hunkering down on its other four North American regions – the US Midwest, Northeast and South, plus Canada - through selected ‘bolt-on’ acquisitions and plant upgrades. Martin Marietta says it wants to take advantage of long term demand trends such as increased state infrastructure investment in California and Arizona and private-sector growth. It also reassured shareholders with its version of the acquisition/divestment story by saying it was going to generate value the same way it did previously with TXI. It’s a small thing but the acquisition also sees the US’ largest domestic cement producer increase its production base. The top five North American cement producers will remain controlled by companies headquartered in Europe but it is a step towards regionalism.

As for who’s right, in the short term, the west coast region looks good. The area included some of the best performing states in 2020 in terms of growth in cement consumption year-on-year in 2020 with the exception of Oregon. In its winter forecast the Portland Cement Association (PCA) attributed growth in the Mountain region of the US (including Nevada) to underlying economic fundamentals and favourable demographic trends, although it expected this to slow down in 2021. In the Pacific region it forecast consumption to grow modestly in 2021 due to residential construction. As if to underline the current situation, Cemex decided to recommission a kiln in Mexico in February 2021 to cope with cement shortages and project delays in California, Arizona and Nevada.

In the face of these figures HeidelbergCement’s decision to sell suggests either it dangled a juicy proposition with good short term prospects in front of the buyers or its long term projections are pointing elsewhere. Selling up, yet holding onto its largest cement plant in the region, also smacks of hedging its bets. No doubt it will be holding on to a few terminals too. On the other hand, it would be very interesting indeed to know what part, if any, HeidelbergCement’s internal carbon price played in its decision to divest in the western US. California has the country’s biggest carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS). If say, legislators suddenly decided to follow the price trend of the European Union’s ETS then things might look different.

South Africa: Pieter Fourie, the chief executive officer of Sephaku Cement, has died. He passed away on 19 May 2021 following suffering a stroke earlier in the month. He is survived by a wife, three children and five grandchildren.

Fourie became the head of the subsidiary of Nigeria-based Dangote Cement in 2007. He later became a board director of the company in 2009 after its stock market listing. His previous roles included being marketing director of Blue Circle, which was subsequently acquired by Lafarge South Africa, the managing director of the cement business unit of Lafarge South Arica and Strategic Development Director for Africa based at the Lafarge head office in France. Fourie’s role at Blue Circle included sales, distribution and marketing before being promoted to managing director of the cement business. He subsequently accepted the assignment at Lafarge’s head office in a strategic development role to integrate the newly acquired business in Africa into Lafarge’s portfolio.