Kenya: The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appointment of directors of Savannah Cement by a High Court Judge. Judge Farah Amin appointed an interim board in response to a legal battle over the ownership of the cement producer, according to the Business Daily newspaper. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the judge’s actions overruled the power of the company’s shareholders.

The current legal proceedings were triggered when Kenyan-based investor Peter Ndeta acquired a majority stake in Savannah Cement in 2015 from Chinese investors and transferred the ownership to a Mauritian company called Seruji. Donald Mwaura and John Gachanga, who previously held a minority share in the company along with Ndeta, have disputed the process.

India: Nuvoco Vistas has appointed Abhijit Bhalerao as its chief information officer (CIO). He will be responsible for leading the technology initiatives at Nuvoco Group companies in business applications, enterprise architecture and infrastructure domains, according to the Economic Times of India newspaper.

Bhalerao was previously the Head of Group IT at Dr Abhay Firodia Group, including Force Motors, Jaya Hind Industries and several joint-ventures. He holds over 20 years of professional and technology consulting expertise using emerging technologies to deliver business-focused solutions. He has served as director at Ernst and Young and advised business chief executive officers on technology, infrastructure, IT architecture and organisation-wide analytics adoption. Other positions include working for HCL Technology, Essar, Raymond and Steelage Industries. He holds a master’s degree in Computer Software & Applications and a bachelor's degree in Engineering.

Greece: Heracles Cement recorded sales of Euro189m in 2020, consistent with 2019 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 36% year-on-year to Euro35.5m from Euro26.1m. Lower cement prices domestically partly offset an increase in cement volumes, resulting in domestic cement sales growth of 7%. Cement exports fell by 16%. Positive currency exchange effects against the US dollar constrained the export drop.

The subsidiary of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim said that it is firmly pursuing its strategy with new investments aimed at the on-going improvement of its environmental footprint and transition to innovative and sustainable building solutions, always respecting people, society and the environment.

UK: Hanson, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has reduced its bagged cement allocations to customers. The Construction Index has reported that the decision is due to a national shortage of cement in the UK. The building materials producer introduced a packed cement allocation in May 2021. It calculated these by the proportion of orders that it believed could fulfil. Packed products director Andrew Simpson said, “Regrettably, we have been unable to maintain those levels.” He added that the company had had to perform unforeseen work on its cement operations following its 2021 shutdown.

Supply issues for packaging materials have also been reported. Bag suppliers informed Hanson to expect longer-term packaging shortages due to global demand for polymer and kraft paper, according to Simpson. He added that low pallet availability was also a concern.

India: The cement sector’s consumption of fly ash has reportedly collapsed since March 2020. The Financial Express newspaper has reported that the sector previously used over 25% of the ash from coal-fired power plants. The Association of Power Producers says that the suspension of cement production during coronavirus lockdown prevented the more of the country’s coal plants than usual from reaching the required 100% utilisation (for plants over three years old) in the 2021 financial year. In the 2020 financial year, 47 of 101 plants utilised 100% of their fly ash. Other uses beside cement production include brick and tile production, roadbuilding and land reclamation.

Spain: Cemex España, part of Mexico-based Cemex, has launched a new CEM-II grey cement with approximately 20% reduced-CO2 direct emissions as part of its Vertua low-carbon product range. The company says that the product provides early strength like a CEM-I cement. It says that this makes it highly suited to precast concrete and infrastructure applications. Cemex says that it will launch the product in other European markets in 2021.

Cemex is committed to 55% emissions reduction by 2030. It said that prior to this commitment it, “had already achieved a close to 35% emissions reduction by 2020.”

Armenia: The Armenian parliament has agreed to establish a customs duty of Euro22/t for cement and Euro3/t for clinker on imports from Iran and other countries. The government had initially hoped to imposed Euro39/t and Euro14/t on cement and clinker respectively but this was declined by the legislative body, according to the ArmInfo News Agency. Imported cement will also be recognised as licensed. The new bill will come into effect in July 2021.

A previous customs duty of Euro22/t imports of Iranian cement was set up in mid-2019. However, Iranian cement imports were then banned at the start of 2021. Production by local producers grew in 2020 and imports fell.

India: Grasim Industries’ full-year consolidated net sales rose by 2% year-on-year to US$10.5bn in its 2021 financial year from US$10.3bn in the 2020 financial year. The profit attributable to owners of the company was US$591m, down by 3% from US$606m. Cement sales rose by 5% to US$6.15bn from US$5.83bn.

India: Ramco Cements reported consolidated net sales of US$731m in its 2021 financial year, down by 2% year-on-year from US$745m in its 2020 financial year. Cement sales volumes fell by 11% to 9.98Mt from 11.2Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 34% to US$218m from US$162m. The company said that cement markets had shrunk in the south due the coronavirus pandemic but they grew in the east. It added that it was complying with state government mandated public health lockdowns, which were introduced in May 2021, on a regional basis.

India: The India Cements recorded full-year consolidated net sales of US$619m in the 2021 financial year, down by 13% year-on-year from US$712m. Cement sales volumes fell by 19% to 8.9Mt from 11Mt, which it blamed on production overcapacity in the south of the country. Its profit after taxes, minority interests and share of profit of associates was US$28.6m, more than triple the figure for the 2020 financial year of US$7.34m. The cement producer warned that, despite an economic recovery following the first wave of coronavirus, it expected an uncertain outlook with the current second wave of the epidemic.