Australia: Adbri’s revenue fell by 4% year-on-year to US$1.15bn in 2020 from US$1.20bn in 2019. Underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 3% to US$216m from US$222m. Despite construction growth in Western Australia, cement volumes were reported as being down by 7.1%. The company said that clinker volumes dropped by 23% due to lower offtake by its Sunstake Cement joint venture partner Boral. It added that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic had been ‘well managed’ and that all sites remained operational.

“In the context of the challenging operating environment, the financial outcomes we delivered for the 2020 financial year are better than we had expected and reflect the successes of our cost-out and business improvement programs. Adbri also benefitted from improving demand in the Western Australian market during the period which offset slowing demand in east coast markets, particularly in New South Wales,” said Nick Miller, Adbri’s chief executive officer.

South Korea: Ssangyong Cement has announced a planned name change to Ssangyong C&E. The Korea Herald newspaper has reported that the ‘C’ stands for cement while the ‘E’ stands for environment. Besides signalling its move into new industries driven by green value-creation, the new name is intended to reflect the company’s existing values. Since the beginning of 2016, it says it has spent US$90m/yr on environmental upgrades to cement production. Shareholders will finalise the change on 25 March 2021.

Ssangyong Cement chair Hong Sa-seung said, “For the past 60 years, we have led Korea’s cement industry and contributed to country’s industrialisation and economic development. With the know-how we have gathered from the cement business, we seek to expand our business to environmental businesses.”

Chile: Melón has signed an electricity supply contract with Enel Generación. The contract covers the supply for its La Calera, Puerto Montt and Ventanas cement plants, and its San Bernardo aggregates quarry, until 2043, according to the La Tercera newspaper. All energy supplied under the contract will come from renewable sources. There is also the possibility of expanding the scope of the contract.

General Manager Iván Marinado said, “Our commitment to the sustainability of our operations is permanent. We have state-of-the-art technologies, we work together with our carriers in programmes to reduce logistical impact and energy efficiency, and we have a solid co-processing strategy for the use of alternative fuels (AF) and raw materials. Today we are happy to take a new step and start the use of renewable energies, as a concrete and effective example of our concern to contribute to the environmental improvement of the localities where we operate.”

India: Odisha police have successfully shut down a fake cement operation in Jagatpur. The New Indian Express newspaper has reported that the unit was producing fake cement using various raw materials including marble dust and artificial colours. The unit had reportedly been in operation since as early as 2015.

Assistant police commissioner Amarendra Panda said, “The factory and the go-down have been sealed. The investigation is on to ascertain since when the factory was operational, the source of raw materials and the destinations or shops where the products were supplied. It is also being ascertained whether the owner of the unit is part of a racket engaged in manufacturing adulterated cement.” This is the third fake cement unit uncovered in the city since late 2020.

Pakistan: Medics took three protestors from the site of a hunger strike outside a cement plant in Hattar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to hospital in Haripur. The News International newspaper has reported that nine fired workers won a case before the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) to be reinstated to their jobs at the plant. When not given back their jobs, they began the hunger strike on 17 February 2021.

The cement company said that it is appealing the NIRC’s decision.

Bestway Cement, Dewan Hattar Cement and Mustehkam Cement all operate cement plants in Hattar.

Germany: HeidelbergCement’s preliminary results show a 5% decline in revenue on a like-for-like basis to Euro17.6bn from Euro18.9m. Cement volumes fell by 3% to 122Mt from 126Mt. Its result from current operations before depreciation and amortisation (RCOBD) rose by 6% to Euro3.71bn from Euro3.58bn. Revenues and cement volumes declined in all regions except Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin, where revenues rose by 7% and volumes rose by 10%, and Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia, where revenues rose by 3%.

The group attributed the general decline to the impacts of the coronavirus on construction’s activity levels, and therefore demand for building materials. A ‘significant improvement’ in results in the second half of 2020 resulted from its own cost-saving programmes and the economic recovery in mid-2020. The producer implemented a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) scale-up in the form of its LEILAC (Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement) collaborative project. Throughout the year, it reduced its debt by Euro1.5bn.

Dominik von Achten, chair of the managing board said, "We closed the 2020 financial year with a top result. We were able to not only reach but exceed our forecast for all key figures. The key to this success was the good operational performance across our market regions and business lines. We managed to more than compensate for the coronavirus-related decline in sales volumes through consistent spending discipline. This is a great result of the entire HeidelbergCement team, of which I am very proud. My thanks therefore go to all employees for their extraordinary commitment in the past year."

Mexico: Cemex plans to start using hydrogen as part of its fuel mix at its cement plants around the world in 2021. The estimated cost of the roll-out is US$40m. The company says it completed the deployment of its hydrogen technology across all of its cement plants in Europe in 2020 following trials at the Alicante Cement Plant in Spain in mid- 2019.

Global operations, technical and energy vice-president Roberto Ponguta said, “The fast adoption of this new hydrogen-based technology is a clear example of Cemex's innovation efforts and its strong commitment to decarbonise the cement production process.” He added, "We continue to identify and deploy existing technologies which have a high potential to contribute to our sustainability goals, and hydrogen is a key lever.”

Bangladesh: HeidelbergCement Bangladesh plans to amalgamate its subsidiary Emirates Cement. The Daily Star newspaper has reported that fellow HeidelbergCement Bangladesh subsidiary Emirates Power Company will also be merged as part of the reorganisation.

The subsidiary of Germany-based Heidelberg Cement acquired Emirates Cement Bangladesh and Emirates Power for around US$21.5m in 2019. Emirates Cement Bangladesh operates a plant at Munshiganj with a production capacity of 0.66Mt/yr.

Mexico: Nearly 500 cement and concrete plants in the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Sonora have partly or fully suspended production due to an on-going regional shortage of natural gas. The El Financiero newspaper reports that plants run by Grupo Cementos Chihuahua (GCC), Cemex, Holcim and Cruz Azul operate in this region.

GCC said that a lack of electricity and natural gas had affected production at three of its plants in Chihuahua, Samalayuca and Juárez. Mexican Association of the Ready-mix Concrete Industry (AMIC) president Ana Laura Burciaga said that the situation has caused a 50% drop in the cement supply to concrete plants.

The cause of the shortage is reported to be the suspension of natural gas exports from Texas, US. Mexican steel and automotive manufacturers have also been affected.

Austria: Lafarge Zement has ordered a new conveying system for raw materials and alternative fuel (AF) for its Mannersdorf cement plant from Germany-based Beumer Group. The system consists of two pipe conveyors. The first will be 192m long with a capacity of 22t/hr. While the second will be 87m long and have a conveying capacity of 10t/hr. The lifting heights will be approximately 39m and the maximum angle of inclination will be 15 degrees. The order also includes three buffer bins and a weigh feeder.

The system replaces the cement plant’s pre-existing conveyors, which were seriously damaged in a fire in June 2020. Beumer will be responsible for delivery, installation, engineering and commissioning of the new conveyors. Commissioning is scheduled for mid-April 2021.