Uganda: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Hima Cement has launched Fundi masonry cement. The company says that the product has a lower carbon footprint than Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). It is suitable for use in plastering, brick laying and mortar works.

Hima Cement Uganda chief executive officerJean-Michel Pons said, “Fundi is an application-based cement that is formulated with enhanced capabilities for masonry and plaster works. The customer is guaranteed improved workability, affordability and beautiful finishes.” He added, “In addition to addressing the application needs for masonry works, Fundi masonry cement is now the greenest cement on the Ugandan market. Fundi is produced with a reduced carbon footprint, with 54% lower CO₂ emissions in comparison to OPC.”

Poland: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Poland has ordered a 307t/hr MVR 3750 R-4 vertical roller mill from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Malogoszcz cement plant in Świętokrzyskievoivodeship. The supplier says that the equipment has a drive power of 2500kW and that it is the first MVR mill to be installed in the country. It said that the producer chose the mill for its reduced energy requirements compared to those of other grinding mills. China-based Nanjing Kisen will execute the order for commissioning in early 2022.

US: Phoenix Industrial will install the raw mill for Denmark-based FLSmidth’s raw mill upgrade of CalPortland’s integrated Mojave cement plant in California. The company said that it will conduct civil, concrete, structural steel, mechanical and electrical work on the project. Mobilisation of crews to the site is due to begin in March 2021 with commissioning scheduled for December 2021. Saxum Engineering is also working on the upgrade.

Colombia: Cementos Argos’ full-year consolidated net sales in 2020 were US$2.52bn, down by 4% year-on-year from US$2.62bn in 2019. The group’s cement volumes declined by 9% to 14.7Mt from 16.1Mt. Net profit for the year was US$21.8m, down by 36% from US$34.1m. Volumes, sales and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined in all three of the group’s regions.

The company said that in the fourth quarter of 2020 the construction sector maintained a ‘positive trend,’ supported by the strong performance of the residential segment. It also recorded a slight improvement in the infrastructure segment. The producer said that warehouses and data centre projects had partially offset the weak performance of the segment, as offices and retail had been the most impacted during the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief executive officer Juan Esteban Calle, “I would like thank each one of our employees for their full commitment and resilience during 2020. I believe the experience we all lived over the last year will lead us to be even stronger and more prepared to face the opportunities and challenges of the future.”

Fiji: Grinding units in Lami have ceased operations since mid February 2021. The reason for the pause is complaints by community stakeholders about pollution, including clinker spillages on the road from the Port of Suva. The Fiji Times newspaper has reported that plant owners met stakeholders on 23 February 2021.

Environment and Waterways Ministry permanent secretary Joshua Wycliffe said, "The origins of the issue are the transport itself: there was spillage on the way to the cement factories. We have stopped the companies; if it is the transport companies that are breaching, we have stopped them. We are open to someone else doing it provided they have the permits, proper paperwork and also follow the rules and conditions.”

Egypt: Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC) has launched legal action against Misr Beni Suef Cement. The latter terminated the supplier’s technical management contract in mid-February 2021. Arab Finance has reported that the producer alleges that ASEC breached its commitments regarding its Beni Suef cement plant’s production capacity.

Netherlands: Malvern Panalytical has launched a new version of Aeris, a compact X-ray diffractometer (XRD) product. The supplier said that the upgrade contains capabilities previously seen only in much larger systems. The device provides data from polycrystalline materials at ‘competitive’ speeds. Its operational interface simplifies XRD measurements. Grazing-incidence XRD (GIXRD) will enable the examination of thin films and coatings, while transmission measurements will provide more accurate data that are not affected by sample preparation artefacts.

Product manager Wilijan Vissers said, “I’m very proud that we’re launching our new Aeris – a model that continually raises the bar for powder XRD. By providing the data quality of a floor-standing system in a compact instrument, the new Aeris will enable a wider range of our customers to carry out in-depth materials analysis and optimise their processes – helping push the scientific frontier even further forward.”

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Readymix has received its certification from the American Concrete Institute (ACI) to provide ACI certified courses. The courses form a minimum qualification for concrete industry workers.

Saudi Readymix’s Commercial and Technical Director, Chris Leptokaridis said, “We are extremely proud of our research and development facility, it’s important role as a company knowledge hub and testing ground of all our future materials. It is the most advanced and well-equipped research facility of any readymix producer in the Middle East.”

The concrete producer will start accepting candidates for its courses in March 2021. It will offer ACI trainings courses in concrete field testing and concrete strength testing.

News has been dripping out slowly over the last few months about which assets HeidelbergCement is planning to divest. This week reporting from Bloomberg suggested that the German-based building materials producer might be seriously considering selling one or more integrated plants in Spain. The idea is reportedly part of a wider review of its portfolio in the country with the possible inclusion of cement plants at San Sebastian and Bilbao at a future date also. A proposed price of Euro300m for the national business was put forward by the sources to the reporters but it is unclear how many cement plants that figure includes.

HeidelbergCement announced in July 2020 that it had reduced the value of its total assets by Euro3.4bn following a review. It blamed this on reduced demand for building materials due to the coronavirus pandemic and the devaluation of its Hanson subsidiary in the UK, in part related to the UK’s exit from the European Union. A divestment plan followed at its Capital Markets Day event in September 2020 when it said it was simplifying its country portfolio and prioritising the strongest market positions. To this end it said it was setting up a watch list of underperforming assets to keep an eye on.

Over the next few months a number of corporate reorganisations and actual confirmed divestments occurred as well as plenty of speculation. HeidelbergCement-controlled Suez Cement started to acquire a 100% stake in its own subsidiary, Tourah Portland Cement, in September 2020. Suez Cement then sold its majority stake in Kuwait-based Hilal Cement in late January 2021. This week HeidelbergCement Bangladesh informed the local stock exchange that it is planning to amalgamate its subsidiary Emirates Cement.

Signs that European reviews had taken place could be seen later in the autumn of 2020. In November 2020 the Italian press picked up on rumours that HeidelbergCement was planning to move subsidiary Italcementi’s research centre from Bergamo, Lombardy, to Heidelberg in Baden Württemberg. Whether this was ever a serious proposition or not, this appeared to have been avoided in early February 2021 when an Italian union said it had agreed with Italcementi to keep the research centre in Italy as well as a preserving jobs generally. Meanwhile, also in November 2020, France-based subsidiary Ciments Calcia announced a major upgrade at its integrated Airvault cement plant but along with the conversion of two other integrated plants into a grinding unit and a terminal respectively, and changes at the French headquarters at Guervill.

Just before Christmas the bigger speculations started to appear in the press, with a story suggesting that HeidelbergCement was considering selling assets in California, US, with a target price of US$1.5bn for three integrated plants and associated concrete and aggregate units. That story is particularly beguiling given Cemex’s decision this month to reopen a kiln in Mexico to supply cement to the southwest US to meet shortages (See GCW 493)! Incidentally, readers should also note the story this week about a shortage of natural gas exports from Texas, US, that has caused cement plants in northern Mexico to shut down. This week, as mentioned at the start, has seen Spain added to the list of places that HeidelbergCement might be considering selling up in. The Spanish market like Italy has been rationalising heavily over the last decade particularly as export markets have dwindled. Oficemen, the Spanish cement association, reported that domestic cement consumption fell by 10% year-on-year to 13.3Mt in 2020 from 14.7Mt in 2019. On top of this Oficemen has repeatedly warned of the threat that CO₂ emissions prices pose for its members’ exports.

Group chairman Dominik von Achten told Reuters this month that the company plans to sell the first of the five assets in early-to-mid 2021. Of course he wouldn’t say where, except for adding that the company would stay in ‘rock solid’ markets like Northern Europe. Indonesia has been seen as a candidate for disposal by analysts, likely due to local production overcapacity levels and LafargeHolcim’s own departure in Indonesia 2018. All Von Achten would say on the matter was that Indonesia was an ‘important’ market for the group. Whether it’s seen as important for reducing company debt or building value remains to be seen. HeidelbergCement hasn’t exactly been shy about saying what they are doing over the last half year or so but they are only going so far and they won’t comment on speculation. So in the meantime we must wait to find out more.

Philippines: Horia Adrian has been appointed as the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Holcim Philippines. He succeeds John Stull will be reassigned to another position within LafargeHolcim Group after three years in the post.

Adrian is a graduate of the masters degree programme in business administration at Anjou University in South Korea and of the bachelors and masters programme in mechanical engineering at ‘Dunărea de Jos’ University in Galați in Romania. He joined the LafargeHolcim Group in 2000 as a project manager for Holcim Romania’s Ready-mix and Aggregates Division. Between 2004 and 2010 he was the sales, marketing and logistics director, and respectively the CEO, of Garadagh Cement in Azerbaijan. He later became the CEO of Romania and Market Head Emerging Europe in 2018.