Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC) and Rediscover Concrete have issued a joint declaration to the federal government in which they urge it to absorb the costs of state infrastructure projects and put construction ‘at the core of the COVID-19 recovery plan.’

CAC president and chief executive officer (CEO) Michael McSweeney said, “A successful economic recovery will require a commitment to use time-sensitive infrastructure spending. We have a very short construction season in Canada and municipalities have lost much of their financial capacity to fund important infrastructure projects this year. We need the federal government to help municipalities get local community infrastructure projects going to boost economic activity and public confidence.”

Germany: Beumer Group says it is supporting logistics start-up Sparrow Networks with its Beam spin-off company. Sparrow Networks consists of a spare parts pool of interconnected cement industry players. Customers can access the inventory on Sparrow Networks’ digital marketplace. Beam is a Berlin-based start-up company builder, supported by Beumer Group, that focuses on logistics and technical challenges.

France: A car magazine chose Ciments Calcia’s 2Mt/yr Gargenville, île-de-France integrated cement plant as the backdrop for a photo shoot. The shoot featured models produced by Germany-based Audi, BMW, Daimler and Porsche. Ciments Calcia said that it was, “an opportunity for employees present to discover these exceptional machines. A good time was had by all.”

Russia: Eurocement has announced the completion of Phase 2 of an upgrade project at its 2.4Mt/yr integrated Pikalevsky Cement plant. Following the modernisation of the grinding unit in the first phase of the upgrade in August 2019 at a cost of US$2.14m, Phase 2 work consisted of an expansion to ‘the assortment of high-quality products,’ including ‘large-scale construction and installation, reconstruction of air supply and aspiration systems and power supply and repair of existing buildings and structures’ at a total cost of US$2.86m. Eurocement completed the upgrade without any downtime to the existing lines.

Pikalevsky Cement director general Andrei Vashchilov said, “We have tested the new cement. The activity of cement at the age of 28 days increased by an average of  10MPa, which allows for cost-optimised concrete production. The modernisation also enabled the improvement and stabilisation of another important indicator - water separation.

Oman: Oman Cement subsidiary Al Sahawah Cement has said that the deadline for bids for two tenders for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of its new Duqm integrated cement plant’s 5000t/day kiln lines and mill. The Oman Daily Observer newspaper has reported that Al Sahawah Cement will commission the grinding plant in September 2021, with full commissioning of the integrated plant to follow in March 2022. The company is also tendering for bids for a third EPC contract for the supply and installation of a 30MW waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant. The entire plant has a cost of US$212m.

Dominican Republic: Cement companies produced 5.6Mt of cement in 2019, up by 4% year-on-year from 5.4Mt in 2018. This corresponds to 82% utilisation of the Dominican domestic capacity of 6.9Mt/yr. The Dominican Association of Portland Cement Producers (ADOCEM) said that domestic cement consumption rose by 7.2% to 4.7Mt from 4.3Mt.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has reported that total US cement shipments in the first three months of 2020 were 20.9Mt, up by 7.9% year-on-year from 19.4Mt. Imported cement accounted for 2.98Mt (14%) of shipments over the period, up by 22% from 24.4Mt.

The USGS said, “Measures instituted to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic may cause disruptions in the cement industry across the United States and around the world. However, no US cement plant closures or idlings were reported in March 2020.”

Chile: Cementos Bío-Bío has taken a loan worth US$37.6m from BCI-Itaú bank and Scotiabank. It took the measure ‘to ensure the company’s liquidity’ in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Cementos Bío-Bío said, “The Covid-19 pandemic brings risks due to its impact on the world and local economy. The company estimates that it will strongly affect construction, impacting cement dispatches.” It added, “The company maintains a comfortable cash position,” with liquidity of US$53.3m.

Egypt: The Ministry of Local Development has announced the start of a six-month period in which it will issue no construction licences for private buildings in Greater Cairo, governorate capitals and major cities from 27 May 2020. Egypt Today has reported that the suspension also affects licences for building modifications and extensions.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has ordered that mega-infrastructure projects should continue, subject to additional protective measures against the COVID-19 outbreak. Al-Sisi postponed the inauguration ceremonies for the newly constructed New Administrative Capital and Grand Egyptian Museum.

India: HeidelbergCement has recorded a profit of US$8.77m in the three months to 31 March 2020, up by 8.9% year-on-year from US$8.06m over the corresponding period of the 2018 - 2019 fiscal year. Sales fell by 4.7% to US$67.5m from US$70.8m. HeidelbergCement India has attributed the profit to a decrease in operating expenditure of 8.6%, to US$50.7m from US$55.4m, according to Dion News Service.