Saudi Arabia: Denmark’s FLSmidth has revealed that it is working on a project to convert a grey cement production line at Alsafwa Cement to a dual-white and grey line. The modified kiln is expected to be commissioned in early 2020. The production objectives are to produce a minimum of 2000t/day white clinker with a maximum heat consumption of 1380kcal/kg clinker. No value for the project has been disclosed.

FLSmidth plans to install its Duoflex Burner inside the kiln. To minimise costs it says that only minor changes will be made to the current preheater with as much existing equipment as possible being reused. In this case, the oil handling equipment, clinker cooler, raw material storage system and raw mill grinding equipment will be reused.

Colombia: Cemex Colombia has been accused by the news division of Caracol Televisión of allegedly making payments to the Juan Manuel Santos presidential campaign in 2014 in return for preferential treatment on construction contracts. Santos subsequently won the 2014 presidential election and served until 2018.

Sources, quoted by Noticias Caracol from a US police investigation into the company, say that it paid US$1m in cash and contributed cement to local candidates. They say that the local candidates then sold the donated cement at a discount for additional campaign funds. The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia is also investigating the matter. The report by Noticias Caracol follows an expose by Semana magazine.

US: ABB has launched its Dodge Safety Mount spherical roller bearings product with a built-in patented locking mechanism. It says that this new feature can reduce installation time by up to 75% compared to traditional products. It is mounted by tightening fasteners, instead of using a hammer and other tools. The new system also allows for simple installation and removal from the same side of the bearing. The new bearing is intended for bulk material and air handling applications.

Safety Mount bearings feature a triple-lip contact seal and corrosion-resistant flinger sealing system, which prevents contamination from entering the product during installation and operation. A labyrinth seal option is available for high-speed and high-temperature applications. The product can also be used with ABB Ability Smart Sensor.

The Malaysian Competition Commission took the rather ominous step this week of saying it was taking extra care to watch the cement industry. Ouch! It said that had taken note of recent price rises by both cement and concrete producers and that it was working with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs as it met with the sector. It also said it was well aware of the recent merger between YTL and Lafarge, “...which had led to the market being more concentrated at the upstream and downstream level.”

The background here is that at least one unnamed cement producer announced a price hike of 40% in mid-June 2019. End-users panicked and the local press took up the story. The Cement and Concrete Association of Malaysia then defended price rises in general, when it was asked for comment, due to all sorts of mounting input costs. Although, to be fair, to the association the Malaysian Competition Commission acknowledged the price pressures the industry was under due to input costs in a report it issued in 2017.

Back in the present, the government became involved and Saifuddin Nasution Ismai, the head of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, calmed the situation down by saying that producers had agreed not to raise their prices after all and that any future planned price adjustments would be ‘discussed’ with the authorities first. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng then followed this up with calls for an investigation into prices in Sarawak state in Eastern Malaysia. In response, Suhadi Sulaiman, the chief executive officer (CEO) of CMS Cement, batted this straight back by blaming industry mergers in Peninsular Malaysia and saying the company had no plans ‘anytime soon’ to raise its prices.

As the Malaysian Competition Commission kindly pointed out, this entire furore took place about a month on from the competition of LafargeHolcim’s divestment of its local subsidiary to YTL. The commission agreed to the acquisition of Lafarge Malaysia by YTL knowing that it was giving YTL ownership of over half of the country’s production capacity. With this in mind it is unsurprising that the commission might have wanted to look tough in the face of even a whiff of market impropriety, whether it was real or not.

The problem, as the Malaysian Competition Commission alluded to in its statement, is that the local industry suffers from production overcapacity. On top of this local demand has been contracting since 2015. The country has 11 integrated cement plants with a production capacity of 27.1Mt/yr, according to Global Cement Directory 2019 data. Production hit a high of 24.7Mt in 2015 and then fell year-on-year to 18.8Mt in 2017. Data from the Cement and Concrete Association of Malaysia painted a worse picture taking into account both integrated and grinding capacity reporting an estimated production capacity utilisation rate of just 59% in 2016. Lafarge Malaysia reported a loss before tax of US$97.7m at the end of 2018 as well as declining revenue. Shortly thereafter it announced it was leaving the country, as well as neighbouring Singapore.

In theory the buyout by YTL should have been one step closer to solving Malaysia’s overcapacity woes as either it gained synergies through merging the companies or shut down some of its plants. Certainly, the system appears to be working at some level, as the proposed 40% price rise hasn’t happened. Yet, if the government is reacting to voters rather than the market it could prolong the capacity-demand gap indefinitely. Under these conditions LafargeHolcim’s decision to exit South-East Asia may prove prescient.

Spain: Pedro Carranza, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Grupo Cementos Portland Valderrivas, has been named as the president of Fundación Laboral Andaluza del Cemento y el Medio Ambiente (FLACEMA). He succeeds Francisco Zunzunegui, who has held the post since late 2017. FLACEMA promotes the co-procesing of waste by the Andalusian cement industry. It was set up in 2003 by the Association of Manufacturers of Cement of Andalusia (AFCA) and a group of major unions.

Malaysia: Suhadi Sulaiman, the chief executive officer (CEO) of CMS Cement, says that the company does not intend to increase its prices ‘anytime soon.’ He said that any potential enquiry into a differene in prices between Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak would show that the cement producer had not riased its prices since early 2016, according to the Borneo Post newspaper. He made the comments in a reponse to a call by the Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for such an enquiry.

“We welcome the enquiry for two reasons... Firstly, it will show that the disparity in prices is purely due to the recent aggressive price war, which led to industry mergers and acquisitions in Peninsular Malaysia,” said Suhadi. “Secondly, an enquiry of this nature will also serve to show once and for all that Sarawak is not, and never has been, a cement monopoly.”

Lim said previously that an investigation was necessary to determine whether cartel-like behaviour was responsible for higher cement prices in Sarawak. He noted that the price was ‘significantly’ higher in the state than in Peninsular Malaysia.

Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) says a new import tax on raw materials and a distribution levy will increase the price of cement and place a burden on the construction industry. The new duties will add 8% to the existing 15% of value-added tax (VAT) already liable on raw materials, according to the Daily Sun newspaper. The association is lobbying against the government’s proposed budget for 2019 – 2020. It has described the new budget as business friendly but not favourable for the cement sector. Any additional taxes are also expected to worsen the effect of growing international prices of raw materials.

India: Cement producers and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have launched the Indian Cement Sector SDG Roadmap. The planning framework uses the United Nation’s (UN) sustainable development goals (SDG) to set a series of goals in energy and climate, people and communities, the circular economy and natural resource management. It is intended to contribute to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This initiative has been convened by nine cement companies: ACC, Ambuja Cement, CRH, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), Heidelberg Cement, Shree Cement, Orient Cement, UltraTech Cement, Votorantim Cimentos. It is also partially funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Notable goals from the roadmap include promoting railway and waterway transport networks, improving transport safety, increasing the use of blended cements and encouraging the use of alternative fuels. The framework also plans to increase the number of women in the indsutry workforce at every level from entry to board.

Azerbaijan: Cement demand has dropped ‘significantly’ due to a slowdown in economic growth and the lack of implementation of major projects. The country’s three cement plants are producing more than enough cement to cover local demand, according to the Trend News Agency. Concrete plants are also operating below full production capacity. Despite this downturn, growth has been noted in the housing sector. Producers are now focusing on export markets.

Saudi Arabia: Najran Cement plans to resume production by its third production line from the start of July 2019. The line has a production capacity of 6500t/day. At the same time it will temporarily suspend its second production line. This line has a production capacity of 3000t/day. The cement producer says it is making the changes to to compensate for decreased clinker inventory levels.