Global Cement News

US: Roanoke Cement Company has been accepted as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise within the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP). VEEP was established to encourage superior environmental performance by encouraging organisations within the state of Virginia, that have strong, established environmental records, to surpass their own performance levels.

Armenia: The Mika Cement plant, which has been idle since September 2012, is due to start up production on 10 September 2013 according to the plant's director Naira Martirosyan.

In an interview with Armenian news agency Arminfo, Martirosyan revealed that rises in power costs on 7 July 2013 may lead to increased cement prices. As a result of energy price rise, overall production costs have risen by 20 – 25%.

Originally built in 1970, the cement plant was privatised in 2001. Holding two production lines the plant has a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr. The plant employs 450 workers when operational.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement has reported that its profit after taxation rose by 35% year-in-year to US$52.5m for the 2012 – 2013 financial year that ended on 30 June 2013. In the same period in the 2011 – 2012 year it reported a profit of US$39.2m. No reason for the increase in profit was given in the notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange. The cement producer also saw its sales rise by 9% to US$238m from US$219m.

In its release DG Khan revealed that its board has approved plans to build a green-field 2.6Mt/yr cement plant on land the company owns at Hub, Lasbela District. Meanwhile, plans to build a cement plant in Mozambique have been dropped due to a lack of supporting infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia: Tabuk Cement Company has reported a net profit of US$28.5m for the first half of 2013, a slight rise from US$28.2m in the same period in 2012. Tabuk Cement attributed the rise to rationalisation of expenses. The cement producer's operating profit fell by 3% year-on-year to US$28.1m from US$29.0m.

Australia: Australia Cement has been found in breach of Australian competition for a fly ash contract that lessened competition. As reported by The Australian newspaper, Justice Andrew Greenwood of the Federal Court in Brisbane made the verdict in a case against the cement producer by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The ACCC had alleged that Cement Australia had breached the abuse of market power provision though a fly ash contract with Millmerran Power Partners. While finding no breach of section 46 of the Act, Justice Greenwood said Cement Australia had breached section 45 through a contract to buy the fly ash from the power station.

Only interim declarations were publicly released to give the parties the chance to go through the about 500-page judgment in case of any confidentiality issues. Justice Greenwood reserved his decision on costs and no decision was made on any penalties.