Global Cement News

Bangladesh/India: India's Star Cement has started exporting clinker to Bangladesh by river. According to a report by the Times of India, the cement producer aims to export over 50,000t/month of clinker to Bangladesh by this route.

"Exporting clinker to Bangladesh by the river will give an edge to the company to encounter the stiff competition it is likely to face from manufacturers of Southeast Asian countries, all of whom cater to 99% clinker requirement of this country," said a Star Cement official.

In a pilot project in 2012 Star Cement had started clinker exports to Bangladesh by road. The company has deals with several leading cement producers in Bangladesh to meet their clinker requirements and is planning more.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia has produced 12Mt of cement, double its domestic demand, in the fiscal year that ended on 7 July 2013, according to a report released by Ministry of Industry (MoI). The country's current domestic demand for cement is estimated to be around 5.4Mt/yr.

The government expected a significant rise in cement demand in its Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP) that plans for per capita consumption of cement to increase from 35kg to 300kg. It had predicted that the demand would grow to 27Mt/yr, exceeding the 12Mt/yr cement production capacity of the country's 18 plants in the 2014 – 2015 fiscal year.

India/Ireland: Following earlier speculation, Ireland's Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) has announced that its 50:50 Joint Venture in India, My Home Industries Ltd has reached an agreement to acquire the shares of Sree Jayajothi Cements, a 3.2Mt/yr cement producer in south India for a value of Euro175m.

Dow Jones reports that the investment will be financed from My Home Industries' existing debt capacity and by equity inputs from the joint shareholders (Euro70m). CRH's equity interest will amount to Euro35m.

Kenya: Bamburi Cement expects a robust second half of 2013 according to Reuters, after it saw its pretax profit drop by 12% in the first half of 2013. It attributed the decline to uncertainty over the Kenyan elections and a slowdown in its export markets.

Bamburi, which is controlled by the French multinational cement giant Lafarge, posted a first-half pretax profit of US$37.46m, while its turnover declined by 18% to US$180.8m.

"We started seeing a significant turnaround in the markets of Kenya and Uganda with continued signs of an improving macro-economic environment in both countries," said the company. "The group is therefore strongly optimistic of a stronger second half."

Germany: Dr Michael Mutz has been appointed the head of cement sales at Aumund Fördertechnik. In his new role Mutz will oversee sales of both new equipment and retrofits. The new position will be in addition to Mutz's exisiting job as head of the Mineral Processing division (previously Mining & Minerals), which he assumed in April 2012. Aumund specialises in conveying and storage for the cement industry