Global Cement News

The news from Mali this week is that a new cement grinding plant is in the works. Ciments et Matériaux du Mali plans to build a 0.5Mt/yr plant near Bamako. Work on the US$34m project is set to start in October 2019 although there has been no word on the equipment supplier. The project is a long-standing one from France’s Vicat.

A new plant is probably very welcome following the last six months in the local market. Prices spiked by a third in May 2019, leading local producer Diamond Cement Mali to arrange a press conference to defend itself. Director Ibrahima Dibo explained that the company had fixed its prices in conjunction with the government at its units at Astro and Dio Gare since 2012. Instead, he blamed importers and traders for the situation, as well as low import rates from Senegal and Ivory Coast. The company proposed that it tackle the situation by importing more cement from one of its plants in Takoradi in Ghana and then transporting it into Mali via Dakar in Senegal. Although it noted that it would need permission from the government to do this.

The country has also been targeted by Nigeria’s Dangote Cement for several years. Back in 2016 the Nigerian cement producer was considering building a 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant. It also wanted to build a second production line at its Pout plant near Dakar in Senegal to export clinker specifically to Mali. It has since scaled back its expansion plans as the Nigerian economy entered a recession but in its 2018 annual report it noted that it had exported 0.43Mt of cement from Senegal and that most of this had gone to Mali, with plans to further increase exports in 2019.

At present Mali has three main grinding plants. Two are run by Diamond Cement and the third by Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF). An integrated plant at Guinbané, Diéma in the Kayes region was announced in late 2016 when the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Gaia Equity, a private equity company. This project was going to be built by China’s Sinoma.

Figure 1: Distribution of cement prices in Africa and Location of Plants 2015. Source: World Bank / ECDPM.

The status of that last project is unknown since there has been little news on it since. However, Figure 1 above shows why a private equity firm might sense opportunity. It’s out of date as various countries have become self-sufficient and we’ve covered this plenty of times before but the graphic from the World Bank really brings home the message that moving cement overland is uneconomical. This is mirrored by the mounting price of cement in Mali earlier this year. Africa has been described as the last great cement frontier and Mali is on the frontline.

Malaysia: Tasek Corporation has appointed Go Hooi Koon as its company secretary. She succeeds Vincent Chow Poh Jin who has resigned. Tasek operates an integrated cement plant at Tasek in Perak.

El Salvador: Guatemala’s Cemento Regional has started building a 0.12Mt/yr grinding plant at Acajutla. The subsidiary of Grupo Monterrey has invested US$12m in the project, according to the El Economista newspaper. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in December 2019. A ceremony marking the start of construction was attended by the president of the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of El Salvador (PROESA), Salvador Gómez Góchez and the president of Cemento Regional, Roberto Díaz Durán.

The new plant is situated near to the port at Acajutla, enabling it to import clinker and other raw materials from Asia. The plant will be built by Qualicons, a Guatemalan construction company. It was previously reported that Spain’s Cemengal would supply a modular mill for the plant.

Philippines: Premiere Slag has received an investment of US$1.95m from the Philippines’ AbaCore Capital Holdings for the construction of a cement facility in Mabina, Luzon.

US: Charah Solutions has been awarded an extension to its contract to provide byproduct sales and material handling operations for Luminant’s Miami Fort Power Plant and Zimmer Power Plant in Ohio. Charah Solutions will continue to manage and market coal combustion products produced by these two units. It currently sells and markets grade Class F fly ash from the two power plants via its materials network to concrete product manufacturers and ready mix concrete producers in the Midwest, Northeast and South regions of the country.

In addition, Charah Solutions will continue all other coal combustion residuals material handling and disposal operations at both locations, including landfill management and byproduct loadout, as well as the operations and maintenance of the plant flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system at Miami Fort.