Global Cement News

Guatemala: Colombia’s Ultracem has invested US$1.2m in a facility for packing cement in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, generating 16 jobs. The company has revealed that its next project in the country, where it currently sells 0.12Mt/yr of cement, will be production facilities. Prensa Libre has reported that Ultracem’s three-step entry into Guatemala, beginning in April 2019 with the import and distribution of packed cement, has entered its second stage. This consists of packing its Colombian cement, imported via Honduras, in Guatemala.

Ultracem hopes to have entered production in the country to compete with Cementos Progreso, whose three plants’ 5.3Mt/yr total output constitutes the entirety of domestic production, by September 2020. Ultracem’s administrative director Estuardo Solís has stated that ‘an aggressive marketing plan for expansion into Guatemala, Central America’s largest market’ is in place. Over four months the company has sold 40,000t of cement in the country, all of it in the east, centre and north-east.

Ultracem began its Central American expansion in 2018 with cement distribution to Panama, followed closely by Honduras, where it established a US$2m grinding plant in May 2019.

UAE: Failure of financing has put a stop to Ras Al Khaimah’s intended purchase of an 0.6Mt/yr integrated white cement plant in Fujairah and its associated quarry. Reuters has reported that the estimated US$123m deal will not be going ahead.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s credit manager from 2009 to 2017 appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court accused of defrauding the company of US$8.52m over 230 different occasions. ABC news has reported that the defendant stands charged of aggravated deception and dishonestly dealing with documents.

Bangladesh: Germany’s HeidelbergCement will purchase Ultratech’s stake in Emirates Cement, the owner of the 0.5Mt/yr Emirates grinding plant in Dhaka. NewAge Business has reported that Ultratech, a subsidiary of India’s Aditya Birla Group, has set the price of the stake at US$32.1m.

Ultratech first produced cement in Bangladesh following Aditya Birla Group’s acquisition of ETA Star Cement in April 2010, when it bought into the latter’s Bangladeshi subsidiary Emirates Cement for an estimated investment of US$382m. The divestment of its sole Bangladeshi asset awaits bank approval.

Bangladesh produces 58Mt/yr of cement, exceeding a market demand of 31Mt/yr. Of the 75 producers in the country, only 35 are actively making cement.

Turkmenistan: The state-owned 1.0Mt/yr integrated Lebap cement plant has exported 0.2Mt of cement to neighbouring countries in the eight months to the end of August 2019. Uzbekistan received the majority of this. Neitralnii has reported that the plant has produced test batches of cement using basalt instead of its usual iron ore. It has noted increased durability, density and frost resistance, as well as lower costs and financial impact. The substitution of the locally-sourced ferrous rock for imported haematite is part of the central Asian country’s state programme of import substitution.