Pakistan: Aly Khan, the chairman of Pioneer Cement, has blamed falling profits on competition on prices and rising costs of raw materials. The company’s profit after taxation nearly halved year-on-year to US$16.9m in the year that ended on 30 June 2018 to US$31.1m in the same period in 2017. Its sales revenue fell slightly to US$111m due to a steep decline in clinker sales. Despite this, cement sales volumes grew by 9% to 1.5Mt from 1.4Mt.

UAE: Al Khair National has suspended talks to sell a 38% stake in Gulf Cement to Liberty House Group. Negotiations originally started in December 2017.

India: A joint-venture project involving the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to build a new cement plant at Sundargarh in Odisha has stalled. Following support by local politicians for the plans in February 2017 no further action has been taken, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. SAIL originally made plans in 2006 to use blast furnace slag from the Rourkela Steel Plant and fly ash of NTPC-SAIL Power Company for the unit. It also intended pick up the lease for a limestone mine at Purunapani. However, it later ran into troubles securing state agreement to use the mine.

Mauritius: Dominique Billon, the general manager of Kolos, says that the local cement market has grown by 10% so far in 2018. He added that his company holds a 44% market share, according to Le Défi Plus newspaper. Local demand has risen due to infrastructure projects including the Metro Express and the Côte d'Or Smart City. Kolos operates a 60,000t cement terminal in the country. Its cement products include Kolos Plus and Kolos Classic.