Saudi Arabia: Production at Tabuk Cement and Hail Cement has risen supporting the construction of the Neom technology city project in the north of the country. Output from the producers has risen by 20% and 55% respectively year-on-year in the first half of 2018, according to Bloomberg. Both companies are located in the north of the country near to the project. Meanwhile, most of the other local cement companies have reported declining production. The Neom project has been backed with an investment of US$500bn.

Ireland/UK: Quinn Cement has expanded its fleet of trucks with 14 Mercedes mountain lorries. The lorries were delivered between July 2017 and May 2018. All 14 vehicles are now in use in Quinn’s Doon and Swanlinbar quarries, transporting rock to the Quinn Cement plant at Derrylin.

The receipt of the new lorries marks the latest phase of an on-going fleet replenishment programme. The new mountain lorries are more efficient than the vehicles they have replaced as they carry a bigger payload. All these trucks are rated to work at 50t gross weight giving them a payload of around 33t, depending on the body. Ten of the new lorries’ bodies were manufactured, fitted and painted by C-Tec Engineering of Magherafelt, Northern Ireland. The final four lorries which have recently arrived on site, have a body that was manufactured in Italy by Drago and transported in kit form to Ireland to be assembled, painted and fitted by Gleeson Steel & Engineering in Tipperary.

China: Cement producers will be forced to pay fees for captive power plants under new legislation introduced by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The move was introduced in a draft plan in March 2018 in order to reduce electricity prices for industrial and commercial users, according to Reuters. The new regulations are also intended to cut down on pollution from coal-powered plants used by the cement sector as well as steel and aluminium producers. The size of fees paid by onsite power plants will be decided by provincial governments.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group’s sales revenue from its cement business rose by 4% year-on-year to US$2.74bn in the first half of 2018. Its profit grew by 8% to US$125m and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 4% to US$355m. The cement producer said that the country’s demand for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) rose by 2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018 due to an increase in demand from the public sector. Overall the company’s sales revenue grew in the first half of 2018 but its profit and earnings fell due to currency variations and increasing cost of input chemicals.