Algeria: Zahana Cement, part of Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA), has ordered a RL 850/1500 double roller crusher from Italy’s Bedeschi. The contract is on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis and it includes the supply of the new machine, designed for 500t/hr of marl, the removal of the existing machine and the installation of the new crusher with the revamping of the existing electrical board. Commissioning is expected by mid-2018.

Nigeria: BUA Group has completed an upgrade at its Obu plant at Okpella in Edo State. The new 3Mt/yr production line has increased the plant’s production capacity to 6Mt/yr, according to the Punch newspaper. The completed project follows the inauguration of the company’s new 1.5Mt/yr production line at its Kalambaina cement plant in Sokoto State.

Kenya: Advisors to ARM Cement have approached Nigeria’s Dangote Cement about a potential sale, according to a source quoted by Reuters. The news follows reporting by Bloomberg that Dangote Cement has expressed an interest in the Kenyan cement producer. Owner Aliko Dangote also said in an interview that his company was in talks with an unnamed company about potential acquisition in Kenya and Tanzania. ARM Cement was placed in administration in August 2018.

Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim has launched Bélier Cement CemRoute, its first road cement product in the country. It was presented at the Exhibition of Infrastructures of Abidjan. It follows joint work between LafargeHolcim’s research centre and the Laboratory of Public Works of Ivory Coast.

The cement producer says that the new product offers specific advantages to road builders including releasing less heat than other comparable products, less cracking and increased durability of pavements by improving the bearing capacity of the soil.

LafargeHolcim also used the product launch to introduce the ‘LaboMobile,’ a mobile laboratory for on-site analysis. The laboratory is intended to help builders improve the performance of their work through material identification, concrete formulation, optimisation studies and/or control.