South Africa: Dangote Cement South Africa’s sales revenue rose by 3.7% year-on-year to US$200m in 2017 from US$192m in 2016. The subsidiary of Nigeria’s Dangote Cement attributed the result to increased demand and improvements in operational efficiency in the second half of the year. Its net profit fell by 16.2% to US$4.87m from US$5.81m due to one-off income from the closure agreement with Sinoma on the final handover of a new cement plant.

The cement producer added that the local cement industry increased its prices and ‘customer mix stability’ in 2017. Total estimated sales volumes including imports fell by 0.8% to 12.9Mt from 13Mt.

India: Anjani Portland Cement plans to build a new clinker production line at its Chintalapalem plant at Gudimalkapuram in Telangana. The plant has a production capacity of 1.16Mt/yr and this will rise to 2.31Mt/yr once the upgrade is complete. The project is expected to cost US$61m. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.

Nigeria: China’s CBMI and LafargeHolcim have held a signing ceremony for a 5000t/day cement plant upgrade project near Ewekoro. The deal follows previous collaborations between the companies in the country, including work at Ewekoro and Unicem.

India: A public hearing for a proposed cement plant to be built by Shree Cement at Ghantikhal in Odisha has caused concern among local residents. According to a report in the Pioneer newspaper, no local people were allowed to speak at the event. The hearing was held to obtain permission from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board for the project.