Peru: UNACEM is considering buying local engineering company ARPL Tecnología Industrial, according to the Gestion newspaper. The plans will be discussed at a forthcoming shareholders meeting in late March 2018. ARPL Tecnología Industrial is an engineering company that specialises in the cement industry. It has operated for over 50 years. It offers consultancy services, and technical assistance, development and project engineering managing services, as well as analysis and physical chemical tests and computer services.

Rwanda: Cimerwa plans to upgrade its Bugarama cement plant in Rusizi District of Western Province. The project is intended to increase the plant’s production capacity and to target demand locally and abroad, in particular infrastructure development, according to the New Times newspaper. However, the subsidiary of PPC has not disclosed how much it is spending on the project. Upgrade work will start in March 2018 and end in April 2018.

At present the 0.6Mt/yr plant has a 65% production utilisation rate. The company expects to reach full capacity in mid-2019, although it claimed in 2017 that it would be able to do this by mid-2018. In 2017 the company sold 0.38Mt of cement, with 10% exported to Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. The plant imports most of its coal from Malawi and Tanzania.

Ethiopia: The Ethiopian Revenues & Customs Authority (ERCA) says that Chinese company Inchini Bedrock Cement owes it US$10m for alleged tax evasion. The cement producer has declared a loss for five of the seven years it has been in operation, according to the Addis Fortune newspaper. However, ERCA’s Large Taxpayers Office (LTO) has refuted these claims and, following an audit, says that Inchini Bedrock had failed to keep records of the raw materials and finished products in stock. The investigation was triggered following the discovery of documents relating to Inchini Bedrock whilst ECRA was looking at another case.

Inchini Bedrock Cement employs 265 employees, including 22 foreign nationals. However, it appears to have no manager or representative at present, except for the head of the expatriate department, according to sources quoted by Addis Fortune. The manager of the company left Ethiopia in late 2017 due to medical reasons. The plant had a cement production capacity of 0.3Mt/yr when it opened in 2012.

Burkina Faso: The Ministry of Mines and Quarries has signed a limestone mining deal with Sahelian Mining, a subsidiary of Diamond Cement Burkina. The deal covers mineral rights for the Sahel region, according to the Sidwaya newspaper. The agreement is intended to diversify the country’s mineral production. Diamond Cement Burkina oprates a cement grinding plant at Ouagadougou.