Global Cement News

Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) properties are set to be auctioned to recover US$13.9m owed to workers following the firm’s failure to fully implement a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The Kenya Chemical and Allied Workers Union (KCAWU) has already obtained the services of an auctioneer, who will start auctioning EAPCC property upon expiry of the notice. The auctioneer will be seeking to recover the money for more than 400 workers covered in the 2013–2015 CBA.

The said CBA was the subject of a dispute before the Labour Court and the Court of Appeal. EAPCC was aggrieved that the court had directed it to increase wages for contract employees.

Court of Appeal judges GBM Kariuki, Fatuma Sichale and Sankale ole Kantai, held that upon the contract staff who were not part of management becoming members of KCAWU on payment of union dues, they were entitled to benefit from the negotiated CBA.

Turkey: Shanghai Triumph Energy Conservation Engineering Co Ltd has won a waste heat recovery (WHR) project at Bartin Çimento from Turkey’s Sanko Holding, which operates the plant. It will have a recovery capacity of 5MW from the 3700t/day facility. The project will be carried out on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis.

Shanghai Triumph plans to install two boilers and one power generation system. It will use two boilers from Mitsubishi Corporation, with the power generator likely to be sourced from Kubota Corporation.

France: LafargeHolcim has announced a Euro3.5m investment in a new mixer for its clinker and slag mill located on the port of Dunkirk. The new equipment is intended to further increase the site's production, which has been steadily increasing since it was commissioned in 2012. The mill will manufacture of cement with 40% clinker and 60% ground iron slag. Commissioning is scheduled for January 2019.

Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan imported cement worth a total of US$79.8m during the first half of 2018, six times more than in the same period of 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan. It was reported earlier that Uzbek cement production had decreased from 4.2Mt in the first half of 2017 to 3.9Mt in the first half of 2018.

Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a cement and marble production complex worth US$1.1bn to the south of Cairo on 15 August 2018. The 500-hectare industrial complex is located 12km north of the Upper Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef.

It took 21 months to complete the complex, which includes three cement plants with a combined annual production capacity of 12Mt/yr. Egypt, through the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, worked together with 20 local and international companies on the project.
During the unveiling ceremony, Sisi said that such industrial projects would help reduce imports, while saving foreign currency and offering thousands of job opportunities to local people.