Qatar: Alkhalij Cement, a subsidiary of Qatari Investors Group, has reached three years or 3.5 million hours without accidents, at its plant in Umm Bab. The company said that achievement showed that its employees had followed safety rules with dedication and reliability, according to the Qatar Tribune newspaper. Alkhalij Cement operates an integrated plant with a clinker production capacity of 6000t/day.

Croatia/Montenegro: Cemex Crotia says it is supplying cement for a local construction boom in Montenegro. It is supplying building materials for several infrastructure projects, including three mixed-use resorts and a motorway. It has already supplied over 0.28Mt of cement for the Smokovac-Mateševo section of the Bar-Boljare motorway. It has also supplied over 0.2Mt/yr of cement for resort projects at Portonovi, Porto Montenegro, and Luštica Bay on the Adriatic coast.

Switzerland/Uganda: LafargeHolcim has been criticised by two Swiss non-governmental groups (NGO) over alleged child labour issues in Uganda. The Protestant Church group Bread For All the Catholic Lenten Fund have accused the multinational of delaying compensation to alleged child labour victims, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. LafargeHolcim has denied the accusations. The NGOs have published video statements by children testifying that they previously worked for suppliers to Hima Cement, a local subsidiary of LafargeHolcim.

A report published in 2016 claimed that around 150 Ugandan children had worked for 10 years in quarries that supplied Hima Cement with pozzolana. Both Hima Cement and its parent company denied the claims. Later, Hima Cement subsequently announced that it would stop buying raw materials from small-scale miners and only source them from mechanised quarries that employ adults. At the same time LafargeHolcim commissioned an investigation that concluded that there was no evidence that children had worked for Hima Cement or for any of its other suppliers.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has increased its sales volumes of cement in the first quarter of 2018 despite facing poor weather and coping with reduced working days. Sales volumes of cement rose by 2% year-on-year to 28.2Mt from 27.5Mt in the same period in 2017. Falling sales volumes in Europe and North America were offset by growth in Asia-Pacific and Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin. In Asia, Indonesia and India contributed strongly to its growth, the cement producer said. In Africa, increases in sales volumes were recorded in Egypt, Ghana and Tanzania. Its sales revenue increased on a like-for-like basis by 2% to Euro3.78bn.

“HeidelbergCement generated a profit in the seasonally weak first quarter and despite difficult weather conditions,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “Our successful management of the portfolio and financial result more than compensated for the weather-related decline in operating result.”

The group completed its acquisition of Cementir Italia in Italy and the Alex Fraser Group in Australia in the reporting period. It also finished the sale of the sand-lime brick operating line in Germany and its white cement business in the US.