Global Cement News

India: The Supreme Court has said that the final sale of Binani Cement cannot complete without its approval. It added that no decision on the sale will now be made until at least early July 2018. However, it has allowed the debt resolution process to continue, according to the Press Trust of India. UltraTech Cement and Dalmia Bharat have both made bids for the bankrupt cement producer but they have fought each other legally over the process.

Philippines: Phinma Corporation has secured a US$16.7m loan for its cement business, PhilCement, to build a terminal at Mariveles in Bataan. The five-year fixed term loan agreement was signed with Security Bank on 1 June 2018, according to Business World. PhilCement was set up in September 2017. Phinma Corporation owns a 85.7% stake in the business.

South Korea: Ssangyong Cement plans to install a waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at its Donghae plant in Gangwon. The upgrade will be operational by August 2018, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper. The new unit is expected to save the cement producer about 33% of its electricity costs or US$24m/yr.

The investment is the largest that the cement producer’s owner Hahn & Company has approved since it took control. The WHR will work with an energy storage system (ESS) that was installed in March 2018. The ESS saves power consumption by storing energy during the night and then using it during the day. The 22MWhr storage system is power by powered by 2880 batteries. The company said that it would save it at least US$2.4m/yr.

Ssangyong Cement’s Donghae plant is one of the largest in the world with a cement production capacity of 11.2Mt/yr across seven production lines. It occupies an areas of 11.3MM².

Canada: NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers (NACC) has bought a 25% stake in JT Cement. It joins Norway’s KGJ Cement Holdings (KGJ) and Sweden’s Erik Thun (Thun) in ownership of the cement company, which operates a fleet of seven smaller specialised pneumatic cement carriers. The investment is intended to expand NACC's global footprint into the Northern European market where KGJ and Thun have a strong presence. The daily operations of the JT Cement fleet will not change as a result of the NACC investment, with the vessels continuing to be commercially managed by KGJ's office in Bergen, Norway.

"This investment will allow us to each apply our experience and knowledge in the pneumatic cement carrier market to create additional shipping solutions to meet the needs of customers," said Ken Bloch Soerensen, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Algoma Central Corporation. NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers is a 50/50 joint venture company between Algoma Central Corporation and Luxembourg’s Nova Marine Holding.

In January 2016 Nova Marine Carriers and Algoma Central Corporation created NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers. The fleet comprises pneumatic cement carriers that utilise a compressor and pump system to load and unload cement powder.

Algoma Central Corporation operates a fleet of dry and liquid bulk carriers on the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Waterway, including self-unloading dry-bulk carriers, gearless dry-bulk carriers and product tankers. Algoma also owns ocean self-unloading dry-bulk vessels operating in international markets.

India: UltraTech Cement has won a copyright case against a company selling cement brands similar to its own. The cement producer argued at the Bombay High Court that Everest Industries was selling products that were using marks deceptively similar to its own registered mark ‘UltraTech,’ according to the Mint business newspaper. UltraTech said that Everest was using the mark ‘Ultratruf-The Builders Choice’ with similar fonts and colours to its own mark. The court also observed that Everest was deceptively using another brand name, ‘Ambruja’, similar to that of Ambuja Cements.

The court ordered Everest Industries not to use the mark in any manner in mid-May 2018. It also asked it to pay costs and damages.