India: Gujarat Sidhee Cement has commissioned a 5.5MW waste heat recovery plant at its Sidheegram plant in Gujarat. The project has a budget of US$10m. Power generated from the unit is expected save the plant US$2.6m/yr .

India: ACC and Ambuja Cements, the two Indian subsidiaries of LafargeHolcim, have put their merger plans on hold. ACC said that its board was of the opinion that there were ‘certain constraints’ blocking its merger plans, according to the Press Trust of India. However, it added that a merger was its ‘ultimate’ objective. Ambuja Cements made a similar statement. Both companies joined Holcim in 2005, before becoming part of LafargeHolcim in 2015.

India: Asian Cement Group has launched a new 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Rajpura in Punjab. The project had an investment of US$62m. The site will operate under the Duraton Cement brand.

The plant consists of a grinding mill with a roller press and a separator. The unit also uses a robotic laboratory from Demark’s FLSmidth to automate cement sampling, sample transportation, preparation and analysis.

The cement producer will launch its Prime WR variant product in March 2018. This product will be sold in vacuum-packed waterproof packaging. The first consignments from the plant have been sent to religious sites in Rajpura and Chandigarh. Subsequent rollout will target Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has obtained restraining orders from the Peshawar High Court to prevent its Pezu plant being closed by the Excise and Taxation Department for not paying a US$135,000 property tax bill. A team from the Excise and Taxation Department attempted to close the site on 23 February 2018, according to the News International newspaper. The cement producer says that the plant continues to produce cement and despatch its products. The tax office has launched a drive to target tax defaulters in the region. It alleges that it has been chasing Lucky Cement’s tax bill for the past six years.