Italy: Legal firm Eversheds Sutherland has suspended a Euro1.8m fine imposed by the Italian Competition Authority on Calme. Fines were made to a number of Italian cement producers in August 2017, according to the Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper. They were in relation to allegations of price fixing and market share coordination between 2011 and 2016.

Vietnam: Thanh Thang Cement is spending US$35m to towards developing a third production line at its cement plant in Thanh Nghi, Ha Nam. The government has agreed the investment at the 2.3Mt/yr unit over the 2021 – 2025 period, according to the Đầu tư newspaper. A second production line at the site was inaugurated in July 2017.

Thailand: SCG Cement’s sales revenue rose by 3% year-on-year to US$5.5bn in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 6% to US$705m. The cement producer reported that overall domestic Ordinary Portland Cement demand fell by 5% in 2017 due to a slow recovery in the private sector. Total domestic consumption of cement was around 37.5Mt 2017 and exports rose to 4Mt from 3.7Mt in 2016.

India: Neeraj Akhoury, the managing director and chief executive officer of ACC Cement, says that a ban on imported petcoke to the National Capital Region will increase the cost of cement. Akhoury told the Business Standard newspaper that the cement producer would be able to cope with the restriction through the use of alternative fuels. The Environment Ministry put the ban into effect on 19 January 2018 to control air pollution. This follows a relaxation of a temporary ban on petcoke in December 2017 by the Supreme Court to the cement industry.