Türkiye: Çimentaş has signed a contract to order an electrical switch facility and transmission line from Girisim Elektrik. The price of the deal is around US$3m.

Girisim Elektrik is an engineering, sales and marketing company in the electrical and energy sectors based in Türkiye. Çimentaş is a subsidiary of Italy-based Cementir Holding. It operates cement factories in İzmir, Edirne, Elazığ and Kars.

Ethiopia: China-based China National Building Material (CNBM) and its engineering subsidiary Sinoma International have expressed interest in investing in the local cement sector. The comments were made in a meeting with Tefera Derbew, Ethiopia’s ambassador to China, and Liu Yan, an executive director of CNBM and the chair of Sinoma International, according to Fana. During the gathering Derbew noted Sinoma’s contribution so far towards helping build cement plants in the country. CNBM has accepted an invitation to participate in the Invest Ethiopia forum taking place in Addis Ababa in late April 2023.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement recorded sales of US$10.9m in the first quarter of 2023, down by 22% from US$14m during the first quarter of 2022. The producer sold 215,000t of cement during the quarter, down by 22% from 282,000t.

Steppe Cement said that Kazakh cement demand fell by 13% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Its market share was 13%, compared to 14% in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

Kenya: A court has prevented the takeover of a US$47.8m parcel of land belonging to East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) by the government. The court found that the government had not followed proper consultation processes. The East African newspaper has reported that the government had already concluded a deal with China and Oman-based investors for affordable property developments on the land.

EAPCC says that it now plans to use the site to build its own green smart city. The cement producer says that this will help to diversify its income streams.