Global Cement News

Vietnam: Three new integrated cement lines are expected to raise Vietnam’s total installed cement capacity by 8% to 115.4Mt/yr in 2022, from 106.6Mt/yr at the beginning of the year. VNDirect Securities has calculated that the upcoming lines – Dai Duong 1, Long Thanh and Xuan Thanh 3 – have a total capacity of 8.8Mt/yr. They are situated in Northern Vietnam’s Ha Nam Province and Central Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa Province, both of which already have cement overcapacity.

Viet Nam News has reported that Vietnam exported 4.31Mt of cement and clinker in April 2022, down by 7.6% month-on-month. The products’ total value was US$171m, down by 2.9% month-on-month.

US: Bloomberg has named Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Switzerland-based Holcim and Turkey-based Sabancı Holding as possible bidders for some of Sika’s US admixtures assets. Sika is seeking to divest the assets in order to obtain competition authorities’ approval for its US$6bn acquisition of Germany-based construction chemicals company MBCC from Lone Star Funds.

Argentina: Holcim Argentina has published its 10th Sustainable Development Report, detailing its sustainability progress in 2021. That year, it reduced its CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material by 4.2% compared to 2017, to 505kg/t from 527kg/t. It sourced 43% of all electricity used in its operations renewably and achieved 8.4% alternative fuel (AF) substitution in its cement production. During the year, Holcim implemented ECO-labels to designate products with at least 30% CO₂ emissions reduction.

Holcim Argentina’s CEO Christian Dedeu said “This decade of reports demonstrates our strong commitment to sustainability and governance that considers economic, social and environmental impacts. The conviction of the importance of reviewing performance and being accountable for our impacts made it possible.”

India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s full-year consolidated sales were US$697m in its 2022 financial year, up by 14.6% year-on-year from US$608m in the 2021 financial year. The group’s net profit was US$61.5m, up by 13.4% from US$54.2m.

The producer said "Despite unabated increases in petcoke and diesel prices, which are hovering at all-time high, JK Lakshmi Cement was able to achieve healthy profitability through continuous improvements in operational efficiencies, energy costs, better product mixes and higher volumes."

Zimbabwe: Livetouch Investments plans to invest US$100m in the construction of an integrated cement plant. The Herald Zimbabwe newspaper has reported that the group plans to establish the new facility in phases, with the first phase costing US$15 – 20m. The phase will include the exploration of possible locations for the plant with suitable limestone resources, which could then also supply its Redcliff grinding plant. The grinding plant currently imports 4000t/yr of Zambian clinker and also buys raw materials from Lafarge Zimbabwe.

Managing director Kyle Wang said “We are still limited by the limestone resources in the country.” He said that the company has identified ‘good limestone deposits’ in Rushinga, Nyamapanda, Bulawayo and Masvingo, however “The problem with some of the limestone is the quality.”