Global Cement News

South Korea: Seven cement producers have agreed to produce 3.77Mt of cement in the second quarter of 2022, up by 36% quarter-on-quarter from first-quarter 2022 levels, to alleviate a shortage. 380,000t of cement which would previously have been exported will now supply the domestic market instead. The Yonhap News Agency has reported that bituminous coal supply issues have hampered the domestic cement industry's ability to increase its production in line with demand growth. In the first quarter of 2022, South Korea's coal imports consisted of 54% Russian coal and 46% Australian coal, compared to 75% Russian and 25% Australian coal in 2021.

The government plans to invest US$764m between 2023 and 2030 in improving the sustainability of South Korean cement production, including moving it away from reliance on coal through increased alternative fuel use.

UAE: Switzerland-based ABB has carried out an upgrade of the control system for UltraTech Cement subsidiary Star Super Cement at the company's Dubai grinding plant. The supplier says that it installed its ABB Ability 800xA distributed control system (DCS) across three grinding units at the facility. The DCS will communicate between the plant and the company's Ras Al Khaimah clinker plant. ABB previously supplied electric and automation engineering services for the Ras Al Khaimah plant in 2012.

ABB Process Industries global cement lead Max Tschurtschenthaler said that Star Cement's operations will benefit from improved operator visibility, easier maintenance and reduced downtime due to the new systems.

US: Cemex has increased production of Portland limestone cement (PLC) at its Lyons plant in Colorado. PLC is expected to become the plant’s primary product by the summer of 2022. The blended cement has been produced at the site for over 15 years. However, Cemex says it is growing production to meet the company’s carbon reduction goals and meet increased demand for lower carbon materials.

Cemex USA has also increased PLC production at its plants in Brooksville, Florida, and Demopolis, Alabama. The start of PLC production or further increases is planned for other cement plants later in 2022.

US: Drake Cement despatched 80,000t of cement in March 2022, its highest ever figure. The company has congratulated colleagues on the record volumes.

Argentina: Christian Dedeu, the chief executive officer of Holcim Argentina, has warned that there is no guarantee that there will be gas available for his company’s cement plants in the winter of 2022. In an interview with the El Cronista newspaper, Dedeu said that energy prices had risen due to the war in Ukraine and that importing liquefied gas by ship was becoming both harder and more expensive.

He also expressed concern about the government system of price controls on bagged cement, which had made it cheaper to buy bagged instead of bulk cement. Smaller companies are already reportedly buying large consignments of bagged cement and breaking it up to save money.