Global Cement News

US: Eagle Materials’ consolidated sales rose by 13% year-on-year to US$1.45bn in the third quarter of the 2022 financial year from US$1.28bn in the corresponding quarter of the 2021 financial year. Its sales of cement rose by 12% year-on-year to US$261m, while its earnings from the segment were US$79.8m, up by 13%. Cement volumes totalled 2Mt, up by 7% from third-quarter 2021 financial year levels.

Chief executive officer and president Michael Haack said that the results reflected both continued strength in US construction activity and excellent execution by Eagle Materials as Covid-19-related supply chain challenges continued. He said “We continue to see positive demand trends across our geographic footprint, driven by increased residential construction activity and expanded infrastructure investment. These trends should support growing construction activity and contribute to attractive pricing across our heavy and light materials businesses. We enter the last quarter of our fiscal year in a position of strength, with an excellent balance sheet enabling us to continue to execute on our core strategies.”

Haack added “I’m also proud to share that, during the first nine months of our fiscal year, we achieved the best safety performance in our history, demonstrating our deep commitment to our people and their wellbeing. During the quarter, we also continued to make strides towards our environmental stewardship goals. We are now producing and selling our eco-friendly Portland limestone cement (PLC) from four Eagle cement facilities.”

India: Sahyadri Industries plans to invest US$12.7m in the establishment of a cement board plant in Maharashtra. Reuters News has reported that the company expects to commission the unit by mid-2024.

India: Shree Cement has hired Denmark-based FLSmidth to carry out its digital transformation. The supplier will install its ECS/PlantDataManagement monitoring system at Shree Cement’s cement plants. It says that the technology will increase efficiency.

Shree Cement’s joint managing director Prashant Bangur said "We are always looking at ways to optimise production, and the decision to apply FLSmidth's information management system to all our sites is a natural next step." Whole-time managing director Prakash Narayan Chhangani said "FLSmidth is a trusted partner for us, as we demonstrated by the milling and pyro order we announced last year. And we are confident that this next step in our digital transformation will prove to be profitable."

Spain: Spain’s cement demand grew by 11% year-on-year to 14.9Mt in 2021, up by 1.4% from pre-pandemic levels of 14.7Mt in 2019. The Spanish cement association Oficemen has forecast a 4.7% rise to 15.6Mt in 2022 due to an increase in approved housing units and infrastructure projects.

The El Economista newspaper has reported that Spanish cement production capacity utilisation was 50% in 2021. Production costs were approximately 25% higher the before the Covid-19 outbreak.

Spain: Cemex’s Mósteles clinker pilot batch production unit at IMDEA Energy Institute in Madrid Autonomous Community has produced its first batch of solar-heated clinker. The unit uses Switzerland-based Synhelion solar radiation technology. The technology uses a solar receiver and gaseous heat transfer fluid to heat raw materials.

Cemex chief executive officer Fernando Gonzalez said “The production of the first solar clinker is an exciting milestone for this transformational technology. It is proof of our commitment to deliver tangible outcomes through innovation to achieve our goal of delivering only net-zero CO₂ concrete by 2050.” He concluded “Cemex is building a better future, and that future must be sustainable.”