Global Cement News

North Korea: Local press says that the Sangwon Cement Complex in North Hwanghae Province has reported an upsurge in production, apparently making a record 10,000t/month of cement, its highest production level ever.

Chief engineer Yun Song Chol was quoted as saying that this had been made possible by ‘prioritising science and technology’ and ensuring the operation of equipment ‘at full capacity in accordance with the completion of modernisation at the end of 2019.’ Following the works, the line was reportedly commissioned in just a week.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has donated cement worth US$270,000 to the Lagos State government to support the ongoing reconstruction process at the Abule-Ado site in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government area, which was affected by a deadly pipeline explosion on 15 March 2020. The donation was made by the chairman of Dangote Cement, Aliko Dangote, represented by the company’s Independent Non-Executive Director Emmanuel Ikazoboh.

Nigeria: BUA Group has announced its acquisition of a majority shareholding in PW Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s leading construction, engineering and mining companies. According to BUA, this was necessary to further deepen its investments in the infrastructure business in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking on the acquisition, Abdul Samad Rabiu, executive chairman of BUA Group, said, “This acquisition marks the beginning of the next phase of our medium term strategy for our infrastructure business following the completion of the consolidation of our cement arm, BUA Cement in January 2020. BUA’s acquisition of majority holdings in PW Nigeria provides a prime opportunity to increase our investments in the entire value chain of the cement, mining and construction sector. We believe PW Nigeria, with its solid experience in building dams, roads, airports, water projects and other infrastructure projects in Nigeria, provided a strong value proposition too difficult to ignore.”

Armenia: The Armenian government has announced that it plans to extend the duration of state duties on cement imported from Iran and several other countries until 1 July 2020. The decision was made on the basis of analysis that confirmed an extension of the customs duties was appropriate. The government said that it would continue to monitor the situation.

According to the RA Statistical Committee Armenia produced 0.59Mt of cement in 2019, 8.1% more than in 2018. The RA Customs Service reported that the country imported 0.31Mt in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 70.5%.

EU: The coronavirus has caused emissions credits sold under the Emissions Trading Scheme to take a price dive to Euro16.31/t of CO2 on 19 March 2020, down by 36% month-on-month from Euro25.66/t on 19 February 2020 and 22% year-on-year from Euro21.01/t on 19 March 2020. Environmental consultancy firm Energy Aspects said, “As the covid-19 outbreak is now spreading rapidly in Europe, it will start to reduce emissions as lockdowns are put in place in multiple countries,” according to Reuters. The European Commission has forecasted a 1.0% contraction in the EU economy in 2020, revising its February estimate of 1.4% growth year-on-year. This would correspond to a reduction in industrial CO₂ emissions of between 10.0Mt and 20.0Mt by the end of year.