Uzbekistan: Uzpromstroymaterialy and South Korea-based Caris have formed an 80:20 public-private partnership for the establishment of a 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Berinuy region at a cost of US$350m. The Cement and Applications Journal has reported that the upcoming plant, called the Caris Karakalpak Cement, will generate sales worth US$182m/yr and profit of US$126m/yr, according to the owners.

Vietnam: The government has adopted a cement industry development strategy under which all plants below 0.9Mt/yr capacity must make investments to improve their productivity, product quality, energy saving and environmental protection by 2025. In order to facilitate this, the government says it will improve institutions and policies and improve the efficiency of raw materials exploitation, scientific research and industrial application, promoting domestic consumption, increasing available training and tightening environmental protections, according to Việt Nam News. Plants which fail to increase productivity in the specified ways will face closure.

The government says that strategy aims, “to develop the cement industry to an advanced and modern level, to produce cement of international standard quality with economical and efficient use of energy, giving high competitiveness in the international market, while meeting the needs of the domestic market, completely eliminating out-dated, natural resource-consuming and polluting technology for production.” The measure specifically targets the country’s overcapacity issue in its efforts to develop demand and its emphasis on product quality.

Turkmenistan: Turkmencement’s Lebap cement plant in Koytendag, Lebap region produced 419,000t of cement over the first seven months of 2020, up by 0.4% from 417,000t over the corresponding period of 2019. Turkmenportal News has reported that the rise is due to the start of addition of porphyritic basalt to the clinker mix.

India: Metals producer Hindalco has won a contract to supply fellow Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement with 1.2Mt/yr of bauxite residue from its aluminium operations, up by 180% from 250,000t in the 2020 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2020. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that UltraTech Cement will use the bauxite residue – or ‘red mud’ – in cement production at 14 of its plants across seven states. As a result of the deal, Hindalco, the world’s largest producer of rolled aluminium, will have full bauxite residue utilisation across three of its refineries. Managing director Satish Pai said, “We have been working with producers to develop high-grade inputs for the cement industry.”