Kenya: Chattan Vyas, general manager of a Rai Group-owned grinding plant in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, has been found dead in bed on the morning of 22 September 2019 under mysterious circumstances. The Standard has reported that the attending pathologist confirmed the cause of death as strangulation, noting also that Vyas had been bound.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has received a US$0.3m fine for failing as an employer to ensure that safety measures and procedures in the workplace were upheld. This follows the 2017 death of an employee who fell from a corroded catwalk at the company’s Beachville quarry.

Germany: Six apprentices from Holcim South Germany’s 1.1Mt/yr integrated Dotternhausern cement plant have completed an assignment of real-world application to their plant, at a training workshop in Albstadt. The Schwarzwälder Zeitung has reported that Holcim South Germany required a means of stirring cement used for event demonstrations. The apprentices’ ‘eyecatching’ solution incorporates a filler neck at the top and an outlet at the bottom, is 100% leak-proof and was built entirely from parts constructed at the Albstadt workshop.

South Africa: South Africa imported 0.1Mt of cement in July 2019, 293% more than in July 2018. The Algeria Press Service has reported the value of July 2019’s imports as US$4.85m. This represents a decrease from the June 2019 figure of US$6.73 of 28%. Vietnam continues to be the main contributor to the June and Julyimport figures, with Pakistan notably absent in both months. In the record seven months to 31 July 2019, South Africa imported 0.6Mt of cement at a total cost of US$29.6m.

Njobo Lekula, managing director of PPC, has stated that cement prices are ‘critically’ low for domestic producers, whose 18Mt/yr capacity faces a domestic demand of 13Mt/yr. In August 2019, South Africa’s major cement producers applied to South Africa’s International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) for a tightening of cement standards, which may take the form of a blanket tariff on imports.