Iraq: Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC) will cover operation and maintenance of KAR Group’s 1.9Mt/yr integrated Qarachogh cement plant in Erbil. In a press release, ASEC stated that it has already overseen recruitment and planning and implementation of personnel development programs. ASEC's chairman and managing director Khaled El-Sebaie said he was ‘thrilled’ at the completion of the plant's hand-over.

Russia: After two years of transporting its product by land only, Siberian Cement has reported a busy summer shipping window in 2019. In the two months to the end of August 2019, it shipped 15,500t of cement to Novy Port on the Gulf of Ob, Arctic Ocean. The company has announced its intent to move 17,000t in 2020 and 13,000t in 2021 by means of it 1000t-capacity barges.

US: Cementos Argos has won its case before the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Spartan Construction accused it of unlawfully selling cement at a lower price to a competing buyer in the US Virgin Islands. Mondaq reports that Argos traded with both Spartan and Heavy Materials on St. Thomas between 2010 and 2013, when Spartan withdrew its ready-mix concrete business from the island. Only the latter received a 10% volume discount. The court found Argos not in violation of competition law due to lack of proof of harm attributable to discriminatory prices.

North America: Cemex’s venture capital division has invested an undisclosed sum in the construction materials delivery and logistics brand GoFor. Gonzalo Galindo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex, has stated the importance of improving efficient on-site delivery as ‘a critical point in the construction value chain’ of its North American divisions.