Cement News tagged: International
Vietnam exporters looking further afield
Cement sales in Vietnam continue to struggle versus their year-ago levels. Sales were down 17 per cent YoY to 5.113Mt in March 2024, from 6.161Mt a year earlier, according to the Vietnam National Cement Association (VNCA). However, they did show a strong uptick from February, rising 130 per cent MoM. Of the total, VICEM companies saw sales down 23 per cent YoY to 1.625Mt. Other VNCA-affiliated...
66th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2024 achieves record attendance in Denver
The 66 th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference and Exhibition in Denver, Colorado, USA, announced a record attendance of 1200 delegates, as the technical sessions began on 30 April 2024. Brian Keefe, Bridge Gap Engineering’s managing director, opened the technical sessions and thanked the team of 61 volunteers that made up the organising committee for this year’s event. The record attendance was...
New MYR1.2bn cement plant for Sabah
A MYR1.2bn (US$251.5m) integrated cement plant project in Kampung Kawayoi Pinangah, Tongod, central Sabah, Malaysia, will help boost the economy of the local community upon completion. Malaysia’s Sabah Chief Minister Datum Seri Hajiji Moor said that the new plant would complement the existing Cement Industries Sabah (CIS) Sen Bhd plant. “I believe this new factory will not only boost our ceme...
Uzbekistan sees opening of new 2.5Mta cement plant
The opening ceremony of a new 2.5Mta cement plant took place in the Andijan region of Uzbekistan, according to Trend. China-based Conch International Holdings Ltd and Zhejiang Shanfeng Building Materials Co Ltd invested US$250m in the Andijan Conch project near the border with Kyrgyzstan. Uzbek cement production reached 15.5Mt in 2023. In January 2024 the sector supplied an output of 627,90...
Difficult start to 2024 for US cement market
Total shipments of Portland and blended cement, including imports, in the US and Puerto Rico amounted to 5.886Mt in the first month of 2024, down 14.3 per cent YoY from the 6.872Mt recorded in January 2023, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Of the total blended volume reported, 2.745Mt, or 98 per cent, was estimated to be Portland limestone cement. The key destination for Por...
Indian cement demand to grow by 6-7% in FY24-25
Indian cement volume growth recovered to a healthy 7-8 per cent YoY in the last quarter (1 January 2024-31 March 2024) of FY23-24, on aggressive volume push, after growing ~15 per cent YoY in the first half of the year and logging a moderate slowdown in the third quarter due to regional hindrances, according to CRISIL MI&A Research. This ensured a third straight year of healthy demand growth ...
Adbri is granted US$32.5m for upgrade at Birkenhead plant
The Adelaide-based cement manufacturer, Adbri , has been granted US$32.5m by the Australian federal government. The grant will finance a new front-end engineering and design (FEED) study at the company’s Birkenhead cement plant. The aim of the study is to assess the possible addition of a new vertical roller mill and post-production blending system math the site. The proposed upgrade ...
Outlook improving for Indonesia cement demand, clinker exports robust
Cement sales in Indonesia amounted to 65.501Mt in 2023. This is an increase of 3.4 per cent YoY compared to the 63.346Mt reported in 2022. Regional sales were a mixed bag, with over a third recording sale contractions. Java, the country’s largest market, saw sales rise a modest 0.3 per cent YoY to 33.56Mt, while sales in the capital Jakarta rose 5.5 per cent YoY to 2.714Mt. Sales volumes we...
Swiss cement market contracts 8% in 1Q24
Cement demand in Switzerland, including Liechtenstein, declined eight per cent to 786,433.2t in the first quarter of 2024 when compared with 855,143.7t in the 1Q23, according to the Swiss cement association, cemsuisse. While cement sales continue to fall due to uncertainty in terms of interest rates, energy prices and supply chains, the decline is slowing. Planned projects in civil engineering...
Cement Australia to receive AUD52.9m in government funding
Cement Australia ’s kiln facility in Railton, Tasmania, is due to receive AUD52.9m (US$34.4m) in funding from the country’s federal government. The kiln upgrade will allow the Railton plant to begin using biomass instead of coal, when it produces clinker and cement, as part of a federal initiative to help reduce companies’ carbon emissions. Once operational, the kiln upgrade in Railto...
Closure of The Board of Cement & Concrete SA
The Board of Cement & Concrete SA (CCSA) has closed its non-profit organisation and been de-registered from the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in line with its Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI). Since its initial establishment 86 years ago (in 1938) as the Concrete Association of South Africa, this industry body has transitioned and gone through numerous name changes ...
Gloomy outlook for Germany's cement industry
The 2024 outlook for the German cement market is gloomy. According to the German Building Materials Association, Bundesverband Baustoffe, production of building materials contracted 15.3 per cent YoY in the first two months of 2024, adding to the 16.7 per cent YoY contraction recorded in 2023. The latest cement consumption figures from German cement association, VDZ, show a 18.9 per cent YoY c...
Moroccan cement deliveries fall 14% in March
Cement deliveries in Morocco dropped 14 per cent YoY to 1,028,481t in March 2024, according to the country's cement association, APC. Sales by its members – Asment Témara , Ciments de l’Atlas , Ciments du Maroc , LafargeHolcim Maroc and Novacim – were down from 1,195,305t in March 2023. Deliveries to the retail sector fell 20.7 per cent to 575,731t in March 2024 from 725,926t in March...
Mexico's demand expected to cool down
Cement demand in Mexico is forecast to cool down with the country's major cement producing expecting modest growth in 2024 following the completion of some of the government's key infrastructure projects and a reduction in the infrastructure budget. As a result, domestic cement producers are looking to Europe for alternative sales or prepare for expansion projects in Mexico. In 2023 construc...
Cement consumption in Ukraine increased 17% in 2023
Cement consumption in Ukraine rose by 17 per cent last year, up 5.4Mt compared to 2022, says Pablo Kachur, head of the country's cement association, Ukrcement Association. “A similar jump is not predicted this year, but we will probably get 6Mt of domestic cement consumption,” said the representative. Ukraine’s peak pre-war consumption was 10.6Mt (2021), according to The Global Cement R...
Pakistan producers to add expiry dates to cement bags
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued a Policy Note under Section 29 of the Competition Act, 2010 to the Ministry of Science and Technology and Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA). The Policy Note recommends an amendment to the Pakistan Standard Specification for all five types of cement and make it mandatory for cement manufacturers to disclose the ‘man...