The mountainous eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and its hinterlands in Europe’s Balkan Peninsula have one of the world’s highest densities of countries: six, across a broad equilateral triangle of 212,000km2. All six states – Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – are historically characterised by political non-alignment, carrying over
Before Russia invaded mainland Ukraine on 24 February 2023, many predicted that full-scale conflict would be averted. When the attack began, Russian President Vladimir Putin himself expected a 10-day war, according to think tank RUSI.1 15 May 2024 marks two years, two months and three weeks of fighting, with no end in sight. Ukrcement, the Ukrainian
The cost to rebuild Ukraine post-war is projected at US$487bn, according to a report commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development. The report states that to support the reconstruction, Ukraine must produce 15-16Mt/yr of cement for three years, a significant increase from current capacities. Protectionist measures in place since 2019 have restricted cement
This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq. Beginning on the night of 2 – 3 August 2014, ISIS displaced the entire Yazidi population from its homeland, amid a campaign of abductions and killings that claimed 12,000 victims.1 A striking detail of this and other crimes of the self-proclaimed caliphate
A court has accepted a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office to drop a claim for the appropriation of Russian assets of Germany-based Heidelberg Materials by the Russian government. The assets include shares in cement producers HeidelbergCement Rus and Shale Cement Plant Cesla, as well as minerals producers Gurovo-Beton and Syryevaya Kompaniya. A lawyer for
The Hungarian government recently enacted Emergency Decree 320/2023, taxing all CO2 emissions from the country’s 40 or so largest industrial enterprises. The government used emergency powers to set up a new taxation scheme, which undercuts existing free allowances under the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS). The scheme additionally penalises the trade in ETS credits. Cement producers announced that
Buzzi’s revenues rose by 14% year-on-year in the first half of 2023, to Euro2.15bn from Euro1.88bn in the first half of 2022. This was despite an 8.3% decline in its sales and volumes of cement and clinker, to 5.12Mt from 5.83Mt. The group recorded a rise in its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation
The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) has called for a 60% cut to duties on clinker imports, to US$1.84/t from US$4.61/t. The Financial Express newspaper has reported that BCMA members are struggling with high shipping costs and supply issues due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Bangladesh government published plans to raise the duty on
Buzzi Unicem reduced its specific gross scope 1 CO2 emissions by 4% year-on-year to 664kg/t cementitious product in 2022 from 689kg/t in 2021. As part of its Sustainability Report for 2022 it revealed that specific CO2 emissions varied from a low of 500kg/t in Luxembourg to a high of 812kg/t in Ukraine. Its specific thermal consumption fell
The US Department of State has imposed sanctions upon USM Holding including its subsidiaries Akkermann Cement and USM Cement in Russia, and Akhangarancement in Uzbekistan. The action is intended to target company owner Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov and his various business interests. Other USM companies in the iron, steel, copper, gold, telecommunications and real estate sectors