France: Holcim will sell its slag grinding plant in Dunkirk as part of divestments required by the European Commission (EC) to approve its merger with Lafarge.

The European Union's antitrust authority has required asset sales by both companies in regions where their activities overlap. The EC's approval is conditional upon the divestment of Lafarge's businesses in Germany, Romania and the UK. Holcim is required to divest its operations in France, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic. The proposed transaction concerns assets worth several billion Euros and will create the world's largest cement producer, with operations in 90 countries.

"The Commission had concerns that the transaction, as originally notified, would have had a detrimental effect on competition in a significant number of markets in the European Economic Area (EEA)," said the EC. "The commitments offered by the two companies address these concerns."

According to the EC, its assessment found that the merged entity would have faced insufficient competitive pressure from the remaining players in many markets. This would have brought a risk of price rises. In order to prevent a negative impact on competition, the companies have committed to divesting most of the operations where their activities overlap. Further, the EC said that Holcim and Lafarge will not be allowed to close the deal until it has approved the buyers of the assets put up for sale.

China: Gezhouba Group Cement and Hubei Zhongxia Cement Company have signed an agreement to form a joint venture to restructure the assets and businesses of Zhongxia Cement.

Under the terms of the agreement, the joint venture with a registered capital of US$190m, will be engaged in production and sales of cement, clinker and fine slag powder and opencast mining of limestone for cement uses. Gezhouba Cement will hold 51% of the joint venture and Zhongxia Cement will hold the remaining 49%. The joint venture will acquire the entire current assets of inventories for cement production and operation of Zhongxia Cement after establishment.

Switzerland: Selfrag will install its first commercial system using electrodynamic fragmentation to recycle incinerator slag at a SAIDEF incinerator in Posieux, Canton Fribourg. The system will be ready for operation at the beginning of 2016. SAIDEF expects to increase recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous metals by more than 100% and reduce landfill requirements by up to 30%.

"We can double our recovery, especially for non-ferrous metals. The recovered metals are cleaner and will generate a higher sales price. Additionally, about 5% to 10% of the total slag volume is completely cleaned, fulfilling stringent Swiss regulations on inert fractions and can be potentially used as aggregates in road construction, which opens up another income source. The metal recycling, together with the decontamination of the remaining material, will reduce the material to be landfilled by 20 - 30%, leading to a cost saving of Euro42/t. There is an additional benefit through the reduction of CO₂ emissions from the material incineration process, a mandatory requirement in Switzerland from 2020," said Albert Bachmann, CEO of SAIDEF.

The system in Posieux, with a capacity of 3t/hr, will be installed in partnership with Frei Fördertechnik.