India´s cement industry will see addition of 50 million tonnes (MT) of capacity in the current financial year, despite profitability expected to go down by 20 per cent in last fiscal.

According to the Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA), the industry, which is expected to grow at about 1.2 times of the country’s GDP growth this fiscal, is estimated to have sales growth of 8-9 per cent in 2008-09, but profit margins are likely to dropped by 20 per cent for the same year.

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday downgraded the debt of Cemex SAB de CV after the Mexican cement producer initiated talks with banks about easing terms of its loans.

Two Saudi Arabian cement producers said yesterday profit fell in the fourth quarter on lower sales volumes following a government decision to ban exports.

Yamama Cement, the country’s third largest cement producer, said net income in the fourth quarter of this year has dropped 33 per cent to 85.1 million riyals ($22.69m) from 126.9m riyals in the corresponding period in 2007.

Federal regulators have settled a lawsuit with environmental activists and nine states over standards for mercury emissions from cement plants, the plaintiffs announced Friday.

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm based in Washington, sued the Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 on behalf of activist groups. The firm said existing federal regulations that exempted older cement kilns failed to impose adequate mercury pollution controls.

Nine states, including New York and Michigan, also joined the suit, contending the agency had not based its standards on the latest pollution control technology.