Holderbank Financiere Glaris Ltd. is submitting a takeover bid to all minority shareholders of the Swiss company Portland-Cementwerk Thayngen AG (PCWT), having built up its capital interest in PCWT from 31% to 54% through the acquisition of a number of share packages. PCWT operates a 300,000-mtpy plant in Thayngen in the Canton of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and has 64 employees. Holderbank also has a54% holding in Breisgauer Cement GmbH, Efringen-Kirchen, a company in southern Germany. Breisgauer runs a plant in Geisingen (500,000 mtpy) and a cement grinding station with an adjacent terminal in Kleinkems. The parent company sold 171,000 mt of cement in Switzerland in 1996 and exported about 24,000 mt to Germany.

Worldwide publishing Primedia Inc. (NYSE:PRM, formerly K-III Communications), publisher of Rock Products and Rock Products Cement Edition, announced it has entered a U.S.-Chinese publishing joint venture with Cheng Cheng Enterprises Holdings (China) Ltd. The venture relates to the publishing of as many as 43 titles of Intertec Publishing, Primedia's trade and technical division, over the next four years. Eleven of Intertec's leading technological titles will launch Chinese-language editions in 1998 and 1999. "Our partnership with Cheng Cheng Enterprises Holdings (China) Ltd., will enable the leaders in these industries in China to have access to important technical data in our magazines and our advertisers throughout the world to reach this important market," said William F. Reilly, chairman and CEO of Primedia Inc.

TXI acquires Riverside The US$120 million acquisition of Riverside Cement by TXI will increase the latter's total cement capacity 60% to around 3.6 million tpy, according to Robert D. Rogers, president and CEO of TXI. Speaking at the announcement of the takeover, Rogers added, "The Riverside acquisition follows TXI's business plan of expanding our cement production capacity and growing in desirable markets in western United States." Riverside has annual revenues of more than US$100 million and employs 375 people at its two plants in California, the 1.3 million-tpy Oro Grande facility and the Crestmore operation, which is one of only three plants in the country producing white portland cement.

Exporting out of trouble Thailand's Siam Cement said its campaign to export away its heavy foreign borrowings will lift export earnings from US$1.1 billion in 1997 to US$1.5 billion this year, according to a report in the Financial Times. Siam Cement was the first big Thai group to admit that last July's flotation of the baht, and the currency's sharp fall would hit profits by increasing the costs of its unhedged foreign debts. The company already has trimmed its expansion plans significantly in light of the crisis with the main victim being a massive pulp plant in Indonesia. However, other projects worth more than US$621 million also are believed to have been delayed. According to Aviruth Wongbudhapitak, vice president at Siam, the group has become obsessed with paring back debts. "Nothing else matters anymore," he said.

New dates for 1998 International Cement Seminar The 34th International Cement Seminar will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from December 6-9, 1998. The theme for the event is "Cement-The Burning Issues," and presentations will cover topics ranging from fuel technology, alternative fuels, and kiln flame optimization to reducing emissions and protecting the environment. Anyone interested in presenting a paper should contact Steve Burdett, Editor, Rock Products Cement Edition, Montrose House, 412-416 Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill, Ilford, Essex, UK IG2 6NQ. Tel: (+44) 181-518-2525; fax: (+1) 181-518-1020; e-mail: steve_burdett@intertec.com