Displaying items by tag: CSN Cimentos

We return to Brazil this week where Cimento Itambé has inaugurated a new kiln at its plant in Balsa Nova, Parana. The US$92m investment has added 0.6Mt/yr of cement production capacity to the unit, bringing its total to 3Mt/yr. Notably, the new kiln is intended to support the use of alternative fuels (AF) such as biomass and industrial waste. Local press reports that the new kiln can operate with a 50% AF thermal substitution rate (TSR) and in tests it has reached as high as 67%.

Local market leader Votorantim Cimentos has also embarked on an upgrade programme linked to increasing co-processing rates. In May 2025 it said that it had received and begun installing a new cement mill, supplied from China, at its Salto de Pirapora plant near São Paulo. Earlier in August 2025 it revealed that it was spending US$60m on upgrades at its Nobres and Cuiabá plants in Mato Grosso. A new cement grinding mill is to be installed at the Nobres plant. This should increase the site’s cement production capacity to 1.2Mt/yr from 0.6Mt/yr. At Cuiabá the company is installing a tyre shredding unit via its Verdura subsidiary to support increased rates of co-processing of AF. Work on these projects is set to start in 2025 with completion scheduled by the end of 2026.

These schemes are part of the group’s larger US$920m upgrade investment plans across the country. Announced in early 2024, this is intended to increase competitiveness and co-processing capacity and reduce CO₂ emissions. It will also add 3Mt/yr to the company’s production capacity. An investment of US$150m from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2023 to Votorantim to support the uptake of AF is likely to have helped the decision to upgrade. The company currently has a target of a 50% TSR by 2030.

Of the other major producers, CSN is also aiming for a 50% TSR by 2030. It said in its 2024 sustainability report that all of its kilns were capable of processing AF. It also highlighted upgrade work at its Alhandra, Paraíba, plant in 2024 to handle, store and transport fuels, including biomass. InterCement reported some relatively high TSRs at individual plants in Brazil in 2023. For example, its Ijaci plant in Minas Gerais reportedly had a rate of 42%.

National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) data shows that the co-processing rate of AF reached 32% in 2023. The union says that this puts the sector ahead of its next target of 30% in the mid-2020s. The next one is to reach 35% by 2030. For reference, back in 2019 the country’s Cement Technology Roadmap reported that around 60% of cement kilns in the country were licensed by environmental agencies to co-process waste.

Graph 1: Sales of cement in Brazil, 2017 - 2025. Source: SNIC.

Looking at the domestic industry in general, SNIC reported growth in 2024 and the first seven months of 2025. Sales for the first seven months of the year grew by 4% year-on-year to 38.2Mt. This has been attributed to the real estate sector, boosted by the Minha Casa Minha Vida housing programme, and an expanding job market. Yet jitters remain, with fears of an economic slowdown in the second half of 2025 and uncertainty on how new US tariffs might affect the cement industry indirectly. Despite only exporting around 65,000t of cement in 2024 though, the association is wary of any indirect effects of tariffs.

It’s no surprise that cement plants in Brazil are prioritising AF usage. The market is buoyant and co-processing offers one of the cheapest routes to decarbonising cement production in the short-to-medium term. Increasing the use of AF can also potentially hedge against the cost of imported conventional fuels, such as coke, that are priced in US dollars. This is one example of SNIC’s concern over indirect effects on the cement industry from US tariffs via currency volatility. Expect AF rates to carry on rising.

The 18th Global CemFuels Conference & Exhibition on alternative fuels for cement and lime will take place on 17 - 18 September 2025 in Milan, Italy

Brazil: InterCement has hired BTG Pactual to help explore ‘capitalisation alternatives’ as part of a proposed restructuring, possibly involving the sale of the group’s Brazilian business. Valor International News has reported that Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) Cimentos has signalled its interest in acquiring the business, while Votorantim Cimentos may group together with other cement companies to make a bid. This would entail a division of the assets in order to conform to Brazilian competition laws.

InterCement successfully secured a postponement for payment of its outstanding bank debt in September 2023. It owes net debt of US$1.5bn up to 2027, including a senior note of US$548m due in May 2024. InterCement operates 12.2Mt/yr worth of cement capacity, and produced 8.7Mt of cement in 2022.

Brazil: CSN Cimentos has announced its second issuance of non-convertible debentures totalling US$125m in value through a restricted efforts public offering. LC news has reported that the company’s subsidiary Elizabeth Cimentos guaranteed the transaction.

Brazil: Holcim has closed the sale of its business in Brazil to Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) for an enterprise value of US$1.025bn. The deal was closed following approvals from the Brazilian authorities. This transaction includes Holcim’s five integrated cement plants, four grinding units, six aggregates sites and 19 ready-mix concrete facilities.

Holcim said that Latin America remains a core strategic growth region for the group. In the first half of 2022 it completed a new cement production line in El Salvador and significantly expanded its aggregates operations in El Salvador, Ecuador and Colombia. The company also continued to expand its Disensa retail network across the region with over 2000 stores now open across eight countries.

Brazil: The Administrative Court of the Brazilian Administrative Council of Economic Defence (CADE) has approved Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional subsidiary CSN Cimentos’ acquisition of LafargeHolcim Brasil, ‘without restrictions.’ The acquisition more than doubles CSN Cimentos’ capacity to 16.3Mt/yr, giving it the largest market share, ahead of InterCement Brasil.

Brazil: The General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) has approved CSN’s takeover deal with Holcim for the latter’s Brazilian business. The América Economía newspaper has reported that the US$1.03m deal covers five cement plants, among other assets.

Holcim has said that its Latin America region remains strategically important within its global operations.

Brazil: Members of the Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) have committed to a 34% reduction in the CO₂ emissions of their cement production to 375kg/t by 2050 from 564kg/t in 2019. Ten cement producers including Cimento Tupi, CSN Cimentos, InterCement and Votorantim signed the commitment. With the industry's forecast rate of growth in cement production capacity, this will result in possible total CO₂ emissions of 45Bnt in 2050 compared to 36.7Bnt in 2020.

Planned CO₂ emissions reduction investments before 2032 are US$637m across the industry.

Brazil: CSN Cimentos is reviewing alternative options to raise funds to pay for its acquisition of LafargeHolcim Brasil’s cement assets after cancelling its planned initial public offering (IPO). The O Estado de São Paulo newspaper has reported that the producer abandoned the planned IPO of US$500m – US$1bn-worth of shares due to stock market turbulence. The value of the deal was US$4bn.

Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) Cimentos was confirmed this week as the agreed buyer for Holcim’s Brazilian cement business for US$1.03bn. The deal includes five integrated cement plants, four grinding plants and 19 ready-mix concrete facilities. CSN is now poised to become Brazil’s third-largest cement producer by production capacity after Votorantim and InterCement. Or second place if you believe CSN’s cheeky claims about a competitor’s idle capacity!

Figure 1: Map of cement plants included in CSN Cimentos’ deal to buy LafargeHolcim Brazil assets. Source: CSN Investor Relations website.

CSN originally started out in steel production and this remains the major part of its operations to the present day. In 2020 it reported revenue of US$5.74bn. Around 55% of this came from its steel business, 42% from mining, 5% in logistics and only 3% came from its cement segment. CSN’s path in the cement sector started in 2009 when it started grinding blast furnace slag and clinker at its Presidente Vargas Plant at Volta Redonda in Rio de Janeiro state. It then started clinker production in 2011 at its integrated Arcos plant in Minas Gerais. Not a lot happened for the next decade, publicly at least, as the country faced an economic downturn and national cement sales sunk to a low in 2017. From around 2019, CSN Cimentos then started talking about a number of new proposed plant projects elsewhere in Brazil, dependent on market growth and an anticipated initial public offering (IPO). These included plants at Ceará, Sergipe, Pará and Paraná and expansion to the existing units in the south-east. Then CSN Cimentos agreed to buy Cimento Elizabeth for US$220m in July 2021.

It is worth noting that the Holcim acquisition is subject to approval by the local competition authority. For example, the Cimento Elizabeth plant and Holcim’s Caaporã plant are both in Paraíba state and within about 30km of each other. If approved, this would give CSN Cimentos two of the four integrated plants in the state, with the other two operated by Votorantim and InterCement respectively. CSN also stands to pick up four integrated plants in Minas Gerais from Holcim to add to the one it holds at present. Although this would seem to be of less concern due to the high number of plants in the state.

Holcim has made a point of saying that its divestment in Brazil is part of its strategy to refocus on sustainable building solutions with the proceeds going towards its Solutions & Products business following the Firestone acquisition that completed in early 2021. It has also stated previously that it wants to concentrate on core markets with long term prospects. In this context a major steelmaker like CSN diversifying into cement is a contrast. Both industries are high CO₂ emitters so CSN is hardly moving away from carbon-intensive sectors. Yet the two have operational, economic and sustainability synergies through the use of slag in cement production. This puts CSN Cimentos in company with Votorantim in Brazil and JSW Cement in India, two other steel manufacturers that also produce cement. Whatever else happens at the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) in November 2021, it seems unlikely that global demand for steel or cement is likely to be significantly reduced. CSN Cimentos is now going to resume its IPO of shares to raise funds for the Holcim acquisition.

Acquisitions are all about timing. The CSN Cimentos-Holcim deal follows the purchase of CRH Brazil by Buzzi Unicem’s Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC) joint-venture earlier in 2021. As mentioned above, the cement market in Brazil has been doing well since it started recovering in 2018. The coronavirus pandemic barely slowed this down due to weak lockdown measures compared to other countries. The current run of sales growth may be tapering off based on the latest National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) figures for August 2021. Rolling annual totals on a monthly basis had been growing since mid-2019 but this started to slow in May 2021. Annual sales will be up in 2021 based on the figures so far this year but after that, who knows? A CSN investors’ day document in December 2020 predicted, as one would expect, steady cement consumption growth in Brazil until at least 2025, based on correlated forecast growth in the general economy. Yet fears of inflation, rising prices and political uncertainty ahead of the next general election in late 2022 may undermine this. InterCement, for example, cancelled a proposed IPO in July 2021 due to low valuations amid investor uncertainty. CSN Cimentos may encounter similar issues with its own planned IPO or face over-leveraging itself when it picks up the tab for LafargeHolcim Brazil. Either way, CSN decided to take the risk on its path to becoming Brazil’s third largest cement producer.

Brazil: Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) Cimentos plans to resume its initial public offering (IPO) of shares in mid-October 2021. The producer is aiming to raise at least US$478m. It will conclude the offering before 1 January 2022. Parent company CSN previously suspended the IPO in July 2021 due to unfavourable market conditions.