Thailand: ThyssenKrupp Polysius says that it has successfully supplied and installed a Prepol SC alternative fuels (AF) system at a 12Mt/yr cement plant in Thailand. The system will supply the plant's four lines with 4000t/day of AF.

ThyssenKrupp Polysius' Asia Pacific CEO Lukas Schoeneck said "Asia Pacific, with its tremendous municipal solid waste (MSW) problem, is ideal when it comes to replacing coal with AF. The Prepol SC technology significantly reduces the need to treat MSW before using the inherent calorific value. Additionally, it helps to further reduce the ambitious CO₂ limit targets in the region."

Belgium: The EU Innovation Fund has awarded Euro4.5m to a consortium consisting of Lhoist, gas provider Fluxys Belgium, concrete products company Prefer and carbonation technology developer Orbix. The collaborators are working on a project called CO2ncrEAT. The project will carbonate steel sector by-products with captured CO₂ from Lhoist's Hermalle lime plant to produce alternative building materials. CO2ncrEAT will be the first project to employ Orbix's innovative technique for the purpose. Fluxys Belgium's pipeline technology will convey the Hermalle plant's emissions over a distance of 2km to a Prefer concrete blocks plant.

The consortium said that it will use 12,000t/yr of CO₂ to produce 100,000t/yr of reduced-CO₂ concrete blocks. The use of alternative raw materials in the blocks will further reduce their carbon footprint by 8000t/yr.

Lhoist Western Europe managing director Vincent Deleers said “The project fits perfectly with our willingness to actively develop CO₂ capture and sequestration technologies that are essential to the sustainability of our industry. We are delighted that our work on innovative solutions has been recognised by the European Innovation Fund and we look forward to working with our partners to bring CO2ncrEAT to the next level.”

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement despatched its second cement shipment to the US on 18 January 2023. The shipment consisted of 37,500t of low-alkali cement, and is part of an order for 600,000t. The Business Recorder newspaper has reported that DG Khan Cement previously shipped 50,000t to the US in June 2022. The latest delivery is destined for Houston, Texas.

DG Khan Cement's executive director Farid Fazal said that the Pakistan cement industry is position to obtain an over 10% share in the US import market. During 2022, Pakistan and 24 other countries exported cement to the US.

Denmark: FLSmidth has notified investors that Altor Fund Manager has increased its holding of shares in the company to over 5%. The transaction took place on 18 January 2023.

India: The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB) issued a show cause notice to UltraTech Cement's Baga cement plant in Himachal Pradesh's Solan District on 18 January 2023. The Hindustan Times has reported that stack emissions monitoring at the plant recorded a breach during 2022.

UltraTech Cement now has 15 days in which to respond to the show cause notice.

The Ministry of Trade in Türkiye said this week that it was monitoring developments in the construction industry. Specifically, the ministry is reacting to complaints it has received about the high price of cement and supply issues. It has been looking at exports of clinker and cement. The statement noted that prices had risen particularly in the last one to two months and that the government was prepared to take unspecified action to alleviate the situation.

The comments hark back to the autumn of 2021 when members of the Construction Contractors Confederation (IMKON) stopped working for two weeks in response to high prices including cement. At the time the ministry tightened its rules on exporting cement and clinker. This followed the start of an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour by the regulator Rekabat Kurumu into nine cement producers in the first half of that year. Around the same time Türkçimento, the Turkish Cement Manufacturers' Association, had also been warning about growing raw material and energy costs. It noted that declining domestic sales between 2017 and 2019 had encouraged its members to focus on export markets more. All of this was overshadowed in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and global energy prices spiked. Türk Çimento then warned of the trouble that high coal prices were causing the sector.

Graph 1: Domestic and export cement sales in Türkiye, January – September, 2017 – 2022. Source: Türkçimento.

Graph 1 above shows that the trend towards exports that Türkçimento pointed out in mid-2021 has continued. Domestic sales fell to a low of 33.2Mt in 2019, recovered to 2021 and dropped somewhat so far in 2022. As an aside, that decline in domestic sales from 2017 to 2019 was the first the local cement industry had experienced a fall in sales since at least 2002. Exports fell year-on-year in 2018 but have increased steadily since then to 14.6Mt in the first nine months of 2022. Exports represented 10% of total sales in 2017. So far in 2022 they have accounted for 27% of total sales. Türk Çimento’s take on the picture so far in 2022 is that it expects the domestic market to decline by 10% in 2022 in all regions of the country principally due to high commodity prices. Cement exports are expected to increase but clinker exports to decrease.

Commercially, Türkiye-based cement producers have reacted to high energy prices by upping their own product prices in turn. OYAK Çimento, for example, reported significant rises year-on-year in sales revenue and earnings in the first nine months of 2022. Net sales grew by 160% year-on-year to Euro403m and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 202% to Euro106m. Akçansa and Çimsa reported a similar situation.

Despite the high energy costs, both investment and merger and acquisition activity has continued in the cement sector in 2022. In August 2022 Fernas Group completed its purchase of two integrated cement plants, a grinding plant and associated ready-mix concrete assets from Çimsa Çimento for US$110m. Later in the year, in November 2022, Safi Çimento acquired Sancim Bilecik Çimento’s integrated plant from Aşkale Çimento. Various upgrade projects to cement plants were also reported including projects at KÇS Kipaş Çimento’s Kahramanmaraş plant, Nuh Çimento’s Hereke cement plant, MEDCEM’s Silifke plant and OYAK Çimento’s Ünye plant.

Recent reporting by the Economist newspaper suggests that the government is targeting the domestic housing sector in response to higher than inflation price rises even compared to Türkiye’s high consumer price inflation rate. The next general election in June 2023 may also be encouraging legislators to look at the accommodation needs of their constituents. Whether this is connected to the Ministry of Trade’s recent decision is unknown. Cement producers have followed the money to lucrative export markets in recent years. How far the government is willing to intervene in this strategy could mark a change in direction for the sector.

Germany: The German Cement Works Association (VDZ) has appointed Kristina Fleiger as the head of its new Climate-neutral Process Technology department. Stefan Schäfer has become the head of Environment and Industrial Engineering department. Both posts report to Volker Hoenig, who retains his position as the managing director of the VDZ.

Fleiger has worked for the VDZ in project management and engineering roles since 2011.

Schäfer was previously the VDZ’s Deputy Head of Environment and Plant Technology. He has worked for the VDZ since 1999.

Germany: Beumer Group has appointed Kay Wieczorek as the Head of its Center of Competence (COC) Product Business. The division is responsible for the Cement, Building Materials, Chemicals and FMCG divisions. He succeeds Norbert Stemich, who has been appointed as the chief strategy officer of Beumer Machinery (Shanghai) in China.

Kay Wieczorek has worked for Beumer Group since 2014. Most recently he was responsible for cement division sales. He holds a degree in Sales Engineering and Product Management from the Ruhr University in Bochum.

US: Inform has appointed Justin Newell as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its subsidiary Inform North America. He succeeds Adrian Weiler, who will continue in his role as ongoing advisor to the CEOs across all of Inform Group’s subsidiaries. Newell will retain his role as chief operating officer, which he has held since 2019. Newell started working for Inform after holding management roles at Reliable Carriers, Porsche Cars North America and Genuine Parts Company.

US: Ed Sullivan, the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Market Intelligence at the Portland Cement Association (PCA), expects that cement consumption will decline in the second half of 2023 due to a worsening general economic outlook. However, he noted that order books for the construction industry were ‘strong’ for at least the next six months and that this would cushion the sector. Sullivan made his comments at a presentation at the World of Concrete conference in Las Vegas.

Sullivan said, "When looking at the big picture of real construction spending and cement consumption this year, we should expect both volumes to soften throughout the year, with significant declines in the second half of 2023." He added, "The downturn is expected to be short-lived as interest rates ease slightly and stronger infrastructure volumes materialise in 2024 and beyond."

Sullivan predicts that the US economy is gradually weakening under the weight of high inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical turmoil. However, he viewed the occurrence of a recession as unlikely. In the construction sector he forecasts that the private sector will continue decline in 2023 following a drop in 2022. Spending benefits from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are likely to be muted in 2023 before registering a stronger effect in 2024.