Ghana: Continental Blue Investment Ghana (CBI) may receive up to US$20m from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for a limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) plant in Tema, according to Ecofin Agency. The US$66.7m project is supported by Société Générale, Norfund and Denmark’s export credit agency EKF, with IFC’s board due to decide on 30 September 2025.

The company said that the facility operates with the ‘world’s largest’ flash calciner, and has a capacity of 400,000t/yr of calcined clay. With the funding, CBI plans to raise output from 600,000t/yr to 1.4Mt/yr, reducing clinker imports and lowering cement prices.

CBI is owned by Swiss holding company F. Scott in a joint venture with Heidelberg Materials, with minority stakes held by Norway and Denmark’s public funds and Danish equipment supplier FLSmidth.

India: Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) loaded 2792 wagons carrying 0.18Mt of cement between April and July 2025, up by 71% year-on-year from 1628 wagons carrying 0.10Mt in the same period of 2024. For the first time, 84 wagons were despatched from NFR’s Lumding division to East Central Railway’s Sonpur division, with Narayanpur Anant and Tilrath each receiving 42 wagons from Star Cement.

In August 2025, NFR loaded 21 wagons from Star Cement Siding near Guwahati to Kishanganj and 21 wagons to Tilrath. In July 2025, NFR despatched 21 wagons to Tilrath, 42 to Narayanpur Anant, 42 to Kishanganj, 21 to PCM Concrete Sleeper Siding, 21 to Pristine Hindustan Infraprojects, and 20 wagons from New Guwahati–Dalmia Siding to Pristine Hindustan Infraprojects.

Nigeria: Holcim has completed the divestment of its Nigerian business, selling its entire 83.8% stake in Lafarge Africa to Huaxin Cement in a deal valued at US$1bn.

Holcim regional head Asia, Middle East & Africa Martin Kriegner said “We are pleased to have found in Huaxin Cement a trusted buyer that is committed to further developing the business in Nigeria. At the same time, the sale proceeds give Holcim additional capacity for our growth-focused capital allocation. We wish Lafarge Africa and Huaxin Cement continued success.”

Latvia: Schwenk Cement Latvija has inaugurated a carbon capture test base at the Brocēni cement plant, according to a post on Linkedin by the producer. Throughout 2025, several technologies will be tested at the site to determine the best solution for Brocēni and Schwenk’s other plants. The Broceni carbon capture and storage (CCS) project aims to capture 800,000t/yr of CO₂. The event was attended by Latvian prime minister Evika Silina, German embassy representative Heike Janče and staff members from Schwenk Latvija.

The final investment decision is planned for 2027, with completion in 2030. Schwenk said the project will strengthen exports to Estonia, Finland and Sweden and establish a regional value chain for low-CO₂ cement.

Türkiye: Limak Çimento will expand the solar power plant under construction in Kurtalan, Siirt, to meet the electricity demands of its cement plant, according to Energy Diary. The project, divided into five units, will increase its capacity from 9.91MW to 15.9MW with the addition of 6MW. The project site will increase from 109,000m² to 241,000m². The expansion will reportedly employ 10 people during construction and five in the operation phase.

Portugal: Cement consumption reached 1.97Mt in the first half of 2025, down by 2.2% year-on-year, according to the construction industry association AICCOPN. In the same period, permits issued for construction and rehabilitation of residential buildings rose by 14% to 10,262. The number of licensed new housing units saw a ‘significant increase’ of 26%, totalling 20,613 new dwellings.

India: Andhra Cements has commissioned a 6MW solar power plant at its cement plant in Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, according to India Infoline. The project forms part of the company’s initiative to reduce reliance on conventional energy sources and promote sustainable operations.

Ukraine/Ireland: Divinereach, a company led by Hyundai Ireland chair Eugene O’Reilly, has bought a 25% stake in Dyckerhoff Ukraine from CRH, according to Business Post Ireland. The sale was a condition of CRH’s 2024 acquisition of Dyckerhoff from Italy-based Buzzi.

Local competitor Kovalska has opposed the Dyckerhoff acquisition, arguing it created a duopoly with CemIn West and gave CRH a 46% market share, exceeding limits under Ukrainian and EU monopoly law.

CRH has defended its position, saying the acquisition was completed in accordance with accepted international practice, in full compliance with all legislative requirements and with the approval of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU).

CRH said “While we are monitoring the legal challenge to the AMCU approval in Ukraine... we are focused on investing in our businesses and supporting our employees.”

Kovalska plans to appeal the AMCU’s approval of the acquisition to the Ukrainian supreme court in September 2025.

US: Ash Grove Cement, part of CRH, has deployed Boston Dynamics’ autonomous robot ‘Spot’ at its cement plant in Washington in a year-long pilot to boost efficiency and safety. Operating more than 80 hours a week, the four-legged robot conducts routine inspections using a 4K camera and laser scanning, detecting anomalies and alerting teams before failures occur.

The company said that the robot can measure refractory bricks inside cement kilns, reducing risks by keeping employees out of hazardous environments. During the trial, Spot detected a failing bearing in rotating equipment, preventing unplanned downtime. Ash Grove said that the technology improves site safety, frees skilled teams for complex work and enables real-time monitoring in the hot and dusty conditions at the plant.

Plant manager Andy White said “Our aim for Spot is that, at the moment, we don’t have preventative or proactive maintenance routines on night shifts and the weekends. And, also, our labour force has to spend a lot of time recording data rather than analysing it… Spot can do this for us. When we come in the mornings, we already have reported generated, so we can proactively fix those issues thather than spending eight hours trying to find them.”

South Africa: Afrimat has recorded signs of recovery in the second quarter of its 2026 financial year, supported by the integration of Lafarge South Africa and cost savings from migrating Holcim systems onto its platform. The company said that July 2025 marked its highest monthly cement sales since acquiring the business, with both bulk and bagged sales rising.

Afrimat said “Our diversified model ensures the correct deployment of resources across operations. After each acquisition, we allowed time to stabilise distressed assets... we are now beginning to see a steady turnaround.”

The company said it has invested ‘heavily’ at the Lichtenburg cement plant to address historic underinvestment, though kiln reliability remains a constraint. It said “By reducing reliance on costly and environmentally taxing components and incorporating extenders such as fly ash and slag, both abundantly available to Afrimat, we can supply compliant, cost-effective and lower-carbon cement products to the market.”