India: Prism Johnson has decided to move a proposed increase in its cement grinding capacity from its integrated Satna plant in Madhya Pradesh to a location in eastern Uttar Pradesh. It has done so in response to geographical demand. Previously the cement producer said it was going to add around 1Mt/yr of grinding capacity for a cost of US$34m with a commissioning date scheduled for September 2023. Now it wants to build a 2Mt/yr grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh for around US$67m with a commissioning date by December 2024.

Algeria: Ali Bey Nasri, the president of the National Association Algerian Exporters, says that his country exported 5Mt of cement in 2021 with a value of US$200m. Local cement production exceeded 40Mt in 2021 and a rise in exports is expected in 2022, according to the Horizon newspaper. Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) operates half of the country’s cement production plants.

India: One worker has been killed and two injured at UltraTech Cement’s Jafrabad plant in Gujarat. Police report that during the incident hot liquid raw material fell on the workers as they cleaned a silo during a plant shutdown, according to the Times of India newspaper. The accident took place on 30 January 2022. The investigation continues.

South Africa: Data from Industry Insight shows that cement imports grew by 18.7% year-on-year to 1.1Mt in the first 11 months of 2021. Imports hit a monthly high of 162,000t in November 2021, according to Moneyweb. The majority of the imports came from Vietnam followed by Pakistan. The increase in imports in November 2021 appears to have occurred despite a ban on the use of imported cement on all government-funded projects that started in the same month. Bryan Perrie, the head of Cement & Concrete SA, said that it was likely that imports in November 2021 remained high is because the cement was “probably already on the water before the designation came in."

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement started using an internal carbon pricing system for capital investments from January 2022. It is intended to create economic incentives for emission reductions and promote low-carbon investment. The starting price will be around Euro39/t of CO₂. The measure follows the company’s introduction of its 2050 carbon neutral goals and policies in late 2020.

Ghana: Professor Karen Scrivener has paid a working visit to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA). The visit was part of a tour by Scrivener to Ghana to discuss innovations in cement and cementitious products and to introduce Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) to the authority, according to the Ghana News Agency. The Head of Laboratory of Construction Materials at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland met with GSA management and staff of the Building and Civil Engineering Lab at the Authority's Head Office in Accra. Scrivener noted that she was interested in learning more and engaging with the GSA on standards and its testing capabilities as well as a potential collaboration in capacity building in cement and cementitious products.

Germany: HeidelbergCement recorded sales of Euro18.7bn in 2021, up by 6.3% year-on-year from Euro17.6bn in 2020. The group says that the growth exceeds its anticipated ‘slight increase’ in sales. Sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 were Euro4.7bn, up by 4.4% from Euro4.5bn in the fourth quarter of 2020. The company announced a preliminary result from current operations of Euro2.61bn, up by 11% from Euro2.36bn in 2021.

Denmark: FLSmidth’s 2021 full-year sales were US$2.66bn, up by 6.8% year-on-year from US$2.99bn in 2020. The group had previously forecast sales of US$2.42 – 2.57bn in its guidance for the year. Its EBITA margin was 5.9%, in the upper end of the company’s guidance of 5 – 6%. The company said that the result included costs of acquiring Thyssenkrupp’s mining business.

Italy: Holcim has signed a collaboration agreement with energy company Eni for the development of ENI’s magnesium silicate-based carbon utilisation technology. The reaction of the magnesium silicate with captured CO₂ emissions yields a product which Holcim hopes to use in its cement production.

Holcim Innovation Center head Edelio Bermejo said “Reaching net zero in cement manufacturing will require the deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies at scale. ENI’s solution is very promising, and we are happy to explore its potential as it could take us all one step further on our decarbonisation journey.”

UK: Cemex UK has launched ReadyBlock Zero, a zero carbon concrete block, on the UK market. The product joins the company’s Vertua reduced-CO₂ product range. Cemex UK achieved zero carbon production by means of offsetting. It said that ReadyBlock Zero will help builders to meet the UK’s government’s Future Homes Standard, which requires a 75 – 80% CO₂ emissions reduction in all newly built homes.

Cemex’s Europe regional urbanisation solutions director of asphalt, paving and building products Carl Platt said “We have developed the UK’s first carbon neutral concrete block to help housebuilders get ahead of the game when it comes to building low carbon homes that meet and exceed government guidelines and changes to building regulations. We want to make life easier for housebuilders to make simple sustainable choices that make large scale impacts on the often complex road to net zero. Concrete blocks are the most common structural component in the construction of UK homes, so by switching to zero carbon blocks, ReadyBlock Zero presents a huge opportunity for housebuilders to make significant carbon reductions.”