Europe/North America: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim and US-based Schlumberger plan to study the feasibility of carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems at two cement plants in Europe and North America. The companies say that the partnership is intended to as a precursor towards the deployment of large-scale CCS solutions.

LafargeHolcim’s chief sustainability officer Magali Anderson said, “Today’s announcement is further proof of LafargeHolcim’s environmental leadership and commitment to pioneer new solutions to reduce carbon emissions on our journey to become a net zero company. Our partnership with Schlumberger, the world’s leading provider of technology to the global energy industry, will bring new advances in storage that could be replicated at scale across our sites.”

Argentina: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Argentina has presented a voluntary retirement plan to all 50 workers at its Yocsina grinding plant in Cordoba. The La Voz del Interior newspaper has reported that the company is stopping production at the site and has invested US$120m in its integrated Malagueño cement plant in order to consolidate production there. Construction of the Yocsina plant originally started in 1959.

The company said, “At Holcim Argentina we are convinced of the potential of the Argentine market, and - as we have been doing for more than 90 years - we will continue to bet on the development of our country, both in private works and in public infrastructure."

India: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Ambuja Cement has begun a trial of bio-diesel fuel blends for its shipping fleet. It says that the fuel change will reduce the fleet’s CO₂ emissions by 25%.

Managing Director and chief executive officer Neeraj Akhoury said, “With the introduction of bio-diesel blends, we are significantly contributing towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by introducing a suitable alternate green fuel that helps achieve our parent, LafargeHolcim’s, sustainability vision of ‘net zero pledge 2030’.”

Democratic Republic of Congo/Uganda: The Democratic Republic of Congo has increased its imports of cement from Uganda by 30% to 90,000t in the two years since 1 February 2019 compared to the two prior years. The Daily Monitor newspaper has reported the reason for the increase as a Rwandan ban on Ugandan goods across the East African countries’ border. This contributed to a 3% fall in Uganda’s value of cement exports to US$59.9m in the 2020 financial year from US$61.5m in the 2019 financial year.

Lebanon: The Ministry of Industry has reversed a recent decision to allow cement imports into the country. Following a meeting with local cement producers, Minister Imad Hobballah declared that allowing imports would decrease official selling prices rapidly, according to the L'Orient-Le Jou newspaper. Local producers have reported low sales due to a strict coronavirus-related lockdown that started in January 2021. Cimenterie Nationale reportedly stopped production in early February 2021 due to a lack of raw materials.

Guatemala: Local cement producers have expressed concern over the quality of rising imports from Asia. Issues over quality standards and packaging have been raised, according to the El Periódico newspaper. According to data from the Bank of Guatamala, cement imports worth around US$57m were reported in the first 11 months of 2020. Imports from Turkey and Vietnam represented 85% of this. The country has a cement production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr and domestic consumption is around 3Mt/yr.

Denmark: FLSmidth’s group net sales fell by 20% year-on-year to Euro2.21bn in 2020 from Euro2.78bn in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special non-recurring items fell by 44% to Euro152m from Euro270m. Net profit was Euro27.6m, down by 74% from Euro104m.

The group’s cement business recorded net sales of Euro783m, down by 31% from Euro1.14bn, and an EBITA loss of Euro15.9m, compared to a gain of Euro65.3m in 2019. It said that the cement business is not expected to be EBITA positive in 2021 due to continued cement reshaping costs. However, order intake for the cement division improved year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to a Euro101m engineering, procurement and supervision contract for a cement plant project in Ethiopia.

Chair Vagn Ove Sørensen and chief executive officer Thomas Schulz said, “The cement market is faced with on-going overcapacity and we see no short-term to medium-term recovery. Thus, we continue activities to reshape our cement business. Large economic stimulus programmes, combined with an increasing focus on lower-carbon cement, will create good opportunities in the medium- to long-term but the timing and extent of an overall rebound in the cement market remain uncertain. It is, however, clear that the cement industry will need substantial investments to meet the emissions reduction targets set by a growing number of cement producers as well as the recent commitments to carbon neutrality made by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and the European Cement Association. Based on the need to decarbonise, we foresee a multi-commodity cement industry in the future, utilising a range of cement production processes and a variety of raw materials. As the industry’s leading and most innovative premium supplier with strong process know-how, we are strongly positioned to benefit from this development.”

In further comments about cement industry trends the company noted that, “Following the shutdown of about 20% of the world’s cement plants outside of China in April 2020, the share of cement plants in operation has since climbed back up above 95% at year-end. However, many plants continue to run at reduced capacity and sites remain difficult to access due to restrictions and preventative measurements taken by authorities and plant operators.”

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement’s consolidated net profit in the nine-month period which ended on 31 December 2020 was US$355m, up by 22% year-on-year from US$292m in the same period in 2019. Sales fell by 2% to US$6.24bn from US$6.33bn.

The company said that domestic demand fell in the second quarter of the 2021 financial year due to the suspension of construction work during a local coronavirus lockdown. Cement sales volumes of Japanese producers were 29.6Mt, a decrease of 5% yet exports rose by 6% to 8.22Mt. Public and private sector demand remained sluggish into the third quarter of the financial year due to process delays and a shortage of construction workers. However, its cement business recorded a year-on-year price increase.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka’s Cement’s consolidated sales were US$1.68bn in the nine-month period which ended on 31 December 2020, down by 3% year-on-year from US$1.74m in the corresponding period of its 2020 financial year. Its net profit rose by 5% to US$77.9m from US$73.8m. In December 2020 the company launched its ‘2020 - 2022 Medium-Term Management Plan’ to enable it to meet carbon neutrality by 2050.

India: JK Cement’s consolidated revenue from operations in the first three quarters of its 2021 financial year rose by 5% year-on-year to US$614m from US$584m. Its consolidated profit after tax rose by 52% to US$67.1m from US$44.3m, while standalone earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 29% to US$147m from US$115m. Its sales volumes of cement grew by 9% to 7.75Mt from 7.12Mt.

The group reported that it had two projects on-going in the period with a combined cost of US$267m at 31 December 2020. These were the installation of an overland belt conveyor for limestone at a 4.2Mt/yr cement plant expansion and the upgrade of Line 3 of its Nimbahera cement plant in Rajasthan.