Global Cement gives an overview of new cement plant construction and expansion contracts signed in the second half of 2025 and first half of 2026.
The Global Cement News reported a total of 138 new contracts awarded for cement plant projects in the 12-month period up to June 2026. The contracted capacity growth is asymmetrical, but mostly consistent across individual regions. 61 deals (44%) were in the Middle East & Africa, 60 (44%) in Asia, 11 (8%) in the Americas region and six (4%) in Europe. Figure 1 (right) compares regions’ shares of projects by estimated
additional new capacity.
Asia
Of every tonne of cement produced globally, 700kg is made in Asian countries. The region under review comprises the Asian continent, plus Oceania and minus those parts of West Asia counted as the Middle East – for which see Middle East and Africa, overleaf. Asia’s cement industries include the world’s largest (China) and fastest-growing (India). Table 1 (above right) shows absolute growth by country. This conceals a divergence between the (India-led) boom markets and the rest: more developed industries are now entering stasis. These countries, like China and Vietnam, have scaled back investment in their capacities as a corollary to nationwide strategic shutdowns, aimed at capping or reducing overcapacity. By contrast, such initiatives are still a long way off in South and Central Asia.
| ASIA | Country | Projects | Capacity (Mt/yr) |
| 1 | India | 32 | 71.8 |
| 2 | Pakistan | 8 | 10.8 |
| 3 | China | 5 | 8.6 |
| 4 | Vietnam | 1 | 8 |
| 5 | Türkiye | 2 | 5 |
| 6 | Afghanistan | 3 | 3.9 |
| 7 | Kazakhstan | 2 | 3.2 |
| 8 | Malaysia | 1 | 2.2 |
| 9 | Australia | 1 | 1.6 |
| 10 | Cambodia | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Georgia | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Uzbekistan | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Kyrgyzstan | 1 | 0.4 |
| 15 | Bangladesh | 1 | 0.2 |
| TOTAL | 60 | 118.7 |
Table 1: Countries in Asia by total capacity of new cement projects, July 2025 – June 2026. Source: Global Cement News.
1. India
Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer won orders for at least six MVR 6000 C-6 vertical roller mills and two MPS 3750 BK fuel mills in India, the fastest-growing industry in terms of projects and cumulative capacity, in the 12 months up to June 2026.
2. Pakistan
US$720m will go into Pakistan’s newly- signed contracts for cement capacity development in Punjab and Sindh. Intermittent strife with neighbouring Afghanistan and India and separatists in Balochistan, along with issues surrounding a US$7bn International Monetary Fund bailout, delayed the delivery of the government’s budget.
3. China
In the most recent reported year, 2024, China inaugurated just 14.6Mt/yr of new capacity, down by 41% year-on-year and by 79% decade-on-decade. Based on a constant rate of decline, we can project new capacity building of 8.6Mt/yr in the 12 months up to the end of June 2025. Total installed capacity has been capped at 1.8Bnt/yr since the end of 2025, and producers continue to audit their plants’ production volumes and reconcile them to their rated capacities.1
Others
In 2022, the UAE became the first source of foreign investment in a US$1bn bonanza of cement plant building in Afghanistan that now flows from five foreign countries, all under conditions of informal international relations. October 2025 brought the largest project to date: the 1.8Mt/yr Ghori III plant, due for commissioning in April 2027. Since then, other new projects have followed at Aliabad (1Mt/yr, local/Chinese/Tajik joint venture) and Yatīm Taq (Turkish-owned, 1.1Mt/yr).
Middle East & Africa
Anyone unsure of the Middle East & Africa region’s boundaries need only look at a map of global population change in 2025: it is the entire area extending south and west from Iraq, coloured for ‘fastest growth.’ This growth has driven an intense past 12 months of cement capacity building, much of it involving foreign operators like China National Building Material (CNBM), currently building plants from Kenya to Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe to Libya.
| MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA | Country | Projects | Capacity (Mt/yr) |
| 1 | Nigeria | 11 | 23.6 |
| 2 | Iraq | 6 | 13 |
| 3 | Libya | 2 | 9.1 |
| 4 | Syria | 5 | 8.58 |
| 5 | Egypt | 4 | 6.25 |
| 6 | Algeria | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Tanzania | 3 | 4.9 |
| 8 | Kenya | 3 | 4.5 |
| 9 | Dem. Rep. Congo | 3 | 3.7 |
| 10 | Saudi Arabia | 1 | 3.7 |
| 11 | Zimbabwe | 5 | 3.1 |
| 12 | Mozambique | 3 | 3 |
| 13 | Botswana | 1 | 3 |
| 14 | Uganda | 1 | 3 |
| 15 | Ethiopia | 1 | 2.5 |
| 16 | Rwanda | 1 | 1.4 |
| 17 | Zambia | 2 | 1.2 |
| 18 | Cameroon | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | Sierra Leone | 1 | 0.66 |
| 20 | Angola | 1 | 0.6 |
| 21 | Gabon | 2 | 0.45 |
| 22 | Cape Verde | 1 | 0.05 |
| TOTAL | 61 | 102.3 |
Table 2: Countries in the Middle East & Africa by total capacity of new cement projects, July 2025 – June 2026. Source: Global Cement News.
1. Nigeria
Nigeria boasts the single largest cement plant project in 2026 to-date: a ‘China-based company’s’ upcoming 10Mt/yr plant in Edo State, which began in mid-May 2026. Meanwhile, CNBM subsidiary Sinoma International Engineering will carry out five new Dangote Cement plant upgrades (Apapa, Itori, Lekki, Onne, Port Harcourt) and the construction of a new line at one of its plants in Northern Nigeria – as listed in Table 3 (below right). This is part of a programme of 12 cement plant contracts across Africa between the producer and the engineering firm.
Based on current ownership stakes in the ‘clients’ listed in Table 3, investments are 45% domestic and 55% Chinese-sourced – a startling reversal for Nigeria’s two homegrown cement multinationals.
| Location | Client | Capacity (Mt/yr) | |
| 1 | Edo State | China-based company | 10 |
| 2 | Kalambania, Sokoto State | BUA Cement | 3 |
| 3 | Sagamu, Ogun State | HBM Nigeria | 2.6 |
| 4 | Ashaka, Gombe State | HBM Nigeria | 1 |
| 5 | Apapa, Lagos State | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 6 | Itori, Ogun State | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 7 | Lekki, Lagos State | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 8 | Onne, Rivers State | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 9 | Port Harcourt, Rivers State | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 10 | Northern Nigeria | Dangote Cement | 1 |
| 11 | Ebonyi State | State-owned plant | 1 |
| TOTAL | 23.6 |
Table 3: Cement plant projects contracted in Nigeria, July 2025 – June 2026.
2. Iraq
Iraq had previously developed its cement industry, but lost much of it in four decades of wars. National reconstruction hitherto relied on imports of cement, including 7Mt from neighbouring Iran in 2025.
Now, the Southern governorate of Muthanna is the target of a globally significant US$1.17bn investment in 11Mt/yr-worth of new cement capacity across five sites. Among these is Jordan-based IVI Holding’s upcoming 2.3Mt/yr al-Arabi cement plant, for which the company hired the services of CNBM subsidiary Sinoma Overseas Development. The aim of this and other nearby projects is to eliminate Iraq’s reliance on imports.
The Americas
Few regions embody the disruptions of the decade-to-date as distinctly as the Americas. Its largest commercial treaty, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, erupted in trade wars in 2025. The pact is up for review later in 2026.
| AMERICAS | Country | Projects | Capacity (Mt/yr) |
| 1 | Brazil | 5 | 3.7 |
| 2 | Mexico | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | US | 2 | 0.6 |
| 4 | Jamaica | 1 | 0.15 |
| 5 | Canada | 1 | 0.03 |
| 6 | Paraguay | 1 | 0.02 |
| TOTAL | 11 | 5.5 |
Table 4: Countries in the Americas by total capacity of new cement projects, July 2025 – June 2026.
1. Brazil
Votorantim Cimentos is investing in its home market with all 3.7Mt/yr-worth of Brazil’s newly contracted capacity since July 2025. The producer is expanding its Xambioá cement plant’s clinker capacity and building new grinding units at Edealina and Nobres.
2. Mexico
Cemento Cruz Azul hired CNBM subsidiary Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute to build its upcoming Campeche cement plant. The firm will design and manufacture 90% of equipment in-house.
Europe
Europe’s highly-developed cement plant network is the subject of continued decarbonisation and efficiency upgrades. New capacity is also coming up in a few locations: in the North and South of France, where Ireland-based Ecocem is building five new ACT slag-based alternative cement lines, and in Obrenovac, Serbia, where Lafarge Srbija will commission a new integrated plant to co-process 1Mt/yr of ash, beginning in 2027.
| EUROPE | Country | Projects | Capacity (Mt/yr) |
| 1 | Serbia | 1 | ~2.9 |
| 2 | France | 5 | 1.9 |
| TOTAL | 6 | ~4.8 |
Table 5: Countries in Europe by total capacity of new cement projects, July 2025 – June 2026.
Conclusion
Intermittent outbreaks of new tariffs, blockades and war give the impression of fragmentation. The cement contracts news goes to show that the world in 2026 is also drawing closer together in numerous ways. At the centre of this, a major axis of development is emerging into view, connecting boom markets across Africa and Asia to investors in China and Gulf nations. This model is vulnerable to continued political disputes; but it is poised to generate returns for investors who hold their nerve.
References
1. Fitch Ratings, China Cement Sector Consolidation to Support Profit Recovery, 7 August 2025, www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/china-cement-sector-consolidation-to-support-profit-recovery-07-08-2025
