Holcim held a ceremony launching a new calcined clay production line in the Czech Republic this week. Around the same time LeadIT (the Leadership Group for Industry Transition) published a report on calcined clay kiln projects around the world using its second quarter 2026 data from its Green Cement Technology Tracker. It must be time for an update on calcined clay!

Various dignitaries attended the launch event on 3 September 2026, including Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. The new production line has a capacity of 0.58Mt/yr. This will supply products in the group’s ECOPlanet low-carbon cement range. Holcim says that the €40m project is the largest investment in the history of Holcim Czech Republic, with around €13.5m granted by the Modernization Fund of the Ministry of the Environment. Hence the politicians turned up for the photo opportunity.

LeadIT’s handily timed report revealed that six calcined clay projects were planned to be commissioned in 2026, including the one in the Czech Republic. The others are at PPC’s West Riebeek plant in South Africa, a new Ciments de Côte d’Ivoire (CIMCI) plant in Ivory Coast, CIMAF’s Ouagadougou plant in Burkina Faso, CIMAF’s Bobo-Dioulasso plant in Burkina Faso and Cimpor’s Souselas plant in Portugal. Commissioning is expected for most of these by the end of 2026. However, progress on the two CIMAF projects is more uncertain. In addition to these, LeadIT has also identified five calcined clay projects that have been delayed and another five that have no announced commissioning date. Its research has 14 projects currently in the pipeline with an investment of US$405m and a calcined clay production capacity of 3.3Mt/yr. Despite the large number of new projects on the way, LeadIT says it is difficult to forecast the pipeline of new projects due to a drop in new announcements in 2025 and 2026.

Graph 1: Commercial scale calcined clay projects under development by planned commissioning year and project status. Source: LeadIT report Clinker-free cement: calcined clay paves a path to cement decarbonization, September 2026.

As mentioned last time Global Cement Weekly covered calcined clay, equipment suppliers have taken note of the nascent market. For example, Aumund Fördertechnik launched its electrified Linear Calcination Conveyor in late 2025. Denmark-based CemGreen is marketing its CemTower calcination technology. Both of these developments have been covered in Global Cement Magazine in more detail. Raw materials suppliers are also circling this space. Brick and building materials manufacturer Forterra, for example, noted in its half-year report in July 2026 that it was looking to ‘utilise’ some of its surplus clay reserves for “...calcination on a much larger scale.” In mid-2025 LKAB Minerals said it was working with Forterra on using brick waste from the latter’s Kings Dyke plant. LKAB Minerals then built a calcined clay production line at Flixborough, UK, which was scheduled to start production in August 2025. Another example of this could be found in July 2026 when Green360 Technologies (G360) signed a commercial supply agreement with Holcim Australia to provide its calcined clay product. This deal is also noteworthy as Calix said earlier in the year that it was toll-processing up to 30,000t/yr for G360. Readers may be more familiar with Calix for its supply of pre-calciner technology for the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) projects.

Clay is also being looked at in other forms for use in cement production. One such approach is ThyssenKrupp Polysius’s meca-clay technology, which activates clay without calcination. In late 2025 Titan Group signed a deal with ThyssenKrupp Polysius to develop the technology. This follows work between ThyssenKrupp Polysius and Schwenk Zement that was presented at the Global FutureCem Conference 2023 in Brussels. Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies launched its technology H-CLAY for the cold-processing of clay in June 2026.

We can see that interest in calcined clay as a secondary cementitious material (SCM) in cement production continues. The announcements of new calcined clay projects may have slowed in 2025 and 2026 but a number of previously planned projects are reaching commissioning. At the same time, some companies are focusing new equipment to support this and others on supplying calcined clay as a raw material to cement producers. Then there are the projects looking at using clay without calcination. Clay usage as an SCM may not have the big-ticket prestige of expensive carbon capture projects but it is already here at scale, at lower cost, at multiple locations and delivering CO₂ reductions.

This week a Nigeria-based government regulator has concluded that there may be some anti-competitive behaviour occurring in the local cement sector. One of the other countries it compared Nigeria to was Tanzania. However, Tanzania has been having its own problems with cement supply recently. Let’s explore what’s been happening.

Arguments over the price of cement in Nigeria are a regular occurrence that this column has covered multiple times over the last decade and beforehand. Our last one, in February 2026, covered a think-tank that blamed the situation on structural issues with the market. The latest allegations come from the Anticompetitive Practices Department (ACP) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). In a preliminary report its findings “...suggest possible manipulation of prices of cement in the Nigerian market.” The ACP started the investigation due to the apparent high price of cement locally, compared to other countries, despite plenty of limestone sources and surplus production capacity. All the major cement producers in the country cooperated with the ACP apart from one. The department then goes on to note that three large companies account for 90% of cement production in the country.

The ACP actually compared prices in different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to Nigeria. For example, it says that the retail price of cement is US$5.40/bag (50kg) in Nairobi, Kenya or US$4.80/bag in Tanzania. The commission notes that the price of cement rose significantly in the first half of 2026. Its exemplar prices suggest that cement in Nigeria sold for US$7.20/bag in January 2026, US$9.65/bag by the middle of the year and as high as US$11.13/bag by July 2026. The FCCPC press release doesn’t do the calculations but the figures it provides suggest that Kenya has a cement production capacity of 160kg/capita but Nigeria has one of at least 252kg/capita. Nigeria apparently produces more cement per person than Kenya but it may cost twice as much! The FCCPC has asked the large producers to explain their pricing methods, production capacity utilisation and export data and “relevant commercial relationships.”

Local press coverage in Nigeria over the last week included the assessment of cement expert Kevin Tar, who concluded that cement shouldn’t cost more than US$6.00/bag including production and logistics costs. His figures even included 20 - 25% profit for the manufacturers. For comparison, the net profits of two of the main cement producers in Nigeria - BUA Cement and HBM Nigeria - each increased by at least 50% year-on-year in the first half of 2026. Dangote Cement in its half-year results noted that inflation had been an issue due to rising fuel prices connected to the US - Iran war.

Unfortunately, one of the countries the FCCPC used to try and show that cement prices might be unduly high in Nigeria was Tanzania, which has been having troubles of its own in recent months. The government has given cement producers eight days to cut prices and improve supply after prices reportedly nearly hit US$10/bag in some places. Producers have blamed the situation on mechanical failures at some of the main integrated plants. The cement companies will be back before the Ministry of Industry and Trade on 28 August 2026 for a progress report on the situation.

A number of cement producers raised their prices in July 2026 blaming rising input and production costs, and tax changes amongst other reasons. One tax rise was an increase in specific excise duty rates for the 2026 - 27 tax year that started in July 2026. The government told local press at the time that the country has 15 cement plants with a production capacity of 13.6Mt/yr. These plants had produced 10.3Mt in the last year against a demand of 8.5Mt/yr. The remainder was exported to Malawi, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and other countries. Global Cement Magazine published an overview of the cement market in Tanzania in its January 2025 issue by authors Holtec Consulting. At the time they noted the country’s relatively low cement consumption per capita and high potential for growth in the sector as the economy developed. Hopefully the current debacle is merely a hiccup on that path.

Nigeria and Tanzania possess cement sectors at different stages of development. Yet both are encountering price spikes at the moment. Nigeria’s industry is more concentrated and much larger. It may be suffering from its perennial structural problems and inflation-based issues. Tanzania’s sector is more diverse. In its case import tariffs on clinker from East African Community countries may be making the market less nimble in the face of a local clicker supply bottleneck. In addition, inflation on fuel prices and the new tax system could be playing their part too. Exports may also be an issue as, anecdotally, they appear to have risen in 2025 and so-far in 2026.

Whether an eventual FCCPC investigation finds anything in Nigeria remains to be seen. Yet, mounting cement prices in another country in Sub-Saharan start to flesh out an argument for a wider trend going in the region.

Financial results from the major Chinese cement producers have been emerging this week. The market remains in a state of contraction with cement output and corporate revenue reflecting that. The difference, so far in the first half of 2026, is that increasing numbers of these cement companies are making a loss.

Firstly, cement output fell by 9% year-on-year to 741Mt in the first half of 2026 from 815Mt in the first half of 2025. This isn’t the steepest rate of decline for the first half since 2020 with worse rates reported in the first halves of 2022 and 2024, at 15% and 11% respectively. Output has been decreasing annually since at least 2021, at a mean rate of 8%/yr. Commentary by the China Cement Association (CCA) blamed the poor first half of the year on falling levels of investment on infrastructure and real estate. The former fell by 2.4% and the latter by 18% to US$566bn. Although the CCA did note a modest increase in spending on railways. Unfortunately July 2026 appears to have brought no respite with continued year-on-year decline in output of cement.

Graph 1: Cement output in China, H1 2020 to 2026. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China.

Each of the large China-based cement companies detailed here reported heavy falls in revenue in first half of 2026 with the exception of Huaxin Cement. As in previous years this is due to that company’s focus on overseas investments. By sales volumes of cement and clinker, and based on sales revenue, Anhui Conch is the largest cement producer in China. CNBM has a higher revenue overall but it covers a wider range of businesses and we have restricted our coverage here to its Basic Building Materials Segment. Anhui Conch’s reaction to the poor first half of 2026 was to blame it on weak market demand, competition and ‘other factors.’ This may sound familiar to previous years. Unsurprisingly, it noted positive performance from its trading business (exports) and its overseas investments. It also recorded a wind and solar generation and energy storage capacity of 1431MW. This is a massive figure.

Graph 2: Sales revenue from selected Chinese cement producers. Source: Company financial reports.

CNBM’s Basic Building Materials Segment reported a similar story blaming falling volumes of concrete and prices for all three heavy building material. However, it did say that its sales volumes of aggregates rose. BBMG’s assessment was along the same lines although it also noted a ‘rebound in coal prices’ in the second quarter. Although it was more optimistic than the CCA on the local real estate market. spotting rising prices in certain key cities in the second quarter. It should be noted that BBMG runs property development and operation businesses. Finally, China Resources Building Materials Technology was circumspect about its situation. It did say that it had demolished several production lines through capacity replacement and that its cement capacity utilisation rate fell to 53.5% from 56.8%.

CNBM’s Basic Building Materials Segment, BBMG and China Resources Building Materials Technology all reported a loss in the first half of 2026. China Cement Network estimated this week that the cement sector in China would make a loss of US$450m - 750m in the first half. Of the 19 companies that have released financial results, 15 reported falling revenue and 10 reported losses.

Meanwhile, Huaxin Cement said it sold 34.8Mt of cement and clinker in the first half of 2026. 13.2Mt of this came from its overseas businesses, an increase of 57%. Notable overseas development in this period included the completion of the second phase of a grinding plant in Zimbabwe, a kiln upgrade in South Africa, restoring production at a plant in Mozambique with operation scheduled for late August 2026, work on a new production line at Dondo in Mozambique scheduled for the third quarter of 2026 and ongoing work on two production lines in Nigeria scheduled for the end of the year. The group said it had mostly completed preparatory work on its proposal to buy a majority stake in Holcim Philippines.

To finish, it has been a bad first half of the year for cement companies in China. This follows the market conditions of the last five year. What is new though is that increasing numbers of these companies also appear to be now making losses unless they can access overseas markets or different sectors. Something’s going to have to give at some point. In late August 2026 the woes of the real estate sector in China were reflected in the sentencing of Hui Ka Yan, the founder of company Evergrande sentenced to life in prison. His company has been emblematic of the issues facing the sector, and contributory ones such as building materials, in China since 2020.

UltraTech Cement agreed to buy a 26% stake in a solar power company this week. As many readers may know this is a common occurrence in the Indian cement sector due to local electricity legislation. Read on to find out more and why there may have been more such  deals in 2026.

The Aditya Birla Group subsidiary agreed on 12 August 2026 to acquire a 26% stake in Solaris Horizon Energy for around US$3m. The latter company generates and transmits renewable energy. It was established in late 2025 and is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) intended to supply 91MWp DC or 65MW AC solar power in Chhattisgarh on a captive basis from a solar plant located in Mungeli. UltraTech Cement said that it made the transaction to meet its “...green energy needs, optimising energy cost and comply with regulatory requirements for captive power consumption under electricity laws.”

Other recent and similar acquisitions by UltraTech Cement include the purchase of 26% stakes in AMPIN C&I Power Forty Four in Odisha and Sunsure Solarpark Seven in Uttar Pradesh in March 2026. Elsewhere, Dalmia Bharat agreed to buy a 26% stake (on a fully-diluted basis) for US$1.8m in Oyster Green Hybrid Five in April 2026. This deal was to source 21.6MW (wind) and 14MWp (solar) for its plant at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. JK Lakshmi Cement agreed to buy at least a 26% stake for US$2.1m in STLC RE 1 in August 2026. The latter company is setting up a 29MW AC or 42MWp DC solar plant and a 28MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to supply the cement producer’s Sirohi plant in Rajasthan. The addition of energy storage may be significant here as industrial users start to make renewable sources work 24-hours per day. In June 2026 it agreed to buy 26% stakes in DynoSpark Private and Elevate Solar Energy to supply its Udaipur and Durg cement plants respectively. And the list goes on…

Often Global Cement reports on cement companies entering into power purchase agreements (PPA) with renewable generators. In India the so-called 26% rule dates back to local legislation on electricity from the early 2000s. Under these laws to qualify as a captive power consumer a company needs to own at least 26% of a power project and use at least 51% of the electricity generated. The company then benefits from this by not having to pay cross-subsidy surcharges and additional surcharges. Hence the interest in SPVs. The earlier approach to this was for cement companies to buy 26% (or larger) stakes in captive thermal power plants or waste heat recovery (WHR) plants. They then started to switch to renewables from the late 2010s as the cost fell and sustainability targets grew. Further change came in 2026 when the government modernised the rules to include allowing the corporate group share to be 26% rather than on an individual plant basis.

India added 26GW of solar capacity and 3GW of wind capacity in the first half of 2026, according to JMK Research. This was nearly 70% of the total capacity added in 2025 as a whole, itself a strong year for renewables. Data from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy placed the country’s cumulative renewable energy installed capacity at about 288GW. Anecdotally, as the examples above and others show, there also appears to have been a surge in cement companies in India buying 26% shares in renewable energy companies so far in 2026. As UltraTech Cement’s chair Kumar Mangalam Birla revealed at his company’s annual general meeting this week, in the 2026 financial year his company “...commissioned 371MW of renewable power and 63 MW of WHR systems. Green energy now accounts for 35.8% of [the] company’s total power mix.”

One driver has been the higher fuel costs arising from the US war with Iran. This has created some mixed financial results for Indian cement companies during the first quarter of 2026. As local press revealed this week, UltraTech Cement and Nuvoco Vistas reported growth in profits. Yet, Ambuja Cements, Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat, JK Lakshmi Cement and Birla Corporation reported falling profits despite growing revenues.

These conditions look set to continue as the financial year progresses. Alongside this, expect to see more investment by cement companies in renewables. 26% looks set to remain the magic number for India-based cement producers under current energy supply conditions.