Votorantim and Huaxin Cement were both linked to the impending divestment of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional’s (CSN) cement division this week. Bloomberg reported that Morgan Stanley is assisting with the process and that the sale price could be up to US$3bn. Other buyers are also being considered. Discussions are still at an early stage, but CSN hopes to wrap up the deal by the autumn.

CSN announced a debt reduction plan of up to about US$3.5bn in January 2026. In its fourth quarter results for 2025 released in early March 2026 it said that it remained “...
pressured by the high cost of debt and the progress of growth projects.” During this quarter its net debt to earnings before interest taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio over the last 12 months rose to 3.47. It said that this was the first increase in leverage after three quarters of decline and that the result reflected a reduction in cash availability due to paying off debts and increased spending. In late 2025 it transferred its minority stake in rail freight company MRS Logística to its mining subsidiary CSN Mineração (CMIN) for about US$645m. CMIN was designated in January 2026 as the group’s “main growth avenue” generating 33% of group revenue and 57% of earnings in the third quarter of 2025. The group stake in CSN Cimentos was confirmed for divestment at the same time. This division generated 11% of both revenue and earnings. Notably, in a notice to the market in January 2026, the group described its plan for the cement division as a ‘sale of control’ rather than an outright divestment. Of the group’s other subsidiaries, CSN Infra was set for a sale of a ‘significant’ equity stake in 2026, CSN Steel is being assessed for “strategic alternatives and partnerships aimed at maximising short-term cash generation” and CSN Energy is being retained.

Readers may recall that CSN Cimentos expanded in 2022 through the acquisition of Holcim’s business in Brazil. The company started as a steel producer and this remains the source of half of its revenue, although its earnings were just 18% in the third quarter of 2025. It entered the cement business in 2009 and bought Cimento Elizabeth in 2021. The Holcim deal made it the third largest cement producer in Brazil with an integrated production capacity of 12.6Mt/yr from seven clinker producing plants. The company placed its total cement production capacity in early 2026, including grinding plants, at 17Mt/yr. It paid US$220m for Cimento Elizabeth and then US$1.03bn for Holcim Brazil. This covered six of its seven integrated plants. If the US$3bn price tag for the whole cement business is realistic, this would amount to a significant increase in value for clinker capacity in four years. One other point to note is CNS’s focus on its mining business. This is reminiscent of FLSmidth’s pivot to mining also and the divestment of its cement division. The latter company is, of course, a supplier of industrial equipment not a cement producer.

Graph 1: Cement sales in Brazil, 2016 - 2025. Source: Sindicato Nacional da Indústria do Cimento (SNIC).

As can be seen above in Graph 1 data from Sindicato Nacional da Indústria do Cimento (SNIC) shows that cement sales in Brazil peaked in 2021, then dipped a little before recovering in 2024 and 2025. Cement sales were just under 67Mt in 2025, an increase of 3.7% year-on-year from 2024. SNIC attributed this growth to the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV) housing programme in the residential sector and the promotion of concrete road building by the Ministry of Transport in the infrastructure sector. SNIC expressed concern about national interest rates in 2026 but has forecast growth in cement sales.

CSN’s decision to sell its cement division means that two of the three largest cement producers in Brazil are potentially for sale. InterCement is reportedly under the control of its creditors in Brazil. Its subsidiary in Argentina, Loma Negra, has been taken over by a consortium led by businessman Marcelo Mindlin. Back in 2024 CSN was signing exclusivity agreements with InterCement to buy its operations in Brazil and Argentina! Debt appears to be the theme here for both CSN and InterCement to varying degrees. It will be revealing to see which companies emerge with the appetite to take on either of these cement companies in the coming months.

Holcim published its financial results for 2025 this week. Most of the larger cement producers with operations in Europe have now released either preliminary or full results too. This makes it a good time to recap how these multinational companies all performed in 2025.

Graph 1: Sales revenue from selected cement producers in Europe. Source: Financial releases. HM – Heidelberg Materials.

Graph 2: Cement sales volumes from selected cement producers in Europe. Source: Financial releases.

The first point to note from Graph 1 is the reduction in Holcim’s sales revenue. However, the graph shows the restated figure for 2024 from the reduced business. Its sales were around €25bn before the American business Amrize was spun-off in mid-2025. All of the other companies here continue to have operations in North America to varying degrees. Cemex has its headquarters in Mexico and CRH moved its primary stock market listing to the US in 2023 (but still has its headquarters in Ireland).

Holcim’s sales were down on a like-for-like basis in 2025 mainly due to Europe. Here, even the sales figures for the adjusted sales figures such as in local currencies and organic growth also declined. This may be a problem given that about half of the group’s revenue comes from the region. Happily for Holcim though, its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose in Europe. All the other regions showed sales revenue growth of some kind. The other point of interest is that the group’s Building Solutions product line delivered lower sales growth than the Building Materials line. The former is the group’s building envelope segment away from heavy building materials. In terms of merger and acquisition activity, the big deal for cement has been the agreement to buy Cementos Pacasmayo in Peru that was announced in December 2025.

CRH is now the biggest cement producer with operations in Europe based on overall group sales revenue. Of course, a hefty chunk of that comes from its businesses in North America. Its International Solutions division, covering operations outside of North America, reported sales revenue of €11.4bn in 2025. Cement divisions in North America and elsewhere both grew revenue and earnings on the back of acquisitions and price increases. The group’s largest acquisition in 2025 was of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) supplier Eco Material Technologies in the US.

Heidelberg Material’s (HM) early results indicate a modest rise in sales revenue and a higher increase in operating earnings in 2025. Small rises in revenue were reported in Europe and North America, alongside a decline in Asia - Pacific and sharp growth in Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia. Earnings were stable in North America but grew modestly in Europe and markedly in Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia. Naturally, given the investments it has made, the group was keen to highlight that its specific net CO₂ emissions fell by 3% to 512kg/t of cementitious material.

For Cemex, its Europe, Middle East, and Africa segment reported significant increases in sales revenue and earnings due to higher prices, volumes and cost cutting. The group’s other two larger geographic regions, Mexico and North America, didn’t perform as well. Recovery was reported in Mexico in the second half of 2025 though.

Of the other larger Europe-based cement producers, Buzzi improved net sales in Europe, outside of Italy. A fall in sales in the US was blamed on weak demand at the start of the year, particularly in the residential market. Vicat’s overall sales and earnings were up. It did best in Europe outside of France and in its Mediterranean region. Cementir’s revenue was down but its earnings were up. It attributed this to negative currency exchange effects particularly in Türkiye as sales volumes of cement were up. Growth was reported in Türkiye, Egypt, and Asia Pacific in contrast with decline in Northern Europe and Belgium.

In summary, Europe remained a mixed market for most of the companies covered above in 2025. Yet, with a slowdown reported in the US, Europe also delivered growing sales revenue and/or earnings for most of these businesses. Decline in Europe for heavy building materials may be overrated in 2025 based on these results at least.

Finally, some of these multinational companies have operations in the Middle East and all of them run energy-intensive operations. Holcim, for example, divested companies in Iraq and Jordan in 2024 but it retains other businesses in Iraq and the UAE. The war launched by Israel and the US upon Iran in late February 2026 is likely to have an economic impact upon the next set of financial results for many of these cement companies, even if the war ends swiftly.

Cement company shares prices in India fell this week due to energy supply concerns in the wake of the US-Israeli-led war with Iran. The situation appears similar, so far at least, to the energy shock that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. We will look at the available news on the situation so far and reflect on what happened in 2022.

The decision by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards this week to ‘close’ the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to US and Israeli air strikes is the key challenge to energy intensive industries outside of the region. Today’s news reports of commercial ships being damaged in the area further heightens tensions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that 20% of the world’s seaborne oil trade transits through the waterway. The markets reflected this with a jump in oil prices this week as well as a dip in the share prices of industries likely to be adversely affected, such as the cement sector.

At the end of last week, trade analysts Kpler released an assessment of how the start of the war had affected bulk commodity trade. It noted that Qatar’s decision to declare force majeure on gas exports was contributing to the increase in the price of gas and has major implications for the economics of switching between gas and coal not seen since 2022. Demand from Europe for seaborne coal might rise consequently. It also identified that petcoke exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman to China and India were particularly vulnerable to disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. It said that, “Indian cement producers, reliant on fuel-grade petcoke, face the sharpest supply risk and would be forced to source US petcoke at a premium or switch to coal.”

Sure enough the stock market in India reacted at the start of this week. As the Business Standard newspaper noted, for example, the stock price for Ramco Cement fell by 7%. It linked this to the vulnerability of cement production to energy prices, particularly those of petcoke and coal. Oil price increases can also increase logistics costs of moving input and output materials around, and raise the cost of electricity. It placed the volume of petcoke going through the Strait of Hormuz at 0.4 - 0.6Mt/month with India “...absorbing the majority of this.” The country imports half of its requirements of petcoke, signalling that prices are likely to rise. The brokers quoted predicted that these costs would be passed straight on to consumers.

In Pakistan the Iran war has prompted calls for development of the Thar coalfield to be exploited faster to reduce reliance on imports. This is a long-term project but recent events may hasten it. The Dawn newspaper reported that imported coal prices increased by 22% year-on-year in recent weeks to around US$110/t FOB. The local cement sector in Pakistan uses 5Mt/yr of coal and it plans to use up to 20% coal from Thar. Meanwhile, the local press in Bangladesh has been keenly interested in which ships had made it through the strait before the war. Shipments of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas that had transited in time were noted. As too were vessels carrying clinker, gypsum and limestone from the Gulf. The first of those is of particular interest in Bangladesh given its relative lack of domestic clinker production. However, alternative sources should be easy enough to find in a world making too much clinker.  

The energy market consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 were a spike in energy prices in the short term. In March 2022, for example, the head of Türkçimento warned that a jump in the price of Newcastle Coal posed a serious threat to the sector and that the cost of cement from a plant using imported coal might rise by around US$15/t. In the medium term, Russian gas and coal exports shifted away from European markets to Asian ones. For example, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that Europe and Türkiye received 32% of Russia’s coal exports in 2020. By 2024 this had fallen to 13%, with Türkiye accepting the vast majority. Natural gas exports fell from around two-thirds in 2020 to over one-third in 2024. Major multinational cement producers reported a mixed response to energy costs in 2022. Reasons for this included regional variation within operations, the hedging of energy costs and the use of alternative fuels. Cemex, for example, noted that it had been subject to “uncertain energy supply availability” as a result of the war in Ukraine. Heidelberg Materials said that the “...2022 financial year was characterised by a significant increase in production costs, especially in relation to energy, fuels, and raw materials, which we countered with price adjustments.”

Finally, there is no information readily available of the effects on the war upon the cement industry in the Gulf countries and Iran. Industrial sites such as refineries or desalination plants have reportedly been damaged in the Gulf countries. There is little to no information on the situation inside Iran. If readers have any information on the situation locally they should get in touch.

So far the war in Iran has shown the reliance that cement production in India has on petcoke from the Gulf. Stronger repercussions are likely the longer that the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Energy users may start to switch fuel types as the cost of previously favoured fuels escalate. Cement producers are likely to be hedged against this to an extent but there will be considerable regional variation. All of these price rises are expected to be passed to end consumers and inflation rates could rise. This, in turn, may slow construction rates. One positive to end on is that rising alternative fuels utilisation rates may protect cement producers somewhat. Expect more impetus for thermal substitution rates to carry on rising.

Molins’ proposed acquisition of Portugal-based Secil seems set to complete. First, the competition body the Autoridade da Concorrência (AdC) approved the transaction this week. Then Molins’ shareholders consented to the deal on the following day. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening.

Spain-based Molins announced in late December 2025 that it had struck a deal with Portugal-based Semapa to buy the latter company’s cement subsidiary outright for €1.4bn. The transaction was expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026. Barring the unexpected, this now looks likely to happen. Molins said it would pay for the acquisition using a combination of cash and funds from a syndicated credit agreement and a bond issuance.

Molins placed Secil’s cement production capacity at around 10Mt/yr. This compares to an integrated capacity of 9.1Mt/yr as calculated from the Global Cement Directory 2025 with integrated plants in Angola, Brazil, Lebanon, Portugal and Tunisia. In addition the group also runs a grinding plant in Angola. Plus, on the cement side, Secil manages a terminal in Spain, a terminal in the Netherlands and has operations in Cape Verde. This gives a price of €153/t for the integrated cement plant capacity in the acquisition deal using the latter capacity figure.

This should be added to Molins’ existing cement footprint around the world. It operates majority-controlled cement companies in Spain, Argentina and Tunisia. It also holds joint-control of Cementos Moctezuma in Mexico (with Buzzi) and owns minority stakes in cement companies in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Colombia and Uruguay. Working out Molins’ current cement production capacity around the world is difficult due to the number of minority stakes it owns. However, Global Cement Magazine placed it at around 11Mt/yr in the December 2025 issue. Molins placed its ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production capacity at around 23Mt/yr in its annual report in 2024.

The addition of Secil is a serious acquisition for Molins that expands its geographic footprint. The new network of plants in the Iberian peninsula is the obvious sign of enlargement in its home territory. Yet, the plants in Brazil give the company the makings of a regional market leader in Latin America approaching the likes of Cemex, Cementos Argos and Votorantim. Molins’ made acquisitions in 2024 in the aggregates business in Spain and Bangladesh, and the concrete business in Colombia. Investments in recycled aggregates in Spain and alternative fuels - with a focus in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Bangladesh - were also made that year. Major acquisitions in 2025 included a deal with Titan to buy 80% of Baupartner, a Bosnia-based pre-cast company, the purchase of a 90% stake in Zenet, a Spain-based manufacturer of reinforced and prestressed precast concrete components, and Concremat, the leading precast concrete company in Portugal.

A separate point to note was the resignation of Molins’ previous chair Juan Molins Amat in mid-2025. He was succeeded by Julio Rodríguez. Local press has framed this as a battle between the three arms of the Molins family that controls the company. However, the three parties reportedly coordinated to vote for the Secil deal.

Molins’ decision to buy Secil looks set to take the cement business to a new level, particularly in Iberia and South America. To finish, concrete is a major part of this deal that we’ve not really covered here. Molins reported concrete sales of 1.6Mm³ in 2024. However, Secil said it produced just under 2Mm³ in the same year. This will be a major increase in output in addition to all of these recent precast expansions in Europe.