26 October 2022

China: China Resources Cement’s turnover fell by 21.5% year-on-year to US$3.08bn in the first nine months of 2022 from US$3.93bn in the same period in 2021. Its profit dropped by 65% to US$234m from US$677m. Cement and concrete sales volumes decreased by 17% to 52.5Mt and 26% to 8.04Mm³, although clinker sales volumes grew slightly. Sales by geographical region fell in all provinces, with the exception of Hunan. The company blamed falling profits on production costs and falling sales.

Germany: Ireland-based CRH has agreed to sell its subsidiaries Opterra Zement and Opterra Beton to Thomas Gruppe. Thomas Gruppe expects to complete its acquisition of the businesses later in 2022. Opterra Zement owns the 1.4Mt/yr Karsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt, cement plant and 0.5Mt/yr Sötenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, grinding plant, the latter of which is closed. Opterra Beton operates the Neufahrn, Bavaria, ready-mix concrete batching plant.

Thomas Gruppe said "For years, we have been pursuing a steady and long-term growth course in the field of cement and precast and ready-mix concrete. In the cement segment, our competitive position improved significantly with the purchase of the Erwitte (North Rhine-Westphalia) plant in 2017. Together with the grinding plant in Dorndorf (Thuringia), we have achieved a significantly larger area coverage in Germany, and also in the Netherlands, and benefit from synergy effects." It continued "We would like to continue on this growth course. An opportunity like the one to take over the cement plant in Karsdorf does not come often. The Karsdorf plant, with its gigantic limestone deposits, its market position of well over 1Mt/yr of cement and its experienced team, enables us better to supply our customers, and to leverage improvement potential. In addition, Karsdorf is of sufficient size for us to install CO₂ separation technology in its production of clinker for the Dorndorf grinding plant." Thomas Gruppe concluded "We are convinced that cement will become a clean building material and believe in its future."

China: Data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China shows that cement output fell by 12% year-on-year to 1.56Bnt in the first nine months of 2022 from 1.78Bnt in the same period in 2021. However, output started to pick up on a monthly basis in September 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 1% to 207Mt. Despite national increases in infrastructure development, the China Cement Association revealed that real estate development investment decreased by 8% to US$1.44tn in the first nine months of 2022.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has agreed to buy the cement business of chemicals company Denka for an undisclosed sum. Denka operates an integrated plant in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture where Taiheiyo Cement’s subsidiary Myojo Cement also operates a plant. The three companies have been working on a joint-development plant for local limestone resources since 2018. However, Denka has decided to leave the cement market due to poor local demand and the necessity of upgrades at its plant from 2025 onwards.

From April 2023 cement sold from Denka’s Omi plant will carry the Taiheiyo Cement brand name. Taiheiyo Cement and Myojo Cement have also agreed to continue supplying Denka’s other businesses, such as carbide production, with limestone from 2025. Denka will send by-products and other waste streams to the cement producer. Finally, Taiheiyo Cement, Myojo Cement and Denka will carry on developing the local limestone resources near to Itoigawa City.

China: The first nine months of 2022 brought a 6.1% year-on-year decline in China Shanshui Cement's sales to US$2.3bn, from US$2.45bn in the first nine months of 2021. Its net profit was US$142m, down by 43% year-on-year from US$248m.

India: UltraTech Cement has projected six-month cement capacity growth of 8.2% to 131Mt/yr by 31 March 2023, the end of the 2023 financial year. At the end of the first half of the 2023 financial year on 30 September 2022, its capacity was 121Mt/yr. In the third quarter of the 2023 financial year, UltraTech Cement expects to commence commercial operations at its upcoming 3.5Mt/yr Pali, Rajasthan, cement plant and upgraded Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, cement plant, to which it is adding 4.2Mt/yr in new capacity. The remaining new capacity consists of smaller capital expenditure investments in various sites across India. UltraTech Cement's chief financial officer Atul Daga forecast that the producer will invest a total of US$731 - 853m in capacity expenditure throughout the 2023 financial year.

The Business Standard newspaper has reported that UltraTech Cement expects to further increase its cement production capacity by 22% over the three years up to the 2026 financial year, to reach 160Mt/yr.

Germany: KHD hosted a meeting of the research and development consortium of the ACCSESS project in Cologne on 18 and 19 October 2022. The consortium is intended to develop replicable carbon capture utilisation and storage pathways to support a net zero strategy in Europe by 2050. KHD’s involvement with the project concerns running engineering feasibility studies for the retrofit of CCUS projects at two cement plants in Europe. It is also working on the concept development for a new clinker production technology, which is optimised as a new plant for operation with downstream carbon capture technology.

Other project partners working on ACCSESS of note to the cement sector include Heidelberg Materials and the German Cement Works Association (VDZ). Project completion is scheduled for mid-2025 with KHD’s contributions to be delivered by mid-2024.

Pakistan: Dewan Cement recorded US$16.2m in turnover during the first quarter of its 2023 financial year, up by 17% year-on-year from US$13.9m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. Its cost of sales also rose, by 41% to US$17.7m from US$12.5m. As such, the producer's loss more than doubled to US$3.13m, from US$1.32m in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year.

Brazil: Germany-based INFORM has established a joint venture with its partner Portia LAC in São Paulo. The new company called INFORM PORTIA will take over sales, consulting and support for INFORM software products in Brazil.

Andreas Meyer, the chief executive officer of INFORM, said “With this joint venture, we are expanding our presence in South America to meet the growing demand for software solutions to optimise business processes.” He added, “This joint venture is an important building block in our global network. We strive to maintain a relationship with our customers based on partnership and trust. However, this is much more successful if you also have a local presence.” In addition to its headquarters in Aachen in Germany and new joint venture in Brazil, INFORM is represented by five other INFORM related companies in the US, Chile, Australia, Singapore, and Portugal respectively.

US: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has signed an international partnership agreement with the American Concrete Institute (ACI). Under the agreement, the partners will collaboratively develop and disseminate information on concrete production and its use in construction, with a view to advancing best practices in sustainability.

The ACI said "ACI cooperates closely with our international partners, benefitting everyone in the global concrete community. ACI looks forward to working with the GCCA towards a future where everyone has the knowledge needed to use the latest concrete technologies effectively to meet the demands of a changing world."