August 2025

Ireland/UK: A six-month feasibility study conducted by Mannok at its Derrylin plant, in conjunction with Catagen, has found a number of ways that the cement producer can reduce its CO₂ emissions. Using Catagen’s HGEN renewable hydrogen generator with waste heat recovery could potentially decrease the cement plant’s annual CO₂ emissions by 7%. In addition the study found that using biohydrogen generation from waste biomass could generate larger volumes of hydrogen with less renewable energy required, compared to electrolytic hydrogen generation. Using Catagen’s BIOHGEN process in this way could minimise carbon intensity by a further 18%. A combined group of engineers from Mannok and Catagen worked on the project.

Kevin Lunney, operations director at Mannok, said “We are very excited to be working with the Catagen team, who have demonstrated a deep level of technical ability and competency during the feasibility work. I have no doubt that Mannok will derive significant value from the work already completed, with many new opportunities for collaboration now presenting that we would not have considered before. Achieving Net Zero is now the primary goal for our business and I expect Catagen will play a significant role in our achieving that goal, which we expect will have major benefits for the sector overall.”

In early April 2023 Mannok revealed that it had secured funding from the UK Government Green Energy Scheme to support its energy transformation programme. The first phase of the initiative, which the funding will support, is the generation of onsite green hydrogen to replace the use of diesel in over 70% of the company’s 150 heavy-goods truck fleet.

Belfast-based Catagen started as a testing company providing emissions data to the automotive sector. It has started working in other industrial sectors - such as cement, glass and steel in Europe and the US – as part of its ClimaHtech product range.

Mongolia: L Naranbaatar, the head of Khutul Cement and Lime, has responded to a strike at the company by outlining changes made since it was nationalised in 2022. Workers are protesting with demands to add wage incentives and to appoint managers from within the company, according to the UB Post newspaper. They have also alleged that the company is spending its budget illegally.

During a press conference Naranbaatar explained that the company produced 403,000t of cement in 2022, an increase from 2021. It reported a profit of US$3.3m in 2022, the first time it had made a profit in the last decade. However, the producer’s wage bill nearly doubled to just below US$6m in 2022. The company also spent US$2.25m on upgrades to the plant in 2022, the first such investment made in five years, compared to US$171,000 spent on maintenance in 2021.

Former economist L Naranbaatar was appointed as the head of Khutul Cement and Lime in March 2022. The company was transferred to the Development Bank of Mongolia when the heir of the previous owners refused to accept the inheritance.

Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Cement has ordered an airslide analyser from Switzerland-based SpectraFlow Analytics for its white cement production line. The contract also includes raw mix proportioning software. The product is an online analyser able to measure raw materials in airslides. The vendor says that by using its analyser, and a site-specific raw mix proportioning strategy, the variation in the local raw materials can be balanced out to increase consistency of the raw meal and kiln feed quality. Also the variable MgO, Na₂O, K₂O, Cl and SO₃ content is optimally monitored.

This order is SpectraFlow Analytics’ 49th order for the cement Industry and the first airslide analyser installation in Saudi Arabia. This order raises the installed base in Saudi Arabia to seven analysers (6 crossbelt, 1 airslide) and worldwide to 71 analysers (40 crossbelt and 31 airslide).

SpectraFlow Analytics sells online analysis products to the cement, bauxite, gold, platinum, copper, potash, phosphate, coal and other minerals industries. Its products are based on near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as opposed to using radioactive sources or neutron generators.

Poland: Lafarge Cement Polska has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with KGAL Investment Management. The KGAL ESPF 4 renewable energy fund will provide the cement producer with around 230GWh/yr of electrical energy from two onshore wind farms. These will be the 35MW Krasin unit, which opened in 2022, and the 27MW Rywald unit, which is scheduled to start feeding the local grid from October 2023. With this latest agreement in place, Lafarge Cement Polska will be able to cover over half of its electrical supply requirements from renewable sources.

KGAL is an independent investment and asset manager based in Germany. It focuses its investments in real estate, sustainable infrastructure and aviation sectors.

Image credit: KGAL GmbH & Co. KG.

Ethiopia: China-based Sinoma International Engineering has signed an agreement with National West International Holding (WIH) Building Materials to build an industrial park development project at Dire Dawa. The project has an investment of US$600m and will include a 6000t/day cement plant and a 1000t/day lime unit, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The proposed industrial park is relatively close to the Port of Djibouti, in neighbouring Djibouti, to allow for access to raw materials and potential export markets.

WIH, a joint-venture between companies based in Ethiopia and China, already operates a cement plant at Lemi in Amhara Region.

UK: Legal & General Capital, an alternative investment arm of financial services company Legal & General, has invested around US$15.5m in Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) and other companies as part of its strategy to decarbonise the residential sector. It is also investing in Hometree and SunRoof, as well as increasing its existing investment in Sero Technologies.

CEC is developing process to create net zero-CO₂ cement product using recycled concrete paste. It launched a two-year industrial trial of its Cement 2 Zero project in February 2023.

Türkiye: Çimentaş has signed a contract to order an electrical switch facility and transmission line from Girisim Elektrik. The price of the deal is around US$3m.

Girisim Elektrik is an engineering, sales and marketing company in the electrical and energy sectors based in Türkiye. Çimentaş is a subsidiary of Italy-based Cementir Holding. It operates cement factories in İzmir, Edirne, Elazığ and Kars.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement recorded sales of US$10.9m in the first quarter of 2023, down by 22% from US$14m during the first quarter of 2022. The producer sold 215,000t of cement during the quarter, down by 22% from 282,000t.

Steppe Cement said that Kazakh cement demand fell by 13% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. Its market share was 13%, compared to 14% in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

Ethiopia: China-based China National Building Material (CNBM) and its engineering subsidiary Sinoma International have expressed interest in investing in the local cement sector. The comments were made in a meeting with Tefera Derbew, Ethiopia’s ambassador to China, and Liu Yan, an executive director of CNBM and the chair of Sinoma International, according to Fana. During the gathering Derbew noted Sinoma’s contribution so far towards helping build cement plants in the country. CNBM has accepted an invitation to participate in the Invest Ethiopia forum taking place in Addis Ababa in late April 2023.

Kenya: A court has prevented the takeover of a US$47.8m parcel of land belonging to East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) by the government. The court found that the government had not followed proper consultation processes. The East African newspaper has reported that the government had already concluded a deal with China and Oman-based investors for affordable property developments on the land.

EAPCC says that it now plans to use the site to build its own green smart city. The cement producer says that this will help to diversify its income streams.