August 2025

India: Adani Group is negotiating with several international banks to extend and refinance loans worth US$3.5bn that it used to buy Ambuja Cement and ACC. The Business Standard newspaper reports that the company hopes to extend the bridging loans it originally secured to a tenure of five years. Adani Group purchased the former subsidiaries of Switzerland-based Holcim for around US$6.5bn in September 2022. It later said it planned to invest a further US$2.5bn into its new cement business to double its production capacity.

Ethiopia: Derba MIDROC Cement has signed a US$282m contract agreement with China-based Sinoma International Engineering to upgrade its integrated Derba cement plant in Oromia. The project is intended to double the plant’s cement production output to around 15,000t/day, according to Fana Broadcasting Corporate. Takele Uma, the Minister of Mines, attended the signing ceremony.

Morocco: NovaCim has ordered the SLV Cement logistics software product from Portugal-based Cachapuz for its forthcoming 1.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Ouled Ghanem in El-Jadida Province. The product is intended to improve and optimise dispatch processes. Denmark-based FLSmidth announced in 2019 that it was going to build the plant for TEKCIM in conjunction with the Société Générale des Travaux du Maroc (SGTM). The plant is expected to start production in 2023.

Mali: Mahamoud Ould Mohamed, the Minister of Industry and Trade, has laid the foundation stone of the Mali Sahel cement plant in Bema, Bamako District. Sacko Holding is financing the project and it was previously reported as costing around US$300m, according to Mali Actu. The plant is expected to create around 600 direct jobs. It is scheduled to become operational in 2025. Sacko Holding and Energie du Mali (EDM), the state-owned electricity company, are also planning to provide an electricity supply to Bema as part of the initiative.

US: Purebase and Fortera have signed a non-binding agreement to build a commercial plant at Purebase’s headquarters in Ione, California. The companies are working towards a definitive agreement to build a plant using Fortera proprietary recarbonation process that uses captured CO₂ and mineralises it into a secondary cementitious material.

Scott Dockter, the chairman, and chief executive officer of Purebase, said, “We believe that a strategic partnership with Fortera would put Purebase on a fast-track to bring a lower carbon product to market.” He added, “We believe Fortera has developed a unique solution to reduce carbon emissions in cement, and it will have the advantage of using Purebase’s mineral resources and location in Ione, California which is ideally located in northern California near major ports which can effectively serve the western-US markets and abroad.”

Purebase acquires, develops, and markets minerals for use in agriculture, construction, and other specialty industries.

Taiwan: Japan-based Kataoka Corporation has successfully carried out an order for US$43.4m-worth of equipment for Taiwan Cement Corporation. Reuters News has reported that the order consists of cement plant machinery.

Kataoka Corporation is a developer and producer of laser processing systems and rechargeable battery inspection systems.

Paraguay: Cementos Concepción says that it will begin to commercially supply cement to Paraguay's major cities in early December 2022. The La Nación newspaper producer commissioned its US$300m Concepción cement plant in November 2022. It now operates with a production capacity of 20m 42.5kg bags annually.

India: Grasim Industries has informed investors that it has raised US$123m through allotment of 7.6% rated, listed, unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

CRISIL and ICRA have rated the NCDs as AAA (stable).

Costa Rica: Holcim Costa Rica has acquired the heavy precast unit of Productos de Concreto for US$3.35m. The La Nación newspaper has reported that the company also increased its stake in prefabricated construction company Tecnología de Construcción to 100% from 49%. The latter deal's value was US$774,000.

Holcim Costa Rica's corporate affairs manager José Alfredo Alpízar Guzmán said that these latest acquisitions complement the producer's existing abilities to supply its customers.

Sri Lanka: INSEE Cement and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) have signed a memorandum (MoU) of understanding to extend their global biodiversity management partnership until 2026. Projects include quarry restoration, wildlife rescue and release and field surveys of the Koggala and Aruwakkalu mangrove restoration sites and Unawatuna manmade coral reef.

INSEE Cement's environment and corporate social responsibility manager Rohan Lakmal said "Biodiversity is one of the fundamental pillars of INSEE's Sustainability Ambition 2030. Our partnership with IUCN enables INSEE Cement to meet our own ambitious sustainability targets, while also creating more awareness of the general decline in Sri Lanka's biodiversity, and the urgency to do our part to conserve our natural habitats."