August 2025

China: Hebei Wushan Cement has completely dismantled a 1000t/day clinker line formerly used to support its 3000t/day clinker line. The line will not resume production.

The producer also dismantled the original rotary kiln of a 2000t/day line and upgraded it to a 3000t/day new dry-process clinker line using a rotary kiln (Φ = 4.3m, L =  60m).

Russia: Kavkazcement plans to spend US$224m on equipment modernisation after cement production costs rose by 30–34% in 2024, according to local news reports. The producer recorded a production increase of 11% year-on-year to 2Mt in 2024 and aims to grow output by a further 10% in 2025.

General director Sergey Bogomaz said “Cement from Kavkazcement is in demand in many regions of Russia. The main deliveries go to the Rostov Region, Volgograd Region and Krasnodar Krai. In our region, we see an increase in construction volumes. New infrastructure projects are emerging, such as the construction of the first airport in Karachay-Cherkessia.”

Pakistan: Cherat Cement has commissioned a 6MW solar power plant at its facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The project forms part of a 9MW total capacity, with the remaining 3MW expected to be commissioned in the 2025 financial year. The company did not disclose its total renewable energy capacity in the notice.

Pakistan: Thatta Cement commissioned its 4.8MW wind power project at its plant in Thatta, Sindh, on 3 April 2025. The project was reportedly completed ahead of schedule and brings the producer’s total renewable energy capacity to 9.8MW.

Vietnam: The government will allocate greenhouse gas emissions quotas to 150 facilities across the cement, thermal power and steel sectors, according to a draft decree discussed by the government. Under the proposed roadmap, quota allocation will be implemented in phases over the next five years.

These sectors account for 40% of national emissions, according to the Vietnam Investment Review, and are also subject to the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism. The draft decree proposes decentralised development of technical regulations and mutual recognition of carbon credit data with international partners. Quotas will be proposed annually by ministries and submitted to the prime minister for approval.

 Deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha said “This is a technical decree with many variables. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will provide a controlled framework and guiding principles using a ‘sandbox’ approach, allowing businesses to experiment while regulators monitor, evaluate and make adjustments.”

Kyrgyzstan: The government has imposed a six-month ban on imports of certain construction materials, including Portland cement, alumina cement, fly ash cement and similar hydraulic cements. Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev signed the decree on 31 March 2025. The resolution will enter into force 15 days after official publication.

Indonesia: Indocement recorded sales of 20.5Mt of cement and clinker in 2024, up by 1150t (6%) year-on-year. Corporate secretary Dani Handajani said the producer held a 30% domestic market share, with a 38% share in Java and a 21% share outside Java, according to the Cement Association of Indonesia (ASI). Handajani said that domestic bulk cement sales increased due to the new capital city project and acceleration of infrastructure projects in Java. Its exports reached 0.32Mt.

China: Authorities in the province of Hunan have identified a cement plant as the source of thallium contamination in the Leishui River following a botched demolition at the end of 2024, according to Sixth Tone news.

Yongxing County officials said that rainfall had washed thallium-laden dust from a dismantled kiln into the river. Levels peaked at 0.13μg/L, exceeding the national standard of 0.1μg/L, but have since returned to safe levels. The nearby city of Chenzhou is reportedly a hub for non-ferrous metal mining and processing, and a number of Chinese cement plants have begun to process industrial solid waste in recent years. According to Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, this method is a common approach for hazardous waste disposal, but can lead to high concentrations of thallium salts in the kiln’s residue. The owner of the plant, Hunan Liantian Cement, added solid waste management to its list of businesses in September 2024.

The local government has despatched teams to apply chemical treatments to the affected areas, with water quality since returning to safe levels. Local residents’ drinking water was reportedly not affected.

Boral announced this week that it had secured around US$15m from the Australian government towards decarbonisation upgrades at its Berrima cement plant in New South Wales. The funding will go towards the company’s own investment in a kiln feed optimisation project. A new specialised grinding circuit and supporting infrastructure at the site is intended to increase the proportion of alternative raw materials (ARM) from 9% to 23% to decrease the amount of limestone the kiln uses. The use of more ARMs should also enable the unit to reduce its energy intensity. Boral plans to use ARMs including granulated blast furnace slag, steel slag, cement fibre board, fly ash and fine aggregates from recycled concrete. Commissioning and full operation of the changes are scheduled for 2028.

The Berrima plant officially opened its last set of changes, including a chlorine bypass unit, in December 2024. This was done to allow the plant to reach a thermal substitution rate (TSR) of 60% by the end of 2027. At the end of 2024 the company said it had a TSR of 30% having risen by 20% from 2023. Another similar decarbonisation project at the plant is a carbon capture and storage demonstration pilot trial involving the recarbonation of construction and demolition waste.

Parent company SGH said in its annual report for 2024 that Boral was continuing to advocate for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage and that it had taken part in the ongoing government review on the issue. This lobbying was visible earlier in March 2025 when the Cement Industry Federation (CIF) publicly addressed the government on the issue ahead of its next budget. It asked that carbon leakage be addressed in the form of an import tax to protect the local cement and lime sector. Cement and lime imports from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan are particularly seen as an issue. The government review into carbon leakage started in 2023 and is due to report back at some point in 2025, most likely after the parliamentary election in May 2025.

Another big sector news story to note is the ongoing acquisition of the cementitious division of the Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC) by Cement Australia that was revealed in December 2024. Unsurprisingly, the European Commission (EC) approved the deal in late March 2025. Cement Australia’s parent companies Holcim and Heidelberg Materials are headquartered in Europe, but the EC concluded that the planned transaction was unlikely to dampen competition in Europe. The verdict of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is likely to be far more telling. It closed taking submissions on the proposed deal in late February 2025 and plans to release an update in May 2025.

The ACCC’s market inquiries letter reported that Cement Australia wants to run BCG Cement. However, under the acquisition proposal, BGC Quarries and BGC Asphalt will be acquired and operated by a new 50:50 joint venture between Holcim and Heidelberg Materials, which will operate as a production joint venture in respect of aggregates. Holcim and Heidelberg Materials have suggested taking four ready-mixed concrete (RMC) plants each in the greater Perth area. Finally, one RMC plant at Wangara could be divested due to the close proximity of existing plants run by Holcim and Heidelberg Materials. Whether this is what actually happens remains to be seen.

Finally, Holcim flagged-up Australia this week as one of the regions it intends to derive ‘profitable growth’ from after the planned spin-off of the US business. This approach is in line with the hunt by the big building materials companies for new growth markets as the cost of merger and acquisition activity in the US has risen. CRH, for example, bought a majority stake in AdBri in mid-2024. Further merger and acquisition activity in the cement sector in Australia seems less likely given its relative small size. Yet the higher economic growth forecast for the country compared to Europe is likely to keep multinationals interested.

India: Ambuja Cements has appointed Vinod Bahety as its CEO for a three-year term. He succeeds Ajay Kapur in the post, who has been appointed as the company’s managing director. Other personnel changes include the appointment of Rakesh Tiwary as chief financial officer (CFO), Madhavi Isanaka as Chief Digital Officer, Vaibhav Dixit as Head of Manufacturing and Ashwin Raikundaliya as Chief Sustainability Officer.

Bahety has worked as the company’s CFO since mid-2022. He holds over 25 years of experience in various management positions in the manufacturing and finance sectors. Before joining the cement industry, he was the Group Head for Merger & Acquisition at Adani Group. He holds qualifications as a chartered accountant and a cost and works accountant.