September 2025

Russia: Sibirsky Cement Holding (Sibtsem) subsidiary Topkinsky Cement has announced that it has entered commercial production of a new Mita slag Portland cement with granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) at its 2.7Mt/yr integrated plant in Topki, for which it received a certification of conformity with ‘cement for general construction’ standards on 16 January 2020. Nina Poputnikova, Topkinsky Cement laboratory and quality department head, said that it is producing the cement in response to ‘construction companies’ increased interest in cement for use in reinforced, precast concrete in monolithic structures such as buried and hydraulic structures.’

“In the near future we plan to certify two new cements,” said Topkinsky Cement managing director Alexey Ospelnikov. One will be a low-heat general-purpose cement for large-sized concrete structures and the other a sulphate-resistant Portland cement. “Expanding the assortment will help strengthen the company’s position in the Russian cement market.”

Greece: Titan Cement has opened the Group Digital Centre of Competence, a facility which it says will consolidate its digital and advanced analytics capabilities. Titan says the Centre ‘accelerates its digital efforts’ set out under its Group Digital Initiative. “This is an essential part of efforts to increase operational efficiency and competitiveness,” said the company.

Russia: Eurocement has announced the continuation of its cooperation agreement with construction company PIK Group in 2020. The 30.7Mt/yr-capacity cement producer, Russia’s largest, sold 0.2Mt of cement to PIK Group in 2019, bringing the total volume exchanged in the course of their cooperation to 0.8Mt. Eurocement sales vice president Ilya Kosykh said, “We guarantee our customers stable cement performance and uninterrupted deliveries of building materials on time.”

Germany: Beumer Group has developed a screw weigh feeder with automatic calibration. The company says it is especially well suited to exact and controlled feeding of inhomogeneous bulk materials of densities between 0.08t/m³ and 0.80t/m³ and extremely high moisture content such as alternative fuels. Its capacity is 30t/hr and its weighing tolerance is between 1% and 2%. It is completely covered to prevent dust and other environmental stresses.

France: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Ciments Calcia has announced a planned investment of Euro30m of upgrades in early 2021 to its 1.0Mt/yr integrated Couvrot plant in Marne department. L’Union Ardennes newspaper has reported that the upgrades will be ‘process improvements’ to grinding and energy consumption rather than expansions to the plant’s capacity. HeidelbergCement director Didier Faure said the group wants to turn the Couvrot plant into its ‘leading site in Western Europe.’ Faure also called for improvements to safety procedures after three people were injured on site in 2019 – up by 50% from two in 2018.

Ghana: The Department of Trade and Industry has declared a moratorium on the construction of new cement plants in response to a cement surplus on the domestic market. Chamber of Cement Manufacturers executive secretary George Dawson-Ahmoah said that consumption stands at 6.5Mt/yr nationally. Ghana’s eight producers are utilising 50% of an total installed capacity of 12Mt/yr, according to All Africa News. “The government is investigating measures to prevent imports,” said Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. This may involve cement quality certification by the Ghana Standard authority.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) has recorded a profit of US$47.3m in 2019 – down by 51% from US$95.5m in 2018. This was caused by a 17% year-on-year fall in earnings to US$193m from US$233m in 2018 due to a 24% fall in production year-on-year – from 2.9Mt to 2.2Mt – and increased costs from the completion of the fifth line at the company’s integrated plant, as well as the diversification of its products to include white as well as grey cement.

US: Curt Snyder, owner of Lancaster Products, has acquired cement grinding technology supplier Bradley Pulverizer. Snyder said, “Bradley Pulverizer’s line of pulverisers and mill classifiers complement Lancaster Products’ mixing, granulating and crushing capabilities,” to provide complete solutions and services to the cement industry.

Germany: Research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) has suggested that wood, including fast-growing bamboo, could supplant 50% of cement and steel used in construction, cutting global CO₂ emissions by up to 880Mt/yr and providing a carbon sink for close to 700Mt/yr of CO2 emissions. Assuming a no-change scenario in cement production practices, PIK fellow Galina Chakina says, ‘the shift to timber would make quite a difference for achieving the climate stabilisation targets of the Paris agreement.’

Germany: The Loesche Training Center in Duesseldorf, Germany played host to 65 delegates from 22 countries on 13 - 14 November 2019 for the company’s 8th Technical Seminar. The event's motto was ‘resource-efficient strategies in cement production’ and was aimed primarily at process and maintenance personnel in the cement industry. The focus was on the exchange of expert knowledge and practical experience.

The first day of the event included presentations on the state of research of CO₂ capture, utilisation and storage, alternative fuels in cement production, Loesche’s first experiences with waste conditioning plants in the US, chlorine bypass considerations, coal mill safety and grinding of novel cement products.

After a sumptuous dinner at the Rhine Tower in Duesseldorf, on the evening of 13 November 2019, delegates reconvened for presentations on wear parts and spare inventory management, mill installation, grinding plant process technology, mill modernisation case-studies and digital maintenance on 14 November 2019.

Delegates were pleased with the level of technical expertise offered, as well as the event’s organisation and hospitality. Loesche will additionally host a series of Technical Symposia throughout 2020.