Chile: Cementos Bío Bío (Cbb) will likely have new owners soon, as the US group Mississippi Lime Company has offered to acquire 100% of the company for nearly US$400m and shareholders are now negotiating its sale. The producer’s board authorised a due diligence process in May 2024, which has now been substantially concluded. A shareholder of Cbb, Peru's Yura, launched an offer in November 2024 for 20% of the Chilean cement company, thus reaching 40% of the shares. Yura bought 20% of Cbb for US$50m in 2019.

Belgium: Holcim has selected the joint venture between BESIX and DENYS as the main contractor for the civil works of the upgrade at its Obour, Mons, plant. The GO4ZERO project will produce nearly 2.3Mt/yr of carbon-neutral cementitious materials by 2029. In a separate contract, BESIX’s subsidiary Franki Foundations is handling the deep foundations. Work began in August 2024 and will conclude in February 2025.

Brazil: InterCement, the indirect controlling shareholder of Loma Negra, has extended its exclusivity agreement with Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional for a potential acquisition of its entire share capital until 16 December 2024. This extension is part of a broader non-judicial collection process and does not impose any binding obligations on InterCement or its shareholders. This follows a previous extension of the exclusivity period in July 2024.

Azerbaijan: Cemex has won the Net-Zero Industries Award for its clinker decarbonisation process using concentrated solar power. The award was presented at COP29 in Baku. Cemex’s solar clinker project is a collaboration with cleantech company Synhelion, which developed the high-temperature solar heat technology it uses. Cemex and Synhelion partnered in 2019 and achieved the first successful production of solar clinker in 2022.

Davide Zampini, vice president of Global R&D at Cemex, said "Together with Synhelion, we are pioneering solar-powered clinker production, a breakthrough process that can contribute to decarbonising cement manufacturing."

Zambia: China Zambia De Jin Xin Cement plans to invest US$170m in the Zambian economy to build a cement plant, a power plant, a mine and a high calcium powder plant, according to ZNBC. The construction is expected to begin in November 2025, according to the company's director, Jianbao Zhao. This investment will reportedly create over 1000 jobs during the construction phase and more than 500 permanent positions once operational.

Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement Company has signed a power purchase agreement with ENGIE to develop a 22MW solar photovoltaic plant at Al Jouf Cement’s facility in Turaif, Northern Borders Province. The plant will provide on-site power generation and help to decarbonise Al Jouf Cement's operations over the project’s 25-year lifespan. The solar photovoltaic installation will span over 420,000m² and is expected to reduce the plant’s carbon footprint. ENGIE will handle the development, design, construction, ownership and operation of the solar plant.

Spain: Cement consumption in Spain has seen a cumulative increase of 1.3% in the first 10 months of 2024, compared to a decline of 0.5% at the end of the third quarter of 2024, according to the latest data from Oficemen. This increase is largely due to 14.5% growth in October 2024 consumption compared to the same month a year earlier, reaching 1.37Mt, the highest since 2019. Despite the domestic gains, cement exports fell by 1% in October 2024 to 0.41Mt, contributing to a 13% decline in the cumulative annual data up to October 2024. Since November 2023, exports have decreased by 16%, totalling 0.47Mt.

Oficemen’s general manager Aniceto Zaragoza said "These positive figures are in line with the forecasts that we made at the beginning of 2024, when we were expecting a moderate recovery in the final stretch of the year."

Pakistan: Kohat Cement Company has installed and commissioned a 5.34MW on-grid solar power plant, according to the Business Recorder. This new facility adds to the existing 10MW solar power plant at the same location.

India: Around 67t of non-recyclable materials collected from the city of Ernakulam have been sent to cement plants as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for the plant’s processes, according to October 2024 estimates. 36t/day of materials from local bodies and an additional 27t/day from Clean Kerala Company facilities are handed over to cement plants, with private facilities contributing 3.9t. The waste generated in households and commercial establishments was sorted at material collection facilities and resource recovery units managed by local bodies, before being used for energy generation in cement manufacturing. Haritha Karma Sena volunteers manage the collection of non-biodegradable materials from households and shops, directing these materials to nearly 15 cement plants across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for co-processing.

Spain: Heidelberg Materials Hispania and Enagás have signed a collaboration agreement for a CO₂ capture, transmission, liquefaction and storage project in Northern Spain. Heidelberg Materials Hispania says that the collaboration will support carbon capture installations at its plants in the region. The partners will now produce a feasibility study and technical designs for CO₂ transmission, liquefaction and storage infrastructure, including the use of Enagás’ existing regasification terminals.

Heidelberg Materials Hispania operates the 1.1Mt/yr Añorga and Arrigorriaga cement plants, both in the Basque Country.