Mexico: Holcim Mexico says that its supply of cement to the government’s Tren Maya railway project is 170,000t/month. This corresponds to 50 – 60% of its total production volumes. Local press has reported that construction of the 1500km-long Tren Maya railway will consume 1Mm³ of concrete. Holcim supplied its cement for Sections 1 – 3 of the line between 2020 and 2022. It is currently supplying Section 5, which is 50% complete. The cement comes from the company’s Orizaba, Veracruz, plant; its Macuspana, Tabasco, plant and its Mérida, Yucatán, plant.

Holcim Mexico’s infrastructure development manager Fernando Roldan said "Our participation has been a challenge, but the relationship we have with the suppliers and with the construction companies in charge of the railway has allowed us to meet the requirements."

India: UltraTech Cement has bought a 29.8 hectare parcel of land in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram District from The India Cements. The Times of India newspaper has reported the value of the sale as US$8.44m. The India Cements’ vice chair and managing director Narayanaswami Srinivasan said that the company is looking for ways to monetise its assets amid on-going liquidity issues.

The India Cements’ sales of cement and clinker fell by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter to 2.66Mt in the three months to 30 June 2023 from 2.78Mt in the three months to 31 April 2023. It noted high fossil fuel prices and local overcapacity in the South Indian cement sector.

Zimbabwe: South Africa-based PPC has raised its stake in PPC Zimbabwe from 71% to 90%. In an operating update, PPC told investors that PPC Zimbabwe increased its sales by 19% year-on-year in the five months to 31 August 2023. Meanwhile, the group’s South African business raised its sales by 58% year-on-year over the same period. PPC attributed the growth to cost reductions and price increases across both markets, as well as ‘exceptionally strong’ growth in its cement volumes in Zimbabwe. Overall, cement volumes rose by 3% year-on-year.

PPC was previously reported to be considering selling its entire PPC Zimbabwe stake for US$200m in February 2023.

Honduras: Cementos Argos Honduras has commissioned a 1.6GWh/yr solar power plant at its Choloma grinding plant in Río Blanquito. Grupo Argos’ energy subsidiary Celsia built the plant, which consists of 2160 photovoltaic modules. The La República newspaper has reported that the installation cost US$1.2m. It will supply 25% of the Choloma grinding plant’s energy consumption, and reduce its total CO₂ emissions by 23%.

Cementos Argos Honduras CEO Luis Eduardo Tovar said "This partnership marks a significant milestone in our efforts to address climate change and revitalise our ecosystems, while generating significant impact in communities with new employment and investment opportunities.”

South Korea/Egypt: The South Korean government plans to implement a 72% import duty on white cement from Egypt. Yonhap News has reported that the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) recommended the duty as an anti-dumping measure, following its investigation into the impacts of Egyptian imports on the South Korean white cement industry. This consists of Union Corporation’s 200,000t/yr Chongju white cement plant in North Chungcheong.

South Korea consumed 100,000t of white cement in 2022. Egyptian white cement commanded a 10% (10,000t) market share. The domestic cement industry complained to the KTC against Royal El Minya Cement and Albatros International Cement Trading in March 2023. An additional probe will now follow to assess the correct rate for the duty.

Mexico: Cemex said that it has successfully implemented labelling showing the environmental impacts of all of its main products across its ‘most important markets.’ Depending on prevailing practices in each market, products’ packaging either displays an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) or Cemex’s own third-party validated C_ERO₂ designation.

General director Fernando González Olivieri said “We are committed to being the leading partner in sustainable construction for our clients. In this way, our clients have environmental impact information that they can use to develop sustainable construction.” He added “We continue to expand our portfolio of sustainable products, allowing our clients to effectively design and manage the carbon footprint of their construction projects.”

Peru: The Central Reserve Bank of Peru expects national cement consumption to fall by 3.7% in 2023. The Gestión newspaper has reported that demand declined month-on-month over seven successive months up to August 2023. It fell by a double-digit figure year-on-year in the first half of 2023. In August 2023, imports of cement declined by 95% month-on-month, to 2000t from 38,000t.

Peruvian Chamber of Construction executive director Guido Valdivia said "The first factor to consider is El Niño. If it starts in November 2023, it will affect construction output in 2023; if it is postponed to 2024, we expect a drop of only 3.3% in 2023.″ The Peruvian Property Developers’ Association (ASEI) forecast a 4% drop in construction output in 2023, followed by growth of 3.2% in 2024.

Grupo Gloria’s vice president, cement, concrete and lime, Luis Díaz told investors that the gap between Peruvian cement production and consumption will close ‘substantially’ during the remaining months of 2023, due to raised demand from infrastructure projects.

Netherlands: Finland-based Coolbrook has completed the first test phase of the large-scale pilot of its RotoDynamic Heater (RDH) at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen, Netherlands. The engineering company says that this has validated the RDH’s technical pathway up to industrial heat generation at temperatures suitable for cement plants. By developing and launching the technology, Coolbrook says that it will rely on a ‘comprehensive partnership ecosystem,’ including market leaders in technology and industry. It says that the RDH has the potential to eliminate 2.4Bnt/yr of CO₂ emissions – 30% of global industrial CO₂ emissions and 7% of all global CO₂ emissions.

CEO Joonas Rauramo said “Sharing our partners’ and customers’ sense of urgency to achieve net zero, we take determined actions to execute our strategy and progress towards the commercial launch of our electric technology. We are proceeding with first commercial agreements, while continuing to build our organisation and supply chain for industrial scale operations.”

Switzerland: Holcim has invested in CO₂ mineralisation technology developer Neustark. Neustark aims to remove 1Mt of atmospheric CO₂ by 2030 and sequester it in recycled construction and demolition waste. The company’s technology achieved Gold Standard certification as a method of CO₂ removal in March 2022. Holcim says that its investment advances its group commitment to putting clean technologies to work towards achieving net zero.

Holcim’s Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said "At Holcim, we are working to decarbonise building for a net zero future, and Neustark's technology helps us reach this goal. After the successful demonstration of Neustark's solution in Switzerland, we are ready to scale up this carbon removal technology globally."

UK: Hanson UK has launched a recycling business line to process construction and demolition waste. The business will supply recycled materials for use in Hanson UK’s operations.

CEO Simon Willis said “Promoting circularity by recycling, reusing and reducing the use of primary raw materials is crucial to reaching net zero. The development of a separate recycling business line will allow us to provide the most sustainable products to our customers through circularity and innovation, to enable building more with less. It is another significant step towards achieving our aim of being the industry leader in the supply of sustainable, circular products.”