Rwanda: West China Cement subsidiary Anjia Cement has inaugurated its Muhanga grinding plant at the Muhanga Industrial Park in Gitarama. Xinhua News Agency has reported that West China Cement invested US$50m in the plant's construction. It subsequently aims to raise its total investments in Rwanda to US$100m.

Rwanda Development Board chief executive officer Clare Akamanzi said "Over the past five years, we have registered investments from China worth close to US$1bn, which will collectively generate up to 25,000 jobs for Rwandans."

Australia: Alternative cement and concrete producers have welcomed a new Australian civil engineering standard that allows builders to use reduced-CO₂ geopolymer concrete in infrastructure projects. Wagners, which produces Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), said that the revision has removed on if its key barriers to wider market acceptance. EFC replaces 100% of cement with supplementary cementitious materials, including ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and pulverised fly ash, by virtue of its binder technology. Wagners previously supplied EFC for the London Power Tunnels project in the UK, based on local technical approval-based building codes. The producer now expects a new standard like the Australian one to follow in the EU.

Australia: Cement Australia has commemorated the 100th anniversary of the start of operations at its Railton cement plant in Tasmania with a centenary dinner.

Production manager Garry Bissett said "When it opened up in 1923, they built the small kiln, and it was only capable of cement production of 25,000t/yr; now we're producing 1.4Mt/yr." He added that the workforce has fallen to less than half of its original size of 300 people, to 140. Bissett concluded "We're doing some major work, with a lot of capital upgrades in the near future."

China: Huaxin Cement has blamed a fall in its profits in the first half of 2023 on falling clinker prices and sales volumes in its home market. In a preliminary results announcement, it reported that its net profit dropped by 25% year-on-year to US$166m in the first half of 2023 from US$221m in the same period in 2022. Despite this, the group’s operating income rose by 10% to US$2.20bn from US$2.00bn. Its overall sales volumes of cement and clinker increased by 2% to just under 30Mt. However, domestic sales volumes decreased by 0.76%. It also reported that concrete sales volumes grew by 82% to 10.9Mm³.

India: Ambuja Cements has concluded a deal to acquire a 57% stake in Sanghi Industries for US$202m. Reuters has reported that the company has offered to subsequently increase its stake in Sanghi Industries to as much as 83% for up to US$295m in total. It will fund the acquisition of any stake through internal accruals. Sanghi Industries operates the 6.1Mt/yr Sanghipuram cement plant, which is equipped with a 130MW captive power plant and a 13MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant. The cement plant, in Gujarat, also has a single-jetty port on the Arabian Sea coast. Ambuja Cements' parent company Adani Group plans to more than double the Sanghipuram cement plant's capacity to 15Mt/yr.

Adani Group chair Gautam Adani said “By joining hands with Sanghi Industries, Ambuja is poised to expand its market presence, strengthen its product portfolio and reinforce its position as a leader in the construction materials sector. With this acquisition, Adani Group is well on course to achieve its target of 140Mt/yr of cement manufacturing capacity by 2028 ahead of time.”

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement recorded revenues of US$134m during the first half of 2023, up by 17% year-on-year from US$115m during the first half of 2022. The producer's net profit rose by 75% to US$56.2m from US$32.1m.

US: Prometheus Materials' microalgae-based biocement has demonstrated 12 times greater sound absorption than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Prometheus Materials produces its biocement at ambient temperature, with no process CO₂ emissions.

India: UltraTech Cement has concluded an agreement to buy a 26% stake in renewable power provider VEH Radiant Energy. UltraTech Cement says that VEH Radiant Energy will help it to increase its reliance on renewable power in its operations.

US: CRH subsidiary Oldcastle APG has acquired France-based Saint-Gobain's fence, railing and decking business in the US. The business consists of two production locations, in Buffalo, New York, and Orem, Utah. Together, the sites employ 210 people. The business generated US$65.6m in sales in 2022.

Saint-Gobain said that the divestment serves to advance its profile optimisation strategy under its Grow & Impact plan.

Japan: A Taiheiyo Cement plant will be one of two facilities to host carbon capture systems under the Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security selected the project to advance to the feasibility study stage on 2 August 2023. The partners will now investigate technical issues in the entire CCS value chain, as well as commercial and social issues around transporting captured CO₂ by ship to temporary storage sites. Identification of permanent underwater storage sites is scheduled for 2024, with the design stage of capture, transport and storage systems scheduled to conclude in 2026. The Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage project will commence in 2030.

Taiheiyo Cement is committed to a 20% reduction of its CO₂ emissions between 2000 and 2030, while the Japanese government is committed to a 46% reduction between 2013 and 2030.