US: Eagle Materials recorded net earnings of US$463m of in the 2025 fiscal year (FY2025), which ended on 31 March 2025. This represented a 3% year-on-year fall. The company achieved a record revenue of US$2.3bn, marginally higher than the amount seen in FY2024.

Eagle Materials’ revenues from its Heavy Materials segment, which includes cement, concrete and aggregates, fell by 2% year-on-year to US$1.4bn. Net earnings from this sector were US$320m, 6% lower year-on-year. Cement volumes were also down by 5% to 6.9Mt.

Commenting on the annual results, Michael Haack, President and CEO, said “We are pleased to report another year of strong financial, strategic and operational performance at Eagle. In FY2025, we generated record revenues of US$2.3bn and a gross profit margin of 30%, continued to advance our long-term growth and value-creation strategies and achieved important milestones in employee health and safety.”

Haack added that results in the Heavy Material sector were ‘dented’ by adverse weather in January and February 2025. Higher production costs also dragged on results as the company brought forward an annual maintenance outage at one facility and experienced weather-related interruptions at other facilities.

Poland: Cement producers are calling on the European Commission to introduce quotas on imports from Ukraine, to limit their volumes to 0.36Mt/yr. This figure is almost half of the 2024 figure. Poland imported 0.1Mt of cement from Ukraine in 2022, but more than 0.65Mt in 2024. Forecasts for 2025 exceed 1.0Mt, a 10-fold increase in just three years. Ukraine exported 1.7Mt of cement to EU countries in 2024.

The Polish Association of Cement Producers (ACP) believes that the increase in imports is already harming local cement plants, which it says are forced to compete with Ukrainian suppliers on unequal terms. Wlodzimierz Choluy, a member of the ACP's board of directors, emphasised that the effects of imports were becoming particularly noticeable in the border regions of Podkarpacie and Lublin voivodeships.

Polish manufacturers complain that Ukraine is not covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), meaning that Polish-made cement is at a cost disadvantage. This is known as ‘carbon leakage.’

India: JK Lakshmi Cement has partnered with SwitchLabs Automobiles to introduce electric vehicles (EVs) into its logistics network. The company says that this represents a strategic step towards cleaner transportation and more sustainable supply chain practices. According to a press release, the EVs will operate on the route between the JK Lakshmi Puram cement plant in Sirohi, Rajasthan, and the Kalol Grinding Unit in Kalol in the state of Gujarat, a distance of around 225km each way.

The initiative builds on the success of a previous pilot project, which demonstrated a substantial reduction in CO₂ emissions while maintaining operational efficiency. By integrating clean mobility into its logistics operations, JK Lakshmi Cement aims to reduce its environmental footprint and contribute to India’s broader transition to sustainable infrastructure.

France: Two workers have been hospitalised following an explosion at Heidelberg Materials’ Airvault cement plant. They were dismantling an old gas tank at the plant on 20 May 2025 when it exploded at around 17:30 local time, according to the La Nouvelle République newspaper. One worker was taken to a specialist burns unit and the other suffered an injured ankle.

Heidelberg Materials has launched an investigation to determine the exact cause of the explosion.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia has increased its cement production capacity to 20Mt/yr following the inauguration of Pioneer Cement’s expansion project in Dire Dawa city, according to The Ethiopian News Agency.

Minister of Mines Habtamu Tegen said that the country has been increasing its infrastructure and building large cement plants such as Lemi Cement to meet national demand, and that it was also commissioning four coal processing plants to further increase supply, including to neighbouring markets.

The Pioneer Cement expansion was reportedly the result of a partnership between Ethiopian and Chinese investors. Pioneer Cement general manager Leon Zone said that the factory had been operational for 16 years, and that the expansion project had increased the plant’s production capacity by 0.6Mt/yr and created 550 direct jobs.

France: Ecocem will invest €170m to build four new production lines for its ACT low-carbon cement technology in Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk. This follows a €50m investment at Ecocem’s Dunkirk facility to deliver its first production line. The additional manufacturing capacity will come online between 2028 and 2030. At full capacity, ACT production in France will reach 1.9Mt/yr, reducing CO₂ emissions by 800,000t/yr and creating 60 jobs. The French government has reportedly committed to working closely with Ecocem to identify operational and financial solutions to accelerate and deliver the expansion.

UAE: Manufacturing conglomerate Exeed Industries has signed a memorandum of understanding with sustainable building materials producer Partanna Oasis to explore local production of carbon-negative cement alternatives in the UAE. Both parties will plan to establish a brine conversion facility, a tolling facility and a cement plant to commercialise Partanna’s products in the UAE. The two companies will collaborate on certification, performance testing and regulatory alignment.

Vietnam: The government has reduced cement clinker export tax from 10% to 5%, effective from 19 May 2025 to the end of 2026. The 10% rate will be reinstated on 1 January 2027.

The Ministry of Finance said the temporary measure is an effort to help local manufacturers adjust production and reduce their inventory amid falling demand. Only 77% of Vietnam’s 122Mt/yr cement capacity is currently in use, with 34 out of 92 lines suspending operations in 2024. Cement and clinker exports fell by 5% to 29.7Mt in 2024, with revenues down by 14% year-on-year to US$1.14bn. Clinker exports alone were valued at US$301m.

Pakistan: Power Cement will build a 7.5MW wind power plant using Goldwind turbines under a rental model, with commissioning targeted in the 2026 financial year.

The new facility will supply 11% of the producer’s energy demand. Power Cement currently sources 34% and 6% of its energy needs from waste heat recovery and solar, respectively. The company has a total cement production capacity of of 3.37Mt/yr.

Cambodia: Prime minister Hun Manet inaugurated a new US$250m cement plant in western Cambodia on 20 May 2025. The 2.2Mt/yr facility was jointly funded by Chinese and Cambodian stakeholders and has been built on 407 hectares of land in the Aural district.

According to the prime minister, the new plant is the sixth in the country, bringing the total cement production capacity to about 11Mt/yr. He said “These cement plants have transformed Cambodia from a country that imported 100% of cement from overseas into a country that is capable of supplying its domestic demand entirely on its own.”

He added that Cambodia exported over 30,000t of cement to Thailand in 2024. Cambodia has an estimated domestic demand of 10Mt/yr of cement to supply its growing construction sector.