Displaying items by tag: China

US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on imports from Canada, China, Mexico and the European Union this week. Tariffs to Canada and Mexico were announced on 1 February 2025 and then paused for a month to allow for negotiations. Ones to China have been implemented. Tariffs to the European Union have been proposed but nothing has happened yet. What does this mean for the cement sector?

Graph 1: Imports of cement and clinker to the US. Source: USGS. Estimated data for 2024.

The data suggests that whacking 25% tariffs on cement imports from Canada and Mexico would have an impact. The US imported 26.5Mt of cement and clinker in 2023. Based on United States Geological Survey (USGS) data from January to October 2024, imports in 2024 have fallen by 8% year-on-year but they still represent a large chunk of consumption. Türkiye has been the biggest source of imports over the last five years but Canada has been the second biggest supplier. Together with Mexico, it provided over a quarter of imports in 2023. A similar share is expected in 2024. Greece, a country in the EU, has also been present in the top five importing countries to the US during this time.

The Portland Cement Association (PCA) reinforced this view. In a carefully worded statement it took pains to point out alignment with the intentions behind the tariffs, such as appreciating that the administration was open to negotiation and appeared to be flexible. However, it warned that the moves could adversely affect energy and national security, delay infrastructure projects and raise costs. It pointed out the import share from Canada and Mexico, adding that this represented nearly 7% of the US’ cement consumption. It noted which states were the main entry points for cement imports from the two countries. Finally, it highlighted the high level of consumption (36%) that imports from Canada might account for in northern states such as New York, Washington and so on. Meanwhile, Mexico’s National Chamber of Cement (CANACEM) warned that the proposed actions might trigger a ‘competitiveness crisis’ in the US.

Holcim’s CEO, by contrast, nonchalantly told Reuters that he didn’t expect any impact by tariffs on his business. Miljan Gutovic described the group’s US operations as a local business with production happening in the country and equipment and spare parts all being sourced locally. This optimistic view is likely to be influenced by the company’s impending spin-off of its US business. The listing in the US remains scheduled for the first half of 2025 with no complications expected from tariffs.

Clearly, implementing tariffs on imports of cement and clinker from Canada and Mexico could cause a shortage in the US in the short term. This, in turn, could lead to higher prices for consumers in the US. This potential effect would be pronounced in border regions that are reliant on imports. It is worth noting that a number of production lines in both Mexico and Canada have previously been mobilised to meet the export market to the US. These lines would likely be mothballed if tariffs were to be implemented, unless they could find other markets. In the medium term though, as the World Cement Association (WCA) pointed out this week, the world produces too much cement. So it looks likely that the US cement market would adjust to a new equilibrium. Taxing imports from the EU would have a similar effect. Although it seems like it would be less pronounced for the US cement market unless it was in conjunction with tariffs to Canada and Mexico. It would certainly be bad news for cement producers in Greece.

Cement producers in the US look set to benefit from tariffs as demand for their products and prices could increase. There is a risk that too sudden a change to the import market could cause adverse market effects through shortages. Many of these companies are multinational groups with headquarters in foreign countries. However, the strength of the US market compared to elsewhere has prompted some of these businesses to become more ‘American’ through listing in the US or focusing merger and acquisition activity in North America.

At this point we’re stuck in a half-way house place where import tariffs have been threatened and negotiations are pending. The relatively muted stock market reaction to the tariffs and Trump’s swiftness in enacting pauses suggest that it is brinkmanship by the US administration. If this situation continues for any length of time then it will likely have an effect all of its own. In which case don’t expect any export-focused investment by cement companies in Canada and Mexico any time soon.

US: Holcim’s CEO Miljan Gutovic says he does not expect any effects of proposed US tariffs upon his company. "I don't really see any impact, because our business is a local business (in the US)," said Gutovic in an interview with Reuters. "We are producing locally, we are sourcing the equipment, the spare parts locally, so how is this going to affect us? I do not see it." He added that the proposed tariffs were also unlikely to pose any problems to the group’s planned spin-off of its business in the US. The listing of its North America-based business is remains scheduled for the first half of 2025.

The US government proposed tariffs upon imported goods from Canada and Mexico in early February 2025 but these have been paused for one month. Tariffs on China are set to start on 4 February 2025. US President Donald Trump has also spoken about implementing tariffs on the EU.

Indonesia: A government scheme to build three millions houses per year is expected to boost demand for cement. Special envoy for climate change and energy, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, said that the country had secured financing from Qatar to construct four to six million housing units, according to Antara. An agreement has been secured with the UAE to build one million houses. Hashim also mentioned that countries including China, Türkiye, India and Singapore had expressed interest in investing. The government’s housing budget plan for 2025 is currently valued at around US$310m.

Pakistan: Thatta Cement’s has increased its cement dispatches in the first half of its financial year despite a general reduction in the local market. Its cement despatches grew by 12% year-on-year to 254,000t in the six months to 31 December 2024 from 226,000t in the same period in 2023. The company’s net sales rose by 23% year-on-year to US$13.9m in the six months to 31 December 2024 from US$11.3m in the same period in 2023. It attributed this to a “…substantial increase in the retention price.” Its profit after tax tripled to US$4m from US$1.3m.

The cement producer said that it installed a 5MW solar power plant during the reporting period. It also expects to complete a 4.8MW wind farm in early 2025. The company started operating a new pre-crushing system for its cement grinding mills, supplied by Sinoma-Liyang Heavy Machinery, in mid-January 2025.

Northern-Ireland based cement producer Cemcor said this week that it has completed trials of a calcined clay cement product called CalcinX. The company started its trials in 2023 and it has been supported by Queen’s University Belfast and funding from Innovate UK. Work with commercial partners has involved precast concrete paving manufacturer Tobermore producing paviours made from 50% CalcinX as a CEM II replacement and Moore Concrete has also manufactured precast units using 50% CalcinX as a CEM I replacement. So far over 3000t of CalcinX has been produced in a number of industrial-scale trials.

David Millar, the managing director of Cemcor, mentioned his company’s plans for calcined clay in June 2022 when he was interviewed by Global Cement Magazine. The company that became Cemcor bought the Cookstown cement plant and a few other assets from Holcim at the start of 2022. It then changed its name to Cemcor in November 2022. At the time of the interview the company was looking to “...develop new value-added products, including low-CO₂ options. This will allow us to use the same amount of clinker to produce more cement.” Millar couldn’t give away too many details at the time, however calcined clay was cited specifically. It was also noted that the company had the right material in its quarry and that it was already working with partners on it.

Amongst all the other decarbonisation options available for cement plants, a slow trickle of calcined clay projects keep being announced. In January 2025, for example, thyssenkrupp Polysius said it had secured a front-end engineering design contract from Circlua for the construction of the world’s largest activated clay plant in Brazil. This project in Para state will have a capacity of 3000t/day, will use renewable energy sources and will “improve the CO₂ footprint in cement production.” CBMI Construction also officially launched a flash calcination clay project in Tangshan, Hebei province in China. In December 2024, Vicat signed an agreement with the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to develop the Lebec Net Zero (LNZ) project at its Lebec cement plant in California. This includes plans to produce calcined clay-based cement. Earlier in the autumn of 2024 Portugal-based Cimpor said it was preparing to convert a kiln at its Souselas plant to produce calcined clays, AVIC International Beijing and KHD said that they had secured a deal to build a 900t/day clay calcination plant for Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) in Burkina Faso, and Holcim Česko said it was going to construct a calcined clay processing line at the Čížkovice cement plant in the Czech Republic.

One news story that stuck out in the autumn was the progress of a collaboration between Aumund and Holcim towards developing an electric linear calcination conveyor (eLCC). The two companies started work on the project in 2020 intending to look at the electrical calcination of clay using an Aumund pan conveyor. Initial tests of the eLCC reportedly demonstrated efficient thermal activation of clay through a combination of radiant heat and material circulation. The eLCC system is fully enclosed, insulated, has a compact design and can operate using electrical-powered renewable sources. The first industrial plant utilising this technology is scheduled for construction in 2025. Calcined clay technology and products by other industrial suppliers are available. The work by Aumund and its competitors show they are watching this market closely.

OneStone Consulting’s Joe Harder has found that only 14 clay calcination plants were operational worldwide in 2023 with a production capacity of just under 3.5Mt/yr. These are based in Latin America, Europe and Africa. In an article previewing a market report in the February 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine, Harder predicts that by 2035 there will be 79 clay calcination plants with a capacity of just under 21Mt/yr. A steady growth of over 20 new plants annually is also expected subsequently from 2035 to 2050 as cement producers seek cost-effective ways to reduce their clinker factor. He identified installation costs, a lack of knowledge about clay-based cements, trouble obtaining mining rights and policy issues amongst other issues as holding back the use of clay calcination.

The current expectation is that calcined clay usage in the cement industry will be a minority option. Yet the size of global cement production can make a production share of, say, 3 - 8% a viable option for both cement manufacturers and equipment suppliers. The adoption of new cement products and standards can also take a long time and this clouds predictions of how far clay can go in the cement industry. At this point in the calcined clay story it is time to keep track of the new projects being set up.

Joe Harder will present a talk entitled ‘Calcined clay market trends by 2035’ at the Global FutureCem Conference taking place in Istanbul in early February 2025

China: The Conch Zongyang Line 4 preheater modernisation project, based on KHD technology, has been selected as a pilot project under the Sino-German Energy Efficiency Improvement Demonstration in Key Industries programme. The initiative will be executed by KHD, its parent company AVIC International Beijing, and Conch Group’s research and development department. Results are expected by the end of 2025.

The programme stems from a 2023 agreement between China and Germany on climate change and ‘green’ transition cooperation. The programme was announced in 2024. It evaluated 12 candidate projects before selecting the Conch Zongyang project for its integration of technologies to achieve energy efficiency and a reduction in CO₂.

This project is one of several provided by AVIC to Chinese cement producers using KHD’s pyroprocessing, grinding, alternative fuel and digitalisation solutions.

China: Sinoma International Engineering has appointed Yin Ling as its chief financial officer and as a vice president. She succeeds Wang Yuan in the post. Yuan will continue to work as a vice president for the company.
Ling holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and is trained as an accountant. She has worked for Huazheng Certified Public Accountants, China Fiberglass and as the general manager for the finance department of China National Building Materials.

China: CBMI Construction has officially launched a flash calcination clay project in Tangshan, Hebei province. Karen Scrivener, head of the Laboratory of Construction Materials at the School of Engineering at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), attended the event. Scrivener is a prominent researcher and advocate for LC3 (limestone calcined clay cement).

CBMI’s other clay projects around the world as a contractor include the SPL Calcined Clay Project in France, the CIZ Calcined Clay Project (rotary calciner) in the Czech Republic, the Guayaquil Calcined Clay Project in Ecuador and the Ivory Coast Calcined Clay Project (flash calciner).

China: Jing Shiqing has been appointed as the chair of China Resources Cement (CRC) and Xie Ji has been appointed as the CEO. Jing was previously the CEO of the company and Ji Youhong was previously the chair.

Jing, aged 43 years, has worked as the CEO of CRH since 2023. He joined the group in 2003. He became the Deputy General Manager of the Human Resources Department of China Resources Group in 2018 and the Vice President of the company in 2021. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Changsha University of Science and Technology, China and a master’s degree in business administration from the Nanjing University. He is currently the Vice President of the Fifth Council of the Guangdong Building Materials Association.

Xie, aged 52 years, previously worked as the Deputy General Manager of the Strategic Management Department at CRC. He joined the group in 1993. Notable roles include working as a Vice President in the early 2010s and Chief Strategy Officer from 2021 to mid-2024. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tongji University and an executive master’s degree in business administration from China Europe International Business School.

China/Denmark: Denmark-based FLSmidth Cement has signed a licensing agreement with Sinoma International Intelligent Technology (IIT) covering the production and sale of QCX lab equipment in China. Cyril Leung, Country Head China – FLSmdith, said “The deal effectively provides us a new sales channel and represents our continued commitment to enhancing our services in the world’s largest cement market.”

All QCX equipment that FLSmidth Cement supplies outside of China will continue to be made in Brno, Czech Republic. Development and delivery of QCX software will remain in Denmark. FLSmidth noted that the agreement has no impact on the ongoing divestment of FLSmidth Cement.
FLSmidth Cement’s QCX lab equipment supports sampling, preparation and analysis. Products in the range include the QCX/RoboLab laboratory automation system, analysers, sample preparation products, quality control systems and laboratory software.