Displaying items by tag: Holcim

France/Syria: The former Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont has taken the witness stand at the start of a hearing that will focus on the alleged financing of the Islamic State in Syria in the early 2010s. Lafont took the stand on 19 November 2025 to face questions from the 16th Criminal Chamber of the Paris Judicial Court, according to the Libération newspaper. He is on trial, along with several former senior executives, for financing terrorism in Syria.

At the heart of the trial is the continued operation of the former French multinational’s assets within Syria, a country embroiled in civil war between 2011 and 2014. Lafarge has since been absorbed into Switzerland’s Holcim.

Bruno Lafont joined Lafarge in 1983 and served as its CEO from 2007 to 2015. He maintains that, on a multinational scale, the Syrian plant, located in the city of Jalabiya, north of Raqqa, was not one of the group's most strategic assets. Lafarge nevertheless aimed to supply 30% of the country's cement needs and employ 1000 people, which Lafont conceded was a ‘significant investment.’ The plant only opened shortly before the onset of hostilities.

Explaining the decision to keep the plant running, Lafont asserted that Lafarge keeping the plant open was “a form of commitment to the local communities.” Lafont said that he and his subordinates were bound by a ‘moral obligation,’ stating “These assets were ours, but they also belong to the country, to the region.”

Questioned by the presiding judge, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, and pressed further by representatives of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office, Aurélie Valente and Olga Martin-Belliard, the former CEO mostly claimed he hadn't been informed about the situation at the Syrian factory. Prosecutors pointed out that Lafarge had received numerous warnings before the plant was invaded by Islamic State on 19 September 2014. They also pointed out the embassy closures, the mass departure of international companies and the removal of country directors from Syria, asking why these events did not attract the ‘curiosity’ of Lafarge’s CEO. In reply Lafont stated "Before Syria, we had experienced several Arab Springs… and they all stopped.” He also drew parallels to the situation in Egypt, which he described as ‘practically an insurrection.’

In a separate case in the US, Lafarge admitted in 2022 that its Syrian subsidiary paid US$6m to Islamic State and the Nusra Front to allow employees, customers and suppliers to pass through checkpoints after the civil conflict broke out in Syria. The group paid US$778m in forfeiture and fines as part of its plea agreement. Lafarge faces much lower fines in France if it is found guilty, but eight of the 10 individuals on trial face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

The trial in Paris continues.

UK: Holcim UK has appointed Mohamed Ben Driss Alami as the managing director of its Cement Division.

Alami has worked for Holcim and associated companies for 16 years. He started working for Lafarge in France in 2009 as a Corporate Finance Manager before switching to logistics in the US in 2014. He subsequently became the Director of Integration, Strategy & Business Development for Holcim US Cement in 2015, the General Manager - Asphalt & Construction - Mid-Atlantic Region in the US for Aggregate Industries in 2017 and the Country Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Algeria in 2020. Prior to working for Holcim, he was an Adjunct Professor in Economics at the Sciences Po University in France. Alami holds multiple master’s degrees in applied mathematics and is a certified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Serbia: Lafarge Srbija, part of the Holcim group, has officially changed its name to Holcim Srbija to align its corporate identity with the global group. Lafarge Srbija has been part of Holcim since 2015.“The name change completes the company’s corporate profile and represents an even more decisive step towards a future that is more sustainable, responsible and innovative,” said Dimitrije Knjeginjic, CEO of Holcim Srbija.

The company operates a cement plant in Beočin, along with several concrete facilities, and plans to build a new €112m cement plant in Belgrade’s Obrenovac municipality. The company acquired the Jazovnik stone quarry in Vladimirci, around 30km from the planned Obrenovac site, earlier in 2025.

Romania: Holcim has won a European Union Innovation Fund grant for its Carbon Hub CPT 01 carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at its Campulung cement plant. The initiative will produce an estimated 2Mt/yr of near-zero cement from 2032, marking Eastern Europe’s first full-scale onshore CCS project, according to the company.

The project, developed with Carmeuse as a key partner, will capture CO₂ from kiln flue gases, compress it and transport it for permanent underground storage. Holcim said the project supports the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal and advances its NextGen Growth 2030 strategy.

With this grant, Holcim now has eight large-scale EU-supported carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects, located in Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Poland and Romania.

Germany: AUMUND Fördertechnik has launched its electrified Linear Calcination Conveyor (eLCC), which enables efficient clay calcination for limestone calcined clay cement (LC3).

LC3, composed of roughly 50% clinker, 30% calcined clay, 15% limestone and 5% gypsum, can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 40% compared to ordinary Portland cement, according to the company. The technology enhances pozzolanic reactions between limestone and calcined clay, which provides additional alumina to form carboaluminate phases, improving strength and durability while lowering clinker use. Developed in collaboration with Holcim over four years, the eLCC was tested successfully at AUMUND’s pilot demonstration unit in Rheinberg, confirming its potential to support low-carbon cement production at industrial scale.

US: Sublime Systems has appointed Rob Davies as its CEO. He succeeds Leah Ellis in the post. Ellis, who co-founded the company in 2020 says she will remain “actively engaged.”

Davies joined Sublime Systems in 2024 as an advisor and became its Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the start of 2025. He previously held the position of COO of 6K from 2022 to 2024. He worked for Cabot Corporation in a variety of roles from 2012 to 2022, eventually becoming its VP Global Manufacturing - Reinforcement Materials. Earlier in his career he was the president of Geocycle in the US from 2006 to 2010. He was the plant manager of cement plant in Portland, Colorado for Holcim from 2003 to 2006. Before this, he worked for Lafarge in the UK and Blue Circle in a number of positions including UK Technical Director and UK Operations Officer, and he managed a number of cement plants. Davies holds a master’s degree in mineral process engineering and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Warwick.

Austria: Energy utility Verbund has commissioned a 15.4MW solar power plant at Holcim’s Mannersdorf cement plant in Lower Austria. Operational since mid-2025, the 17-hectare solar park features 22,204 modules that produce 19.3GW/yr of electricity, meeting around 15% of the plant’s total energy demand.

Verbund said the project will avoid up to 15,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions. It designed, built and will operate the facility. Holcim said the installation is central to its plan to power the Mannersdorf plant entirely with renewable energy by 2030.

Serbia: The economy ministry will provide Lafarge Srbija, part of the Holcim Group, with a €10.6m subsidy to help finance the construction of a new cement plant in Belgrade’s Obrenovac municipality, according to SeeNews. The government initially announced the cement producer’s plans to build a new plant in August 2024. Lafarge reportedly plans to invest €112m in the project by the end of 2027. The company will hire 51 additional full-time workers by the end of 2026, bringing total employment to 320, which it will maintain for at least five years after completion. The subsidy, equivalent to 9.5% of total investment, will be paid in three tranches between 2026 and 2028.

The Obrenovac plant will produce cement using ash from nearby thermal power plants operated by state-owned Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS). In February 2025, EPS signed a 10-year agreement to supply 20Mt of ash from the Nikola Tesla B power plant to a consortium of Lafarge Srbija and Elixir Group. Lafarge Srbija also acquired the Jazovnik stone quarry in Vladimirci, 30km from the new site, to establish a complete logistics chain for the complex. The producer operates an existing cement plant in Beocin.

Switzerland: The first nine months of 2025 yielded a 2% year-on-year decline in sales for Holcim, from US$15.3bn to US$15bn. Nonetheless, the company succeeded in raising its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) by 2% to US$2.86bn. It recorded year-on-year organic growth of 3% in sales and 11% in EBIT. Holcim noted the centrality of sustainability in its growth in the period. Its sales of ECOPlanet reduced-CO₂ cement rose from 32% to 35% of total cement sales, while its sales of ECOPact reduced-CO₂ concrete sales from 26% to 31% of total ready-mix concrete sales. Its use of construction-demolition materials (CDM) in production rose by 20% year-on-year.

During the period, Holcim continued its on-going diversification through the acquisition of Germany-based walling systems producer Xella. At the same time, the company’s cementitious division continued to target ‘profitable growth in highly attractive markets,’ as exemplified through its Australia-based joint venture Cement Australia’s acquisition of BCG Cement. Across all divisions, Holcim closed 14 value-accretive transactions in the period. It spun off Holcim North America and sold its Nigerian cement business and Iraq-based Karbala Cement Manufacturing.

CEO Miljan Gutovic thanked Holcim’s 45,000 employees, saying "We are delivering on Holcim's vision to be the leading partner for sustainable construction. With accelerating net sales growth in the third quarter of 2025, we delivered strong profitable growth for the first nine months of the year, with a 10% increase in recurring EBIT in local currency and an industry-leading margin of 19%. Margin expansion was driven by our high-value strategy, scaling up our sustainable offering to meet customer demand, and accelerating decarbonisation and circular construction for profitable growth.” Gutovic confirmed Holcim’s full-year guidance for 2025, namely: recurring EBIT growth of 6 – 10% in local currency, with a margin of above 18% and free cash flow before leases of US$2.51bn.

Egypt: Ayat Zanaty has been appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Holcim subsidiary Lafarge Egypt. Zanaty will be the first woman in the position, advancing Lafarge Egypt’s NextGen2030 strategy.

Zanaty has worked for Lafarge Egypt since 2008, most recently as Senior Manager – Financial Planning Analysis. She holds a bachelor’s of business administration degree in Finance and Marketing from The American University in Cairo.