Displaying items by tag: Japan

The Pacific Cement Corporation (PACEMCO) held a groundbreaking ceremony this week officially ‘reopening’ its cement plant in Surigao City. The revival of the plant has been supported by investments by San Miguel Corporation (SMC). Various dignitaries attended the event including John Paul Ang, the chief operating officer of SMC, the mayor of Surigao City mayor and the governor of Surigao del Norte.

The plant has been closed since 2014 due to financial problems. At the time, Global Cement reported that the cement plant stopped operations in May 2014 after the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative cut its power supply for unsettled debts worth at least US$0.5m. PACEMCO was originally set up in 1967 and the plant had a production capacity of 0.22Mt/yr via one production line in 2014.

Earlier in March 2025 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was keen to highlight the efforts that Taiheiyo Cement Philippines (TCP) is making towards supporting the country's infrastructure capacity. Company executives met with the DTI and revealed plans including building a distribution terminal in Calaca, Batangas with the aim of targeting the Luzon market. This follows the construction of a new US$220m production line at TCP’s San Fernando plant in Cebu in July 2024.

Both announcements follow the implementation in late February 2025 of a provisional tariff on cement imports. The DTI started investigating imports in the autumn of 2024 and later decided to initiate a ‘preliminary safeguard measure’ following the discovery of a “causal link between the increased imports of the products under consideration and serious injury to the domestic industry.” The tariff takes the form of a cash bond of US$6.95/t or US$0.28/40kg bag of cement. It will be in place for 200 days, to mid-September 2025, while the Philippine Tariff Commission conducts a final investigation. The two main countries that will be affected are Vietnam and Japan. A large number of countries are exempt from the tariff including, notably, China and Indonesia. Both of these two countries were larger sources of imports to the Philippines during the five-year period the DTI is investigating. However, imports from these places have declined since 2021 and 2023 respectively.

Graph 1: Import of cement to the Philippines, 2019 - 2024. Source: Department of Trade and Industry.

A preliminary report by the DTI published in late February 2025 outlines the reasons for the provisional tariff. In summary it found that imports rose from 2019 and 2024 and the share of imports increased also pushing down the domestic share of sales. In the view of the report, the domestic cement sector experienced declining sales, production, capacity utilisation, profitability and employment for each year apart from 2021. One point to note is that the imports were split roughly 50:50 between local and foreign companies. Local company Philcement, for example, was the largest importer for cement to the Philippines from 2019 to 2024. In its statement to the DTI it said that it had invested in manufacturing the processing sites in the country. It argued that overprotection of the market discouraged competition and might not be aligned with the economic goals of the country.

Last time Global Cement Weekly covered the Philippines (GCW669) in July 2024 it looked likely that the government would take further action on imports. This has now happened on a temporary basis but it looks likely that it will become permanent. Recent investment announcements from local producers such as PACEMCO and TCP may be coincidental but they suggest a tentative confidence in the local sector.

UBE Mitsubishi Cement recently released an update on its commercial scale demonstration using ammonia as a fuel at its Ube plant. It is currently testing the use of ammonia in both the cement kiln and calciner at the site. It has set the aim of reaching a 30% coal substitution rate with ammonia in the cement kiln by the end of March 2025. It has described the project as a world first. Planned future work includes running ammonia combustion tests alongside post-consumer plastics.

The company announced the three-year project in mid-2023. Utilities company Chubu Electric Power has been working on it and UBE Corporation has been supplying the ammonia for the test. The scheme dates back to before Mitsubishi Materials and Ube Industries merged their cement businesses in 2022. Ube Industries previously took part in a government research project looking at the topic, running combustion tests and numerical analysis in small industrial furnaces.

Another ammonia research project in the cement sector was revealed in 2024 by Heidelberg Materials in the UK. The company was awarded just under €0.40m in funding by Innovate UK through its UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) fund, together with engineering consultants Stopford and Cranfield University. The 12-month feasibility study aimed to assess the use of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier and evaluate the most economical method of on-site ammonia cracking to generate hydrogen for use by clinker kilns. It also intended to investigate the various tiers of the UK's existing ammonia supply chain network for the suitable transportation, offloading and storage of ammonia.

The UK project explained that it was looking at ammonia as a hydrogen carrier due to its high volumetric energy density. This, potentially, makes ammonia easier and cheaper to store and transport than hydrogen. It pointed out that storing and transporting hydrogen is difficult and the chemical is expensive. It also noted that the volumetric energy density of ammonia is 45% higher than that of liquid hydrogen. The benefit of switching to a zero-carbon fuel was that it could cut CO₂ emissions by the cement and concrete sector in the UK by 16%.

The attraction of ammonia to the cement industry is similar to that of hydrogen. Both are versatile chemicals that can be produced and used in a variety of ways. The production processes and supply chains of both chemicals are linked. The Haber–Bosch process, for example, uses hydrogen to manufacture ammonia. It can also be cracked to release the hydrogen. When used as fuels neither release CO₂ emissions directly. This comes down to the method of production. Like hydrogen, there is a similar informal colour scheme indicating carbon intensity (Grey, Blue, Green and Turquoise). Despite the advantages listed above, the disadvantages of using ammonia include toxicity and NO_x emissions, as well as the fact that there is little experience of using ammonia as a fuel. The worldwide ammonia market was bigger by volume in 2023 with production of just under 200Mt compared to hydrogen production of just under 100Mt.

Back in Japan, the national government has been promoting the use of ammonia technology for the power generation sector. It added ammonia to the country’s national energy plan in the early 2020s following research on running power plants with a mixture of ammonia and coal. The ambition is to build up levels of ammonia co-firing at power plants, develop the necessary technology and grow supply chains. This, it is hoped, will broaden, diversify and decarbonise the domestic energy mix and pull together a new international market too. Unfortunately, this strategy has had criticism. One study by BloombergNEF in 2022 estimated, for example, that the electricity cost of Japan-based power stations switching to firing ammonia by 2050 would be more expensive than generation from renewables such as solar or wind.

This explains why the ammonia project by UBE Mitsubishi Cement is leading the way. The interest by a European cement company shows that others are thinking the same way too. Yet again, the potential decarbonisation solution for cement is likely to lead towards more complex industrial supply chains. The next steps to watch will be whether a cement plant in Japan actually starts to co-fire ammonia on a regular basis and if any more ammonia projects pop up elsewhere around the world.

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation has started a commercial-scale demonstration test using ammonia as a heat energy source in a cement kiln and calciner at Ube cement plant.

The project, supported by Yamaguchi Prefecture’s 2023 Carbon Neutral Complex Development Promotion Subsidy, follows an ammonia co-combustion test in 2023. In collaboration with UBE Corporation, a test facility for ammonia co-firing was installed.

The company has set a target of replacing 30% of its coal consumption with ammonia in the cement kiln, with similar levels targeted for the calciner by the end of the 2025 financial year. Mitsubishi UBE Cement is also planning further ammonia combustion tests with post-consumer plastics and other materials as energy sources.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement's sales declined by 0.8% year-on-year to US$1.09bn in the first nine months of the 2025 financial year. Nonetheless, the producer succeeded in raising its pre-tax profit, by 16%, to US$44.9m. The company forecasts full-year sales of US$1.47bn (up by 0.6%) and profit of US$54.4m (down by 2%), maintaining previous estimates.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement recorded net sales of US$4.4bn, up by 3% year-on-year, from 1 April 2024 to December 2024. Sales were US$4.3bn in the corresponding period of 2023.

The company’s financial report stated “During the nine months ended 31 December 2024, the Japanese economy showed a moderate recovery trend, partly due to the effect of various government policies under an improving employment and income situation. However, the outlook remained uncertain due to factors such as the protracted situation in Ukraine and continued yen depreciation.”

It also stated that domestic cement demand was affected by multiple factors, such as a labour shortage, the adoption of a five-day week for the construction industry and a shortage of lightweight aggregates. It reported that demand decreased 6% year-on-year to 25.15Mt, of which imported cement increased 26% year-on-year to 10,000t. Total exports increased by 25% year-on-year to 6.24Mt. The group’s domestic cement sales volume decreased by 5% year-on-year to 9.52Mt, with exports increasing by 22% to 2.4Mt. Its cement businesses in US, Vietnam and the Philippines all also saw a decrease in sales volumes.

Japan: Sumitomo Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with US-based Fortera to conduct a feasibility study to build a low-carbon cement plant. The project will be run with subsidiary Sumitomo Osaka Cement. The aim is to then build a pilot plant in Japan by the 2026 financial year. Sumitomo Corporation is also considering expanding the business model developed in Japan to other parts of Asia.

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation (MUCC) has developed a carbon-negative artificial sand product called ‘GX-e Beads.’ It is made from by-products containing calcium and uses a proprietary accelerated carbonation technology developed by MUCC to absorb CO₂ at 80 - 250kg/t from flue gas and other sources. A further granulation and solidification stage is then used to manufacture the final artificial fine aggregates, making it net-carbon negative. The artificial sand can be produced via a dry process at ambient temperature conditions. It requires no special reaction equipment.

The product can be used as a fine aggregate to make normal-strength concrete. MUCC says “…when used in conjunction with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) or blended cement, fresh properties and strength development equivalent to or better than that of normal concrete can be obtained. Therefore, it can be widely applied to ready-mix concrete and secondary concrete products.”

Japan/Australia: Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation (MUCC) has invested US$5m in cleantech firm MCi Carbon, becoming the fourth major Japanese investor alongside ITOCHU Corporation, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

The partnership includes a collaboration agreement focusing on mineral carbonation technology and a three-way memorandum of understanding with ITOCHU Corporation.

MUCC will utilise MCi's technology to decarbonise cement production in Japan through CO₂ emissions abatement and development of low-carbon materials.

The investment supports the commissioning of MCi's 'Myrtle' mineral carbonation demonstration plant in Australia.

Japan: Fortera is collaborating with Sumitomo Corporation to introduce its ReCarb technology in Asia, starting with Japan. The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to deploy Fortera’s bolt-on ‘low-to-zero-carbon’ cement plants across the region, focusing on the largest cement manufacturers.

Fortera’s ReCarb process converts industrial CO₂ directly from cement production into cement that is reportedly third-party verified as having 70% less embodied carbon tonne-for-tonne than ordinary Portland cement. When paired with renewable energy, Fortera can achieve zero-CO₂ cement production.

Ryan Gilliam, CEO of Fortera, said "This partnership is a pivotal moment for the future of sustainable cement production, because you can’t make a meaningful impact on the industry’s carbon emissions without partnering with major industry players in Asia, which is home to the largest cement market in the world."

Philippines: The Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CeMAP) and Eagle Cement Corporation have backed an order by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to investigate alleged excessive imports of cement. In a statement the parties said that the investigation ordered by DTI Secretary Cristina Roque is a critical step that underscores the government’s commitment to ensuring fair competition, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. They added that the move would protect the local cement industry from undue harm caused by imports.

CeMAP previously submitted its position paper to the DTI on 12 November 2024 on the issue of imports of cement. Eagle Cement has backed the Federation of Philippine Industries in its position on the need to protect the domestic cement sector.

Data from the Bureau of Customs show that cement imports rose by 5% year-on-year to 6.2Mt from January to October 2024. 94% of the imports originated from Vietnam with 5% from Japan and 1% from Indonesia.