Displaying items by tag: Sustainability

Australia: Minister for Climate Change and Minister Chris Bowen says that the government is ‘considering’ the enactment of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage from high emissions-intensity products, including cement.

The Australian Parliament committed to 43% national CO₂ emissions reduction between 2005 and 2030 in 2022, and capped emitters’ individual carbon footprints in 2023. Final advice from a government Carbon Leakage Review was due after May 2025, and was possibly complicated by on-going US climate and trade reforms under President Trump. The Australian Cement Industry Federation bemoaned a lack of action on carbon leakage in March 2025. It warned of jeopardy to both decarbonisation and 1400 jobs in the Australian cement sector.

Australia’s construction industry imported 40% of its cement used in 2024.

US: Monarch Cement and Evergy Energy Solutions have celebrated the completion of a 39-hectare solar array, with a capacity of 20MW, according to The Chanute Tribune. The facility was inaugurated with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by representatives from both companies. It will supply up to 33% of Monarch’s Humboldt cement plant’s energy needs. Monarch Cement president Kent Webber said the project took three years to complete.

Evergy also planted native pollinator-friendly grasses and plants to boost underground biomass, improve water infiltration and offer the potential to capture CO₂. The project reduces water demand compared to conventional power generation.

Ghana: CBI Ghana and joint venture partner Heidelberg Materials have commissioned the ‘world’s largest’ calcined clay plant in Ghana, according to an announcement by the German producer. The plant has a capacity of 400,000t/yr of calcined clay and uses local raw materials to reduce reliance on imported clinker.

Hakan Gurdal, member of the managing board of Heidelberg Materials, said “Based on calcined clay technology, we can now extend our offering of innovative, high-quality cement products, while reducing CO₂ emissions and utilising the rich local resources. The project has created over 300 local jobs."

Demand for heavy building materials in the UK dropped in the first quarter of 2025, with ready-mix concrete sales reaching a new 60-year low.¹ In an update last week, the UK’s Mineral Products Association (MPA) attributed the decline to existing economic headwinds, compounded by global trade disruptions, reduced investor confidence and renewed inflationary pressures.

Major infrastructure projects – including the HS2 high-speed railway in the English Midlands, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset and the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk – failed to offset delays and cancellations by cash-strapped local councils to roadwork projects. Residential construction, meanwhile, is ‘slowly but steadily’ recovering from historical lows, amid continuing high mortgage rates since late 2024.

The most interesting part of the MPA’s market appraisal was its warning of ‘new risks emerging in the global economy.’ These concern the new tariffs raised by the US against its import partners. The possible consequences, the MPA says, imperil the UK’s supply chains, construction sector and growth.

Of particular immediacy is the threat of imports into the UK from countries that previously focussed on the US market. The MPA said that the industry ‘cannot compete’ against increased low-cost, CO₂-intensive imports. It named Türkiye, which sends around 6.9Mt/yr of cement and clinker to the US, as a key threat. Türkiye became subject to the blanket 10% ‘baseline’ tariff on 2 April 2025.

The MPA probably didn’t have a particular company in mind when it said this. However, it bears noting that Turkish interests gained a share of UK cement capacity in October 2024, when Çimsa acquired 95% of Northern Ireland-based Mannok. Besides the Derrylin cement plant (situated on the border between Fermanagh, UK, and Cavan, Ireland), Mannok operates the Rochester cement storage and distribution facility in Kent, 50km from London. The facility currently supplies cement from Derrylin to Southern England and the Midlands. It could easily serve as a base of operations for processing and distributing imported cement and clinker from further afield.

Meanwhile in South West England, Portugal-based Cimpor is building a €20 – 25m cement import terminal in the Port of Bristol. The company is subject to 20% tariffs on shipments to the US from its home country. Its parent company, Taiwan Cement Corporation, is subject to 32% US tariffs from Taiwan.

But the plot thickens… On 8 May 2025, the UK became the first country to conclude a trade agreement with the US after the erection of the new tariff regime, under which the US$73bn/yr-worth of British goods sold in the US became subject to a 10% tariff.² The latest agreement brought partial relief for an allied sector of UK cement: steel. 180,000t flowed into the US from the UK in 2024.³ In 2024, the UK exported 7120t of cement and clinker to the US, up by a factor of 10 decade-on-decade from just 714t in 2014, all of it into two US customs districts, Philadelphia and New York City.⁴

In what may be one of the first true ‘Brexit benefits,’ UK cement exporters now ‘enjoy’ a US tariff rate half that of their EU competitors, notably those in Greece. Like the UK’s more modest volumes, Greece’s 1.82Mt/yr-worth of cement and clinker exports stateside also enter via the US’ eastern seaports, at New York City, Tampa and Norfolk. Given the overlaps in ownership between the Greek and UK cement sectors, it is conceivable that optimisation of cement export flows across Europe may already be under discussion.

On 6 May 2025, the UK and Indian governments announced a trade deal that will lift customs duties on almost all current Indian exports to the UK. UK MPs are still seeking clarifications as to whether this will include industrial products that might be dumped.⁵ Theoretically, the threat from an oversupplied and fast-growing cement industry like India’s could be existential to the UK cement industry.

As the UK invests heavily in its future, including with the HyNet Consortium, imports pose a major threat. Given enough time, the UK could develop a leading position in the decarbonisation space. Will it have enough time? Existential threats certainly add a sense of jeopardy.

References
1. Mineral Products Association, ‘Weak start to 2025 for building materials sales amid growing economic headwinds,’ 6 May 2025, www.mineralproducts.org/News/2025/release16.aspx

2. HM Government, ‘UK overseas trade in goods statistics November 2024,’ 16 January 2025, www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-overseas-trade-in-goods-statistics-november-2024/uk-overseas-trade-in-goods-statistics-november-2024-commentary

3. UK Steel, ‘US 25% tariffs on UK steel imports come into effect,’ 12 March 2025, www.uksteel.org/steel-news-2025/us-25-tariffs-on-uk-steel-imports-come-into-effect

4. United States Geological Survey, ‘Cement in December 2024,’ January 2025, https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/media/files/mis-202412-cemen.pdf

5. Welsh Liberal Democrats, ‘UK-Indian Trade Deal: Government Refuses to Answer Whether it Has Conceded on Cheap Indian Steel Imports,’ 6 May 2025, www.libdems.wales/news/article/uk-indian-trade-deal-government-refuses-to-answer-whether-it-has-conceded-on-cheap-indian-steel-imports

Portugal: Cimpor will invest €155m in establishing a new research and development centre focused on sustainable construction, CO₂ reduction and digital transformation. The investment will also cover the modernisation of Kiln 7 at the producer’s Alhandra cement plant. The new centre will focus on technologies such as low-clinker cement development, carbon capture and alternative fuels, using recycled concrete and 3D printing. The building itself will incorporate calcined clay-based cement and recycled aggregates.

The new centre will create over 100 jobs and serve as a hub for collaboration with universities and startups, as well as serve as a location for conferences and workshops. The building will operate as a ‘living lab’, with real-time monitoring of its thermal and structural performance and energy consumption.

The chair of Cimpor Global Holdings, Suat Çalbiyik, said “In 2018, we operated only in Portugal and Cape Verde with around 1800 employees. Today, we are the world’s third-largest cement group… with 8000 employees in 14 countries and a production capacity of 112.5Mt/yr of cement.”

US: Queens Carbon has secured US$10m in seed funding to scale up production of its novel cement and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The start-up will build a 2000t/yr demonstration plant at strategic partner Buzzi Unicem USA's Stockertown, Pennsylvania, cement plant. The plant will demonstrate Queens Carbon’s low-energy Q-Reactor technology, which employs novel hydrothermal chemistry, with the help of steam and pressure, to combine standard cement feedstocks into carbon-neutral hydraulic cement and SCMs. The company’s flagship product, Q-SCM, is capable of replacing up to 50% of cement in concrete mixes. Queens Carbon says that it will now also begin preparations for its first full-scale commercial plant.

Buzzi Unicem USA was among investors in the seed funding round, led by Climate technologies investor Clean Energy Ventures, with participation from fellow venture capital firm Plug and Play.

Queens Carbon CEO Daniel Kopp said "With support from Clean Energy Ventures, Buzzi Unicem USA and the US Department of Energy, we're building next-generation technology and assembling the creative talent needed to drive industry revenues to move cement innovation forward and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions from cement production, all without a green premium."

Luigi Buzzi, Chief Technology Officer at Italy-based Buzzi, said "We know that achieving our goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 demands forward-thinking solutions to enhance both our operations and our environmental performance.”

Oman: Raysut Cement is reactivating a partnership with China's Sinoma Overseas Development to launch Oman's first waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant at its Salalah site, according to the Oman Daily Observer. The groundwork for the 9MW facility was originally laid in 2018. Once operational, the facility is expected to reduce the plant’s reliance on national grid power by up to 30% and reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 50,000t/yr. Engineering design and site preparations are expected to be revisited before the end of 2025.

Global: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched the Low Carbon Ratings (LCR) system for cement and concrete, a new global rating based on products' carbon footprints. The system uses a clear AA to G scale to help customers prioritise sustainability in material selection across construction sectors worldwide.

The GCCA says that the LCR system is designed to be easily recognisable, with a simple visual graphic that indicates a product’s rating and provides consistency and comparability to other products. Countries will be able to adapt the system according to local standards.

UK: Holcim UK has published a report called ‘Making Sustainable Construction a Reality’ outlining its plans to support sustainable construction following a survey. It details trends shaping construction and the five commitments the company is making to ensure it reaches a more sustainable future. The key areas include: decarbonisation; circular economy and waste reduction; smarter construction; people and communities; and integrating nature.

The research, involving 2000 participants, revealed that 41% of the group thought that the UK’s urban spaces are currently built sustainably. In addition, 82% of the group believed there should be more access to green spaces across the country, 69% thought that the government should take the lead in driving sustainable action and 54% also held the opinion that businesses must play a key role. Finally, 80% wanted companies to be more transparent about their sustainability policies.

Lee Sleight, CEO at Holcim UK, said “Our research indicates that many recognise the need to incorporate more green spaces across the nation. Yet, it is clear that the government and businesses must work together to achieve this.” He added that the subsidiary of Holcim is addressing the challenges identified through methods such as accurate reporting, higher usage of alternative fuels, its sustainable product ranges and its ongoing Nature Strategy. Projects part of the latter initiative include planting a 64 hectare woodland at Glensanda Quarry in Scotland.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has reported that it ended 2024 with global CO₂ emissions of 550kg/t of cementitious material produced, a reduction of 28% compared to 1990, the baseline year used by the cement industry. The level reflects a 1% year-on-year decrease from 556kg/t in 2023. Votorantim Cimentos’ 2030 decarbonisation target, approved by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), is 475kg/t of cementitious product.

Votorantim Cimentos’ global thermal substitution rate (TSR) was 32% in 2024, an increase over 2023’s TSR of 31%. Its 2030 target is 53%. The company’s clinker factor was 72.5%, a slight fall compared to 73% in 2023. Its 2030 goal is 68%. 34% of the electricity consumed by Votorantim Cimentos in 2024 came from renewable sources, the same as in 2023. The company’s goal is to have 45% of the energy consumed globally come from renewable sources by 2030.

Álvaro Lorenz, Global Director of Sustainability, Institutional Relations, Product Development, Engineering and Energy, said “Globally, we have made progress in pilot projects for CO₂ capture, installed new co-processing and renewable energy sites and systems, and launched low-carbon products. All these efforts will contribute toward our decarbonisation journey and help us achieve our goal of producing carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.”