Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corporation, one of the island's largest coal importers, will completely halt its cooperation with Russia, according to The Moscow Times. This decision exacerbates the challenges faced by Russian coal exporters, who have already seen a nearly 12% decline in exports from January to July 2024. Since spring 2023, Taiwan has purchased more than 10Mt of Russian coal, accounting for nearly 20% of the island's total coal imports.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement has reported a loss of US$4.4m in the first half of 2024 compared to a profit of US$61,000 in 2023. The company, which operates two cement production facilities in Kazakhstan, saw its revenue fall by 7% to US$34.4m, down from US$36.9m, reportedly due to a 4% reduction in sales volume and higher electricity and maintenance costs.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has ordered a crossbelt analyser for stockpile optimisation and an airslide analyser for raw mill control from SpectraFlow for its new Line 3 project at the Jazan cement plant. The new line will have a capacity of 5000t/day of clinker.

US: Holcim has invested in Sublime Systems to expand its range of solutions to decarbonise the construction industry. The partnership will advance Sublime’s first commercial manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, US, giving Holcim a large share of Sublime Cement produced there through a binding offtake reservation. Sublime’s first commercial-scale plant is set to start production in 2026 with a capacity of 30,000t/yr.

Chief sustainability officer at Holcim, Nollaig Forrest, said “The Sublime Systems team has developed a unique technology to decarbonise cement, cutting across the entire production process from the use of clean electricity to carbon-free raw materials. We are excited about this technology’s potential and are delighted to be partnering to bring it to market at scale. This investment advances our strategy to decarbonise construction by scaling up the most innovative technologies across our operations.”

CEO and cofounder of Sublime Systems, Leah Ellis, said “In the cement industry, scale is everything. We are proud to collaborate with Holcim, which supports our mission of swift and massive impact. By pairing Sublime’s technology with Holcim’s advanced global operations from manufacturing and logistics to commercial distribution, we can scale up our impact together.”

Germany: FLSmidth has signed an agreement to acquire Tipco Tudeshki Industrial Process Control (Tipco), an Aachen-based technology firm. Tipco develops sensor technology for measuring particle size distribution of different mass flows, which will be integrated into FLSmidth's hydrocyclones portfolio. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the acquisition does not affect FLSmidth's financial guidance for 2024.

PCV business line president at FLSmidth, Pat Turner, said “This acquisition marks an important addition to our PCV offerings and highlights our strategic focus on digital solutions across the Mining flowsheet. The optimisation of the grinding circuit plays a crucial part in maximising productivity and operational efficiency of the overall processing plant, and the addition of Tipco’s groundbreaking sensor technology will further strengthen our offerings within this area.”

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement Company (CCC) is addressing concerns that have arisen due to a shortage of cement in the market, which has reportedly led to hardware stores rationing supplies, according to the Jamaica Observer. The government has been called on to address the problem, reportedly affecting more than 150,000 people employed in the construction industry.

A spokesperson for CCC said “Caribbean Cement Company has successfully completed the scheduled annual maintenance of its kiln, and we are aware that some customers are experiencing delays in obtaining cement. Prior to the maintenance, the company held sufficient inventories to meet market needs. However, the passage of Hurricane Beryl and the company’s subsequent response to ongoing relief efforts resulted in faster consumption of these initial inventories. We recognise the importance of our operations to the construction industry and are working diligently to replenish inventories as quickly as possible for our valued customers. We anticipate a return to normal inventory levels during the coming days.”

Spain: The first eight months of 2024 have seen a 1.4% decrease in Spain's cement consumption, totalling 9.64Mt, a drop of 141,740t from the same period in 2023, according to data released by Oficemen. Despite this overall decrease, the industry experienced mixed results in the summer months, with a notable 12.5% increase in July 2024 and a 6% decline in August 2024.

Cement demand over the last 12 months, from September 2023 to August 2024, has decreased by 3%, showing an improvement of 1.3% compared to the figures recorded in June 2024. The total volume of cement sold was 14.3Mt, reflecting a decrease of 462,636t from 2023.

Exports dropped by 17.5% in the first eight months of 2024, although this is an improvement from the 20% decline noted at the end of the first half of 2024. Despite a 13.5% growth in exports in July 2024, August 2024 saw a fall of 18%.

General director of Oficemen, Aniceto Zaragoza, said “Despite the decline in August 2024, the evolution of accumulated consumption in 2024, once the figures for the two summer months have been incorporated, has improved by almost two percentage points since the 3% drop recorded in June 2024, which confirms our forecasts of a moderate change in trend towards more positive data for the end of the 2024 financial year."

Tunisia: Carthage Cement has released its interim financial statements for the first half of 2024, revealing a net profit of US$11.7m, up by 48% from US$7.9m in the same period of 2023. The company's half-yearly revenues rose from US$70.8m in June 2023 to US$71.5m in June 2024. Operating profit grew by 17% to reach US$18.7m.

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced plans last week to add the cement sector to the country’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) by the end of 2024. The ministry has started the consultation process to also add steel and aluminium production to the system. 2024 will be used as a control year for the new industries entering the scheme, an implementation phase will run in 2025 and 2026 and then the quota allocated to companies will start to be reduced from 2027 onwards. Plants that emit 26,000t/yr of CO₂ or higher will be included in the ETS.

Clearly this is a big deal for the cement industry worldwide, as China produces around half of the world’s cement. As Ian Riley the CEO of the World Cement Association commented, "The inclusion of cement in the Chinese ETS is a critical and long-awaited step. As we have seen in Europe, a well-implemented carbon ETS can be beneficial by not only curbing emissions but also catalysing industry restructuring that favours the most efficient and lowest-emitting producers. This move signals China’s intent to prioritise sustainability in high-emission sectors…” In 2023, for example, China produced 2.02Bnt of cement compared to a global output of 4.10Bnt. This compares to the 176Mt of cement produced in the European Union (EU) in 2022. The EU, of course, is the home of the world’s second largest ETS.

China’s National ETS originally started in 2021 focusing on the power generation sector. It followed several pilot markets in eight regions, which continue to operate in parallel with the national system. At present the National ETS covers more than 2000 companies with emissions exceeding that 26,000t/yr of CO₂ figure mentioned above. These are mostly generation businesses, but it does also cover captive power plants. Overall, the scheme is estimated to cover around 5Bnt/yr of CO₂ and accounts for over 40% of the countryʼs CO₂ emissions. The current targets are an 18% reduction in carbon emissions per unit of GDP compared to 2020 levels by 2025, peak CO₂ emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2060. Following the addition of the cement, steel and aluminium sectors, however, the ETS is estimated to grow to 8Bnt/yr of CO₂ and it should account for 60% of the country’s CO₂ output.

In April 2024 the average spot price of emissions traded on the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange reached €12.7/t of CO₂. This was a notable milestone because in the local currency it exceeded the ‘psychological’ 100 Chinese Yuan threshold. Meanwhile, the EU ETS CO₂ price started to increase in 2021 finally making it just past Euro100/t of CO₂ in early 2023. Since then, it has declined somewhat but remains at €50-75, well above the levels of the 2010s.

In practical terms the real significance of China’s National ETS for the cement sector should begin to be felt once the government starts to tighten up the allocated quotas from 2027 onwards. It is at this point that it will become apparent how the system is being used to drive the pace of decarbonisation. The other part of this to watch is if or when domestic talk turns to setting up a version of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to stop imports. It is at this point that one might be able to tell if the ETS has ‘bite.’

The government has not been shy in regulating industry and one of its starkest tools so far in tackling overcapacity has been mandating cement plants to simply stop production for some months of the year through so-called peak shifting. The National ETS gives it another tool to drive policy changes. Yet it is more complicated and with wider implications to other industries than simply telling plants to take a break. How it fits in globally, where there is a significant difference between the ETS price in China and the EU, remains to be seen. Yet, any additional CO₂-based burden upon the cement sector in the world’s largest cement producing country is a major step towards decarbonisation.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has appointed Thornton Williams as CEO of its Concrete division. Williams has served as acting CEO of the division since 29 March 2024. The group noted Williams’ ‘significant’ leadership role in driving culture, customer satisfaction and sustainability. He has also been its chief financial officer (CFO) from 2021, before which he was group general manager, treasury and risk. He previously worked in dealer roles at Australia-based banking group ANZ and the Bank of New Zealand. Williams holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Incoming group CEO and managing director Andrew Reding said "Thornton brings to the role a deep understanding of the commercial drivers of the Concrete business and the competitive landscape. He is therefore well-positioned to lead this high-performing division, not only as Fletcher Building navigates the current challenging trading conditions but also as economic conditions start to improve and opportunities for profitable and sustainable growth emerge.” Reding added “I look forward to working closely with Thornton and the Fletcher Building executive team when I formally commence my role on 30 September 2024. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank acting CEO Nick Traber for his support and commitment in enabling an orderly and smooth handover of the CEO role.”