Iraq: Lafarge Iraq has appointed Farah Qahttan as Country Customer Service Manager. She has worked for the subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim since 2013 in a range of positions, becoming the company’s Country Packaging Manager in 2022. Qahttan is a graduate in chemical engineering from the University of Baghdad.

US: Summit Materials has appointed John Terembula as Senior Director, Grinding Technology. He previously worked for FLSmidth from 1994 to early 2024 in a variety of engineering and then product manager roles for grinding applications. His final position at FLSmidth was as Global Product Line Manager, Vertical Roller Mills. Terembula holds a degree in chemical engineering and materials from Lafayette College and an MBA from Temple University.

India: KHD Humboldt Wedag has appointed Anurag Johari as Assistant Vice President. He has worked for KHD in India since 2005 in a variety of roles. Johari is a graduate in chemical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal in Telangana.

UAE: Fujairah Cement has reported accumulated losses reaching over a third of its capital, primarily due to inflation and decreased revenue, according to Zawya. The total accumulated losses for the 2023 financial year stood at US$35.5m, equating to 36.68% of the company's capital, as disclosed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

The company attributes the increase in losses to various factors, including the rising cost of coal and energy, lower clinker selling prices, a decline in revenue, and higher logistics and finance costs. The company is currently in advanced talks to appoint a renowned financial advisor for assistance in restructuring and exploring other potential options to mitigate these losses.

A separate disclosure highlighted that the major challenge faced during the year was the escalated production costs, primarily driven by increased coal and fuel prices.

France: Ecocem has launched a new low-carbon advanced cement technology (ACT) cement, aiming for widespread adoption in European construction projects. The ACT range promises a clinker concentration of 20%, lower than the current norm of 35% minimum.

Jean-Christophe Trassard, Director, Marketing of Sustainable Innovation, said "We achieve competitive rates by controlling granularity, the fineness of grinding and admixtures. We have also greatly developed our thinking on the addition of additives in our formulations, which required more than fifteen years of R&D and the filing of six patents."

This product contains locally sourced additives, with the capability to adapt mixes to regional availability. The ACT cement is expected to reduce water usage by one-third compared to conventional concrete. An ACT-based concrete reportedly emits 198kg CO₂/t, a substantial reduction from the 614kg CO₂/t for standard concrete in France.

Gaining market entry for ACT required European technical evaluation and European assessment document certification, currently pending in the EU Official Journal. Trassard added, "As we are dealing with clinker rates below the standards, we had to go through this certification, which gives us a very good passport for the European markets. However, local administrative variations will have to be carried out subsequently."

In France, Ecocem has already applied for ATEX certification to facilitate deployment of the ACT range, expected later in 2024. Ecocem aims to include the ACT range in standard norms by 2026.

Afghanistan: The government says that contracts worth US$450m have been concluded for the expansion of three Afghan cement plants to 1.5Mt/yr capacity each. Local companies will carry out the expansions, at the Injil cement plant in Herat and the Shur Andam cement plant in Kandahar, while a Qatar-based company will carry out the Jabal Saraj cement plant in Parwan. TRT World News has reported that the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum expects Afghanistan to become self-sufficient for cement after the new capacity joins existing capacity at the Jabal Saraj cement plant and the Ghori cement plant in Baghlan. These two plants reportedly produce 330,000t/yr of cement, less than 10% of domestic demand.

Ireland: CRH says that it has completed the sale of its UK lime business. The sale concludes the second phase of the group’s divestment of its lime operations in Europe, first announced in November 2023. The total sale value of CRH’s European lime business is US$1.1bn.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement Company's first phase of its expansion project is set for completion in 2025. The expansion will increase cement production by 30%.

Managing director Jorge Martinez said "When completed, this project will further reduce our CO₂ emissions and deliver increased output from 2600 to 2850t/day of clinker to meet the increased local demand for cement. We will also have the capacity to explore options for exporting to other countries within the Caribbean community. These exports will benefit Jamaica’s economy through foreign currency income."

The US$40m plant expansion in Rockfort, Kingston is financed by the company, with 150 workers already on the project. The expansion was announced in 2022 and aims to strengthen Jamaica's cement industry, reduce import reliance and support the regional construction sector. It will also support parent company Cemex's sustainability targets, including CO₂ emission reduction and optimisation of heat consumption in cement production, as part of its Future in Action programme.

US: The US Department of Energy has selected four cement producers to receive funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Heidelberg Materials US secured up to US$500m for its planned 2Mt/yr carbon capture project at the Mitchell cement plant in Indiana. National Cement also received up to US$500m, for its Lebec Net Zero limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) project in California. Summit Materials received up to US$216m for a series of clay calcination projects in Georgia, Maryland and Texas. Lastly, Roanoke Cement will receive up to US$61.7m for an LC3 project at its Troutville cement plant in Virginia.  These projects also involve developing a training, education and certification consortium in the cement sector.

Portland Cement Association (PCA) president and CEO Mike Ireland said "This funding is a welcome acknowledgement from the government that America's cement manufacturers are taking ambitious and significant steps toward reaching carbon neutrality. This will move the needle closer to achieving what industry considers the 'heavyweight' of carbon solutions: carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS). Once established nationwide, CCUS will greatly accelerate cement manufacturers' charge toward net zero."

Senior vice president of government affairs Sean O'Neill added “From passage of the Bipartisan Energy Act of 2020 to securing funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, today's announcement is another major milestone in the cement industry's decarbonisation efforts. The PCA is committed to continuing to work with policymakers to ensure the regulatory environment facilitates rather than impedes these and future investments.

US: Alternative cement developer Sublime Systems has entered award negotiations with the US Department of Energy for a grant worth up to US$87m. Gulf Oil & Gas News has reported that Sublime Systems plans to build an electrolysis-based cement plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The department’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations would provide any eventual funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Sublime Systems’ plant is one of 33 scalable decarbonisation solutions in energy-intensive industries selected for potential funding.

CEO Leah Ellis said “Access to sufficient capital for industrial-scale demonstrations is the single biggest obstacle preventing breakthrough innovations from reaching the scale humanity needs to combat the climate crisis. The Department of Energy has cleared this obstacle through funding from OCED’s Industrial Demonstrations Program, embracing its unique role in supporting the deployment of the decarbonised technologies of tomorrow. We look forward to collaborating with them on funding our first commercial manufacturing scale-up, which will ship our clean cement while creating meaningful economic opportunities for the surrounding community.”