Global Cement News

Finland: Finland-based technology company Wärtsilä will supply a complete propulsion package for the new methanol dual-fuel cement carrier from NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers. The ship is under construction at Zhejiang Xinle Shipbuilding in China and is expected to launch in late 2026. The contract includes two Wärtsilä 32 engines, one Wärtsilä 25 auxiliary engine, two gearboxes, two controllable pitch propellers, one tunnel thruster, three selective catalytic reduction systems, the propulsion control system, two shaft generators and engine accessory items, with deliveries starting in November 2025.

Sweden-based Climeon recently won an order to install its organic rankine cycle waste heat recovery technology, HeatPower 300, on the vessel.

Typical! We published a cement sector news review for 2024 in the December 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine and a load of big important events happened afterwards. So, here is a roundup of some of the major stories that have taken place in the last two months of the year.

The TL:DR (too long; didn't read) version of ‘Global Cement News in 2024’ was: focus on the US market by the multinationals; cement joining the emissions trading scheme in China as the world’s largest market stagnates; continued rivalry between UltraTech Cement and Adani Group in India as that sector grows; markets in the Middle East and North Africa adjusting to higher exports; the drawn out divestment of InterCement in Brazil; lots of new plants in Sub-Saharan Africa reflecting demographic trends; and an emphasis on construction and demolition materials in Europe but one on aggregates in North America.

However, from November 2024 onwards… Donald Trump was re-elected as President in the US, Quikrete put in an US$11.5bn deal to buy Summit Materials, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan ended in acrimony, Gautam Adani was accused of fraud by a US court and Huaxin Cement said it was buying Holcim’s majority stake in Lafarge Africa for US$1bn. These have all been covered in previous editions of Global Cement Weekly. Check them out for more information. One can tell it’s been a busy tail-end to the year though when a US$600m agreement by Heidelberg Materials North America to buy Giant Cement Holding did not make the top five, admittedly selective, noteworthy news stories of the last two months of 2024. These stories also, roughly, followed the trends highlighted in the ‘Global Cement News in 2024’ article.

To reflect on the Adani story a few weeks later, nothing much seems to have occurred. Yet. The share price of various Adani Group companies fell when the US authorities made the announcement in late November 2024 but they have mostly regained much of their value since then. The consensus by Reuters, this week, was that the US prosecutors have a strong case backed up by documentation but extradition seems unlikely. Adani himself has made public appearances in India since the allegations surfaced. One minor consequence has been that Gautam Adani exited the US$100bn Bloomberg Billionaires Index in 2024. This is likely to have been caused, in part at least, by the allegations from Hindenburg Research in 2023 and the current legal problems from the US bringing down share prices. On the cement side of Adani Group it appears to have been business as usual so far. A large-scale investment in Rajasthan was announced in December 2024 and, this week, plans to merge subsidiaries Sanghi Industries and Penna Cement with Ambuja Cements were disclosed.

Another general trend that we haven’t covered much online have been changes in the Australian market. Last week, Cement Australia, a joint venture between Heidelberg Materials Australia and Holcim Australia, said it was acquiring the cementitious division of the Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC) for US$800m. This follows CRH’s purchase of a majority stake in AdBri that was approved by the latter’s shareholders over the summer. Around the same time, Seven Group Holdings completed its acquisition of the remaining 28% stake in Boral that it did not already own. For more on the situation in Australia and New Zealand read the article in the January 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

That’s it for 2024. Unless another massive news story in the cement sector gets announced in the next week-and-a-half.

Global Cement Weekly will return on Wednesday 8 January 2025

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo has appointed Ely Hayashi as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from 1 April 2025. She will succeed Manuel Ferreyros in the post, who has been CFO since 2008.

Hayashi has worked for Cementos Pacasmayo since 2005, when she started as a Management Control Analyst intern. She subsequently became Head of Management Control in 2011 and then the Central Manager of Finance and Management Control in 2022. She holds a degree in business administration from the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima and an International Master of Business Administration from the IE Business School.

Germany: KHD will carry out a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for the new oxyfuel kiln at Heidelberg Materials' Geseke cement plant, part of the GeZero carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The project will capture and store around 0.7Mt/yr of CO₂.

Matthias Mersmann, chief technology officer at KHD, said "At KHD, we have long recognised oxyfuel technology’s potential for cement decarbonisation and are well-positioned to contribute to this important flagship project.”

India: Ambuja Cements will merge its recently acquired companies, Sanghi Industries and Penna Cement Industries. Ambuja Cements purchased Sanghi Industries in December 2023 and Penna Cement in August 2024. Ambuja Cements holds a 58% share in Sanghi Industries and 99.94% share in Penna Cement. The transaction is expected to be completed within 9-12 months, according to the Deccan Herald.