Serbia: According to Serbian Economist News, the country has extended tariff quotas on imports of Portland cement and certain types of steel products until the end of 2026. Once the established import volumes have been reached, additional duties of 50% will be imposed, which are additional to the standard customs rate. The restrictions were originally introduced from 1 January to 30 June 2026, based on a government decree to protect industries of ‘strategic importance’ to the local economy.

In the first phase, the total quota volume was 421,100t, of which 250,350t were allocated to cement. The quotas are allocated among countries based on their share of shipments to the Serbian market in 2020-2024. The largest volumes are allocated to the EU, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania. Ukraine, which received a separate quota, has previously supplied Serbia with steel products. The Serbian government has explained that the restrictions are necessary to preserve domestic cement and steel production and ensure the stability of the domestic market.

Japan: Nippon Steel has reported that ABB’s Ability Expert Optimiser has contributed to lower energy consumption and improved product quality at its 1.6Mt/yr Muroran cement plant in Hokkaido, Japan. The digital solution for control, stabilisation and optimisation of industrial processes has reportedly supported the producer to reduce specific heat consumption by 2%. Free lime was also reported to have decreased by about 10%, resulting in a higher-grade output. ABB completed a performance evaluation to validate the results on Nippon Steel’s operation with and without the Expert Optimiser in place.

Following the first commissioning phase with Expert Optimiser in place, automatic operation exceeded 90%. The system also reduced manual operator interventions by approximately 80% and maintained effective process control during preheater cleaning and other abnormal operating conditions.

Nippon Steel produces blast furnace slag cement as part of its steelmaking business and is moving towards highly automated or autonomous operations. The product is categorised as a low-carbon cement because the total CO₂ is around 40% less than ordinary Portland cement (OPC) when clinker is replaced by slag.

Expert Optimiser reduces emissions impacts further by utilising model predictive control (MPC) processes and AI to predict occurrences and automatically take actions in response to variables such as temperature, pressure or exhaust gas concentrations. Frequent controls are increasingly important to reduce process variability and meet productivity, cost reduction and quality targets.

“Reducing manual operator intervention and cutting fossil fuel consumption are key priorities as we work toward carbon neutrality,” said Hiroyuki Abe, plant manager. “We selected ABB Ability Expert Optimiser because it offered the best path to achieving those goals. We have seen significant improvements in process stability, clinker quality and overall operational consistency, while reducing the need for manual control. We look forward to building on these results with even more advanced operations in the future.”

India: UltraTech has reported its highest ever June quarter for sales volumes, revenues and net profit. It recorded a 12% year-on-year increase in cement sales volumes to 41.3Mt in the period from April to June 2026, according to the company. Net sales increased by 16% year-on-year to US$2.5bn from US$2.18bn in the previous corresponding period. Profit after tax was US$2.7bn, up by 17% year-on-year. Capacity utilisation reached 81% following the expansion of domestic cement capacity to 200Mt/yr. Its global cement capacity stood at 205Mt/yr at the end of June 2026.

Australia: Green360 Technologies (G360) has signed its first binding commercial supply agreement with Holcim Australia for MKX-CC, its calcined clay product. The agreement outlines the supply of up to 4800t of MKX over an initial 12-month period for Holcim’s concrete operations in Victoria. The company commenced commercial production in April 2026.

“Over the past four months, we have systematically removed every obstacle between our Pittong resource and the customer. We secured commercial calcination capacity through our agreement with Calix, completed our first commercial production campaign, successfully supplied MKX to infrastructure projects such as Melbourne Airport Business Park, Eastern Freeway Extension, Suburban Rail Loop and today announce our first binding commercial customer. We believe this agreement represents the first step in establishing G360 as a meaningful supplier into a market facing structural shortages of fly ash and blast furnace slag,” said executive chair Aaron Banks.