World: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda have each signed up to the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate's initiative (ICBCI), a coalition of governments that support lower-carbon blended cement. This means that 12 governments, which also include Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg and New Zealand, now back the ICBCI. Participating countries must commit to prioritising blended cement in public procurement and updating national standards, as national governments are often the most significant users of cement and concrete, helping to drive decarbonisation across the whole sector.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement announced that it has ‘partially accepted and handed over’ a new production line at its Jazan cement plant, thereby marking another step toward completion of its project to replace the plant’s existing production lines. This follows the completion of most construction phases and the start of trial operations for certain production stages, according to the company in its filing to the Saudi bourse Tadawul. The new line is expected to be completed and enter production by the end of 2026.

The company had previously announced the latest developments on the project in December 2025, including the completion of most construction phases and the start of trial operations for certain production stages. Sinoma International Engineering was awarded the contract for the project in 2023.

Australia: Cement Australia plans to upgrade and expand its Port Kembla Harbour operations to replace its Glebe Island facility, which is slated for closure by 2030, according to local press. In February 2026, the New South Wales (NSW) government announced that the Glebe Island facility would close by December 2030. The company has been operating a grinding mill at Port Kembla’s outer harbour since 2014. It currently produces 1.4Mt/yr of cement, slag and fly ash, on a 2.5 hectare site.

Cement Australia said in a scoping report tendered to the NSW Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Department that it intends to upgrade the existing Port Kembla terminal and build an import facility to enable it to despatch a further 1.4Mt/yr into the local market. It also plans to build an export facility to ship up to 0.6Mt/yr of cementitious materials to other Australian states. The project will increase the throughput and storage capacity of the Port Kembla facility to 3.4Mt/yr.

“With the announcement of closure of the Glebe Island facility, Cement Australia is proposing to replace its Glebe Island facility with a suitable facility at Port Kembla,” the report said. “The project is necessary to offset the impact of the closure of the Glebe Island facility in December 2030, to ensure no disruption to NSW’s cementitious products supply and to increase the use of supplementary cementitious materials.”

The report said that Cement Australia was strategically located in the heavy industrial heart of Port Kembla, which allowed heavy vehicle access to major arterial roads, access to shipping facilities at the adjacent No 6 jetty in the outer harbour and access to granulated blast furnace slag from the BlueScope Steelworks, as well as limestone and gypsum suppliers in the region.

India: Montra Electric and Wonder Cement are deploying 250 Rhino 5538 EV 4x2 Tractor Trailer electric vehicles into regular commercial service on India’s longest freight corridor, according to a press release. Initially, 30 trucks were deployed at Wonder Cement’s Nimbahera plant in July 2026. The fleet now operates on the Nimbahera-Dahej Port and Nimbahera-Tuna Port routes, spanning approximately 1450km across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The trucks run to the same operational schedule as a conventional diesel fleet. The corridor is supported by 13 charging stations, positioned so that the fleet can sustain daily long-distance duty cycles inside the required turnaround times.

The Montra Electric Rhino 5538 EV 4x2 Tractor Trailer is a heavy-duty electric truck with a 55t gross combination weight. It is powered by a 282kWh lithium iron phosphate battery paired with a permanent magnet synchronous motor that delivers 280 kW and 2000Nm of torque, with 18% continuous gradeability and a 6-speed automated manual transmission to handle sustained heavy loads. The vehicle offers a range of 198km (under standard conditions - one sided loaded and one empty) and charges from 20% to 100% in 60 minutes. The company said that the vehicle is supported by >95% assured uptime.

“The deployment of around 250 electric trucks on a 1450km industrial corridor is a significant step toward decarbonising logistics and reducing our environmental footprint beyond manufacturing. In partnership with Montra Electric, we are demonstrating that long-haul freight electrification is both operationally reliable and commercially viable,” said Kiran Patil, managing director of Wonder Cement.