Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos is testing using dissolvable cement bags in a pilot project with paper and bag manufacturer Klabin. Following development, the new bag type will be tested in a pilot project in the south of the country based around the Rio Branco do Sul cement plant in Paraná state. The bags can be dissolved directly in a mixer when making concrete to speed up the process.

Russia: Siberian Cement produced 4.6Mt in 2020 from its five plants, a decline of 4.7% year-on-year. Notably, its integrated Krasnoyarsk cement plant managed to increase production by 3% to 0.63Mt. Majority owned subsidiaries, Iskitimcement and Angarskcement, officially became part of Siberian Cement in mid-June 2020. The group currently reports it has a production capacity of 9Mt/yr.

Russia: Eurocement has won a tender to supply up to 150,000t of cement to PIK Group. Its Voronezh and Mikhailovcement plants will supply CEM I and CEM II products respectively. PIK Group is one of the largest residential building companies in Russia. Eurocement said that the contract is one of the largest direct contracts it has signed and that it would ensure production in the first half of 2021.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has been declared eligible for the Development Bank of Japan’s (DBJ) Environmental Rating loan program for the second time. The scheme offers preferential interest rates to companies scoring highly in environmental management based on the bank’s screening system. The cement producer says it obtained the ranking through its promotion of energy saving, waste recycling and greenhouse emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 in its business strategy.