Italy: Caltagirone Group subsidiary Cementir Holding has announced the upcoming launch of its FutureCem grey cement product on 1 January 2021. The company says that it has 30% lower CO₂ emissions than normal ordinary Portland cement (OPC). It developed the product in collaboration with its Denmark-based subsidiary Aalborg Portland using 35% limestone and calcined clay to replace clinker. This resulted in a much more sustainable, high grade cement according to the company. It added that the low carbon benefits of FutureCem have been achieved without compromising strength and quality.

Chief sales, marketing and commercial development officer Michele Di Marino said that FutureCem is a ‘giant step’ on the way towards more sustainable cement production. “This is immensely important if we are to achieve our sustainability goals at Cementir Group,” said Di Marino. “But it is also an important contribution to the green transition of the concrete and construction industries in general. Thanks to the efforts of our research and development department in Aalborg, we are ready to begin distributing the FutureCem technology in Denmark and soon other subsidiaries in Europe will follow.” He added, “We have reached an important milestone in our innovation and sustainability efforts, but we are not done. Currently, we are incorporating the technology into more cement types in our product range. This includes white cement, and we have already introduced two white ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) premix types with FutureCem technology.”

Russia: Soyuzcement, the national cement manufacturing union, has forecast a 4% year-on-year fall in cement production in 2020. Greater declines are expected in the central and southern federal regions. It observed that only half of the country’s production capacity was used in 2020. However, the organisation has credited government subsidies for mortgages as staving off the worse economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the first half of the year by stimulating construction.

China: Huaxin Cement plans to invest US$184m in a green building materials joint venture called Huangshi Huaxin Green Building Materials. The group says that the other investors are Huangshi City Urban Development Investment Group and Yangxin County Mining Investment. The partners plan to invest a total of US$1.84bn to establish a 2Mt/yr lime plant, a 100Mt/yr artificial sand and gravel plant and a 2bn blocks/yr building materials plant. The new facilities are to be situated in Yangxin County, Hubei Province. The units will be built in phases from January 2021.

India: The Ministry of Finance Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) says that its Income Tax department has detected US$95m-worth of tax evasion by Chettinad Cement and Anjani Portland Cement owner Chettinad Group. The Deccan Herald newspaper has reported that following raids on its offices the tax department found evidence of inflated expenditure, unaccounted receipts and complex financial arrangements including bogus liabilities in order to reduce capital gains. The investigation continues.