Bolivia: Peru-based Grupo Gloria reportedly paid former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero €200,000 for lobbying the government in Bolivia on its behalf for compensation relating to the nationalisation of Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA). The Demócrata online newspaper cites a report it has seen issued by the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime (EDEF) in Spain. Three payments totalling €200,000 were made in 2024 and 2025 to the former politician. The UDEF document alleges that the lobbying used “commercial contracts that it considers fictitious to justify payments.” In response the Bolivian Senate has approved the creation of a special investigative commission to explore the issue.

The investigators believe that the transfers were made to Zapatero in connection to a legal battle between Grupo Gloria’s cement subsidiary Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (SOBOCE) and the Bolivian state-run company FANCESA. SOBOCE previously owned a minority stake in FANCESA until its nationalising in 2010. It has sought compensation since then. SOBOCE was later acquired by Grupo Gloria in 2014. However, in late June 2026 the Supreme Court of Bolivia dismissed an appeal by SOBOCE and upheld a judgement requiring it to pay around €94m to FANCESA following an unfair competition case.

Namibia: The government has granted permission for Cheetah Cement to buy Ohorongo Cement. Industries, mines and energy minister Modestus Amutse said he had overruled a decision by the Namibian Competition Commission to block the purchase after an appeal by China-owned Whale Rock, the owner of Cheetah Cement, according to the Namibian newspaper. The decision has also prompted to Cheetah Cement to pause plans to lay off 87 workers. It had previously warned that the jobs were at risk due to financial losses arising from import restrictions on cement exports to Botswana and Zimbabwe, and a poor demand domestically.

Whale Rock attempted to buy Schwenk Namibia, the owner of Ohorongo Cement, in February 2025. However, the competition commission blocked the deal warning of reduced competition locally and a threat to jobs. Cheetah Cement spokesperson Tabby Moyo said that both Cheetah Cement and Ohorongo Cement have been operating at 50% production capacity under the current market conditions. He added that there should now be no job losses, although workers will need to relocate from the Otjiwarongo cement plant to the Otavi one. Following the government announcement it has been recommended that both Whale Rock Cement and Schwenk Namibia should increase local ownership to at least 40%.

Morocco: Cement deliveries fell by 1.3% year-on-year to 6.8Mt in the first half of 2026. The decline to May 2025 was greater, but June 2026 saw a considerable boost in sales, according to L'Economiste newspaper. The rebound in construction activity has been attributed to large-scale projects requiring substantial one-off deliveries of construction materials, including cement. Bagged cement supply linked to the self-construction sector has fallen so far in 2026, but bulk orders for bigger projects have increased in response to infrastructure projects linked to the government’s latest budget. The trend is anticipated to continue into the second half of 2026.

France: Hoffman Green Materials sold nearly 40,000t of cement in the first half of 2026. This was more than the double the volume it sold in the first half of 2025. The company has also recorded the 1000th production order milestone for its H2 vertical plant and signed nine commercial and industrial partnerships so far in 2026. In June 2026 the company completed a private placement of around €5m. This will be used to ramp-up production volumes, improve cost optimisation, fund the initial stages of the new H3 production site project and continue research and development efforts. The H3 site is scheduled to come online in 2029 in the Rhône-Alpes region.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffman, the co-founders of Hoffman Green Materials Technologies, said “…we are demonstrating that our 0% clinker cements meet the expectations of a growing number of major players in the construction industry.”