Global Cement News

India: UltraTech Cement says that the Competition Commission of India has approved its proposed acquisition of Kesoram Industries’ cement business. The Business Standard newspaper reported that the demerger of the business from Kesoram Industries into UltraTech Cement is scheduled for November 2024. The deal has an enterprise value of US$914m.

Switzerland: Holcim launched a share buyback programme on 18 March 2023. The programme, totalling Euro1.03bn, will run until the end of 2024. Share cancellation is scheduled for approval at the group’s annual general meeting in May 2025. Holcim plans to finance the buyback from its existing cash reserves. It says that it remains committed to retaining a strong investment grade credit rating.

US: Furno Materials completed an oversubscribed US$6.5m seed funding round on 13 March 2023. Subsequently, the start-up unveiled plans for its Furno Brick carbon-neutral modular cement plant, which can use a variety of gaseous fuels. The plant scales on demand, drastically reducing the barrier to entry for local or small-scale cement production.

Furno CEO Gurinder Nagra said “At Furno, we have the ability to produce ordinary Portland cement now, to adapt to a range of gas-based fuels and materials innovations as they emerge and to meet demand where it exists, while still abiding by a shifting regulatory landscape. Our mission is to go the distance by innovating at the heart of cement production and operating as a complement to other technological developments in the cement space. Our cement far exceeds ASTM International standards, a bare-minimum quality threshold. While most companies tout meeting these standards and stop there, we have continued to refine our process and are on target to surpass the even higher commercial requirements set by significantly-sized customers eager for our solution.”

India: ACC and Ambuja Cements' Geoclean has launched two new facilities for sustainable waste management. The Ambuja Marwar pre-processing and co-processing facility in Rajasthan can convert 220,000t/yr of refuse into alternative fuel, while the ACC Jamul co-processing facility will process an additional 120,000t/yr.

The Ambuja Marwar facility, in collaboration with the Ambuja Marwar Farmer Producer Organisation, aims to source 50,000t/yr of agricultural waste from local farmers. This initiative will also increase the plant's thermal substitution rate to 15%. Similarly, the ACC Jamul facility will enhance its thermal substitution rate to 10%, reducing CO₂ emissions through the co-processing of waste in the cement kiln.

Italy: Heidelberg Materials Italy, formerly Italcementi, has entered into a seven-year supply agreement with Ox2. Under the deal, Ox2 will sell up to 70% of the energy generated at the Stornarella wind farm in Foggia. The farm was developed in partnership with Nuveen Infrastructure.

The Stornarella wind farm will be constructed in 2024. Once operational, it will provide an average of 37 - 51GWh/yr of clean energy from 2025 to 2032. Nuveen Infrastructure has purchased the wind farm, which will feature six turbines with a total installed capacity of 27MW and an estimated output of 73GWh/yr.

Stefano Gallini, CEO of Heidelberg Materials Italy, said "Energy is a fundamental component of our industrial process and represents one of the main levers of decarbonisation for the entire cement sector. The electrical component can also contribute significantly to this purpose, and we have identified reliable partners like Ox2 and Nuveen to accompany us on this journey."