Vietnam: Exports of cement and clinker rose in the first seven months of 2026, with the country exporting 22.5Mt of cement and clinker worth US$840m during the period, up by 13% in volume and 13% in value year-on-year. In 2025, Vietnam shipped 37.5Mt of cement and clinker. Vietnam is the second largest cement supplier to the US, behind Türkiye. Production reached 70.3Mt in the first seven months of 2026, while domestic sales stood at 49.7Mt.

Australia: The CSL Group and Abri have commenced operations of MV Yampu, which they say is the world’s first battery-powered self-unloading bulk carrier. The vessel is 125m long and will transport limestone from Adbri’s Klein Point quarry in South Australia to the company’s Birkenhead plant in Adelaide, a distance of 68km by ship or 240km by road. This will help secure a critical raw material for the supply of locally manufactured cement. The vessel’s batteries are recharged while docked at Adbri’s Birkenhead plant, allowing MV Yampu to operate on battery power around 40% of the time. The vessel is expected to reduce diesel consumption by more than half a million litres per year compared to the vessel it has replaced. It has a capacity of 11,900t and can transport 1.7Mt/yr of limestone. It is designed to operate on 100% battery power in the future.

India: Union Cement has commissioned a Gebr. Pfeiffer MVR 6000-6C vertical mill, adding more than 2.5Mt/yr to its cement grinding capacity, according to Shree Cement’s process manager Nitin Asnani. He thanked managing director Anuj Todi and manufacturing and project head Xavier Arul Kennedy in a post to LinkedIn.

Japan: Japan-based cement producer Tokuyama has implemented ABB’s advanced process control technologies at its Nanyo plant. ABB’s Ability™ Expert Optimiser has enabled the control, stabilisation and optimisation of processes, including an automatic operation rate exceeding 90% in its finish mills. The company said that, since initial test deployment on one finish mill in 2024, the solution has been delivered and commissioned on another six; four cement ball mills and two vertical mills (pre-grinding and slag). The solution has also improved grinding throughput by 3% and reduced specific power consumption by 3%, while maintaining stable operations.

“When we first introduced ABB’s Ability Expert Optimiser for test purposes, results were clear and the project completed smoothly,” said Junya Doi, an engineer at Tokuyama. “We decided to extend the use of the solution to the entire cement mill process. ABB has been a reliable partner, collaborating effectively to fit the operating schedules. We believe ABB Ability Expert Optimiser has delivered exactly the results we expected.”