Global Cement News

Nigeria: The Bauchi State government has approved a US$7.9m road project to support the development of the Gwana cement plant in Alkaleri. 10,000 people will be employed in the construction of the plant before it commences production in the next two years, according to Leadership News. Feasibility studies for the plant have reached an advanced stage for the location of the plant by Resident Cement Company.

The plant will generate 100MW of electricity for the plant from coal, with surplus power supplied to nearby communities.

India: Cement companies are expected to report weak financial results for the December quarter of the 2025 financial year due to lower demand, suppressed by reduced government infrastructure spending and weak private capital expenditure, according to The Hindu Businessline.

Large players, including UltraTech Cement and Ambuja Cements, are expected to lead demand growth by 8% year-on-year in the December quarter, but earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) may decline by 18%. Efforts to increase prices in October and November 2024 were rolled back, and a mid-December increase reportedly failed to boost profits.

Parvez Qazi, research analyst at Nuvama Research, said “We expect further consolidation in the space mostly in the southern region due to its fragmented nature. Softening fuel prices, along with cost efficiency measures undertaken by various players, are likely to provide some relief on the cost front, thereby cushioning the impact of weak realisations to some extent.”

US: Continental Cement Company will pay a US$74,440 civil penalty and spend at least US$282,000 to procure low-emission buses for a local school district as part of a settlement following alleged Clean Air Act violations. The replacement propane buses will reduce air pollution in areas impacted by excess emissions from Continental Cement’s operations.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it identified inadequate operation of leak detection systems during a December 2022 inspection, which are designed to notify the company of potential hazardous emissions. Without a functioning leak detection system, the facility would be unaware of whether pollutant filters are operating effectively to reduce emissions of particulate matter and other air pollutants.

Czech Republic: Wikov Gear has announced its name change to Wikov TurboGear, with the company stating that the new name reflects its core business of development, design and manufacturing of high-speed gearboxes for industrial and energy applications.

The company’s repair and refurbishment operations will now operate under a new division, Wikov GearServices.

Consolidation in the Indian cement sector continued through December 2024. UltraTech Cement completed its acquisition of a larger stake in The India Cements late in the month. Then, this week, Nuvoco Vistas said that it was preparing to buy Vadraj Cement. Along similar lines, JK Lakshmi Cement also confirmed that it was moving ahead with the merger of its cement-related subsidiaries.

The UltraTech Cement deal was approved by its board of directors in July 2024 but it took until 24 December 2024 before it formally completed the purchase of an additional 33% stake in The India Cements. The deal was valued at around US$460m in mid-2024 by local press. UltraTech Cement now owns just under a 55% stake in the company and is its majority shareholder. Back in July 2024 UltraTech Cement said that The India Cements had a total production capacity of around 14.5Mt/yr of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Just under 13Mt/yr of this is based in the south of the country, mostly in Tamil Nadu, and 1.5Mt/yr is in Rajasthan.

The Nuvoco Vistas announcement follows a bidding process to acquire Vadraj Cement through a corporate insolvency process. Key parts of the deal include taking control of Vadraj Cement’s 6Mt/yr grinding plant in Surat and its 3.5Mt/yr integrated plant in Kutch. Both plants are in Gujarat. The agreement also includes limestone mining rights in the state and a captive jetty near the Kutch plant. However, the expression of interest for the insolvency proceedings, published in March 2024, revealed that the company’s operations have been suspended for five years. The grinding plant and the jetty were described as ‘partially constructed.’ Nuvoco Vistas has not disclosed how much it had bid to pay for the company, although it was keener in its press release to state that the transaction would see it become the fifth largest cement producer in India. It says that its cement production capacity will rise to 31Mt/yr; 19Mt/yr of this in the east, 6Mt/yr in the north and 6Mt/yr in the west. Synergies are also hoped for when the new assets are combined with Nuvoco Vistas’ current plants at Nimbol and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

Compared to the previous two news stories, the JK Lakshmi Cement merger plan is on a smaller scale but it follows the same trend. The cement producer presented its corporate restructuring plan to its shareholders in July 2024. It wants to merge JK Lakshmi Cement, its main cement company, with Udaipur Cement, Hidrive and Hansdeep. JK Lakshmi Cement runs two integrated cement plants at Sirohi, Rajasthan, and Durg, Chattisgarh respectively. It also operates what it calls ‘split location grinding’ plants at Kalol and Surat in Gujarat, at Jhamri in Haryana and at Cuttack in Odisha. Udaipur Cement operates one integrated plant in Rajasthan, Hidrive owns land next to the group’s Surat unit and Hansdeep is a preferred bidder for limestone resources in Nagaur, Rajasthan. The group’s clinker and cement production capacities are 10Mt/yr and 16.4Mt/yr. Its rationale is to gain synergies from production, distribution and logistics, to simplify the corporate structure, to improve efficiency and to raise shareholder value. That last one might be particularly useful for a cement producer looking to expand or sell in the future.

Further mergers and acquisitions are expected to happen in 2025 but at a slower rate than in 2024. Part of the dynamic so far has been that the highest demand is in the east and the highest capacity is in the south. Many of the deals announced in 2024 focused on markets in the south of the country. By contrast, analysts quoted in the Economic Times at the start of 2025 anticipate that new transactions might start to move to other regions. Obvious potential targets include Jaiprakash Associates and Heidelberg Materials. The first company became insolvent in 2024 and is likely to be sold off. Rumours of a potential purchase of the second company by Adani Group in the autumn hit the local press in October 2024. Doubtless there are other less visible possibilities too if the price is right. Read Global Cement Weekly in 2025 to find out what happens.