Nepal: Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Gauri Kumari Yadav inspected the Hetauda Cement Industry plant on 24 May 2026. The minister visited the state-owned cement plant to assess its condition and also talked to the management and employees regarding the repeated shutdowns the plant has faced over the years.

Minister Yadav said it was ‘extremely unfortunate’ that a government-owned cement plant had remained closed, adding that the government was preparing to bring all closed plants back into operation. “We are studying how the Hetauda Cement Industry can be operated regularly,” Yadav said. “It is very unfortunate that many private cement industries are operating regularly while a government-owned cement industry remains closed. When a plant shuts down, not only are jobs lost, but the country’s economy is also affected. Therefore, the government wants to operate the cement industry by any means possible, and cooperation from all sides is necessary.”

Acting general manager of Hetauda Cement Industry Shivanarayan Sah said the plant had been shut down due to outdated and deteriorating machinery, and the inability to supply raw materials because of financial constraints. He said that the plant had continued limited cement production through periodic maintenance of the machinery, but operations had to be halted recently after raw material supplies stopped. Sah also said that due to financial difficulties, employees had not received salaries for the past 11 months and electricity bills still remained unpaid.

Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP

France/Syria: Former Lafarge CEO Bruno Lafont and former deputy managing director Christian Herrault, who have been imprisoned in Paris since mid-April 2026, due to charges of financing terrorism in Syria, will be released from prison today, 27 May 2026, under ‘judicial supervision.’ Both of the men requested appeal, which is reportedly expected in a few months, according to local press. They will have spent six weeks in prison.

On 13 April 2026, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced Lafont to six years and Herrault to five, with immediate detention orders issued. On 19 May 2026, Lafont and Herrault requested their release pending a new trial.

The appeals court ruled that pre-trial detention was ‘not the essential means’ of ensuring the two men's appearance in court, and took into account the ‘shock of imprisonment’ they had reportedly suffered. As part of their judicial supervision, the court prohibited them from leaving French territory and set bail of €100,000 for Bruno Lafont and €90,000 for Christian Herrault, to be paid by 2 July 2026. The court did not forbid them from contacting each other, as requested by the public prosecutor's office, even though the two men were incarcerated in the same cell at La Santé prison. They should be released from prison by the end of 27 May 2026. Bruno Lafont's lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, told local press that she was ‘relieved’ and ‘especially reassured when magistrates, as is the case today, apply the law.’

Bruno Lafont and Christian Herrault are among the nine defendants found guilty by the criminal court of having paid, via the Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria, nearly €5.6m to armed jihadist groups in 2013 and 2014 in order to maintain the activity of a cement plant in Jalabiya, northern Syria. As a legal entity, Lafarge was fined the maximum amount of €1.1m, and ordered to pay jointly with four of its former executives a customs fine of €4.57m for violating international financial sanctions. All have appealed their convictions and will be retried in the coming months.

Philippines: Cement manufacturers are no longer expecting demand growth in 2026, as slower government infrastructure spending continues to weigh on construction activity, according to the Business Inquirer. Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CEMAP) president Reinier Dizon said the industry had yet to see a meaningful increase in demand, even after the peak construction season from February to April. Dizon said that government infrastructure spending, which accounts for about 40% of total cement demand, remained ‘sluggish.’ Although CEMAP has yet to complete its full assessment of industry demand for 2026, Dizon said that the market would likely end the year with a single-digit contraction.

Spain: Fusion Fuel Green has announced that its subsidiary Bright Hydrogen Solutions will provide construction and operation services for a 2MW ‘green’ hydrogen production facility at a cement plant in Buñol, Spain. The facility will be built for Çimsa Cementos España under a construction agreement with Bright Hydrogen Solutions’ Spanish branch. The project aims to integrate hydrogen as an alternative fuel source in the cement production process, according to a press release statement.

Construction services will be provided by Bright Hydrogen Solutions’ Spanish-registered branch. Supply, engineering and operation services will be delivered under separate agreements involving a project company managed by Bright Hydrogen. The project will utilise Bright Hydrogen Solutions’ agency agreement with Sungrow Hydrogen, a hydrogen equipment supplier.

Frederico Figueira de Chaves, CEO of Fusion Fuel and Bright Hydrogen Solutions, said "This project represents the type of industrial application the hydrogen sector increasingly needs with real industrial demand, long-term commercial structures and integration into hard-to-abate industrial operations."