India: Aditya Birla Group subsidiary UltraTech Cement will invest US$1.23bn to grow its cement production capacity by 10% to 241Mt/yr. The company’s board has approved new plant projects and expansions amounting to 22.8Mt/yr of additional capacity, scheduled to begin coming online from the start of the 2028 financial year on 1 April 2027.

Chair Kumar Mangalam Birla said “The latest capacity expansion follows US$5.69bn invested in the past five years. The investment reflects the company’s confidence in the Indian economy and the scale of its infrastructure ambitions. When capital is deployed strategically, it energises ecosystems, deepens industrial linkages and creates durable employment. As India enters a transformative era of infrastructure and economic development, UltraTech is well-positioned to meet the rising demand for cement.”

North Korea: State-owned Komusan Cement has successfully deployed alternative raw materials derived from quarry overburden in cement production at its Komusan cement plant in Hamgyŏng Province. State-run Korean News has reported that the producer presented the resulting products at a provincial building materials exhibition.

The Komusan cement plant reportedly had ‘decades-worth’ of overburden in stockpiles, but previously lacked the equipment to properly process it.

Australia: Boral has applied to extend its Montrose quarry in Victoria. The Star Mail newspaper reported that the company proposes to expand the quarry’s extraction area by 12.5ha, allowing access to a further 20Mt of additional materials, equivalent to 30 years’ supply for Boral’s local operations.

Norway/Germany: Heidelberg Materials has officially launched its evoZero product, which the company claims to be the world's first ‘carbon-captured cement,’ to customers across Europe. evoZero is a globally unique product, made possible by carbon capture technology at Heidelberg Materials' CCS plant in Brevik, Norway. The product comes with a uniquely low Global Warming Potential, delivered via a process that is now fully third-party verified by DNV Business Assurance Germany and digitally traceable to ensure seamless transparency.

One of the very first deliveries of evoZero was to the construction of the new Skøyen Station in Oslo, Norway. Another early project for evoZero is the DREIHAUS 3D-printing project, with a total of three houses currently being developed in Heidelberg, Germany. Compared to traditional construction methods, the 3D printing process enables significantly reduced material consumption through optimised design, further reducing CO₂ emissions.
Dominik von Achten, CEO of Heidelberg Materials, said "I am proud and excited to announce that the entire process chain is now established and our Brevik CCS facility is directly contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions in the built environment. evoZero stands as proof of Heidelberg Materials' commitment to real, measurable decarbonisation and our ambition to lead the transformation of construction.”