Cameroon: A new cement brand, Cimaco, has entered the market, starting in June 2025, according to the Business in Cameroon newspaper. Chinese-owned company Sinafcam Sarl made the announcement, stating that it will produce the cement at its 1Mt/yr-capacity plant in Edéa, Littoral region. The launch will include three product grades: 32.5, 42.5 and 52.5. Sinafcam becomes the country’s seventh cement producer.

The Ministry of Industry expects two additional Chinese plants in Edéa: Central Africa Cement with 1.5Mt/yr of capacity and Yousheng Cement with 1.8Mt/yr. However, despite the rise in production facilities over the past decade, the retail price of a 50kg cement bag still remains high, reportedly due to the elevated cost of clinker imports.

India: Renaatus Group subsidiary Renaatus Procon will invest US$29m in the first phase of a new fibre cement board plant in Andhra Pradesh. The facility is due for commissioning in 2026, and will have a production capacity of 60,000t/yr. The plant will supply the construction sector in southern India and export markets, supporting the group’s expansion into sustainable building materials.

US: A research team led by the University of Michigan’s Charles McCrory, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis (UCD) and the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a process to capture CO₂ and convert it into metal oxalates for use in cement production. The method uses electrodes to transform carbon dioxide into oxalate, which binds with metal ions and precipitates as a solid suitable for alternative cement. The researchers reduced the required lead catalyst to parts per billion by modifying the polymer environment around the catalyst, mitigating environmental risks. The researchers next want to focus on scaling up the process and are working on electrolysis on a large scale.

UCD associate professor Jesús Velázquez said “Metal oxalates represent an underexplored frontier – serving as alternative cementitious materials, synthesis precursors and even carbon dioxide storage solutions.”

Vietnam: Vietnam produced 73.4Mt of cement in the first five months of 2025, up by 13% year-on-year, according to the National Statistics Office. In May 2025, output reached 17.3Mt, marking a 25% year-on-year rise. In 2024, Vietnam produced 184Mt of cement, up by 3.5% year-on-year.