Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cement (TCL) has amended its loan agreements with Citibank and Scotiabank for the third time. The TCL board entered a third amended and restated agreement to its 24 July 2018 loan deal, under which Citibank and Scotiabank will each lend US$20m.

The loan repays TCL’s obligations under earlier agreements with Republic Bank and RBC Merchant Bank dated 22 July 2021. TCL’s parent company Cemex guarantees the loan. It owns 69.83% of TCL through holding company Sierra Trading.

Mexico: Cemex will invest US$1.4bn in 2025 to strengthen its financial position, maintain liquidity and focus on projects delivering high profitability, including potential acquisitions in the US. Between January and March 2025, it invested US$221m, down from US$249m in the same period of 2024. It expects to invest a further US$1.15bn over the rest of 2025, subject to financial results and market conditions.

Cemex CEO Jaime Muguiro Domínguez said that the company will eventually transition its capital expenditure to acquisitions of small and medium-sized companies in the US that can ‘provide greater profitability.’ He added “Given the increased uncertainty in the current global macroeconomic environment, we will make sure that our capital allocation decisions do not compromise our financial metrics.”

Canada/Greece: Titan Group and Carbon Upcycling Technologies have entered into a memorandum of agreement to explore the commercial deployment of Carbon Upcycling’s technology for producing local, low-carbon building materials. Carbon Upcycling will conduct feasibility studies at two Titan cement plants, with the aim of producing supplementary cementitious materials using captured CO₂ and local materials.

Carbon Upcycling’s demonstration plant is currently operating in western Canada, and the company is now developing its flagship commercial-scale project in eastern Canada.

Japan: Domestic cement sales in April 2025 fell by 5% year-on-year to 2.6Mt, according to the Japan Cement Association. This marked the 32nd consecutive monthly decline, attributed to reduced construction hours under overtime restrictions. The Tohoku and Chugoku regions recorded the steepest falls, with labour shortages and rising construction costs driving the decline in Chugoku. Domestic demand has been in decline for six consecutive years, and continues to decline due to a combination of factors including the chronic labour shortage at construction sites, rising construction costs and the longer construction period due to the introduction of a full two-day weekend system at construction sites in recent years.