US: A fire reportedly caused the temporary closure of a kiln at Ash Grove's Durkee cement plant in Baker County, Oregon, in early August 2026. Local press has reported that firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and recorded no chemical release or injuries. The kiln was stopped temporarily while the emergency services responded to the incident but has since returned to full operation.

South Korea: Sampyo Cement is training AI on operating data from experienced workers in order to hand over some of the constant monitoring required by workers, according to Korea Biz Wire. Early applications have already allowed operators to step away briefly from their stations, when previously they even had to take a radio to the toilet. Sampyo has already invested in AI for limestone mining and the firing of raw materials, and is now extending the technology to the final stage of cement production under a project backed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Together with the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and Kangwon National University, the company aims to increase productivity by 2% while cutting electricity consumption by the same amount. Two operators currently oversee six mills as a team – Sampyo’s goal is to have one worker manage all six with the assistance of AI.

“The workplace is physically more comfortable than where the machinery operates, but having to pay attention to everything for eight hours can actually make the job feel more demanding,” plant manager Bae Dong-hwan said.

Workers appear less worried about AI taking their jobs than about whether they can trust it, said Lee Seok-je, a senior member of Sampyo’s process improvement team. However, this question of trust becomes more complicated when AI moves from monitoring machinery to monitoring people, says the newspaper. The company has reportedly considered giving workers wearable devices that would track heart rates, body temperatures and other data in real time to help detect emergencies. However, employees objected on the basis that the technology could be used to track their locations.

Tajikistan: President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon has laid the foundation stone for the construction of a new cement plant in Kushanyan district. It will be the fourth cement plant to begin construction in the country over the past two months, amid cement shortages and rising prices, according to local press.

The plant will be built on a territory of 30 hectares in the village of Nurafsho in the settlement of Bustonkala in Kushanyan district by private company Sementi Khatlon. Construction is planned to be completed by 2029. The plant will be able to produce up to 1.2Mt/yr of cement once it begins operation, and will provide employment for more than 700 workers. The new plant will be located near the Kurgontepa limestone deposit in Kushanyan, which will allow the use of local raw materials for cement production.

Earlier, after cement shortages emerged and prices rose, President Rahmon announced in late May 2026 that four new cement plants would be built by 2029. In mid 2026, construction began on two cement plants in the village of Kharangon in Varzob District and in the city of Istaravshan. Their combined production capacity is expected to reach 3.6Mt/yr of cement.

France: Hoffmann Green Technologies has partnered with France-based CSBT Environnement, a company specialising in the recovery of scallop shells. The shells are byproducts of the fishing industry, and are collected and processed using a mechanical fine grinding method to yield calcium carbonate with 99% purity suitable for the construction sector. Hoffmann Green will incorporate the material into its 0% clinker cement.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, cofounders of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, said "This partnership demonstrates our ability to incorporate alternative raw materials from the circular economy without compromising the performance of our 0% clinker cements. The utilisation of marine calcium developed by CSBT is fully aligned with our decarbonisation strategy and opens up new possibilities for the production of binders with a very low carbon footprint."