Iran: The Bandar Khamir cement plant in Hormozgan has been targeted in a drone attack. The unit remains operational and no disruption was caused to the supply chain, according to the state-run Mehr News Agency and the Türkiye-based Anadolu Agency. The deputy provincial governor reported that no casualties occurred in the incident. The ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran started in late February 2026.
Colombia/US: Cementos Argos has announced plans to split into two independent companies. Colombia-based Argos Latam will serve Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, French Guiana, Suriname and eight Caribbean countries, while US-based Argos Materials will serve the US. Each company will have full autonomy to pursue growth and maximise value in its respective markets. A corporate support centre led by newly appointed executive vice president Tomás Restrepo will oversee the transition. Cementos Argos expects the process to take 24 months.
Cementos Argos previously sold its 31% stake in US-based Summit Materials to majority, now outright, owner Quikrete in February 2025.
India: Germany-based Qlar has opened a test centre for pneumatic conveying in Bangalore. It is the company’s first test centre in Asia. The 539m2 site is intended to analyse the conveying of a wide variety of materials, including cement and fly ash. It includes a 680m conveyor line to allow for the testing of dense-phase applications.
The company says that its customers will be able to have materials evaluated under real-world conditions at the test centre. After an initial laboratory characterisation, the materials are tested in full-scale conveying setups to assess their behaviour at different feed rates, pressures and venting conditions. Qlar will then determine process‑specific conveying parameters such as required conveying pressure, air demand, conveying velocity and achievable throughput ranges. These results will then be used to support companies in the design of their systems and provide a technical basis for project planning and evaluation.
‘With the new test centre, we are creating a service that provides our customers with early project security and transparency,’ says Rajesh Pathak, Managing Director of Qlar India. ‘In addition to the existing test centre for material grinding, the pneumatic conveying tests offer our customers in Asia a testing environment that is unique in this form and size.’
Peru: Unacem reportedly plans to maintain its volume of investments in 2026 in line with 2025. The investments will go towards increasing efficiency at the company’s Atocongo cement plant and the construction of its upcoming US$70m, 200,000t/yr Calcem lime plant in Condorcocha, due in 2027. Calcem is a joint venture with Mexico-based Grupo Calidra. Additionally, Unacem subsidiary Celepsa will begin building a US$190m solar power plant at Solimana, Arequipa, later in 2026.
Unacem noted double-digit cement market growth in Peru in February 2026, tempered by rising fuel costs and slowing shipments in March 2026. In the US, the group forecast stabilisation or a slight uptick in 2026, followed by recovery in 2027.
CEO Pedro Lerner said "In 2025, we invested in a new business – lime – a product that in Peru is primarily used in mining, specifically for floatation processes at concentrator plants. Unlike cement, lime ships very well. Cement shipments have slowed down somewhat, mainly from the Condorcocha plant, and we believe this is related to the higher cost of transporting material to its destination. Transporters are unable to pass on the fuel price increases."
