UK: A team at Imperial College London has won a US$1.27m grant for its research into developing carbon negative cement from silica. The research won the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)’s Carbon Capture, Usage & Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 competition. The Imperial team sources its silica from natural olivine. It says that the compound behaves in the same way as other supplementary cementitious materials. Meanwhile, magnesia from the decomposition of the olivine can serve as a carbon sink in the form of magnesium carbonate. It, in turn, could serve as a raw material for concrete block production.

The DESNZ’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, of which the CCUS Innovation 2.0 competition is a part, has a budget of US$1.29bn.

India: Ramco Cements plans to invest a total of US$91.3m towards growing its capacity during the 2024 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2024. Its planned investments consist of US$15.8m in an expansion to its Haridaspur grinding plant in Odisha and US$75.5m in the acquisition of land in Bommanalli, Karnataka, on which to establish a limestone mine.

During the previous financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023, Ramco Cements invested US$215m in capital expenditure.

UK: A court has fined CRH subsidiary Tarmac US$516,000 for failing to ensure the provision of moveable guards fitted to an interlocking device connected to a rotary mill at its Dunbar cement plant between January 2019 and April 2021. The East Lothian Courier newspaper has reported that the failure resulted in a worker’s loss of fingers after he came into contact with the unit’s rotary valve on 30 April 2021. The producer has until 20 September 2023 to pay the fine.

India: The first quarter of the 2024 financial year, which began on 1 April 2023, brought revenues of US$72.5m for Heidelberg Cement India, up by 1% year-on-year from US$71.9m during the first quarter of the previous financial year. The subsidiary of Germany-based Heidelberg Materials reported a 1.6% rise in its costs, to US$61.2m from US$60.3m. As such, its net profit rose by 1.3% year-on-year, to US$6.37m, compared to US$6.29m in the first quarter of the 2023 financial year.