US: Authorities in the US have reported that a man died in an industrial accident at the National Cement plant in Lebec, California, on 6 January 2026. The Department of Industrial Relations said that an employee of MZP Kiln Services was killed when he was caught by a slide gate motor that shifted as he attempted to remove it.

The Kern County coroner's office identified the worker as 50-year-old Oswaldo Alejandro Rodas Hernandez from Jacksonville, Florida. It said he was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. It determined the cause of death to be multiple blunt force injuries and stated the manner of death is accident.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the accident. National Cement said "Our thoughts are with those impacted. We are cooperating fully with authorities and regulatory agencies, and we have no further comment at this time."

North Korea: State-owned press has announced that the Sunchon Cement Complex in North Korea produced ‘hundreds of thousands of tonnes more cement than planned’ in 2025, although it did not provide exact figures. It also reported that the plant’s limestone quarry built its own maintenance base and secured enough accessories and spare parts for normal operation of excavators, thus boosting production.

Miners at the Jikdong Gypsum Mine and the Stathe Clay Mine were reported to have ‘made innovations in production by increasing the operation rate of mining equipment’ and ‘shortening the turnaround time of wagons.’ The workers in the pyroprocessing section were reported to have ‘overfulfilled their daily clinker production plan’ by applying a ‘rational method of kiln operation during winter weather conditions.’

Russia: Cemros, the largest cement producer in Russia by installed capacity, has suspended the operation of its plants in the Belgorod and Ulyanovsk regions and switched to a limited production mode at the enterprise in the Lipetsk region, according to Forbes. The decision was made against the background of a reduction in cement consumption for housing construction in the country and a simultaneous increase in imports from Belarus and Iran.

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement has announced that it will cease cement production at its Kyushu Plant in Kanda No. 2 District, Kanda-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture by the end of March 2027, according to Nikkei Business Trends. The company said that its decision was made in an increasingly challenging business environment including declining domestic cement demand and worsening profitability in the export market.

Cement production at the plant's Kanda No. 2 District will be consolidated into the Kanda No. 1 District in the same area to improve efficiency. The Kanda No. 2 District plant will be converted into a waste processing and alternative fuel production site to supply the remaining plant. The company aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.