Global Cement News

Europe: The Carbon Negative Biofuels from Organic Waste (Carbiow) project has received EU funding under the Horizon Europe initiative. Carbiow seeks to develop a dense, dry homogenous marine and aviation biofuel by carbonising gasification ash with oxygen and captured CO₂ from cement plants. 12 consortium members from the Benelux, Germany, Nordic countries, Slovenia and Spain are participating in the project.

India: JK Cement recorded US$536m in standalone income during the first half of its 2023 financial year, up by 26% year-on-year from US$427m. Throughout the period, the producer's profit after tax declined by 19%, to US$37.7m from US$46.4m. Also on a standalone basis, the company reported total expenses of US$482m, up by 31% year-on-year from US$368m. JK Cement's consolidated income rose by 23% to US$558m, while the group's expenses rose by 30% to US$509m, resulting in a 20% consolidated net profit drop to US$33.5m.

Sri Lanka: Tokyo Cement's consolidated sales rose by 34% year-on-year to US$82.8m during the first half of its 2023 financial year. Its cost of sales rose by less than 1% to US$50.8m. As such, the company recorded a profit for the period of US$10.1m, up by more than a factor of eight from first-half 2022 financial year levels.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement was among successful bidders in Saudi Arabia's largest carbon credit auction to date earlier in November 2022. The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)’s Voluntary Carbon Market Initiative Auction sold 1.4Mt-worth of carbon credits to 15 different entities, of which Yanbu Cement was the only cement sector representative. The PIF said that the sale will support the country's Saudi Vision 2030 development goal, while also advancing its progress towards net zero CO₂ emissions by 2060.

China: Gansu Shangfeng Cement has announced plans for the establishment of a new building materials digital intelligence research company. Local press has reported that the company will function as a joint venture of a Gansu Shangfeng Cement subsidiary and another company. Gansu Shangfeng Cement says that the new venture will have registered capital of US$70.3m.