Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has announced its consolidated financial results for the nine months to 31 December 2025. Its net sales for the period were US$4.3bn, a 1.6% year-on-year fall from US$4.4bn in the first nine months of 2024. Its profit attributable to the owners was US$114m, a 66% fall year-on-year from US$336m in the same period of 2024.
India: Indian Railways says that changes to its pricing and other measures have made bulk transportation more attractive to cement producers. The Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has also started installing more silos at its terminals to make bulk cement handling easier. As well as reducing the transportation price, Indian Railways has introduced discounts for empty return movements to originating terminals. The changes are intended to reduce the overall freight cost for bulk cement movement. The response so far has been described as ‘very good” but no data has been released by the government organisations so far.
India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned an additional 2.7Mt/yr of grinding capacity at its Aligarh plant in Uttar Pradesh. Following the upgrade, the unit now has a total cement grinding capacity of 4Mt/yr. The company says it has a total capacity of 13.1Mt/yr in the state and around 191Mt/yr in the country.
Nigeria: Agora Policy has blamed market concentration for the high price of cement in the country. In a report published in early February 2026 it concluded that, “…the industry operates as a spatially fragmented oligopoly where price leadership, regional dominance, and control of critical inputs have neutralised the competitive discipline expected from surplus capacity.” It acknowledged that input costs such as taxes, negative currency exchange rates, energy prices and transport fees also played a role.
The report noted that Nigeria achieved formal self-sufficiency in cement production in 2012 and that installed production capacity now exceeds domestic demand. The sector had benefited historically from import restrictions, tax incentives, access to foreign exchange, and exclusive mining rights before 2012. However, the report said that subsequently “the market has consolidated into a highly concentrated oligopoly with persistently high prices and margins, raising legitimate questions about whether infant-industry policies have outlived their purpose.”
Agora Policy said that domestic cement prices have remained high with “industry profitability consistently above levels observed across Sub-Saharan Africa and comparable emerging markets.” It stated that cement producers in Nigeria reported average profit margins of approximately 49% in September 2025 compared to 20 - 36% in North America, 15 - 25% in Asia, 20 – 30% in Europe and 18 – 30% elsewhere in Africa.
The think tank has recommended that government policy should shift from capacity expansion to competition enhancement. It suggests treating “logistics as a tool for market integration, limestone mineral access as a lever for fair competition and regional dominance as a legitimate target for antitrust scrutiny.” It argued that its proposed reforms are ‘essential’ to realign private profitability with the public interest.
