France: Lhoist and Air Liquide have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim to build a carbon capture unit at Lhoist’s Réty lime plant in Hauts-de-France. Air Liquide wants to build and operate a unit from 2028 using its Cryocap FG (Flue Gas) technology to capture and purify 95% of the lime plant’s CO₂ emissions. The companies have jointly applied for the European Innovation Fund large scale support scheme to pay for the project. This partnership is a step towards the creation of a low-carbon industrial ecosystem in the Dunkirk area.

Lhoist’s ‘Chaux et Dolomies du Boulonnais’ plant in Réty is France’s largest lime production plant. A potential carbon capture unit at the plant could potentially reduce the CO₂ emissions of the plant by more than 600,000t/yr. Captured CO₂ would then be transported to a multimodal CO₂ export hub in Dunkirk, currently under development, and sent to be sequestered in the North Sea as part of the D’Artagnan project, which has received the PCI (Project of Common Interest) label from the European Commission. The implementation of the project will be possible as public funding from European and/or French schemes supporting decarbonisation become available.

Colombia: Cementos Argos recorded sales of US$642m in the first quarter of 2022, up by 11% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021. The company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 18% year-on-year to US$88.6m. Cement volumes remained level year-on-year at 3.9Mt. Cementos Argos said that higher inflationary pressures impacted costs associated with raw materials, energy, freight and maintenance, but noted its ‘very good price performance’ across all of its regions. It expects the rise in cement prices to a contribute to a reduction in inflationary cost impacts in the rest of 2022.

CEO Juan Esteban Calle said "Demand for our products and solutions remains very healthy and dynamic in all regions. We are operating at full capacity, despite a challenging environment due to global supply chain disruptions and inflation in energetics and raw material costs. In this environment, we are focused on maximising production at our integrated cement plants to meet our customers' growing needs and on executing a pricing strategy that mitigates the impact of inflation.”

Mexico: Cemex has expanded its Executive Variable Compensation program, which includes progress on its carbon reduction goals as a variable, to cover over 4500 executives. The initiative is part of the company's Future in Action program, which focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of Cemex's operations and products to become a net-zero CO2 company by 2050. From the start of 2022, the CO₂ emissions component will have an impact that will range from -10% to +10% in the total cash payout of the annual executive variable compensation.

Argentina: Loma Negra’s first-quarter sales were US$171m in 2022, up by 20% year-on-year from US$143m in the first quarter of 2021. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were US$60m, up by 14% from US$52m, while its net profit was US$41m, up by 11% from US$37m. The producer’s cement, masonry and lime sales volumes rose by 6.6% in the quarter to 1.48Mt from 1.38Mt.