Sweden: SaltX Technology has signed a joint development agreement with Holcim to develop a fully electrified clinker production process, with the goal of building Europe’s first fully electric cement plant by 2028. The collaboration builds on an earlier partnership established in June 2025, and focuses on electrifying cement production through SaltX’s technology platform, combining electrified calcination and electrified sintering to enable fossil-free clinker production. The companies have established a joint technical and commercial roadmap, beginning with pilot-scale testing before moving to industrial-scale deployment.

Two technical development tracks are being pursued: The first focuses on electrified calcination using plasma burners in SaltX’s electric arc calciner to heat raw meal and produce calcined material. Large-scale testing is planned at the electric calcination research centre in Hofors during 2026. The second track focuses on combining electrified calcination with electric sintering to produce clinker without fossil fuels.

Lina Jorheden said “The strengthened partnership with Holcim confirms the potential of our technology and marks a key step in developing electrified clinker production. By combining our technology with Holcim’s industrial expertise, we can jointly further develop and industrialise solutions for large-scale electrified cement manufacturing.”

Vietnam: Sinoma (Nanjing) and MeyGroup have signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for an 8000t/day clinker production line in Vietnam, according to a post on Linkedin by Sinoma’s marketing director, Anton Zhou. The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of both companies and took place in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Belgium: TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a 31MW floating solar power plant in Obourg, located on a former chalk quarry site rehabilitated into a lake. The plant is expected to generate approximately 30GWh/yr of electricity, which will be self-consumed by Holcim’s facilities. TotalEnergies said that the installation is the largest floating solar power plant in Europe dedicated to industrial self-consumption. The project included more than 700m of horizontal directional drilling to connect the floating panels to the electrical substation.

Olivier Greiner, managing director of retail power & gas Belgium at TotalEnergies, said “We are delighted to inaugurate this floating solar power plant, which demonstrates TotalEnergies’ teams’ ability to innovate to meet the needs of our partner Holcim, whom we support along with other industrial customers in their efforts to decarbonise their operations.”

India: RCCPL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Birla Corporation, has commissioned a third production line at its Kundanganj unit, increasing grinding capacity by 1.40Mt/yr. Following the expansion, Birla Corporation’s consolidated production capacity has reached 21.4Mt/yr.

The company said that the Kundanganj expansion is expected to strengthen the company’s competitiveness in its core markets of central and eastern Uttar Pradesh, with clinker supplied from its integrated plants at Satna, Chanderia and Mukutban. The project cost is estimated at US$32m.

The expansion includes technology upgrades to increase fly ash utilisation for the production of Portland Pozzolana Cement, as well as improvements to infrastructure and logistics. A 5MW solar power plant is also being installed at the site and is expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of the next financial year, increasing the share of renewable energy at the plant from just over 30% to around 40%. Birla Corporation plans to further increase total production capacity to 27.6Mt/yr by the 2028-2029 financial year through additional expansions and new grinding units.