Syria: The General Company for Cement and Building Materials (Omran) has launched a new product, Pozzolanic Cement 42.5 – CEM II, at its plant in the Sheikh Saeed district of Aleppo.
Director general Mahmoud Fadila said the product is the first industrial product to enter the Syrian market since the area’s liberation, calling it a ‘significant step’ toward restoring production capacity and industrial independence. The new cement product is expected to reduce reliance on lower-quality imports.
Sweden/India: Cemvision has received a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency to conduct a joint feasibility study with Tata Steel to convert basic oxygen furnace (BOF) and electric arc furnace (EAF) slags into feedstock for near-zero-CO₂ cement. The 10-12-month study will assess the technical and economic viability of a scalable slag valorisation model, ahead of a planned demonstration facility at Tata Steel’s site.
Cemvision CEO Oscar Hållén said “Being able to, at scale, turn environmental liabilities into valuable resources is exactly the kind of climate innovation heavy industry needs. In partnership with Tata Steel, we hope to show how steel slag can become a cornerstone in near-zero CO₂ cement, while metals are recovered and returned to steel production.”
The project is part of the India-Sweden Industry Transition Partnership (ITP), announced during Cop30 in Belém, Brazil. Tata Steel also received a grant from India’s Department of Science and Technology, with additional partners including IIT ISM Dhanbad and JK Cement.
UK: Worley has secured the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood cement plant in North Wales. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will provide the carbon capture technology. The project will enable commercial-scale production of evoZero, Heidelberg Materials’ near-zero CO₂ cement, by capturing around 0.8Mt/yr of CO₂, representing nearly all of the plant’s emissions. Construction is expected to begin before 2026, with commissioning planned for 2029. Worley will lead the EPCM delivery of the project and provide support to infrastructure development, technology integration, and commissioning. The contract follows Worley’s successful completion of the project’s FEED study with MHI.
South Korea: Cement exports are expected to reach 4.5Mt in 2025, up by 52% year-on-year, according to the Korea Cement Association, as producers seek to offset weak domestic demand and rising raw material costs. Domestic shipments are projected to fall by 16.5% to 36.5Mt, the lowest level in 34 years.
Despite high transport costs and limited profitability, producers including Ssangyong C&E, Halla Cement and SAMPYO Cement are increasing exports to cover fixed costs and maintain kiln operations to retain carbon emission allowances.
A cement industry official said “The domestic economy is as bad as during the global financial crisis, but we cannot stop the plants, so we are sending the cement piling up overseas. On top of that, we need to keep the plant kilns running to maintain a minimum allocation of carbon emission allowances, so the goal is also to secure at least fixed costs.”
Another official said “Ssangyong C&E, Halla Cement and SAMPYO Cement have plants on the coast, so their transportation expenses are lower than those of corporations located inland. For inland companies, transportation costs double when you add ocean freight to land shipping, so it is difficult even to choose exports as a stopgap measure.”
Halla Cement increased exports by 63% year-on-year, expanding sales beyond Latin America into African markets including Cameroon and Guinea. SAMPYO Cement also signed new export contracts with South America in the second quarter of 2025. The Korea Cement Association forecasts 2026 demand will fall further to 36Mt, down by 1.3% from 2025, citing continued stagnation in the domestic construction sector.
