Mexico: Cement has announced the launch of a range of carbon neutral concretes called Vertua. By offsetting, Cemex has eliminated Vertua’s remaining carbon footprint following a 70% reduction in embodied emissions compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) through use of a geopolymer cement mixture. The concretes will become available on different markets globally in 2020 and 2021.

Senegal: The Chambre des Mines du Sénégal (CMS) has reported a 5% year-on-year increase in domestic sales and a 0.6% year-on-year increase in cement production in the first half of 2020. The Le Journal de l'Economie Sénégalaise newspaper has reported that exports fell by 13%.

Pakistan: Cement producers dispatched 47.8Mt of cement in the 2020 fiscal year, which ended on 30 June 2020, up by 2% year-on-year from 46.9Mt in the 2019 fiscal year. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association shows that the largest area of growth was in cement exports from southern Pakistan, up by 46% to 5.88Mt from 4.01Mt, while northern exports fell by 22% to 1.97Mt from 2.53Mt. Conversely, domestic dispatches fell by 29% in the south to 5.64Mt from 7.98Mt, and rose by 6% in the north to 34.3Mt from 32.4Mt, thus constituting 72% of total dispatches.

Democratic Republic of Congo: The Council of Ministers has approved a proposal of the Ministry of Industry to appoint auditors to perform an inventory and evaluation of the 0.3Mt/yr integrated Cimenterie Nationale (CINAT) Kimpese cement plant in Kinshasa Province with a view to re-launching cement production there. Current estimates place the cost of reopening the plant at US$82,000. CINAT is 92% state-owned.

The government established the Kimpese plant in 1974 and production ceased in 2011 due to a fuel shortage. It has resumed since. CINAT employees have kept the plant in working order and guarded it in order to prevent it from being salvaged for scrap.