Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has partnered with JFE Steel and the Global Institute for Environmental Technology to develop a carbon capture and storage system. The system will use wet alkaline earth metals extracted from steel slag to produce carbonates from exhaust gases at cement and steel plants. The partners are investigating the possibility of using these carbonates, specifically calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, as additives in cement production at Taiheiyo Cement’s plants. Taiheiyo Cement president Masafumi Shigehara said, “With the effects of climate change becoming apparent both in Japan and overseas, the importance of global warming counter-measures is increasing.”

Russia: Sibirskiy Cement produced 525,000t of cement at its three plants in the first quarter of 2020, up by 14% year-on-year from 460,000t in the corresponding period of 2019. The 3.7Mt/yr Topkinskiy Cement plant produced 388,000t, up by 21% year-on-year from 320,000t; the 1.1Mt/yr Krasnoyarsk Cement plant produced 97,600t, down by 17% year-on-year from 118,000t and the Timluy Cement plant produced 39,600t, up by 73% year-on-year from 22,9000t. Sibirskiy Cement’s first vice president Gennady Rasskazov said, “Cement consumption in Siberia, Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory reached 845,000t in the first three months of 2020, up by 15% year-on-year from 735,000t.” He said that April 2020 has brought a ‘significant decrease in demand,’ and revised Sibirskiy Cement’s projected 2020 sales to an estimated decrease of 7-10% from 3-5% growth. Over a two-and-a-half-month period, Rasskazov predicted a 30-50% sales fall.

Germany: Staff of HeidelbergCement in Germany will be employed on a ‘short-time’ basis, with hours reductions of up to 100%. HeidelbergCement says that it agreed upon the measure with employee representative bodies.

HeidelbergCement’s supervisory board and management board members have waived 20% of their fixed salaries in the second quarter of 2020 due to the financial impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has said that no employee will lose their job before July 2020 as a result of the coronavirus lockdown. It joins 3300 other employers across the country as part of the No Dismissals Movement. Votorantim Cimentos CEO Marcelo Castelli said, “Our goal is to reassure our employees and their families, and to help minimise the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.”