Bangladesh/Myanmar: The Bangladesh Navy has seized 1700 bags of cement from two fishing boats and detained 20 people on board who were bound for Myanmar’s Rakhine State, according to a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Bangladesh Armed Forces on 2 June 2026. The Navy intercepted the two boats during a patrol in the Bay of Bengal. According to the report, authorities recovered 900 bags of cement from a vessel named Ma-2 and 800 bags from another named Nishan-2. 20 individuals were arrested for attempting to illegally smuggle the cement into Myanmar.

During initial questioning, the detainees admitted they were trafficking the cement to Rakhine State in hopes of turning a high profit. Both the seized cargo and the suspects have been handed over to the police for processing. Since the resurgence of the conflict in May 2023, the Myanmar military junta has strictly prohibited the transport of goods from central Myanmar into Rakhine State. As a result, the region has relied heavily on consumer goods imported from India and Bangladesh through informal agreements. However, the Bangladeshi government has actively cooperated with the Myanmar military regime to restrict such movements.

UK: AI company Gigaton, formerly Carbon Re, has raised US$26m in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to over US$35m. It said that the funding would enable a fivefold increase in its team, as well as expansion outside of cement, into the steel, glass and chemicals sectors. It said that this would enable its mission to reduce emissions on a ‘gigaton’ scale. The company is further developing its control platform with a small group of partners, with plans to scale deployment across ‘dozens of sites’ in the next growth phase.

Josh Vernon, CEO of Gigaton, said "Every cement executive I speak to is facing the same challenges: costs they struggle to control, carbon they struggle to reduce and plants that weren't built for the world they're operating in today. The underlying software infrastructure most plants run on today was never built to manage the complexity plants are forced to deal with today. We have built Gigaton to deliver real cost and carbon savings now, while building the AI infrastructure these industries need in a fully autonomous future."

Gigaton’s self-learning technology operates within plant infrastructure, simulating process behaviour and forecasting the impact of each action, allowing it to autonomously adjust key parameters, including fuel mix, kiln speed and oxygen levels. The AI platform is designed to replace the existing control stack, resulting in lower energy and fuel costs, reduced emissions, and greater stability for operators, according to the company.

Global: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI) have signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the development and scale-up of carbon capture and storage (CCS) across the global cement and concrete sector. The two-year partnership will work to accelerate industrial decarbonisation through capacity building, shared outreach, stakeholder engagement and thought leadership.

The partnership was announced at the GCCA's CEO Strategic Dialogue 2026 in Madrid, Spain. As a first milestone, the parties will convene a high-level roundtable, bringing together industry leaders and key stakeholders to accelerate progress on CCS in the cement sector. The two organisations will promote awareness of CCS technologies for cement, advocate for CCS as a critical component of cement sector decarbonisation strategies and share technical insights and policy considerations to support CCS adoption.

GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot said "The cement and concrete industry has been making progress to achieve its mission to fully decarbonise, utilising a variety of technologies and mechanisms. We know that carbon capture and storage is a crucial lever for the industry to get there and we know that the technology works. Through working more closely with the GCCSI we are looking forward to helping our members reach their net zero goals more quickly through the use of CCS project pathways, including crucial policy outreach."

GCCSI CEO Jarad Daniels said "Cement producers around the world are working to reduce emissions while continuing to supply a material that is essential to building resilient and safe infrastructure, and CCS will be an important part of that effort. Through this partnership, we aim to support the industry by sharing expertise, fostering dialogue, and creating the conditions needed for CCS projects to succeed."

Germany: Global investment firm Carlyle today announced that it has agreed to sell Germany-based mechanical drive supplier Flender to Triton Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. 
 
Flender supplies gearboxes, couplings and generators for a broad range of industrial applications. It was divested from Siemens in 2021 and acquired by Carlyle.