Displaying items by tag: Energy

Saudi Arabia: Northern Region Cement Company (NRCC) has announced the signing of a contract for the construction of a US$8.7m, 20MW solar power plant in Turaif City. The plant will be supplied by Sinoma Overseas Development. The company says that the contract is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the company’s strategy to increase the use of renewable energy. Construction will take place over 10 months, with operations expected to begin in late 2026.

Sinoma Overseas Development will carry out the full scope of engineering design, procurement, supply and delivery during the contract duration time, in addition to civil construction, installation and commissioning.

Senegal: Aliko Dangote, founder and chair of Africa’s largest cement producer Dangote Cement, met with Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on 8 October 2025 to discuss industrial opportunities in the country. The conversation reportedly aligns with Senegal's 2024 – 2029 National Development Strategy to enhance private sector participation.

During the meeting with President Faye, which was also attended by Okey Oramah, President of Afreximbank, Dangote expressed interest in financing and developing projects across the industrial energy and fertiliser sectors. Dangote Cement already operates a 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Pout, Thiès Region.

Renewables reportedly generated more power than coal in the first half of 2025. Energy think tank Ember put out a report this week, which showed that solar and wind generation also grew faster than the rise in electricity demand in the first half of 2025. Global electricity demand rose by 2.6% year-on-year, adding 369TW. Solar increased by 306TW and wind by 97TW. Both coal and gas generation fell slightly, although a rise in other fossil fuel generation slowed the decline further.

Tellingly, fossil fuel generation fell in both China and India. Indeed, China added more solar and wind than the rest of the world combined, cutting its fossil fuel generation by 2% or by 58.7TWh. In India, renewables grew at the expense of fossil fuels, but demand growth was relatively low at 12TWh. In the US and the European Union (EU) fossil fuel generation actually increased. In the US, this was due to demand growth outpacing new renewable power. In the EU, weaker wind and hydroelectric output led to a greater reliance on coal and gas.

Meanwhile, a separate report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), also out this week, predicts that installed renewable power is likely to more than double by 2030 even as the sector navigates headwinds in supply chains, grid integration and financing. The IEA forecasts that global renewable power capacity will increase by 4600GW by 2030, roughly the equivalent of adding the total power generation capacity of China, the EU and combined. Solar photovoltaic (PV) will account for around 80% of the global increase in renewable power capacity over the next five years, followed by wind, hydroelectric, bioenergy and geothermal. Solar PV is expected to dominate renewables’ growth between now and 2030, remaining the lowest-cost option for new generation in most countries. Wind power, despite its near-term challenges, is still set for considerable expansion as supply bottlenecks ease and projects move forward, notably in China, Europe and India. However, the IEA’s outlook for global renewable capacity growth has been revised downward slightly compared to 2024, mainly due to policy changes in the US and in China.

This is all very well but what does it mean for the cement sector? At face value, possibly not much anytime soon. Both Ember and the IEA are talking about domestic electricity generation, not industrial. Ember reckons that half the world’s economies may have already peaked in fossil fuel power generation, but usage rates are still high. Prices of fossil fuels may even subsequently come down - to the benefit of industrial users such as cement plants. Yet, carbon taxes should, in theory, discourage increased usage - if they are working correctly.

Market distortions should not be discounted though. Some readers may recall what happened with carbon credits in the earlier stages of the EU emissions trading scheme. Free carbon allowances, calculated during the boom years of 2005 - 2007 when production was maxed out, were far too much to cover production during the resulting economic crisis. The sale of extra allowances provided many plants with a nice little earner and did little to encourage decarbonisation. Carbon capture is likely to require large amounts of electricity, but cheaper energy from renewables may help.

However, take a look at renewable energy stories in the Global Cement website news so far in 2025 and there are nearly 30 solar-related and seven wind-related ones. Cement companies are busily adding renewable capacity to reduce the cost of their electricity. This week, for example, Equator Energy commissioned a 10MW captive solar power plant at Mombasa Cement’s Vipingo plant in Kenya. Last week, Southern Province Cement in Saudi Arabia signed a 25-year solar energy power purchase agreement for its Bisha cement plant. Lest one forget, Saudi Arabia was the largest exporter of crude oil among Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members in 2023 at 6,659,000 barrels/day. If a cement plant in Saudi Arabia is investing in renewables, then one might suspect a change in the global energy mix is occurring.

Electricity accounts for around 12% of the energy demand at a cement plant. Nearly two-thirds of that demand comes from either grinding raw materials or cement. Then, as mentioned above, carbon capture is expected to increase the demand for electricity. One estimate reckons it will increase electricity consumption by 50 - 120%. Renewables are expected to bring down the price of electricity but demand will also grow.

So… expect more renewable projects linked to cement plants.

Bulgaria: Zlatna Panega Cement, part of Greece-based Titan Group, has achieved a 65% rate of thermal substitution of fossil fuels with alternative fuels for four consecutive months. The company’s 5MW solar plant supplies between 11% and 13% of its energy needs.

General director Adamantios Francis said “We have achieved a historic success for our plant. With this, we prove that we are committed to sustainable development and are ready to lead the industry towards a greener future.”

Titan Group’s long-term strategy includes cutting energy consumption by 58% compared with 2020 levels and reducing direct net CO₂ emissions to 500kg/t of cement. At Zlatna Panega, CO₂ emissions in 2024 were 839kg/t of clinker, while electricity-related emissions fell by 38% year-on-year.

France: Lafarge France has signed a nuclear production allocation contract (CAPN) with EDF to secure a long-term supply of low-carbon electricity for its cement plants. The deal allocates part of the capacity from EDF’s operating nuclear fleet to Lafarge France for more than 10 years under a cost and risk-sharing mechanism tied to actual volumes produced.

The partnership aims to cover part of the electricity consumption of Lafarge’s most energy-intensive sites in France, reducing the company’s carbon footprint while ensuring competitiveness and local presence, according to EDF.

Xavier Guesnu, CEO of Lafarge France, said “At Lafarge, we are already activating all levers to reduce the carbon footprint of cement, from research and development to the industrialisation of new low-carbon products and the use of alternative energies, such as biomass. This partnership gives us visibility and access to decarbonised energy, which are essential elements for continuing our investments aimed at large-scale production of very low-carbon or even carbon-neutral cements.”

Greece: Heracles Group, a member of Holcim, has commissioned a 6.5MW solar power station at its Milaki plant, equipped with more than 11,000 panels. The facility is now fully operational.

The installation is expected to generate about 10,000MW/yr of electricity, covering a significant share of the plant’s energy needs and cutting CO₂ emissions by 2350t/yr.

The second quarter of 2025 saw Russian GDP growth slow to 1.1% year-on-year, with a revised full-year growth forecast of 0.9%.¹ An economy bulked up on injections of military spending (budgeted at 33% of GDP in 2025)² since the invasion of Ukraine may slowly be keeling over. Faced with this eventuality, the Russian cement industry will likely be reviewing strategies not to be dragged down with the rest of the economy.

Prior to the release of the latest economic data, Russian construction had been forecast to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% in 2026 – 2029. Drivers included anticipated investments in oil and gas, transport, airports and renewable energy.

Purely in cement terms, the data no longer appear to corroborate this outlook. Market leader Cemros expects total domestic demand to drop from 67Mt in 2024, by 10 – 15% year-on-year, to 57 – 60.3Mt in 2025. In the first half of the year, Russia consumed 28.4Mt of cement, just 4% above production volumes of 27.2Mt in the same period. Cemros cited ‘declining cement consumption’ to account for its upcoming instigation of a four-day working week at its plants across Russia from October 2025.

On 12 August 2025, Cemros spoke out about a threat to the interests of the domestic industry: increased imports from Belarus. It said that Belarus’ three-plant industry is supplying Russia with cement at a rate equivalent to the combined production volumes of two-to-three cement plants. Time to cap them, it told the government, suggesting a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr.
The producer may have received a shock on 18 August 2025, when Belarus-based Krasnoselskstroymaterialy announced an upcoming US$100m upgrade to its 700,000t/yr Vaŭkavysk cement plant in Grobno Oblast, Belarus.

By that time, the Russian cement association, Soyuzcement, had already called for an anti-dumping investigation into all cement imports. It expects that import volumes of 3.74Mt in 2024 may rise to 5Mt/yr ‘in the near-term future.’

Lingering behind these discussions is the fact of high operating costs, partly precipitated by Russia’s continuing burden of international sanctions.

Here, the cement sector’s hopes are riding on a very particular marketing campaign: that of President Vladimir Putin on the global diplomatic circuit. He must sell his war (or peace on his terms) in a way that fends off increased international sanctions or support for Ukraine. Existing sanctions were on show at the Alaska Summit in Anchorage, US, on 15 August 2025, where the Russian leader made his pitch to US President Donald Trump – including a request for de-sanctioning, alongside various proposed punishment measures against Ukraine. Before travelling back to Moscow, the Russian delegation reportedly had to offer to pay cash for aeroplane fuel.³

Though President Trump did not secure a ceasefire, he nonetheless held back from making good on threatened new sanctions, and rated the Alaska Summit ‘10/10.’⁴ Putin might be equally pleased with the inconclusive outcome as precisely the goal of all his obfuscations. For Russia’s cement producers, costs won’t suddenly rise, but nor will they come down any time soon.

Far from sitting idly by, the industry is seeking new ways to actualise the value of its product. On 20 August 2025, Soyuzcement hosted a meeting of nine producers and four retail chains to strategise ways to increase sales of bagged cement. It will be subject to mandatory digital labelling from 1 October 2025. Discussions included the possibility of batch labelling of bags on the pallet for ease of scanning at retail outlets.

For now, producers’ online media spaces give the impression of work continuing as usual. On 18 August 2025, Cemros announced a US$186,000 renovation of buildings at its Mikhailovsk building materials plant in Volgograd Oblast.

The cement business in Russia is big, established and diffuse. Transformation has been its defining feature in the 33 years since the fall of the USSR, including in the relatively stable latter decades of that period. Should macroeconomic or geopolitical events overtake it once again, we can expect some shapeshifting – but also survival.

References

1. Reuters, ‘Russia's GDP growth slows to 1.1% in Q2, says Rosstat,’ 13 August 2025, www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russias-gdp-growth-slows-11-q2-says-rosstat-2025-08-13/

2. Global Data, ‘Russia Construction Market Size,’ 30 June 2025, www.globaldata.com/store/report/russia-construction-market-analysis/

3. Spiegel, ‘Russen boten Rubio zufolge Barzahlung für Betankung ihrer Flugzeuge an,’ 18 August 2025, www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/trump-putin-gipfel-russen-boten-offensichtlich-barzahlung-fuer-betankung-ihrer-flugzeuge-an-a-fdd9303c-546a-43aa-89dd-4f746b8e9df3

4. Focus, ‘Jäger deutlich: "Putin verkauft Trump eine Illusion - und hat ihn jetzt in der Hand",’ 16 August 2025, www.focus.de/politik/ausland/jaeger-putin-braucht-trump-nicht-zu-fuerchten-er-hat-trump-jetzt-in-der-hand_67785013-a14b-485c-9a4a-51755ec483fa.html

Ukraine: Cement producers have warned of consequences for the industry due to a 67% rise in the marginal price of electricity, according to Lyudmila Krypka, executive director of Ukrcement. Due to high tariffs, the industry is reportedly only operating at 60-70% of capacity.

Krypka said “Export for us is a matter of survival.”

She said that the increase was unjustified and wartime conditions with limited energy market competition created additional risks. Ukrainian industry receives no compensation for energy costs, unlike in the EU. Ukrcement has proposed preferential electricity transmission tariffs for energy-intensive industries and technical and economic criteria for priority enterprises.

Germany: Holcim, E.ON Energy Infrastructure Solutions and Orcan Energy have launched a large-scale waste heat recovery project at Holcim’s Dotternhausen cement plant to capture 10MW of unused heat from kiln exhaust gases. The recovered heat will supply internal processes, potential district heating networks and power generation via Orcan Energy’s eP1000 Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system. E.ON is responsible for the planning, construction, financing operation and maintenance of the plant as part of an Energy-as-a-Service model. This is intended to present no initial investment costs for Holcim.

Holcim South Germany plant manager Dieter Schillo said “This project marks an important milestone on our path to decarbonising cement production. The smart use of industrial waste heat not only reduces our Scope 2 emissions, but also strengthens our role as a pioneer in sustainable building materials.”

Pakistan: Dewan Cement has commissioned a 6MW solar power system at its Dhabeji plant in Karachi, the company disclosed to the Pakistan Stock Exchange. The system now reportedly provides over 50% of the plant’s operational energy requirements. The company said that the investment in renewable energy would improve energy security and deliver cost savings amid rising fuel prices.