Polysius launched ThyssenKrupp Polysius Solutions this week. It has described the new company as a dedicated lifecycle solutions provider. By doing so, it joins a number of other traditional cement equipment manufacturers that have also pivoted into services and retrofits over the last decade or so.

Parent company ThyssenKrupp previously tried to sell its cement plant engineering division in the late 2010s as part of a major restructuring. It didn’t manage to divest that part but it did sell its mining division to FLSmidth along the way. This had implications as the Denmark-based FLSmidth gradually turned into a mining company and eventually sold its cement engineering division to private equity. ThyssenKrupp’s cement business kept going and it later launched its sustainable process technologies as ThyssenKrupp Calvion in May 2026. That subsidiary’s intention is to specialise in sustainable process technologies for the cement, lime and other energy‑intensive industries. The rest of ThyssenKrupp Polysius said it was sharpening “its profile as a provider of single‑machine solutions, modernisations, spare parts and field services.”

Now at the start of October 2026 ThyssenKrupp Polysius has carved off a section of itself as ThyssenKrupp Polysius Solutions. Its stated aim is to help customers maximise the value of their equipment and to support them throughout the lifecycle of their plants with consultation, upgrades, retrofit equipment, digital products, spare parts and services. Around 180 employees will transfer from Polysius to the new company. The remainder of ThyssenKrupp Polysius will continue to operate in parallel to complete ongoing projects and existing contractual obligations.

Other cement equipment manufacturers have been on similar journeys in recent years, focusing less on delivering whole new production lines and more on retrofits and service. This has also tied in with the trend for sustainability and increasing digital products such as predictive maintenance. Some industry commentators have also blamed this on Chinese companies undercutting their competitors and capturing the full production line market. For example, Fuller Technologies said it was going to work on a portfolio of capital products, digital and service offerings when it was purchased (as FLSmidth Cement) by Pacific Avenue Capital Partners in late 2025. Before this, companies including KHD, Fives, Gebr. Pfeiffer and Loesche have all switched in some fashion or another to supplying parts of cement production lines and/or ongoing services, often with a focus on sustainability, efficiency and/or digital along the way.

Sinoma International Engineering summed it up in its annual report for 2025 by saying that the full-line EPC market is concentrated in ‘Belt and Road’ countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, while the market for technical upgrades is concentrated in the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America and Asia. It cited research by Zheng Lue Consulting that placed the value of the market for cement engineering outside of China at US$4.8bn/yr from 2026 to 2030 and just under US$1bn/yr domestically in China. With cement production having peaked in China in the 2010s, the country is now very much in the upgrade and services market. CNBM said in its 2025 annual report that its engineering and services segment, including Sinoma International Engineering, had 74 cement production lines under operation and maintenance service contracts and 326 mines.

ThyssenKrupp Polysius has followed the prevailing trends for the cement equipment market by splitting itself into a sustainability equipment company and a services-retrofit company. The next option might be to launch a digital wing, but this is probably built into both of the other sections already. It is notable that Calvion started with 40 employees but Solutions started with 180 employees. It’s a crude measure but it suggests that more money lies in servicing and retrofitting than sustainability at present. Fives confirmed some of this in its 2026 annual report when it blamed falling order intake in the cement sector, “…where efforts to reduce carbon footprint have taken a back seat in Europe (for budget reasons) and the US (for political reasons).” Building new cement production lines will become rarer in the future so keeping existing ones running is increasingly where the action is.  

Cement was among eight products exempted by US President Donald Trump from tariffs on US$20bn/yr-worth of imports from Canada on 15 September 2026. New tariffs on 122 other products offset the exemptions. The other exempted products included sanitary and toilet paper products, fishing rods and bourbon. So, the full gamut… from essentials to ‘lifestyle’ items. This may be a case of Trump’s artful dealings running up against something actually irreplaceable: even after a 5% year-on-year decline, the US still imported 1.04Mt of Canadian cement and clinker in the first four months of 2026, worth US$136m – 14% of total imports of 7.41Mt.¹ The overall US reliance on cement imports rose over the same period by 1%.

Whatever his motivation, President Trump is not the first to run into difficulties over an intended cement duty. In Kenya, the government finally upheld a 17.5% duty on clinker imports on 17 September 2026, following sustained complaints since its original implementation in July 2023. The government explained its decision with reference to the country’s increased clinker self-sufficiency. Imports dropped from 148,000t in 2023 to 18,800t/yr in 2025.

Cement producers in South Africa alleged cement dumping in the market in June 2026, leading to an International Trade Administration Commission investigation and the implementation of anti-dumping duties on 21 September 2026. Importers will pay an additional 91% on shipments of cement from neighbouring Mozambique and 37% on shipments from Vietnam.

Vietnam exported 25.5Mt of cement and clinker in the eight-month period up to 31 August 2026, worth US$951m – up by 10% year-on-year both in volume and value. Volumes are 9% below their historical peak of 28Mt in the first eight months of 2021. At that time, Vietnamese cement and clinker exports still primarily served China, but Chinese demand has since fallen significantly.

Meanwhile in Algeria, cement producers have despatched shipments via new channels to Guatemala (22,000t of white cement), Italy and Libya (18,950t combined) and other destinations in Europe (6000t of cement and 7000t of clinker) so far in September 2026. The Mediterranean Sea ports of Annaba, Skikda, Ténès handled the shipments. They may position Algeria to become a competitor to Türkiye in the Atlantic sphere – including the increasingly important West and Southern African markets.

Exporting is not a simple matter, with or without tariffs. In Bolivia, operations at state-owned ECEBOL’s cement plant in landlocked Potosí Department finally proved untenable on 18 September 2026. Among the factors figuring in the decision by the Ministry of the Presidency was the absence of rail infrastructure leading from the plant. The Potosí plant was intended to export its cement to Chile and Peru.

Had the Potosí plant commenced exports, it would have encountered a growing, but already crowded, market in Peru. In August 2026, the country imported 12,400t of finished cement – 7440t (60%) Chilean and 4960t (40%) Vietnamese – up by 16% year-on-year. It imported 110,000t of clinker – 74,800 (68%) from neighbouring Ecuador and 35,200t (32%) from South Korea.

Producers will always seek to fend off new competition from their domestic market. The greatest measure of success, perhaps, lies in achieving irreplaceability in another market overseas – and causing headaches for local rivals, trade commissions and presidents alike.

References

1 United States Geological Survey, 'Cement in April 2026,' 2 September 2026, https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/media/files/mis-202604-cemen.pdf

Earlier this month Electrified Thermal Solutions (ETS) announced it was supplying two thermal batteries to Holcim. Then, earlier this week the European Commission (EC) published the rules for its auction of support for projects using industrial process heat. Talk about good timing! Plus, UltraTech Cement has reported that it is rolling out the use of electrical batteries at its plants to support sustainable energy usage.

ETS’ release in mid-September 2026 did not say which Holcim cement plant (or plants) would be using its products. Although the US-based company did open its European office in Amsterdam in April 2026 “to scale across EU industry.” At the time it noted that, “in Scandinavia, and parts of Western Europe, off-peak electricity pricing combined with high natural gas costs make the Joule Hive Thermal Battery (JHTB) cost-competitive with natural gas and other fossil fuels, without requiring subsidies. In larger industrial markets like Germany and France, the volatility of natural gas prices, exacerbated by geopolitical supply disruptions, has underscored the need for more predictable energy alternatives.” The obvious deployment locations might be a Holcim plant somewhere with access to plentiful renewable energy, with highly variable electricity prices, with access to government subsidies and/or one of the group’s flagship NextGen locations.

It did reveal that the initial deployment would consist of two JHTBs as part of Holcim’s electrification roadmap. The cement company will invest in ETS as part of the arrangement. The batteries convert and store electricity as heat, delivering heat of up to 1800°C from 480V to 100kV electricity. When Global Cement Magazine interviewed ETS’ CEO Daniel Stack for the March 2026 issue, he pointed out that a typical cement plant requires around 150MWth and that each JHTB provides 5MW. The units can be used in an array to target the calciner, the preheater tower or the kiln. With this in mind it will be instructive to see where Holcim decides to target in the pilot. 

Holcim has not commented on these developments. However, it invested in SaltX Technology in mid-2025. This Sweden-based company has developed a method to use electric plasma technology for high temperature applications, such as making clinker, using its Electric Arc Calciner. In its 2025 sustainability report Holcim said it was aiming to establish the world’s first plant for all-electric cement production. Readers can find out more about SaltX in the September 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

ETS opening an office in Europe and Holcim ordering heat batteries coincides with the EC finalising the rules this week for its second Europe-wide auction for projects decarbonising industrial process heat. Heat batteries don’t necessarily have to be powered by process heat, but it is one way to do it. The auction has a planned budget of €1bn, sourced from revenue created by the European Union Emissions Trading System. The categories covered include: electrified options such as heat pumps, thermal storage, plasma torches and electric boilers; direct renewable heat from solar thermal or geothermal sources; and nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors. It is expected to open to bidders in early December 2026. Successful bidders will then receive a fixed premium subsidy that is linked to the related CO₂ emissions reductions for up to five years. 65 projects were selected at the first auction, although this did not include any cement companies.

Elsewhere, UltraTech Cement announced this week that it had reached a new decarbonisation milestone with the news that its 3.3Mt/yr Kukurdih cement plant in Chhattisgarh had met 100% of its electricity requirements through ‘green’ energy since April 2026. It has done this through a mixture of using renewable energy sources and a waste heat recovery system. The cement company says that nearly a third of its 76 plants have sourced over 50% of their electricity from sustainable sources in this time period. Notably, UltraTech is also progressively deploying its Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). One example of this was a 7.5MW project with Gentari at the Sewagram cement plant Gujarat in mid-2025 bringing together solar and wind generation with battery storage. More such projects have followed. We have reported on another example of electrical battery storage today with the news that CleanMax and Nuvoco Vistas have announced a partnership to develop a wind - solar hybrid energy project in Bhikamkhore, Rajasthan, including a 2MW BESS.

Global Cement Weekly has covered heat batteries and energy storage now and then over the years. Other industrial heat battery companies include Rondo Energy, Antora Energy and Brenmiller Energy. Rondo Energy, for example, launched a 33MWh battery at one of SCG’s plants in Saraburi, Thailand in late 2025. How popular they become and/or whether a default deployment method emerges remains to be seen. Yet, the hope of EU funding for these kinds of projects may yield more projects in Europe. Meanwhile, UltraTech Cement is showing everyone what can be done with electrical batteries and renewable power sources.

We focus on lime this week with an acquisition by Carmeuse in Argentina and a deal between Mississippi Lime Company (MLC) and Fortera. Plus, SigmaRoc bought Dolomitas in Lithuania last week and Martin Marietta’s acquisition of Lhoist North America (LNA) completed at the end of August 2026. Let’s find out more.

Belgium-based Carmeuse announced on 10 September 2026 that it had acquired a controlling stake in Argentina-based lime producer Caleras San Juan (CSJ). No value for the transaction was declared. Carmeuse did report that CSJ and its affiliates have a production capacity of over 0.75Mt/yr. It added that the company is “...well positioned to meet growing demand for lime across Argentina and central Chile.” The Valor Econômico newspaper reported that Carmeuse purchased an 80% stake in the business with manager and shareholder Raúl Cabanay retaining a 20% share. CSJ increased its production capacity from the mid-2010s and operates four Maerz kilns. The most recent of these kilns was lit in June 2026.

This transaction follows Carmeuse’s deal to buy a controlling stake in Chile-based Cbb for just under US$500m in 2025. That one was notable for both its lime and cement assets, since Cbb operated three integrated cement plants and one grinding plant at the time of the takeover. Although as Global Cement Weekly noted at the time, the profit from Cbb’s lime division was bigger than that from its cement division. At that time, we wondered whether Carmeuse might be tempted to divest the cement and concrete business but it doesn’t appear to have happened yet. The next step from here is how Carmeuse might use its lime plants and deposits in both Chile and Argentina to its commercial advantage. Options such as being the key supplier to certain key consumer industries such as lithium or copper on both sides of the Andes and synergistic benefits in procurement and logistics are obvious ones. On lithium for example, Carmeuse noted in its 2026 sustainability report that its acquisition of Cbb made lithium become the group’s second-largest end market for lime.

Meanwhile, in North America MLC signed an agreement with Fortera on 8 September 2026 to develop a commercial unit designed to produce over 0.3Mt/yr tons of low-carbon ReAct cement. Fortera’s ReCarb technology will be used to capture industrial CO₂ emissions from MLC’s production of high-calcium lime, converting the CO₂ directly into cement. The partners have not said where the unit will be but they have said that it will add “domestic cement production capacity in the US.” One of MLC’s sites at Calera in Alabama, Ste. Genevieve in Missouri, Verona in Kentucky or Bonne Terre in Missouri might be the location. The agreement gives MLC one way to both deal with its CO₂ emissions and create a new revenue stream. Graymont announced a similar deal with Fortera in mid-2025

This follows the news that SigmaRoc bought Akcinė Bendrovė ‘Dolomitas’ (Dolomitas) in Lithuania from its shareholders for €110m, with a further bill of €8m for certain non-core assets. Its target produces around 3.5Mt/yr of high-quality dolomite limestone, holds around 25 years of reserves and has the potential to extend this by an additional 20 years. SigmaRoc noted that Dolomitas is an “essential supplier to a significant network of companies and sectors in the Baltic States.” Its services also include logistics handling, through a network of its own trucks and open wagons for rail use and terminals.

As mentioned above, Martin Marietta’s acquisition of or combination with LNA completed in late August 2026. Readers can find more about this transaction here. Other recent lime news stories of note include an investment of around US$16m by the government of Papua New Guinea in late July 2026 into Pacific Lime and Cement’s (PLC) Central Lime project. In return the government received a 13% stake in the local subsidiary. The project intends to start quicklime production in the first quarter of 2027. The company wants to become the country’s first integrated lime and cement manufacturing operation.

All of the lime news stories covered above show the variety the industry can cover. Big deals by Carmeuse in South America, Martin Marietta in North America or SigmaRoc in the Baltics show similar commercial motivations to the kind of ones we normally cover in the cement sector. MCL’s (and Graymont’s) agreement with Fortera reminds us that lime manufactures too calcine limestone and increasingly face the same challenges in finding how to capture and/or use the CO₂. Places like Papua New Guinea want to develop and companies like PLC are trying to help them.

And finally… as a reminder of the wider range of sectors that lime is used in, Switzerland-based sugar manufacturer Schweizer Zucker lit its new lime kiln last week. The Maerz HPS S2 lime kiln was put into operation in ‘sugar operating mode.’ Sugar beets started being processed and the first sugar of the 2026 campaign started earlier this week.