Brazil is the focus this week with the news that local sales reached 32.9Mt in the first half of 2026. The market is also facing change in its composition with the change in ownership of InterCement earlier in the year and the ongoing sale of CSN Cimentos.

Graph 1: Cement sales in Brazil, 2018 - June 2026. Source: National Cement Industry Union (SNIC)

The latest data from the National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) shows that cement sales rose by 2.3% year-on-year to 32.9Mt in the first half of 2026 from 32.1Mt in the same period in 2025. As can be seen in Graph 1 above, this is the largest first-half figure since at least 2018. There has been a general trend of sales growth in this time, from 52.8Mt in 2018 to 67Mt in 2025. 2026 as a whole looks reasonably likely to surpass this barring any market shocks. SNIC has identified the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV) house building programme as the main driver of sales. It says that it accounted for 50% of new real estate project launches in the first quarter of 2026 and created a 10% rise in sales. An expansion of the programme in April 2026 to higher income families and revised government house building targets are expected to generate an additional 5Mt of cement consumption. The union also mentioned that the increased use of rigid concrete pavement (whitetopping) road projects is likely to contribute to infrastructure-related cement sales.

Unfortunately, SNIC’s list of potential risks to the cement sector is weighty. Rising and volatile fuel costs in relation to geopolitical events are similar to the rest of the world. The local interest rate, the Selic rate, is not expected to fall as much as anticipated by the end of the year. Other local issues include a change in regulated working hours that is expected to push up labour costs when it becomes law in the second half of 2026. SNIC also flagged up the growing economic cost of online gambling upon household debt and the direct consequence of this upon the self-build sector. This issue has been part of a national debate in Brazil and stricter rules were expected to be implemented in mid-July 2026.

Clarity on the future of CSN Cimentos should start to emerge in mid-August 2026. The deadline for bids is on 7 August 2026. Then a contract might be signed in September 2026 with a potential buyer if all goes well. However, as reporting by Valor Econômico has revealed, there may be a gap between the price CSN wants for its cement division and what the potential buyers are prepared to pay. The vendor reportedly wants around US$2.5bn but potential bidders were expecting a lower price, nearer to US$2bn. This is an issue with the Chinese companies. China-based companies linked to the sale previously have included Anhui Conch, Huaxin Cement and Sinoma International. Local companies Votorantim and Polimix Concreto were linked to the sale previously but it is unknown whether they will make bids or not.

Regarding InterCement, a consortium led by LATCEM, Redwood Capital Management and Moneda Patria Investments took control in April 2026. The three companies also injected US$110m into the company during the process. In an interview in July 2026 Marcelo Mindlin, the controller of LATCEM, confirmed that the new management is preparing to divest Loma Negra. InterCement is currently the controlling shareholder of the Argentina-based cement company. He added that the consortium is still building its strategy for InterCement and working out which sections of the business offer the best return.

Finally, the government in Brazil announced preliminary plans for its carbon market in May 2026. Cement is set to be included in the first phase of the scheme that will start in 2027. The paper, ​iron and steel, aluminium, oil and gas, and air transport sectors will also be included. The scheme will include a four year preparation period where emissions monitoring is prepared, conducted and then allocations set. So, if the market continues in its proposed form, the local cement market might start facing carbon fees from 2031 onwards.

The current state of the cement market in Brazil is looking promising but it is delicate. It is understandable why CSN might be optimistic about the price it could get for selling its cement business given the sales figures so far in 2026. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to find out what the potential bidders think. The rise in cement sales may also have given the new management at InterCement an easy introduction to taking charge of the business before they have to take any tough decisions. Plans for a carbon market in Brazil mean that another major cement producing country is engaging with decarbonisation at the legislative level.

Another week and we have another large heavy building materials acquisition in the US. Martin Marietta said it was spending US$13.5bn to buy Lhoist North America (LNA). This time the target is a lime company. Let’s find out what’s been happening with this one.

In an earnings call this week, Martin Marietta’s CEO Ward Nye described the deal as “totally in our wheelhouse” and one covering “mission critical products.” He went on to highlight the lime business’ higher margins, strong market position, diversified end markets and pricing power. He also noted the sector’s resource scarcity and its high barriers to entry. These are clearly the kind of comments investors might want to hear about a multi-billion dollar investment. Despite this, however, the stock price of Martin Marietta fell slightly after the announcement.

The deal has been described as a “definitive agreement to combine” with the North America-based subsidiary of Lhoist Group rather than a plain acquisition. This starts to make sense because Martin Marietta is buying LNA but Lhoist’s owners will also gain a stake in its subsidiary’s new owner. Martin Marietta will pay US$13.5bn in cash and shares of its common stock for the transaction. The deal will make FGI, the Berghmans family holding group that owns Lhoist, the largest single shareholder of Martin Marietta, with representation on its board of directors. Lhoist's operations in Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and North Africa will remain fully owned by FGI.

The attraction of the deal is that it gives Martin Marietta control of a major lime producer in North America with over 2Bnt of limestone reserves in “Sun Belt metropolitan corridors.”  Martin Marietta reckons these reserves will last over 200 years. LNA operates a network of 20 quarries and production facilities and 45 distribution terminals. The privately owned subsidiary reportedly generated sales of US$1.8bn and adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$786m in 2025. In that earnings call Nye explained that his company is aiming to target its aggregates, lime and specialty products business lines at “...infrastructure and industrial mega projects, including highways, data centres, semiconductor fabrication, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities across the southern US, most notably in Texas, our largest and one of the most attractive construction markets in North America.” Focusing on Texas he went on to point out, for example, the potential synergies between lime and aggregates products for road building. He also noted the role of lime in demand for steel products in the southern US and the boosting role of America First government trade policy.

As discussed in last week’s Global Cement Weekly the Martin Marietta deal ties in with an ongoing trend in market reorganisation in heavy building materials companies in North America. CRH’s recent agreement to buy Arcosa, a US-based supplier of infrastructure-related products and services, for US$8.6bn is one example. Quikrete’s acquisition of Summit Materials for US$11.5bn in early 2025 is another. Martin Marietta is linked to that last one since it sold its cement and concrete business in Texas to Quikrete in exchange for the latter’s aggregates business and US$450m in cash in early 2026. Other instances of large deals in the US-based building materials sector include Lowe's acquisition of Foundation Building Materials for US$8.8bn in 2025 and US Depot’s purchase of SRS Distribution for around US$18bn in 2024. Both of these deals covered the distribution of light building materials but are indicative of the state of the sector.

The other aspect to note with Martin Marietta and LNA is the geographic focus on North America. The continued involvement of FGI in LNA is similar to the spinoff of Amrize by Holcim. Once again a Europe-based building materials company is separating off its division in North America. One smaller and anecdotal reflection on the perceived strength of the US cement market can be seen in some other news stories we reported upon this week. These included two items on exports from North Africa to the US and the opening of a new cement import terminal in Florida.

To conclude, here is one more large deal in the US building materials sector. Martin Marietta looks set to return, in part, to selling calcined building products. It’s not worth reading too much into that dip in Martin Marietta’s share price after the deal was announced but it may suggest that the market is reflecting upon the size of the proposed transaction.

Market data on the cement sector in Pakistan was released this week. It is looking promising with combined despatches up. Let’s dig a little deeper.

Overall despatches grew by 7% year-on-year to 50.1Mt in the 2026 financial year (FY2026) from 46.2Mt in the previous period, according to data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). Note that in Pakistan the financial year runs from July to June. Local sales drove the trend with a rise of 9.5% to 41.5Mt. However, exports fell slightly to 9Mt. An APCMA spokesperson said that demand for cement both locally and in export markets was expected to remain strong in the coming months. They added that decreasing geopolitical tensions at that time could help to reduce the sector’s energy prices. Arif Habib’s view backed that of the APCMA. It added that “...budgetary relief for the construction sector and any further decline in interest rates are expected to support demand.”

Graph 1: Local and export cement despatches in Pakistan, 2018 - 2026 financial years. Source: All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association.

Graph 1 above shows the wider picture and the evolving dynamic between domestic and export despatches. Exports have typically grown as local sales decline. Combined despatches in FY2026 were 50.5Mt, the third highest figure since FY2018. Within the country the cement plants in the north of the country tend to supply the domestic market and the ones in the south split their output between local and export markets. Exports notably dipped significantly in the FY2022 due to high energy prices making them less competitive. They have since recovered but they did soften slightly in FY2026. Exports fell in the north due to the closure of the border with Afghanistan in late 2025 due to hostilities between the two countries, according to AKD Research. Exports rose in the south of Pakistan due to growing demand from Africa but it wasn’t enough to bring up the total.

It is within this environment that local media reminded its audience this week that the Special Investment Facilitation Council has been helping cement companies in the country build new capacity. Back in April 2026 the council approved projects with a US$700m investment and also helped to resolve regulatory delays. Companies that received approvals were Flying Cement, Lucky Cement, Bhutta Cement, Asian Precious Minerals, Orient Cement, Dandot Cement and Maple Cement. Lucky Cement announced this week that it had completed and commissioned a process optimisation and capacity enlargement project at its Karachi plant. The production capacity at the unit has now increased by 300,000t/yr to 5.35Mt/yr. In its note to the market it highlighted that the work was expected to reduce fuel consumption per tonne of cement produced. The company now has a total production capacity of 15.6Mt/yr and it says it is the largest producer in Pakistan. Lucky Cement’s ambitions are not restricted to Pakistan. It was also reported this week that the company had met with the chair of the Privatisation and Investment Board in Libya. It is considering building a 2.5Mt/yr cement plant in Khoms, Libya. If the project is realised it will join the group’s other overseas plants in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Financial results in FY2026 for the main cement producers are not due until August 2026. Nine-month data to March 2026 showed particular sales revenue gains for Power Cement and Lucky Cement. Both companies attributed this to rising sales volumes, particularly domestically. Many of the other large producers also reported this although the local-export sales mix affected overall revenue in some cases.

Overall the situation is looking good for cement in Pakistan at the moment. Local demand is up and the export market is buoyant with the exception of Afghanistan. Recent government policy looks set to further stimulate domestic sales in the near future. One major risk is the cost of energy related to the Iran war. At the time of writing, the April 2026 ceasefire between the US and Iran has been declared “over” by President Trump.

There have been a couple of big news stories this week involving major multinational cement companies making large acquisitions. Holcim completed its purchase of Xella and CRH announced that it had agreed to buy Arcosa. These deals aren’t directly about cement but let’s look a little deeper into what’s been happening.

Holcim revealed in October 2025 that it would acquire Xella for €1.85bn. The transaction was completed on Friday 19 June 2026 following approval by the European Commission (EC). The main point the commission noted about the proposed translation was that its investigation found that Holcim and Xella were leading suppliers of AAC blocks in Romania, “...with a strong market presence and well-established brands.” Subsequently, Holcim offered to divest its AAC blocks plant in Adjud, Romania.

Holcim’s pitch for the deal in the autumn of 2025 was that the deal supports Holcim’s Building Solutions product line. Xella manufactures lightweight building materials such as walling products, autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and calcium silicate blocks including brands such as Ytong, Silka, Hebel and Multipor. The group’s ambition is to reach a 50:50 sales split between Building Materials and Building Solutions products by 2030. In 2025 it was roughly two-thirds for Building Materials and one-third for Building Solutions. Incidentally, this is a little ahead of Amrize’s share for its Building Envelope segment in 2025, although Amrize, Holcim’s former North America division, says that it does intend to increase the properties of this segment. 

Building Materials, for Holcim, includes heavyweight building materials such as cement, concrete and aggregates. As part of the group’s plan to buy its way into the Building Solutions sector it made nine acquisitions in 2025. These were: Algimouss, Alkern Group and Société des Bétons de la Vallée de Seine in France; AMCO in Costa Rica, Comosa y Copce in Mexico; Compañía Minera Luren SA in Peru; CPC AG in Germany; Horcrisa in Argentina for ready-mix concrete; and an insulation solutions business in Poland. Note that one of these companies is a concrete producer but Holcim has classified it under its Building Solutions line in this instance. As discussed previously in this column, Holcim’s strategy to grow its Building Solutions division offers it one way to decarbonise its business.

The proposed CRH acquisition, by contrast, is based in North America and is focused on heavy building materials. It is also much bigger and is the group’s biggest acquisition to date. It has signed a deal to buy Arcosa, a US-based supplier of infrastructure-related products and services for US$8.6bn. The parts CRH has focused on in its press release are the aggregates and Engineered Structures businesses. The former operates 109 quarries and yards, nine asphalt plants, 19 terminals and delivered about 35Mt/yr of aggregate shipments in 2025. If the deal completes, CRH reckons that it will maintain its lead as the largest aggregates producer with over 265Mt/yr. The Engineered Structures business, meanwhile, further opens up the critical infrastructure market to CRH via grid modernisation, electrification and data centre construction projects.

Both the Holcim and CRH deals reflect the different market situations in the US and Europe. As ever with the big US-based acquisitions, the question remains whether CRH’s latest big deal will actually pay off. For example, should an AI-market crash happen then it might put a dent in plans to build more data centres and supporting infrastructure. Failure to draw up a US-Iran peace deal might also drag on the US construction market. One more question to consider with CRH is whether it too might want to spin-off its US-based business like Holcim did in 2025. Holcim’s acquisition of Xella, in comparison, seems more modest but it is targeted at a region with more sustainability legislation. In both of these examples the focus by cement companies on the classic heavy building materials trio of cement, concrete and aggregates continues to be challenged.