Holcim published its financial results for 2025 this week. Most of the larger cement producers with operations in Europe have now released either preliminary or full results too. This makes it a good time to recap how these multinational companies all performed in 2025.
Graph 1: Sales revenue from selected cement producers in Europe. Source: Financial releases. HM – Heidelberg Materials.
Graph 2: Cement sales volumes from selected cement producers in Europe. Source: Financial releases.
The first point to note from Graph 1 is the reduction in Holcim’s sales revenue. However, the graph shows the restated figure for 2024 from the reduced business. Its sales were around €25bn before the American business Amrize was spun-off in mid-2025. All of the other companies here continue to have operations in North America to varying degrees. Cemex has its headquarters in Mexico and CRH moved its primary stock market listing to the US in 2023 (but still has its headquarters in Ireland).
Holcim’s sales were down on a like-for-like basis in 2025 mainly due to Europe. Here, even the sales figures for the adjusted sales figures such as in local currencies and organic growth also declined. This may be a problem given that about half of the group’s revenue comes from the region. Happily for Holcim though, its recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose in Europe. All the other regions showed sales revenue growth of some kind. The other point of interest is that the group’s Building Solutions product line delivered lower sales growth than the Building Materials line. The former is the group’s building envelope segment away from heavy building materials. In terms of merger and acquisition activity, the big deal for cement has been the agreement to buy Cementos Pacasmayo in Peru that was announced in December 2025.
CRH is now the biggest cement producer with operations in Europe based on overall group sales revenue. Of course, a hefty chunk of that comes from its businesses in North America. Its International Solutions division, covering operations outside of North America, reported sales revenue of €11.4bn in 2025. Cement divisions in North America and elsewhere both grew revenue and earnings on the back of acquisitions and price increases. The group’s largest acquisition in 2025 was of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) supplier Eco Material Technologies in the US.
Heidelberg Material’s (HM) early results indicate a modest rise in sales revenue and a higher increase in operating earnings in 2025. Small rises in revenue were reported in Europe and North America, alongside a decline in Asia - Pacific and sharp growth in Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia. Earnings were stable in North America but grew modestly in Europe and markedly in Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia. Naturally, given the investments it has made, the group was keen to highlight that its specific net CO₂ emissions fell by 3% to 512kg/t of cementitious material.
For Cemex, its Europe, Middle East, and Africa segment reported significant increases in sales revenue and earnings due to higher prices, volumes and cost cutting. The group’s other two larger geographic regions, Mexico and North America, didn’t perform as well. Recovery was reported in Mexico in the second half of 2025 though.
Of the other larger Europe-based cement producers, Buzzi improved net sales in Europe, outside of Italy. A fall in sales in the US was blamed on weak demand at the start of the year, particularly in the residential market. Vicat’s overall sales and earnings were up. It did best in Europe outside of France and in its Mediterranean region. Cementir’s revenue was down but its earnings were up. It attributed this to negative currency exchange effects particularly in Türkiye as sales volumes of cement were up. Growth was reported in Türkiye, Egypt, and Asia Pacific in contrast with decline in Northern Europe and Belgium.
In summary, Europe remained a mixed market for most of the companies covered above in 2025. Yet, with a slowdown reported in the US, Europe also delivered growing sales revenue and/or earnings for most of these businesses. Decline in Europe for heavy building materials may be overrated in 2025 based on these results at least.
Finally, some of these multinational companies have operations in the Middle East and all of them run energy-intensive operations. Holcim, for example, divested companies in Iraq and Jordan in 2024 but it retains other businesses in Iraq and the UAE. The war launched by Israel and the US upon Iran in late February 2026 is likely to have an economic impact upon the next set of financial results for many of these cement companies, even if the war ends swiftly.
