October 2025

Global: Holcim has made three senior appointments in North America and at the group level.

Jaime Hill, the Country CEO of Mexico, has been appointed Region Head North America with immediate effect. He succeeds Toufic Tabbara, who is leaving the company. Hill joined Holcim in 1996 and has over 30 years of international experience, in finance, sales and marketing in the US and Latin America.

Carmen Diaz, the Country CEO of Spain, has been appointed as Chief People Officer with effect from 1 October 2024. She succeeds Feliciano González Muñoz, who is planning to retire at the end of 2024. Diaz joined Holcim in 2002 and has held commercial and general management roles in Madrid, Paris, Lyon and London.

Lukas Studer, General Counsel Corporate and M&A, has been appointed as Group General Counsel with effect from 1 November 2024. He succeeds Mathias Gaertner, who is leaving the group. Studer joined Holcim in 2008 and has been General Counsel Corporate and M&A since 2017, supporting corporate, finance and M&A.

Kenya: Hasmukh Patel, the founder of Mombasa Cement, has died at the age of 58 years after a short illness. He was also the chair of Uganda-based Tororo Cement, according to the Standard newspaper. Patel set up Mombasa Cement in 2007. Notably, the Corporate Social Responsibility programmes of his companies had a budget of around US$12m/yr for spending on various philanthropic schemes.

Germany: Cemex has acquired a majority stake in the Berlin-based recycling company RC-Baustoffe to enhance its circularity business Regenera. The company processes construction, demolition and excavation materials. The acquisition integrates RC-Baustoffe with Regenera, allowing the facility to process up to 400,000t/yr, which will be turned into repurposed aggregates for concrete production.

CEO of Cemex, Fernando González, said “With acquisitions such as this, Cemex continues to strengthen its commitment to circularity through Regenera as well as promoting the world’s transition to a more circular economy. Construction and demolition materials account for more than 30% of global ‘waste’ streams and reintegrating these materials into the construction value chain can reduce the use of virgin raw materials."

India: Dalmia Bharat announced that its subsidiary, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), has entered into a share subscription and shareholders agreement to acquire a 26% stake in Truere Surya for US$5.3m. Truere Surya will establish a solar power project in Tamil Nadu, aligning with Dalmia Bharat’s goals to become carbon negative by 2040.

The solar project will have a capacity of 128MW. Completion of the transaction is anticipated within 4 - 6 months, pending customary conditions.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement, ITOCHU, Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, INPEX, Taisei, and ITOCHU Oil Exploration have been chosen by the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) to lead the engineering design work for key carbon capture and storage (CCS) initiatives. This selection marks a step towards Japan's ambitious goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and a 46% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from financial year 2013 (FY13) levels by FY30.

The project encompasses front end engineering design (FEED) and appraisal drilling as critical next steps following a comprehensive feasibility study conducted in FY23. This prior study involved detailed assessments of CO₂ separation, capture, transportation and storage processes. The CCS initiative involves shipping CO₂ captured at Nippon Steel’s Kyushu Works in the Oita area and Daiichi Cement's Kawasaki plant, part of the Taiheiyo Cement Group, to designated storage sites.

US: GCC Pueblo has upgraded its OK™ 36-4 Cement mill with a new separator from FLSmidth, incorporating the addition of ECS/ProcessExpert's vertical mill application. This upgrades the plant's existing ROKS separator to the latest ROKSH technology.

Spain: Following more than two months of industrial action, unions at Cementos Rezola, part of the German conglomerate Heidelberg Materials, have agreed to conclude their strike. This decision comes after extensive negotiations regarding a redundancy plan introduced in June 2024, which initially proposed dismissing 56 out of 102 employees. The agreement includes provisions for no forced dismissals, leading the Basque nationalist union to call off the strike.

Under the terms of the settlement brokered by the other unions, several workers will enter early retirement and nine workers will be relocated to the company's Arrigorriaga plant. This plant transfer is part of a strategic move to concentrate clinker production at a facility that is better equipped to meet stringent environmental standards and deliver greater operational efficiency. The revised redundancy plan also converted four initially forced exits into voluntary or early retirements after further negotiations, with the remaining two being reintegrated into the company.

China: The sales revenue from CNBM’s cement manufacturing division fell by 31% year-on-year to US$5.70bn in the first half of 2024 from US$8.25bn in the same period in 2023. The group blamed the decline on falling sales volumes of cement and aggregates and decreasing prices of heavy building materials. Its Basic Building Materials segment reported an operating loss of US$261m from an operating profit of US$348m previously. The division sold 114Mt of cement and clinker, a fall of 20% from 142Mt.

In its interim report the group said that its Basic Building Materials segment had been “…affected by a combination of factors, such as the in-depth adjustment of the real estate and funding constraints for infrastructure projects.” Subsequently the cement industry had faced low demand and prices. It added that market overcapacity had not been resolved.

Overall the group’s revenue and gross profit fell by 19% to US$11.7bn and by 25% to US$1.86bn respectively. However, income from its Engineering Technology Services segment rose by 2% to US$2.89bn. This division includes cement plant and equipment supplier Sinoma International. The group noted that global engineering and construction demand remained stable in the first half of 2024.

Brazil: Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) will invest approximately US$530m to build a cement plant and a limestone plant in Itaperuçu, Curitiba. Noticias Financieras News has reported that the project is set to begin construction in 2025 and will create 3000 jobs. The cement plant will receive about US$500m, covering 150 hectares with an additional 70 hectares for mining.

Currently, the company is obtaining environmental licences from the Water and Land Institute and will be supported by the government when construction starts in 2025. The initiative benefits from tax incentives under the Paraná Competitivo programme, which provides a tax reduction for companies and industries that want to invest in the state, aligning with efforts to boost local employment and economic growth.

Spain: Votorantim Cimentos will construct a solid recovered fuel (SRF) production plant at its subsidiary Cementos Cosmos’ plant in Oural, aiming to produce up to 0.15Mt/yr of alternative fuel, reports Digital Economia newspaper. The facility, spanning 5800m², will utilise non-recyclable industrial byproducts and various discarded materials from the local community such as plastic, paper and wood, to partially fuel the combustion in its cement kilns. The plant, currently in the public exhibition phase, will start production at 60% capacity, producing 85,000t/yr of alternative fuel. Plans include ramping up to full capacity to produce roughly 0.15Mt/yr. The new plant will create 15 jobs.

Votorantim Cimentos has not detailed the investment in the new facility, although the budget presented to the local council amounts to €12m.