October 2025

Sri Lanka: Praveen Gnanam has been appointed to the Board of Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) as a Non-Independent Director. He joined Tokyo Cement in 2012 as Special Projects Coordinator and was promoted to Head of Innovation Department in 2015.

Gnanam holds over a decade of experience in the hardware and construction materials industry as well as in renewable energy. Prior to joining Tokyo Cement, he worked in consulting for Los Angeles-based firm Innovation Protocol, and as a Research Analyst and a Brand Associate for clients such as eBay, PayPal and Republic Waste Management.

Pakistan: Data from the All Pakistan Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that local cement industry recorded a 37% year-on-year surge in dispatches during August 2023, with total shipments reaching 4.52Mt, up from just 3.29Mt in August 2022. While impressive on the surface, this appears to represent a return to normality following nationwide disruption due to massive flooding in the summer of 2022.

The APCMA’s data shows that a significant driver of this growth was the domestic market, where cement dispatches rose by 30% to 3.79Mt, compared to 2.91Mt in August 2022. Simultaneously, exports surged by 87%, with volumes growing from 387,440t in August 2022 to 724,777t in August 2023.

Cement plants in the north of Pakistan dispatched 3.25Mt in August 2023, marking a 25% increase from the 2.0Mt dispatched in August 2022. In the southern region, plants dispatched 1.27Mt of cement, an 81% rise compared to the 700,436 tonnes in August 2022.
Exports from northern-based plants increased by 79%, from 91,963t in August 2022 to 164,195t in August 2023. Similarly, southern mills reported a significant increase, with exports surging by 90% to 560,582t in August 2023, up from 295,477t during the same month in the previous year.

An APCMA spokesperson emphasised the industry's challenges, including rapid currency depreciation, soaring petroleum prices and rising electricity tariffs. These factors are driving up production costs and affecting transportation, potentially impacting consumer prices. The spokesperson urged the government to address these issues to support the industry as it navigates this ‘challenging terrain.’

Pakistan: Cherat Cement made a net profit of US$52.9m during the 2023 financial year (FY2023), which ended on 31 July 2023, around 1% lower than the previous year. This was despite a 13% year-on-year rise in gross profit in FY2023 to US$32.9m, as cost of sales rose by 18% to US$88.4m. Distribution costs also rose by 15%, while financial costs, mainly higher interest rates, rose by 41%.

India: Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement production capacity to 25Mt/yr by the end of the 2026 financial year from 20Mt/yr at present. It intends to do this by upgrading its 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban plant in Maharashtra, installing a second grinding unit at Maihar in Madhya Pradesh as well as building new grinding plants, according to the Times of India newspaper.

Birla Corporation chair Harsh V Lodha said "With the commissioning of Mukutban, we have virtually ring-fenced our core market of Central India, which we can service seamlessly from our six plants, namely Maihar, Satna, Kundangunj, Raebareli, Chanderia and now, Mukutban. The strategic location of these plants and standardisation of product quality allows us to interchange source of supplies to maximise realisation and serviceability for our customers." He made the comments at the company’s annual general meeting.

Tunisia: Carthage Cement made a net profit of US$7.7m in the year to 30 June 2023, a year-on-year increase of 57% from US$4.9m a year earlier. At the end of June 2023, the company recorded total operating revenues of US$68.7m, an increase of 22% from US$56.3m.

Argentina: Cement production in the province of Buenos Aires rose by 11% year-on-year between January and July 2023, to reach 4.18Mt. This was the highest first seven-month figure since 2012.

However, the capital was not representative of the wider national picture. Across Argentina, consumption fell by 0.3% year-on-year over the seven months to 7.22Mt. Production fell by 0.7Mt to 7.25Mt over the same timeframe.

Russia: Cemros is starting the commercial operation of its ‘Pilot’ vehicle monitoring system. The scheme is being rolled out as the main monitoring method at its plants following tests. It uses satellite navigation and wireless data transmission methods to track individual vehicles in the fleet in both real time and retrospectively. At present over 3500 vehicles are being monitored including the company’s own fleet and vehicles operated by contractors. Once the system is scaled up it will be able to track up to 6000 vehicles. Active testing of the system started in late 2022.

Switzerland/France: The Swiss multinational building materials producer Holcim has launched a global Innovation Hub to accelerate sustainable building at its Global Research & Development Center in Lyon, France. The Hub showcases Holcim's innovative and sustainable building solutions to scale up low-carbon, circular and energy-efficient buildings. Spread across three floors, it offers working spaces to host start-ups and think tanks to accelerate innovation together. It will also serve as a platform to explore the future of sustainable cities and their construction via interactive exhibits and events.

The showroom showcases how Holcim is decarbonising building across its lifecycle, featuring low-carbon materials like ECOPact concrete and ECOPlanet cement products, roofing and insulation systems that drive energy efficiency - from Elevate boards to Airium, and circular construction solutions, such as its proprietary ECOCycle circular technology platform to recycle construction demolition materials into new building solutions.

Nollaig Forrest, Holcim’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said, "It's a very exciting time for the building sector, with so much momentum in innovation to advance sustainable solutions. At Holcim we want to partner with the best and brightest innovators to accelerate the transition to low carbon, circular and energy-efficient buildings. Our Innovation Hub, within our Global Research & Development Center, is designed to host partners from start-ups to architects to explore new solutions together."

Saudi Arabia: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies (HGCT) has signed a deal with Shurfah Group to build several Hoffman plants under a 22-year exclusive licensing agreement. A first ‘clinker-free’ cement plant will be built in 2024. It will be a copy of HGCT’s H2 plant in France, which uses a combination of activated clay, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and gypsum to manufacture its products.

The engineering and production process will be carried out by Germany-based IBAU Hamburg. HGCT signed an exclusive partnership agreement with IBAU Hamburg in June 2022 to support the construction of Hoffmann units worldwide. In return for the industrial and technological transfer and this exclusivity, Hoffmann Green will receive an entry fee and fixed and variable annual royalties from Shurfah Group based on sales generated by the marketing of Hoffmann cements in Saudi Arabia.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffman, the co-founders of HGCT, said "Just few weeks after signing a pre-agreement, we have given concrete expression to our commitment by signing this licensing contract with Shurfah, a major player in the Saudi Arabian construction industry. After Switzerland and the UK, we are continuing our international deployment with the aim of supporting, through this new contract, the kingdom's ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ project and participating in the decarbonisation of their construction industry through the construction of several of our units on their territory and the marketing of our 0% cement clinker."

Shurfah Group is a real estate investment conglomerate with interests in other sectors including petrochemicals, food and beverages.

Europe: Six cement plants were reportedly issued around Euro88m in free European Union emissions allowances (EUA) from 2019 to 2022 despite the clinker kilns at the units being idle or running at low levels. Research by the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) has revealed that plants operated by Buzzi, Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV), Cemex, Holcim and Votorantim Cimentos all benefited from the scheme despite only emitting 36,370t of CO2. The companies would then have been able to use the subsidy to cover emissions costs at other plants or sell the permits. OPIS identified five plants in Spain and one in Germany.