Displaying items by tag: AFCM

The Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) has warned that cuts to the Nusantara Capital City project had reduced cement sales so far in 2025. Yet also this week the ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM) launched its 2035 AFCM Decarbonisation Roadmap. Here is a round-up of recent news from the cement sector in Indonesia.

ASI data shows that local cement sales volumes fell by 2.5% year-on-year to 51.9Mt in the first 10 months of 2025 from 53.2Mt in the same period in 2024. Cement production decreased by 5.6% to 52.9Mt. Lower demand was reported in Kalimantan and Java. However, it rose in Sumatra and Nusa, in part, due to road construction. Sadly, Sumatra has been badly affected by floods this week. National cement exports grew by over 20% to 1.1Mt. The ASI is currently hopeful that a government-backed home renovation programme might stimulate demand.

Graph 1: Domestic cement sales and exports in Indonesia, 2019 - 2025. Source: Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). Note: Figure estimated for 2025, exports include cement and clinker.

The general picture can be seen above in Graph 1. The local cement sector has generally had a capacity utilisation issue since the mid-2010s. Domestic sales started to catch up but the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the market. Meanwhile, exports of cement and clinker have been steadily rising since 2014. These are dominated by clinker exports, with the single largest destination being Bangladesh. Other major targets include Taiwan and Australia. The country’s relatively low consumption of cement per capita suggests that the utilisation rate will grow over time.

The local production market is dominated by state-owned Semen Indonesia (SIG) (with a 48.5% share), followed by Indocement (29.1%), Conch Cement Indonesia (7.1%) and Cemindo Gemilang (6.6%). SIG’s sales volumes in the first nine months of 2025 roughly follow the general trend reported by the ASI with local sales down by 1.8% year-on-year to 27.5Mt and exports up by 25.3% to 5.1Mt. The group’s sales revenue and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 3.8% to US$1.52bn and 23.8% to US$198m respectively. Indocement’s revenue fell by a similar rate. Both companies anticipate a modest recovery in 2026.

Something to note from SIG’s financial results and related discussions in 2025 (and earlier) has been its approach to marketing and selling its cement brands in a highly competitive environment. It says it changes its brand mix in different regional locations with varying combinations of market leaders with premium pricing and so-called ‘fighting brands’ with competitive pricing. Yet, eco-brands received a mention in addition to the other two groups in the third quarter report analysts’ discussions suggesting an appetite for potentially lower-clinker cements in a developing market such as Indonesia.

This leads to the second Indonesia-related news story of the week: the 2035 AFCM Decarbonisation Roadmap. The plan intends to reduce net CO₂ emissions from the cement sector in the region by 16% to 190Mt/yr from 228Mt/yr in 2020. 58% of this reduction will be achieved through the use of alternative fuels, 33% via the use of low-carbon cements and 9% through the use of renewable energy sources. Work towards carbon capture, utilisation and/or storage (CCUS) is starting with the aim of supporting capture pilots in the region and planning towards CO₂ transport and storage networks. Similarly, the roadmap urges producers to identify and prepare to use new secondary cementitious materials such as calcined clay and construction and demolition waste.

The race between capacity building and market share has been a familiar one in coverage of the cement market in Indonesia in recent decades. Provided the main companies can endure the competition, it looks set to continue, while demographic trends indicate the need for continued investment. Otherwise more market consolidation is to be expected when the utilisation rate dips too low. What is new though are the higher levels of blended cements and the changes this brings to the market. This can be seen above in the marketing strategy of SIG and the regional decarbonisation strategy. Similar trends are happening everywhere but the effects on a highly competitive market could be pronounced. Particularly if those government-backed schemes that the sector anticipates promote it.

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Southeast Asia: The ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM) has launched the 2035 AFCM Decarbonisation Roadmap, which it says is the world’s first regional decarbonisation strategy for the cement sector. The roadmap was announced during the 46th AFCM Council Meeting in Brunei Darussalam, chaired by Dr Chana Poomee and attended by cement association leaders from all eight AFCM member countries.

The roadmap sets a shared framework for systematic CO₂ reduction aligned with national climate policies and global environmental goals. Supported by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), it is built upon four pillars: expansion of low carbon cement, transition to renewable energy across production processes and enhancing efficiency to reduce energy consumption, deployment of decarbonisation technologies such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), and development of new supplementary cementitious materials.

Member associations from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam said that national implementation will vary depending on local energy mix, policies, industrial maturity and material availability. The strategy could reportedly cut regional CO₂ emissions by up to 38Mt by 2035.

Thailand: The ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM) has elected Chana Poomee as its president for a two year term from 2025 to 2027. He succeeds Yeoh Soo Keng in the role. Poomee has been the chair of the Thai Cement Manufacturers Association (TCMA) since 2022 and was re-elected in 2024 until 2026. He is also the chief sustainability officer of Siam Cement Group (SCG).

Suvo Strategic Minerals said this week that it had made moves towards establishing a joint-venture between a subsidiary and the Huadi Bantaeng Industry Park (HBIP). The plan is to manufacture and sell low-carbon cement and concrete products that contain nickel slag and other byproducts. This news story is noteworthy because of the location of HBIP in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In a release to the Australian Securities Exchange Suvo explained that HBIP is the managing company of the Bantaeng Industrial Park, where ‘significant’ quantities of nickel slag are stockpiled as part of the local nickel pig iron operations. HBIP will supply the nickel slag to the joint-venture. It will also give it access to infrastructure such as land, port facilities and utilities. Suvo subsidiary Climate Tech Cement, for its part, will supply the low carbon cement and or concrete mixtures and/or formulations. This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding in September 2024, in which the companies agreed to process the nickel slag into geopolymer cement and precast concrete materials.

At first glance Indonesia seems like an unlikely place to market a low-carbon cement or concrete product, given the large cement production overcapacity in the country. The Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) reported a production capacity of just under 120Mt/yr in 2024 and forecast a utilisation rate of 57% in November 2024. However, the government seems serious about reaching net zero by 2060 as the country’s economy develops. The ASI updated its decarbonisation roadmap in 2024 and the draft is currently under review with the Ministry of Industry and consultants from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

In the latest roadmap, carbon capture is at least a decade away, with the first large-scale capture tentatively anticipated from 2035 onwards. Although Indonesia launched its carbon trading scheme in 2023, it is not expected to start affecting the industrial sector until the late 2020s. Instead, the short-to-medium term Scope 1 reduction methods include increasing the use of alternative fuels, reducing the clinker factor of cement and reducing and/or optimising the specific thermal energy consumption of clinker. Initiatives such as Suvo’s joint-venture in South Sulawesi tie into that middle strand. Separately, over the summer of 2024 the government and producers said that they were working together to introduce and promote the use of Portland composite cement (PCC) and Portland pozzolana cement (PPC). At this time the ASI reckoned that a complete change could cut cement sector emissions by just over a quarter. In June 2024 local media also reported that ASI members were planning to supply low-carbon cement for the Nusantara capital city project to help it realise its aims as a ‘green city.’

Semen Indonesia, the country’s largest producer, reported a clinker factor of 69% in 2023 for all of its cement products, down from 71% in 2021. Limestone was the biggest substitute followed by trass and gypsum. It is currently aiming for a clinker factor of 61% by 2030. In its Sustainability Report for 2023 it said that it was promoting the use of non-OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement) cement “...according to the needs of construction applications.” It added that non-OPC products also had a “...5 - 15% more economical price.” However, the company has not said how its current sales are split between OPC and other products.

One of the surprises at the 26th Technical Symposium & Exhibition of the ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM), that took place in Kuala Lumpur in November 2024, was the sheer amount of work that has been going on outside of Europe and North America towards decarbonising building materials. The cement associations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all presented progress and targets towards this aim at the event. Suvo Strategic Minerals’ joint-venture plans in South Sulawesi are another example of this trend.

Closing points to note about the Suvo project are firstly that it is away from Indonesia’s main cement production area in Java. Secondly, the presumption is that the low-carbon cement and concrete products manufactured by the project will either be cheaper than the competition or benefit from green procurement rules. Finally, nickel slag reserves seem insufficient to reshape the entire national cement market. Yet a general move towards using more supplementary cementitious materials could. Watch this space for more developments.

Read a review of the 26th Technical Symposium & Exhibition of the ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM) in the forthcoming January 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine

At the 24th AFCM Technical Symposium in April 2015, Nguyen Quoc Thang, plant manager at Vicem's Binh Phuoc cement plant, delivered an outstanding presentation. He explained the sourcing and processing methods for using cashew nut shells as an alternative fuel to replace coal at the plant.

Around 300,000t/yr of cashews are grown and harvested in the south-east of Vietnam, the equivalent of about 130,000t/yr of cashew nut shell, 85% of which remains after processing. According to Nguyen Quoc Thang, the plant uses cashew nut shells to replace 35% of its fuel and has significantly reduced its CO2 emissions and fuel costs by doing so.

Cashew nuts are grown in large quantities in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Vietnam, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan and Indonesia, among others. In 2012, some 4.15Mt of cashew nuts were grown. Cashew nut demand has risen greatly in both the long-term and the more recent past. New (and delicious) products are being designed to meet the demands of health-conscious people and vegans, including cashew nut butters, cashew milks, cashew cream, cashew ice cream, cashew cheese and cashew cooking sauces. All at premium prices, of course, and all driving cashew nut demand ever-higher.

Cashew nuts are always sold pre-shelled, as the shell is toxic if consumed. Their growing production volumes and the necessity that they always be pre-shelled for sale or further processing makes cashew nuts an ideal alternative fuel for cement production, with reliable supplies guaranteed for the foreseeable future, subject to good crop yields. Moreover, cashew nuts are mainly grown in regions that currently have low cement plant alternative fuel substitution rates, providing an instant solution to some of the cement industry's environmental challenges.

Cement producers in cashew nut-growing (and other types of nut) countries would do well to note the example that Vicem's Binh Phuoc cement plant has presented. In addition to saving costs and tackling environmental restrictions, the highly-profitable nut industries could provide extra economic value to their home countries through partnership with local cement plants.