Displaying items by tag: Asia

India: The Rural Development Department has signed a memorandum of understanding with ACC Cements to co-process non-recyclable plastic waste at its Barmana plant. The initiative will cover the Bilaspur, Chamba, Kangra, Kullu and Mandi districts. The partnership follows similar agreements with Ambuja Cements and UltraTech Cements, and aims to reduce environmental pollution and landfill use through cement kiln co-processing.

Sectoral adjustment continued for the cement industry in China in 2024. Now that the financial results from many of the larger China-based cement producers are out it gives Global Cement Weekly a chance to review the world’s biggest cement market. The decline in national output of cement accelerated in 2024 and the results showed this. CNBM summed up the situation as follows: “In 2024, affected by the reduction of real estate investment and the slowdown of infrastructure projects, the cement industry in China was caught in a situation of insufficient demand and aggravated overcapacity.” Output dropped by just under 10% year-on-year to 1.83Bnt in 2024 according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS). This is the fourth consecutive annual decline and the lowest figure the sector has experienced since around 2010.

Graph 1: Cement output in China, 2018 to 2024. Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China.

The China Cement Association’s (CCA) assessment concurred with CNBM. Although it detected a slowing in the decline in the second half of 2024, especially in the fourth quarter. It noted that the country has a production capacity of 1.81Bnt/yr and an estimated clinker utilisation rate of 53% in 2024. Note the large apparent difference this may suggest between the NBS and CCA figures. Data from the NBS for the first quarter of 2025 has shown a slowing of the decline. Output was 331Mt, a fall of just 1.7% year-on-year from the same period in 2023. The CCA’s prediction for 2025 is that cement demand will fall by 5% as the real estate market continues to deflate. However, it expects government-led capacity reduction schemes to start making progress.

Graph 2: Sales revenue from selected Chinese cement producers. Source: Company financial reports.

Graph 3: Sales volumes of cement and clinker from selected Chinese cement producers. Source: Company financial reports.

CNBM’s sales revenue fell by 14% to US$24.8bn in 2024. Sales of its Basic Building Materials segment fell by 23% to US$12.5bn. This was blamed on falling volumes and prices of cement and other heavy building materials. Sales from the group’s two other segments - New Materials and Engineering Technology Services - rose modestly but this wasn’t enough to hold up total group sales. Operating profit from the Basic Building Materials segment decreased by 45% to US$544m. It was a similar picture at Anhui Conch with sales revenue and net profit down by 36% to US$12.4bn and by 25% to US$1.01bn respectively. Notably, CNBM’s sales volumes of cement decreased by 21% to 245Mt in 2024 compared to a decrease of 6.5% to 268Mt by Anhui Conch. This made Anhui Conch the world’s biggest cement company by sales volumes in 2024.

Tangshan Jidong Cement and China Resources Building Materials Technology (CRBMT) both reported a similar situation. Revenue was down and a net loss was reported by the former. Both revenue and net profit were down for the latter. CRBMT said that its cement capacity utilisation rate was 69% in 2024, down from 71% in 2023. This appears to be significantly higher than the national rate mentioned above by the CCA but the company’s regional distribution may be at play here.

Following from recent years, Huaxin Cement bucked the general market trend and its revenue rose modestly to US$4.7bn in 2024. Its net profit still fell by 12.5% to US$330m. Its overseas businesses made the difference. It reported an increase of 37% to 16.2Mt in overseas cement sales with its non-China cement production capacity rising by 8% to 22.5Mt/yr. Milestones include various new or upgraded plant projects in Sub-Saharan Africa capped off by its announcement at the end of 2024 that it was preparing to buy Lafarge Africa. Other cement companies were also keen to promote overseas activity. CNBM said that the first signing of overseas merger and acquisition was achieved in 2024. This is likely to be the purchase of the Djebel El Oust cement plant in Tunisia from Votorantim Cimentos that was completed in late March 2025. Tangshan Jidong Cement acquired the remaining 40% share in South Africa-based Mamba Cement in April 2024.

All of this leaves the cement sector in China still waiting for the market to stabilise. US tariffs seem unlikely to have an effect in any meaningful way unless the general economy is altered. The declining real estate sector and cement production overcapacity are the main drivers at the national level. The CCA expects the real estate market to continue to fall in 2025 although it hopes that government remedy measures will start to show an effect. It is more optimistic about capacity reduction plans. One route towards this is through merger and acquisition activity. In a recent response to investors about industry integration, Huaxin Cement speculated that the sector might consolidate down to 30 companies from around 300 at present. There is clearly still a way to go.

India: Orient Cement has appointed Vaibhav Dixit as its CEO. He succeeds Desk Deepak Khetrapal, who has resigned from the post. Other notable appointments include that of Vinod Bahety as chair and Kajal Sarda as chief financial officer.

Dixit has worked in the cement industry for more than 20 years with jobs at ACC, including Unit Head of Jamul Cement Works, Unit Head of Sindri Cement Works, Project Head at Sindri, Head Engineering of Bargarh Cement Works and Chief Manager Maintenance of Kymore Cement Works. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Madhav Institute of Technology and Sciences.

Bahety became the CEO of Ambuja Cements and ACC earlier in April 2025. Prior to this, he was the CFO of the subsidiaries of Adani Group from 2022. He also worked as the Group Head for Merger & Acquisition at Adani Group. He holds qualifications as a chartered accountant and a cost and works accountant.

Sarda, a trained chartered accountant, has worked for other 20 years in business finance. She has been the Head of Financial Reporting at Adani Gorup since 2023. Prior to this, she worked for as Corporate Finance Controller for Hindustan Zinc and as a Marketing Controller at Bharat Aluminium Company.

Ambuja Cements secured approval from the Competition Commission of India in March 2025 to buy Orient Cement.

India: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued a draft notification to establish India’s first compliance-based carbon market, according to The New Indian Express. The draft covers heavy industries such as cement, and lists 186 cement plants belonging to Ultratech Cement, Ambuja Cement, Dalmia Cement and others. These plants must cut greenhouse gas emission intensity (GEI) for two years, starting from the 2025–26 financial year under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme 2023. Non-compliant producers must purchase carbon credit certificates, or failing this, face penalties from the Central Pollution Control Board. The draft will be finalised following a 60-day public consultation.

Myanmar: A further 2400t of cement was delivered to Yangon Port on 20 April 2025, according to the Global Light of Myanmar newspaper. The government has permitted cement imports to meet rising demand during the open season and for post-earthquake resettlement works. Ships continue to bring cement into the country via the Kawthoung border, with further weekly deliveries scheduled. Three shipments of cement have already been delivered to Myanmar in April 2025.

Vietnam: VICEM Ha Tien Cement recorded a net loss of US$374m in the first quarter of 2025, down from US$952m a year earlier, despite an 11% rise in cement consumption and a 6% increase in revenues to US$61.2m, according to the Vietnam National Cement Association.

The company targets 5.83Mt of cement and 530,000t of clinker sales in 2025, aiming for US$276m in revenue and US$7.1m in profit, which it will reportedly achieve through tightening cost control and diversify output.

Pakistan: Fauji Cement has launched a 26MW Ashar Navaid Solar Park at its Nizampur plant. The new solar facility will generate an average of 41,600MW/yr of renewable electricity.

Türkiye: TSKB (Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye) has signed a €75m investment loan agreement with Oyak Cement to fund renewable energy and waste heat recovery (WHR) projects. The funding will support the construction of a 115MW solar power plant in Beypazarı, Ankara, and waste heat recovery facilities at the Ankara, Adana and Mardin cement plants.

Oyak Cement general manager Murat Sela said “We have accelerated our investments for the Beypazarı solar power plant, as well as the WHR facility investments with a total installed capacity of 13.5 MW at our Adana, Ankara and Mardin plants. We expect these investments to help generate 237,000MW/yr of energy, while increasing the total renewable energy utilisation rate at our plants from 9% to 30%.”

Malaysia: The state government of Sabah has denied rumours that an investor has departed from the Tongod cement plant project. Industrial Development and Entrepreneurship Minister Datuk Phoong Jin Zhe told the Sabah State Legislative Assembly that Borneo Cement had confirmed that all parties involved in the project remain committed, according to the Star newspaper. He added that the project had received approval for earthworks but that construction work was waiting for the approval from an Environmental Impact Assessment report.

China-based Sinoma Industrial Engineering is preparing to build the 1.75Mt/yr plant. Two-thirds of the unit’s output is intended for the local market in Sabah. The rest will be exported. Ground-breaking work at the site was previously reported in April 2024. However, Borneo Cement subsequently faced accusations of unauthorised forest clearances later in the year.

India: Gebr. Pfeiffer has commissioned a Pfeiffer MVR 6000 R-6 raw material mill and a Pfeiffer MPS 3550 BK coal mill at UltraTech Cement’s Maihar cement plant in Madhya Pradesh. The Germany-based company said that these were the 42nd and 43rd vertical roller mills supplied to UltraTech Cement.