Displaying items by tag: Government

Mozambique: Mozambique and China will together invest US$333m to build two new cement plants, a jetty and hospital services in Nampula and Cabo Delgado. The investment is the result of four agreements signed in October 2025 at an investment conference in Xian in China’s Shaanxi province, where representatives from the two countries’ governments were present. The timescale of the work was not given. The conference served to strengthen economic cooperation with the Shaanxi provincial government and establish new partnerships and investments by Chinese companies. A delegation of 50 Mozambicans attended, led by the Minister of Economy, Basílio Muhate.

Türkiye: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a €50m loan to cement producer Çimsa to support its decarbonisation efforts. According to the EBRD, the financing will fund a calcium aluminate cement (CAC) kiln and decarbonisation upgrades for existing grey and white cement kilns at Çimsa’s Mersin plant. CAC production has a ‘significantly’ lower carbon footprint than traditional grey cement, according to the producer.

The EBRD said that the project aligns with Türkiye’s Industrial Decarbonisation Investment Platform, the world’s largest industrial decarbonisation programme, which provides policy guidance and low-carbon pathways for hard-to-abate sectors, including cement.

Erdem Yasar, EBRD Deputy Head for Türkiye, said that the partnership supports both Çimsa’s competitiveness and broader industry sustainability.

China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has enacted new regulations requiring cement producers to align cement production with their registered production capacity. It further reminded the industry to adhere to a prohibition on building new capacity and an enforced phase-out of older existing plants. People’s Daily Online News has reported that the ministry is responding to the issue of oversupply and the need for sustainable development.

China Building Materials Federation (CBMF) has forecast a reduction in total national production capacity of 500Mt/yr under ongoing efforts. It plans to establish a disclosure and supervision platform for capacity management. Cement production fell by 23% between 2021 and 2024, according to CBMF data.

Cement producer BBMG Corporation said "We will restructure existing capacity, accelerate the phase-out of inefficient production and increase the share of advanced capacity to achieve value-added growth through optimising existing assets."

The Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt met with representatives of the cement sector last week to discuss the local market. The key topics were prices, increased production capacity and restarting suspended production lines. Then this week it was revealed that the government was preparing to issue two new cement plant licences by the end of 2025. So, what’s been happening in the local sector?

Readers may recall that the Egyptian government tackled overcapacity issues by way of cement production quotas back in 2021. This solved the immediate problems at the time but, since then, there has been a growing problem with local producers focusing on export markets to the detriment of the domestic market. For example, there was a shortage of cement reported in mid-2024 due to a shortage of trucks. Large quantities of these were being used, it transpired, to transport cement to neighbouring Libya. For more on this read Global Cement Weekly #760.

The price of cement peaked earlier in 2025. At this point the government took action by limiting cement exports to no more than 30% of a company’s production volume and by abolishing the quota system. It later reviewed the status of eight idle production lines in an effort to get them running again. Prices subsequently eased according to local media reports. Before the changes, the Cement Division of the Federation of Egyptian Industries said that the country had a production capacity of 76Mt/yr from 46 lines. Domestic consumption was estimated at 46Mt/yr and exports at 20Mt/yr giving a utilisation rate 87%. Note that this export figure is 30% of the total production of the country as a whole. For the first half of 2025, production increased by 24% year-on-year to 30.7Mt from 24Mt in the same period in 2024. Exports rose by 11.5% to 9.7Mt from 8.7Mt. However, data from Al Arabiya Business shows that exports fell by 25% in May and June 2025 following the government action. Production grew by 16%.

Vicat’s financial report for the first half of 2025 reported that export sales volumes in Egypt represented over 50% of the local subsidiary’s total sales volumes. It also noted that the domestic price surpassed the export price during the reporting period. Titan Group said that its local business had experienced an ‘impressive turnaround’ due to a construction boom in the country. It said that its plants operated at ‘high capacity’ with an alternative fuels (AF) thermal substitution rate of around 40%. It added that it was intending to expand storage capacity to support growing export volumes. By contrast, Cementir endured a tougher trading period due, in part, to less exports following technical problems related to the restart of a local production line.

A source quoted by Al Arabiya from the Export Council for Building Materials noted that there had been a ‘significant’ decline in exports to several major markets, including Libya, Lebanon, the US, Ivory Coast and Ghana. That anonymous source also warned that, if the problem with the domestic market could not be resolved quickly, then the sector risked losing export markets where reconstruction work was taking place. These comments were mirrored by Adam Khalil, a Building Materials Sector Analyst at Al Ahly Pharos Securities, who told local media this week that the anticipated reconstruction of Gaza presented benefits for Egypt-based construction and building materials companies. In particular, he noted the proximity of Sinai Cement to the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, the latest ceasefire between Gaza and Israel appears to have been breached.

The other part of the government action has been focusing on increasing AF substitution rates. At the meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister this month the stated aim was to reduce production cuts. To this end, a report on the number of waste recycling plants was reviewed and compared to the requirements of each cement plant. The government intends to set up ‘practical implementation mechanisms’ to maximise the usage of AF. Energy sources have been a particular bugbear for the cement sector in Egypt historically as the government has encouraged producers to switch fuels from time to time.

The wider economy in Egypt continues to face headwinds. Cementir, for example, in its half year report said that the country’s economy was “...being held back by high inflation, devaluation, rising energy costs, pressure on manufacturing industries and a revision of the state budget with the suspension of infrastructure projects.” However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgraded its growth forecast for Egypt in 2025 and 2026 in mid-October 2025. The decision by the government to cap exports of cement and cut the production quota marks a serious change since 2021. It is clearly watching the situation closely. The timing from roughly in the middle of the year should make the effects clear to see in the annual reports in early 2026. We will wait until then.

Heidelberg Materials announced this week that it had received the funding clearance to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) unit at its Padeswood cement plant in Cymru (also known as Wales). Construction on the project will start later in 2025 with net zero cement production expected in 2029. The upgrade will be the group’s first full-scale carbon capture facility. It will capture around 0.8Mt/yr of CO₂ at the site or around 95% of the CO₂ emissions from the process. As the captured emissions will also include biogenic CO₂ from biomass fuels - including domestic food, wood and paper wastes - cement produced at the plant could potentially be net negative.

Just like Heidelberg Material’s first large-scale CCS project at the Brevik cement plant in Norway, the work at Padeswood is part of a larger government-backed decarbonisation cluster. In this case it’s the HyNet North West project. Captured CO₂ from Padeswood will be transported via an underground pipeline for storage under the seabed in Liverpool Bay. The wider cluster will also produce, transport and store hydrogen. A waste-to-energy company Encyclis also announced this week that it had also agreed terms with the government for its Protos CCS project.

It is worth noting the differences between Heidelberg Material’s first two large-scale CCS projects. Padeswood, like Brevik, will use an amine-based carbon capture system but the technology is likely to be provided by a different supplier. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Worley were awarded the contract for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) phase of the project in 2024 with the intention of using MHI’s Advanced KM CDR Process. The funding model is also different for Padeswood. In Norway the original estimate was that over three-quarters of the carbon capture unit would be paid for using state aid and over two-thirds of the funding for the transport and storage of CO₂ would come from the government. Large sums of government grant funding could be seen entering Heidelberg Materials’ balance sheet in 2024 for example. By contrast, Heidelberg Materials says it has agreed a ‘contract for difference’ (CFD) with the UK government. Under the terms of this contract the cement company will provide the upfront investment to build the project and will also be responsible for any additional costs over the agreed contract price. The CFD will likely track the carbon price in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The wider picture is that the UK government allocated just under €25bn in late 2024 towards two decarbonisation clusters with the funding to be made available over 25 years. However, the completion date for the Padeswood CCS of 2029 is, coincidentally, the latest year by which the next UK parliamentary election could be held. The incumbent Labour party is currently behind in the polls to the populist Reform UK party. The deputy leader of the latter said that his party would cut all "net stupid zero" policies if they entered government. It is likely that the arrangement between Heidelberg Materials and the UK government is legally binding for decades to come with provision for all sorts of eventualities. Yet readers may recall the decision by the second Trump administration in the US to cancel funding for various carbon capture projects including at least one cement project. There is also opposition from various groups in the UK to carbon capture generally and from some groups to HyNet specifically. HyNot, for example, applied for a judicial review in August 2025 challenging the government’s decision to allow Italy-based Eni to store carbon dioxide in Liverpool Bay.

Another issue is that UK cement production dropped to 7.3Mt in 2024, the lowest level since 1950. The impending carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), due in 2027, should help local producers fight off imports but if the market stays down then the production base may need to be rationalised. A cement plant with a new CCS unit linked to the government’s flagship decarbonisation cluster doesn’t seem an obvious choice for closure anytime soon though.

From here it’s all about building new carbon capture projects at different cement plants in different locations with different technologies and so on to determine what works and what doesn’t. A major part of this phase is deciding what kind of government involvement fits and trying it out over the coming years. To end, a CCS project in the north of the UK is poignant given that the Industrial Revolution started here in the late 18th Century. ‘Pob lwc’ (good luck) to all concerned!

Zimbabwe: PPC’s cement sales rose by 22% year-on-year during the four months to 31 July 2025 as demand surged, boosted by a 30% tariff on imports introduced in May 2025. The tariff was introduced through Statutory Instrument 50A of 2025, under a plan to bolster local production by cutting reliance on imports, and to support domestic manufacturers, according to The Chronicle newspaper.

In a statement accompanying financial results for the period, PPC said “Cement sales volumes in Zimbabwe increased by 22% in the current period compared to the comparable period, largely as a result of a combination of strong consumer demand and the positive impact of the introduction of a 30% tariff on imported cement in May 2025.”

Senegal: The Ministry of Environment and Ecological Transition, with the support of the United Nations Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) and funding provided by the European Union through the Innovative Climate Solutions (ICS) Programme, held a workshop in late September 2025 to launch the development national roadmap for decarbonisation in the cement industry. The initiative, implemented by Cementis, aims to reduce CO₂ emissions in cement production in the country by optimising industrial processes and adapting the energy sources used.

Here we go! China-based Huaxin Cement delivered a one-two combo this week by first announcing that it had completed its acquisition of Lafarge Africa from Holcim and then revealing plans to amalgamate all of its overseas businesses into a single subsidiary. The first action feeds into the second but it’s a big move for the international ambitions of the company.

Global Cement Weekly has previously covered Huaxin Cement’s deal to buy Holcim’s majority stake in Lafarge Africa for US$1bn. After being announced in December 2024 the transaction was expected to close in 2025 subject to the usual regulatory approvals. However, various impediments emerged. In March 2025 local press reported that the Senate of Nigeria asked the Bureau of Public Procurement to scrutinise the sale on the grounds of national security and economic sovereignty. A Senate Committee on Capital Market then said in May 2025 that it was going to invite Lafarge Africa for questioning to ‘ensure shareholder rights and transparency of foreign dominance in Nigeria's cement industry.’ Local company and Lafarge Africa shareholder Strategic Consultancy then initiated a legal action to try and block the sale on the grounds that it was conducted secretly and without giving local shareholders the option to buy the shares themselves. These are just the issues that have made the local press. There may be more. The transaction officially closed on 29 August 2025 with Huaxin Cement paying around US$774m. Huaxin Cement is now the majority owner of Lafarge Africa with a 83% share.

Huaxin Cement’s decision to create a specific overseas subsidiary makes sense given the growing size of the business. Its stated aim is to fulfil the group’s “long-term strategic goal of building a world-leading multinational building materials company." The acquisition of Lafarge Africa is one big milestone along this path. In the group’s half-year report, also out this week, it said it had an overseas cement grinding capacity of 24.7Mt/yr with operations in 12 countries including Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Oman, South Africa, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The new company will make and sell cement, technical services, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates. Notably, it will also specialise in the co-processing of alternative fuels. That last one is mostly implicit in any modern cement enterprise these days but as thermal substitution rates rise in developing markets there are likely to be many battles for commodities and market share ahead. It says it wants to create a new overseas subsidiary in order to “further broaden financing channels, open up and integrate resources, and enhance the operational capabilities of Huaxin Cement.” The plans are reportedly at an early stage, but the new subsidiary will remain under the control of Huaxin Cement in China. The focus on finance also seems particularly important, as the company wants to use its new subsidiary to improve its competitiveness and flexibility in overseas capital markets to help it with financing and mergers and acquisitions. To this end, the new company will be listed on an overseas stock exchange. Hong Kong might be the first contender for that ‘overseas’ bourse with its differing economic and legal systems, whilst remaining firmly Chinese.

To finish, let’s compare the contrasting business strategies of Holcim and Huaxin Cement over the last decade. Lafarge and Holcim merged in 2015, later becoming Holcim as it is today. The company divested many of its assets around the world - including Lafarge Africa, diversified into building systems and spun-off its North American division into Amrize. Huaxin Cement became one of the biggest cement companies in the world as the Chinese sector peaked in the 2010s but has also developed into the leading Chinese cement company overseas. That business outside of China has helped Huaxin Cement to make profits in recent years despite the domestic industry declining in the 2020s. Today, many large-scale cement company divestments all over the world are often linked to Huaxin Cement. Its new overseas company, whatever it is called, is likely to become well known across the world.

Portugal: Cimpor has appointed Pedro Reis as its vice chair. He will "support the company's growth strategy across multiple markets and business segments, strengthening its position as a global leader in the cement and construction materials sector," according to the Correio da Manhã newspaper.

Reis previously worked as the Minister for the Economy from 2024 to mid-2025 under the administration of the so-called Democratic Alliance. Notably roles in his career include working as the chair at AICEP, the Portuguese Agency for Foreign Trade and Investment, from 2011 to 2014. He then worked in banking for BCP Group from 2014 to 2021, becoming Head of Institutional Banking at Millennium BCP in 2019. Reis is a graduate of the Católica Portuguesa University and the Harvard Business School.

The second quarter of 2025 saw Russian GDP growth slow to 1.1% year-on-year, with a revised full-year growth forecast of 0.9%.¹ An economy bulked up on injections of military spending (budgeted at 33% of GDP in 2025)² since the invasion of Ukraine may slowly be keeling over. Faced with this eventuality, the Russian cement industry will likely be reviewing strategies not to be dragged down with the rest of the economy.

Prior to the release of the latest economic data, Russian construction had been forecast to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% in 2026 – 2029. Drivers included anticipated investments in oil and gas, transport, airports and renewable energy.

Purely in cement terms, the data no longer appear to corroborate this outlook. Market leader Cemros expects total domestic demand to drop from 67Mt in 2024, by 10 – 15% year-on-year, to 57 – 60.3Mt in 2025. In the first half of the year, Russia consumed 28.4Mt of cement, just 4% above production volumes of 27.2Mt in the same period. Cemros cited ‘declining cement consumption’ to account for its upcoming instigation of a four-day working week at its plants across Russia from October 2025.

On 12 August 2025, Cemros spoke out about a threat to the interests of the domestic industry: increased imports from Belarus. It said that Belarus’ three-plant industry is supplying Russia with cement at a rate equivalent to the combined production volumes of two-to-three cement plants. Time to cap them, it told the government, suggesting a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr.
The producer may have received a shock on 18 August 2025, when Belarus-based Krasnoselskstroymaterialy announced an upcoming US$100m upgrade to its 700,000t/yr Vaŭkavysk cement plant in Grobno Oblast, Belarus.

By that time, the Russian cement association, Soyuzcement, had already called for an anti-dumping investigation into all cement imports. It expects that import volumes of 3.74Mt in 2024 may rise to 5Mt/yr ‘in the near-term future.’

Lingering behind these discussions is the fact of high operating costs, partly precipitated by Russia’s continuing burden of international sanctions.

Here, the cement sector’s hopes are riding on a very particular marketing campaign: that of President Vladimir Putin on the global diplomatic circuit. He must sell his war (or peace on his terms) in a way that fends off increased international sanctions or support for Ukraine. Existing sanctions were on show at the Alaska Summit in Anchorage, US, on 15 August 2025, where the Russian leader made his pitch to US President Donald Trump – including a request for de-sanctioning, alongside various proposed punishment measures against Ukraine. Before travelling back to Moscow, the Russian delegation reportedly had to offer to pay cash for aeroplane fuel.³

Though President Trump did not secure a ceasefire, he nonetheless held back from making good on threatened new sanctions, and rated the Alaska Summit ‘10/10.’⁴ Putin might be equally pleased with the inconclusive outcome as precisely the goal of all his obfuscations. For Russia’s cement producers, costs won’t suddenly rise, but nor will they come down any time soon.

Far from sitting idly by, the industry is seeking new ways to actualise the value of its product. On 20 August 2025, Soyuzcement hosted a meeting of nine producers and four retail chains to strategise ways to increase sales of bagged cement. It will be subject to mandatory digital labelling from 1 October 2025. Discussions included the possibility of batch labelling of bags on the pallet for ease of scanning at retail outlets.

For now, producers’ online media spaces give the impression of work continuing as usual. On 18 August 2025, Cemros announced a US$186,000 renovation of buildings at its Mikhailovsk building materials plant in Volgograd Oblast.

The cement business in Russia is big, established and diffuse. Transformation has been its defining feature in the 33 years since the fall of the USSR, including in the relatively stable latter decades of that period. Should macroeconomic or geopolitical events overtake it once again, we can expect some shapeshifting – but also survival.

References

1. Reuters, ‘Russia's GDP growth slows to 1.1% in Q2, says Rosstat,’ 13 August 2025, www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russias-gdp-growth-slows-11-q2-says-rosstat-2025-08-13/

2. Global Data, ‘Russia Construction Market Size,’ 30 June 2025, www.globaldata.com/store/report/russia-construction-market-analysis/

3. Spiegel, ‘Russen boten Rubio zufolge Barzahlung für Betankung ihrer Flugzeuge an,’ 18 August 2025, www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/trump-putin-gipfel-russen-boten-offensichtlich-barzahlung-fuer-betankung-ihrer-flugzeuge-an-a-fdd9303c-546a-43aa-89dd-4f746b8e9df3

4. Focus, ‘Jäger deutlich: "Putin verkauft Trump eine Illusion - und hat ihn jetzt in der Hand",’ 16 August 2025, www.focus.de/politik/ausland/jaeger-putin-braucht-trump-nicht-zu-fuerchten-er-hat-trump-jetzt-in-der-hand_67785013-a14b-485c-9a4a-51755ec483fa.html