Displaying items by tag: Guinea

Asia Cement unveiled a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit at its Jecheon plant this week. The Korea Cement Association (KCA), government representatives and staff from other cement companies were present at a demonstration. The US$25m project has been supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. It was originally announced in late 2023, has been running on a pilot basis for two months, and is expected to start full operation shortly. The cement sector in South Korea will be subject to tighter emissions controls in mid-2027 and further SCR installations are expected.

Earlier in 2025 the KCA estimated that installing SCR units on all 35 active clinker production lines in the country would cost around US$675m with an additional annual running costs. One point to note here is that one of the local sector’s commonly used alternative fuels (AF), waste synthetic resin, impedes the SCR process. Subsequently, it has to be run at higher temperature, which increases running costs.

The local cement industry has faced a mixed response to its uptake of AF in recent years. One strand of this has been a movement against so-called ‘trash cement.’ This culminated in the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment amending the Waste Management Act in November 2025 to make it mandatory for cement products to disclose on the packaging the means to check which ‘waste’ materials were used in their manufacture. This appears to include both supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) and AF. The government is now intending to make it possible for citizens to check the type of cement used in newly-constructed buildings. The KCA reported that the share of blended cements (i.e. those made with SCMs) was 15% in 2024. The rate had gradually decreased over the last decade from 19% in 2015. South Korean cement producers had a AF co-processing rate of 35% in 2021. The main fuels being used in this way were waste synthetic resin, waste tires and waste rubber, with the first being used the most.

Graph 1: Cement sales in South Korea, 2019 - 2025. Source: Korea Cement Association.

Meanwhile, cement producers in South Korea have turned to exports in 2025 in response to poor construction levels and growing input costs. The KCA revealed this week to local press that exports are expected to grow by 52% year-on-year to 4.5Mt in 2025 from 3Mt in 2024. Local shipments, however, are anticipated to fall by 16.5% to 36.5Mt from 42.9Mt. Producers have focused their export strategies towards South America and Africa in response to competition in the export market in South-East Asia from China and Vietnam, producers. For example, Halla Cement started targeting Cameroon and Guinea in 2025 following previous favourite destinations such as Peru and Chile. Exports are still lower than they were in the mid-2010s. In 2015, for example, the country exported 7.3Mt of cement and clinker. However, the share of the share of exports to total sales is at its highest level for at least a decade.

The necessity of running kilns at certain levels rather than simply idling them has also emerged in recent reporting. The reason given was to “...maintain a minimum allocation of carbon emission allowances.” The detail is lacking but this may sound familiar to readers familiar with the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Following the financial crash in 2008, for example, an over-allocation of carbon credits enabled some producers to make money despite falling demand for cement. This is not to say that the same thing is happening in South Korea. Merely, that any ETS can potentially face structural issues in a declining market.

The South Korean cement market is facing tough times, with the KCA further anticipating a decline of 1.3% in 2026. Environmental regulations such as the new emissions controls are further putting up costs. One peculiarity of the local market is the scrutiny that the easiest routes to decarbonisation, SCAs and AFs, are facing. Giving the public the tools to check this kind of information is admirable. Yet it creates extra hurdles for a sector trying to decarbonise at the same time as a construction market construction. Good luck!

The Global CemFuels Asia Conference will take place on 2 - 3 February 2026 in Bangkok

Guinea: Cement has become scarce across Guinea, halting many private construction sites and driving prices higher. According to a report by the Guinee7 newspaper, the country has six producers that operate seven cement plants, with a combined production capacity of around 3.6Mt/yr. This is up from 2.2Mt/yr four years ago – an increase of nearly 60%.

However, two plants have shut down due to a lack of clinker. Industry sources propose reviving domestic clinker production but caution that stabilisation could take several months.

Liberia: The Daily Observer has reported smuggling of essential commodities, including cement, across the Ganta Border into Guinea, potentially leading to shortages. Over 1000 bags of cement are allegedly transported daily from the Ganta market into Guinea, leading to an increase in prices.

Guinea: Employees from Diamond Cement began a strike on 2 March 2023. Sékouba Kouyaté, 1st delegate of the Diamond Cement workers' union, said “We have decided to go on strike under articles 431.1; 431.2; 431.3 and following of the labour code of the Republic of Guinea. To this end, it should be reiterated that the reason for this strike is the categorical refusal of the general management to open a framework for frank and credible dialogue. We pitifully deplore the fate of the workers working in this company from construction until now, more particularly in its intermediary companies that no longer comply with article 135.7 of the labor code. Enough is enough.”

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA) has obtained a certificate of conformity with European standards (CE) for three types of cement. The certification should allow the company to export more products to Europe, according to the Expression newspaper. It applies to its Gica Moudhad and Gica Béton products. The move follows similar certification of products with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR) from the company’s Aïn El Kebira plant in July 2021. At the same time the Minister of Industry said it was helping the group with its export strategy.

In 2021 GICA exported 2.25Mt of cement to countries including the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Senegal , Cameroon, Benin,  Guinea, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and a number of European countries.

Morocco: LafargeHolcim Maroc is preparing to export clinker to West Africa in early July 2022. The shipment will be the plant’s second clinker export following a consignment of 40,000t to Guinea, according to the Les Eco newspaper. The plant, based near Tidsi, has been operational since late 2021.

Türkçimento’s Volkan Bozay took to the airwaves last week to raise the issues that the war in Ukraine is causing for Turkey-based cement producers. The head of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association explained, to the local Bloomberg HT channel, that the dramatic jump in the price of Newcastle Coal posed a serious threat to the sector. The price jumped nearly US$100/t in a single day in early March 2022. Bozay said that the cost of cement from a plant using imported coal would consequently rise by around US$15/t. He added that the association’s members had an average of 15 – 20 days of coal stocks.

Graph 1: Price of coal, March 2020 – March 2021. Source: Trading Economics.

In a separate press release Türkçimento revealed that Turkey, as a whole, imported approximately US$1.5bn of coal from Russia in 2021. The cement industry imported about 5Mt of coal in 2021, from all sources, although the majority of this came from Russia. Coal shipments from Russia since the start of the war were reported as ‘very limited or even not possible.’ It was further explained that each US$10/t increase in the price of coal put up plant production costs by US$1.5/t of cement.

Naturally Bozay’s appearance on a television news show carried a lobbying aspect. He called for government import standards – such as the sulphur ratio, lower heating values and volatile matter limits - to be relaxed to allow coal to be imported more freely from sources such as Colombia, Indonesia and South Africa. There was also a push to let in more alternative fuels such as tyres and waste-derived fuels. The bit that Bozay didn’t mention though was how many of his members had long term coal supply contracts in place to cushion them, from short term price inflation at least. Yet, if coal shipments from Russia have simply stopped, then the price is irrelevant. A cement kiln configured to run on coal stops when it uses up its stocks.

Turkey was the world’s fifth largest cement producer in 2021 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Türkçimento data shows that in 2020 it exported 145,000t of cement to Russia by sea. Overall it exported 16.3Mt of cement and 13.5Mt of clinker. The US, Israel, Syria, Haiti and Libya were the top destinations for cement. Notably, Ukraine was the sixth largest recipients of cement, with 752,000t imported, although anti-dumping legislation introduced in mid-2021 looked set to reduce it until the war started. Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Cameroon and Belgium were the principal recipients of clinker. Cumulative cement exports for the year to October 2021 were up by 3% year-on-year compared to the first 10 months of 2020. Clinker exports were down by 27% though. Overall domestic production and sales in Turkey rose by 9.5%, suggested an estimated production figure of 79Mt for 2021.

Other fallout in the cement sector from the war in Ukraine this week included Ireland-based CRH’s decision to quit the Russian market. It entered the region in 1998 through a subsidiary based in Finland and was operating seven ready-mixed concrete plants via its LujaBetomix joint venture. CRH says that all operations in Russia have now stopped. In 2021 it sold its lime business in Russia, Fels Izvest, to Russia-based Bonolit. Although selling concrete plants is not trivial, these are far cheaper assets than clinker production lines. Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Italy-based Buzzi Unicem and Switzerland-based Holcim each operate at least one integrated cement plant in Russia. So far these companies have publicly expressed dismay at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine and made donations to the Red Cross.

Graph 2: European Union Emission Trading Scheme price, 2020 – March 2022. Source: Sandbag.

Finally, one more surprise this week has been a crash in the European Union (EU) Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) carbon price from a high of Euro96/t in early February 2022 to Euro58/t on 7 March 2022. As other commentators have stated, normally the carbon price would be expected to follow the energy market, but this hasn’t happened. Instead investors have pulled out, possibly to maintain liquidity for other markets.

With the US set to ban Russian oil, gas and coal imports and phase-outs to varying degrees promised by the UK and the EU in 2022, we can expect more turbulence from energy markets in the coming days. As the Turkish example above shows, all of this can... and will... have effects on cement production.

Guinea: Sinoma Construction has reported that the first batch of cement has been produced from a moveable modular grinding (MMG) mill at a grinding plant in Guinea. Sinoma Construction produced and pre-assembled the mill in China. It said that this method ‘reduces installation time by 56%, reduces CO₂ emissions by 43% and reduces the necessary labour by 70%.’ Sinoma Construction said that the project’s safe completion demonstrates that, “the project department is doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, overcoming difficulties and successfully completing the commissioning of equipment.”

Guinea: LafargeHolcim Guinea has ordered a MVR 2500 C-4 vertical roller mill from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Sonfonia cement grinding plant in Conakry. The cement mill will have a total drive power of 1300KW. It has been designed to grind 75t/hr of CEM IV 32.5 and 69t/hr of CEM IV 42.5 to a specific surface of 3440cm²/g and 3340cm²/g acc. to Blaine respectively. The order for the mill was placed by the China’s CBMI working as a general contractor on the project. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Liberia: President George Manneh Weah has written to the Liberian Senate to agree investment and incentive agreements between the government and Starr Cement. The cement producer intends to build a 0.6Mt/yr grinding plant, according to the New Dawn newspaper. The project will cost US$41m. The proposed plant will supply cement locally and to other countries in the Mano River Union, including Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone.