Displaying items by tag: Heidelberg Materials

Germany: Spot, the autonomous robotic dog developed by Boston Dynamics, has joined operations at Heidelberg Materials’ Leimen grinding plant, taking on regular inspection duties to support on-site engineering teams. Equipped with advanced sensors and digital tools, Spot independently navigates buildings, monitors machine thresholds, detects anomalies and leaks early, and captures inspection data for real-time decision-making. The robot has already covered more than 4km autonomously, completed more than 20 inspection rounds, and recorded over 700 inspection points across the plant’s machines and equipment.

The team will now focus on validating Spot’s data, optimising its routes and expanding its inspection coverage.

Bulgaria: Greek carbon storage company EnEarth has signed a term sheet with Heidelberg Materials to negotiate exclusive agreements for the transport and storage of CO₂ from the Devnya cement plant. The project aims to capture, transport and store 0.8Mt/yr of CO₂ from the plant. It is part of a wider CCUS initiative by parent company Heidelberg Materials, called ANRAV, which aims to be the first full-chain CCUS project in Eastern Europe. It has received a €190m EU grant, including €38m for the storage site, and is scheduled to be operational before 2030.

US: Heidelberg Materials has announced that it will acquire Walan Specialty Construction Products in Delaware under a binding purchase agreement. The transaction includes a 150,000t/yr capacity slag grinding plant with a vertical mill built in 2022 near the Port of Wilmington. The producer says that this acquisition will further strengthen its low-carbon cementitious portfolio and extend its market reach in the Northeast Region.

Cementir Group launched two of its lower carbon cement products in the Middle East and Africa markets this week. We’ll take a look at this in more detail and cover other recent products news from cement producers.

Egypt-based Sinai White Cement will manufacture the products under Cementir’s D-Carb umbrella. One will be a Limestone Portland cement, to the CEM II/A-LL 52.5N specification EN197-1, with around a 10% clinker reduction. The other will be CEM II/B-LL 42.5N with around a 20% clinker reduction. Both of these reductions are in comparison to Aalborg White CEM I 52.5R. D-Carb is the name of Cementir’s product range for white low-carbon cements. It was launched in European markets in 2024, with II/ALL 52.5R cement, and then expanded to Asia Pacific regions, including Australia, in early 2025. Cementir says that its customers can switch to D-Carb from CEM I as it “integrates well with their production processes without requiring major formulation changes.”

In late October 2025 Dyckerhoff revealed that it was the first cement manufacturer in Germany to receive general building authority approval (abZ) for the use of CEM VI (SLL) cement in accordance with DIN EN 197-5. The German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt) granted approval for Dyckerhoff’s Lengerich cement plant. CEM VI is a newer type of composite cement similar to CEM II but with a lower clinker content. The SLL type that Dyckerhoff wants to make has a clinker content of 35 – 49 %, granulated blast furnace slag of 31 – 59% and limestone of 6 – 20%. The company says that this cement can be used in more than 60% of all concrete types produced in ready-mixed concrete plants. Its composition is also useful for low-carbon concretes when no fillers, such as fly ash, are available. Dyckerhoff added that the low hydration heat of the cement has a particularly positive effect in massive cast components.

Earlier in October 2025 Rohrdorfer held an inauguration ceremony for a new pilot unit for calcined (they say tempered) clays at its Rohrdorf cement plant. The pilot project started in July 2025 and has been processing up to 50t/day of raw clay. When Rohrdorfer launched the project in early 2024 it said that it was going to use waste heat from the main production line and was also considering the use of hydrogen to provide the remaining amount of heat required. Waste gases produced during calcination were also going to be fed back into the existing waste gas cleaning system of the clinker production line after leaving the pilot plant to further reduce emissions. Rohrdorfer said that its approach was going to be the first time waste heat recovery was going to be used in conjunction with calcining clay.

Meanwhile, in West Africa, Dangote Cement inaugurated its new 3Mt/yr cement plant near Abidjan in the Ivory Coast in mid-October 2024. Around the same time the company launched various products in the country, including its CEM I and CEM II brands 32.5R, 3X42.5N, 3X42.5R and 52.5N. This is a more traditional range of cement products compared to the ones above but note the highlighting of strength. This has been a key selling point for products in this part of the world previously, hence its focus. CEM II is a blended cement that uses lower levels of clinker. One clinker substitute in CEM II products is calcined clay. Gebr. Pfeiffer, for example, said in August 2025 that it was to supply a vertical roller mill to Ciments de Côte d'Ivoire (CIMCI) for clay grinding at its cement plant. There are also a number of other calcined clay projects in the Ivory Coast and other countries in West Africa. Further afield, JK Cement in India also started to market its LC3 clay calcined cement product line in October 2025.

Finally, US-based Amrize launched its ‘Made in America’ label for its cement range this week, “offering builders the guarantee of American manufacturing and quality, supporting American jobs and local communities.” Readers may recall that Amrize was recently owned by Switzerland-based Holcim. However, the company is currently keen to point out that its cement products are “made in the US from its raw materials and processing to manufacturing, meeting rigorous US performance standards.” Amrize does sell blended cements including FortiCem Portland-Pozzolan Blended Cement, ECOPlanet Cements and OneCem Portland Limestone Cement.

Most of the news stories highlighted above demonstrate a trend for blended cements with lower clinker factors. There’s no real change here. This has been happening for a long time and it is being driven by both profit and sustainability motives, although the current bunch of stories may also be turning up to coincide with the COP30 conference in Brazil. Note the inclusion of places outside of Europe and the drive for new blends. Another factor to consider here is protectionism in certain markets, as Amrize’s marketing drive suggests. New blends will also require new certifications, standards and approvals as is the case with Dyckerhoff’s work on CEM VI (SLL). The next trend to watch for will be the market reaction to carbon captured cements, such as Heidelberg Materials’ evoZero product. Will end users pay a premium for zero-carbon cements?

Germany: Heidelberg Materials increased its revenue by €51m, representing 1%, year-on-year to €5.81bn in the third quarter of 2025, while its result from current operations (RCO) rose by €54m, or 5%, to €1.18bn. The company expects full-year RCO to be €3.3-3.5bn. Specific net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material are projected to decline slightly compared to 2024.

Chair of the managing board Dr Dominik von Achten said "We continued our growth trajectory in the third quarter of 2025, despite ongoing political and economic uncertainties. Our uncompromising focus on active price and cost management in all group areas contributed significantly to improving our result and further expanding our profitability in the third quarter.” He added “We remain confident about the year as a whole. Based on the business development to date, we confirm our positive outlook for 2025.”

Europe: The EU Innovation Fund has selected four of Heidelberg Materials’ carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) projects for grant agreement preparation under its Net-Zero Technologies Call. Selected projects were assessed in terms of their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, their degree of innovation, project maturity, replicability and cost efficiency. The selected projects are Anthemis in Belgium, AirvaultGOCO₂ in France, DREAM in Italy, and HuCCSar in Poland.

The Anthemis project in Belgium will equip the Antoing clinker plant with an oxyfuel carbon capture unit capable of capturing over 95% of the plant’s emissions, or more than 800,000t/yr of CO₂. The company also plans to transport and permanently store the captured CO₂. The AirvaultGOCO₂ project in France will capture nearly 1Mt/yr of CO₂ at the Airvault cement plant and transport it to permanent storage under the North Sea. The DREAM project in Italy will capture around 1Mt/yr of CO₂ from the Rezzato-Mazzano cement plant for storage in the Ravenna CCS hub beneath the Adriatic Sea. The HuCCSar project in Poland will develop the country’s first onshore CCS value chain and validate local CO₂ storage potential.

Chair of the managing board Dr Dominik von Achten said “This is a great day for the company and for the decarbonisation of the cement industry in Europe. The support from the Innovation Fund is a strong vote of confidence for our approach and our projects. Today’s milestone confirms that we are on the right track with the next chapters of our journey – building on the successful launch of our Brevik CCS project in Norway and the recent Final Investment Decision for Padeswood CCS in the UK.”

Member of the managing board Jon Morrish said “The selected projects in four of our European core markets are important drivers of innovation. We call on the four member states – France, Belgium, Italy and Poland – to work closely with us to enable the right framework conditions in order for us to reach Final Investment Decision for these projects. This will allow our customers to access carbon captured near-zero products under our evoZero brand at much larger scale.”

Europe: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials has begun deliveries of EvoZero carbon-captured cement to customers across Europe. Subsidiary Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe produces EvoZero cement at its net-zero Brevik cement plant in Norway. Early adopters to purchase the product include Sweden-based Skanska for its construction of the Skøyen metro station in Oslo, Norway.

Heidelberg Materials launched a 400,000t/yr, 50% carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant at the Brevik plant on 18 June 2025. The plant’s capture and storage data are verified by certification organisation DNV Business Assurance Germany and digitally recorded in Heidelberg Materials' proprietary Carbon Bank.

CEO Dr Dominik von Achten said "I am proud and pleased that the entire process chain is now in place and that our CCS plant in Brevik is now directly contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions in construction. EvoZero is proof of our commitment to driving real measurable decarbonisation and leading the transformation of the construction industry."

Germany/Norway: Heidelberg Materials will supply its EvoBuild 3D printing concrete for use in property developer KrausGruppe’s DreiHaus residential construction project in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg. PERI 3D Construction and Korte-Hoffmann Gebäudedruck will execute the project, which consists of three three-storey tower blocks.

Heidelberg Materials says that it will supply a concrete blend featuring its EvoZero carbon-captured cement for the third tower block, the first application of the product in Germany. Subsidiary Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe produces EvoZero cement at its net-zero Brevik cement plant in Norway.

Norway/Germany: Heidelberg Materials has officially launched its evoZero product, which the company claims to be the world's first ‘carbon-captured cement,’ to customers across Europe. evoZero is a globally unique product, made possible by carbon capture technology at Heidelberg Materials' CCS plant in Brevik, Norway. The product comes with a uniquely low Global Warming Potential, delivered via a process that is now fully third-party verified by DNV Business Assurance Germany and digitally traceable to ensure seamless transparency.

One of the very first deliveries of evoZero was to the construction of the new Skøyen Station in Oslo, Norway. Another early project for evoZero is the DREIHAUS 3D-printing project, with a total of three houses currently being developed in Heidelberg, Germany. Compared to traditional construction methods, the 3D printing process enables significantly reduced material consumption through optimised design, further reducing CO₂ emissions.
Dominik von Achten, CEO of Heidelberg Materials, said "I am proud and excited to announce that the entire process chain is now established and our Brevik CCS facility is directly contributing to the reduction of carbon emissions in the built environment. evoZero stands as proof of Heidelberg Materials' commitment to real, measurable decarbonisation and our ambition to lead the transformation of construction.”

France: Heidelberg Materials has launched a new range of its Socli lime product that contains hemp. The product is available in two binder and two coating formulations that combine natural hydraulic lime and plant fibres. Formulated for hempcrete bio-based concrete applications, on vertical walls or for insulating intermediate floors, its high lime content increases durability, according to the producer.

Heidelberg Materials says that the Socli lime range is especially suited to the restoration of historic buildings, as it guarantees breathable walls and healthy indoor air, and prevents mould, while providing thermal and acoustic insulation. The absence of cement further increases hygrometric regulation and thermal insulation.