Displaying items by tag: Japan

Japan: Cement plants consumed 70Mt-worth (50%) of total limestone shipments in Japan during the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023. Nikkei Industry Summary News has reported that limestone is the only mineral resource for which Japan is self-sufficient. However, it reported that the country’s cement sector is exposed to effects from the global coal market. Producers expect that the rising price of coal from China may diminish their earnings due to increased costs.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has prepared a corporate human rights policy that recognises that respect for human rights is the foundation of competent management and a key part of the company’s awareness of social norms and corporate ethics. The policy acknowledges that the group’s business activities might have a direct or indirect negative impact on human rights through its business activities, and aims to reduce this. It aligns with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labor Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The company will distribute the policy internally and share it with its business partners.

Japan: Tokuyama Corporation has installed ABB’s Expert Optimizer automated optimisation system in the kiln line of its Nanyo cement plant. The system controls the line’s calciner, kiln and cooler processes. The supplier says that the technology will reduce the Nanyo cement plant’s thermal energy consumption by 3%.

Tokuyama Corporation "We selected ABB's Expert Optimizer to equalise operations and improve operational efficiency. As expected, we have significantly reduced the number of the operator manual operations normally spent on manual tasks.” It added “We believe that this solution will also support our young operators in learning the know-how of our operations efficiently."

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement says that it expects sales to rise by 14% year-on-year to US$761m during the first half of the 2024 financial year. Nikkei Financial Summary News has reported that the producer expects a drop in its cement volumes, offset by price hikes. Currency effects will also impact its result. Meanwhile, coal prices remained lower than expected. The company expects to record a net profit of US$26.6m, compared to a loss of US$20.4m in the first half of the 2023 financial year. It previously forecast a US$13.3m loss.

Sumitomo Osaka Cement recorded US$52.8m in sales in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year (1 April - 30 June 2023). This corresponds to year-on-year growth of 16%. Nonetheless, it made a net loss of US$7.6m.

Throughout the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, Japanese cement despatches fell by 15% to 10.1Mt. Exports declined most sharply, by 43%, to 1.51Mt.

Japan: A Taiheiyo Cement plant will be one of two facilities to host carbon capture systems under the Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security selected the project to advance to the feasibility study stage on 2 August 2023. The partners will now investigate technical issues in the entire CCS value chain, as well as commercial and social issues around transporting captured CO₂ by ship to temporary storage sites. Identification of permanent underwater storage sites is scheduled for 2024, with the design stage of capture, transport and storage systems scheduled to conclude in 2026. The Tohoku West Coast carbon capture and storage project will commence in 2030.

Taiheiyo Cement is committed to a 20% reduction of its CO₂ emissions between 2000 and 2030, while the Japanese government is committed to a 46% reduction between 2013 and 2030.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has concluded an agreement to dispose of waste produced by any natural disasters that should occur in Hidaka City and Saitama Prefecture. Under the agreement, Taiheiyo Cement will establish a disposal system with realises the potential of disaster waste as a resource. This will work alongside another recycling programme for conventional wastes. The cement producer says that this will help to build a safe and secure community.

Japan: A team at the University of Tokyo has developed cement-free alternative concrete from ultra-fine sand and fly ash. NHK has reported that the process uses recyclable alcohols and has lower CO₂ emissions compared to concrete production using ordinary Portland cement. Research with industrial partners into possible construction sector applications is underway. Partnerships with Japanese ready-mixed concrete producers are reportedly also under discussion.

Further information is available from Yuzo Tobisaka, an independent Japanese consultant in the cement and ready-mixed concrete industry, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Italy: Turboden has appointed Yoshinori Hyakutake as its chair. Hyakutake, Hiroshi Matsuda, the previous chair, and Yasuo Kamegawa have also been appointed as directors.

Hyakutake joined Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in 1993. For the majority of his carrier with MHI he has worked in the thermal power engineering section. He later worked as a project manager on several export projects for thermal power plants. From 2017 to 2020, he worked for Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power System. Since 2021, he has been the Senior Vice President of New Business Development at MHI.

Turboden is a subsidiary of Japan-based MHI. The company manufactures and maintains organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems, large heat pumps and gas expanders.

The two largest cement producers in Japan released their results for their 2023 financial years this week. Much like manufacturers elsewhere in the world they reported mounting sales revenues, but they also noted losses. Input prices such as coal rose in 2022 and these were passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. However, this was insufficient to stop them making a loss.

In the case of Taiheiyo Cement, its domestic sales volumes of cement remained stable at 13.4Mt in the year to 31 March 2023. It made a loss at home in Japan but still reported a profit in its overseas businesses, despite export volumes falling by 41% year-on-year to 2.44Mt. The group also noted delays at construction sites due to a lack of workers. Recent domestic developments for Taiheiyo include an agreement in October 2022 to buy the cement business of chemicals company Denka. Outside of Japan, in China, the group suspended the production and sale of cement from its Jiangnan-Onoda Cement subsidiary in February 2023 citing a 'tougher competitive environment,' although it justified this decision as part of its strategy to refocus on Southeast Asia. Then, in late April 2023, the company was forced to stop its proposed acquisition of the Tehachapi cement plant in the US due to an inability to obtain regulatory approval.

Sumitomo Osaka reported a similar situation, with cement sales volumes also down year-on-year. Again, cement price increases were unable to catch coal prices made worse by negative currency exchange effects. Having got the bad news out of the way, it then it took the opportunity to outline its medium term strategy to 2035. It said that becoming carbon neutral was the key to this. In its 2022 financial year cement accounted for around 70% of total sales. However, it is now aiming to reduce this to 65% by 2025 and 50% by 2035. If this sounds familiar this is because it is similar to what Holcim is doing with its growing light building materials division and its diversification away from the heavy building materials trio of cement, concrete and aggregates. Sumitomo Osaka plans to invest over US$3.5bn towards this goal by developing its presence in the semiconductors sector, building its business in Australia and starting new ventures in decarbonisation.

Of the other cement producers, Tokuyama Corporation said in late April 2023 that it was considering suspending operation of one of the three kilns at its 4.54Mt/yr Nanyo cement plant as part of measures to strengthen profitability. It reported a growing loss for the current financial year that it blamed on raw material and fuel costs. Mitsubishi Materials and Ube Industries formed their merged cement businesses in April 2022 known as Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation. Ube said, as part of its latest financial results, that, despite a gradual decrease in the domestic market, cement sales had remained stable but that the business was “heavily affected” by rising energy prices such as coal. It added that demand for cement and concrete remain strong in its overseas market in North America.

Graph 1: Sales and exports of cement in Japan from 2013 – 2022. Source: Japan Cement Association.

The Japanese cement market peaked in the 1990s. Domestic sales of cement in Japan have declined over the last decade, as can be seen in Graph 1 above, but at a slower rate. Exports rose to a peak of just under 12Mt in 2017 but have slipped a little since then. Data from the Japan Cement Association placed production at 53.2Mt in 2022 compared to 61.7Mt in 2013. This trend explains the move by the cement producers towards decarbonisation, offshoring, diversification and consolidation. The bump in fuel prices over the past year may have accelerated this process, as examples such as Taiheiyo Cement’s takeover of Denka and Sumitomo Osaka’s new business strategy suggest. The race continues to keep cement production profitable in a changing business environment.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement's consolidated sales rose by 14% year-on-year to US$6.02bn for its 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023. Its cement volumes fell by 1.5% to 37.3Mt. It said that current high costs of labour and building materials generally reduced cement demand in its local market. It reported a net loss of US$247m, up by 15% from US$215m. Nikkei News has reported that the company has forecast a US$297m profit in the 2024 financial year.