Displaying items by tag: Plant

US: Furno Materials has signed an agreement with ready-mix concrete producer Maschmeyer Concrete for the use of its compact modular cement kiln technology. Maschmeyer Concrete plans to operate the kilns using its 90,000t/yr of ‘waste’ concrete as a feedstock. The company will build an initial 50,000t/yr-capacity mini cement plant in Florida. The partners are currently conducting site analysis and a feasibility study for the project.

This latest deal brings Furno Materials’ total commitments to 295,000t/yr across announced and unannounced projects. The sale remains contingent on the successful deployment of its first commercial-scale reactor with concrete producer Ozinga in Chicago, Illinois.

Sweden: The Swedish Energy Agency has awarded US$12.5m to Boliden under its Industrial Leap initiative to support the development of a low-carbon cement alternative derived from iron-rich residual materials. The product allows for partial replacement of limestone in cement. Boliden is building an industrial demonstration plant to produce, test and verify the new material, which is based on byproducts from its own operations. Boliden estimates that the technology could cut value-chain emissions by around 600,000t/yr of CO₂ if fully implemented across its operations.

“Demonstrating innovative new technology to manufacture products with lower carbon emissions is fully in line with the purpose of the Industrial Leap. By reusing materials in new products instead of depositing them, the project also contributes to more circular use of materials,” said Klara Helstad, Deputy Head of the Department for Research, Innovation and Business Development at the Swedish Energy Agency.

Kenya: Bamburi Cement has signed a US$250m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Sinoma CBMI to build a new 1.6Mt/yr grinding plant in Matuga, Kwale County. The project is part of Bamburi’s strategy to more than double its clinker production from 1Mt/yr to 2.6Mt/yr and its cement capacity from 1.8Mt/yr to 4Mt/yr. The plant will feature a six-stage precalciner system and integrate technology to cut its emissions, including the use of alternative fuels such as coconut husks, cashew shells and municipal solid waste.

“The new clinker line will greatly reduce reliance on imported clinker, improving quality production consistency and securing supply for the domestic market,” said Bamburi Cement CEO Mohit Kapoor at the signing ceremony, which was also attended by President William Ruto. Kapoor added that the investment would save foreign exchange resources, stabilise prices and support rising demand from national infrastructure projects and private sector development.

India: Deccan Cements has issued a notice to the National Stock Exchange of India that its ‘Line-3’ cement plant has been successfully commissioned, with commercial production officially commencing on 15 December 2025. Following the commissioning, the company’s total cement production capacity now stands at 4Mt/yr.

India: My Home Cement will build a new plant in eastern India, which will produce slag-based composite cement. The move is aimed at strengthening the company’s footprint in the region. Clinker will be transported from My Home Cement’s existing operations in southern India and blended at the new facility with locally sourced blast furnace slag and fly ash.

Gebr. Pfeiffer was selected to supply a MVR 6000 C-6 vertical roller mill, equipped with an 8200kW drive. The comprehensive scope of supply includes all components from raw material hoppers through to cement silos. The project is being carried out in close collaboration between Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) and Gebr. Pfeiffer (Germany), with customer support and plant design handled by Pfeiffer’s engineering team in Noida.

US: Sublime Cement has announced a 10% workforce reduction and a pause in the development of its planned demonstration plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts, after the company failed to reverse a decision to cancel a US$86m federal grant, which would have funded 50% of the project. The company had been awarded the grant by the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), but the Trump administration cancelled all grants in May 2025. Sublime said that the loss of the grant disrupted the company’s financing plans and forced it to explore alternative scale-up options.

The company said in a statement “We are actively working through a robust set of alternative scale-up plans and have several exciting options to bring our first commercial plant online.”

Earlier in 2025, Microsoft committed to purchasing 623,000t of Sublime’s low-carbon cement to reduce the embodied emissions of its construction projects. The Holyoke plant was to supply the product, with a planned output of over 30,000t/yr. Sublime said that it remains in discussions with the Department of Energy.

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

India: Heidelberg Cement India has signed a contract to establish a cement plant at the Sant Singaji thermal power plant in Dogalia, Madhya Pradesh. The company will receive around 7ha of land for the project. The plant will produce between 150,000-200,000t/yr of cement using sludge generated from coal-fired power production, previously stored in dams. Construction is set to begin by the end of 2025 and is expected to complete in around 18 months.

Malawi: Huaxin Building Materials Group and its subsidiary Portland Cement Malawi have commissioned a US$100m integrated cement plant in Balaka, 215km south of the capital Lilongwe. The factory is expected to produce 800,000t/yr of cement and reduce Malawi’s dependence on imported clinker and cement. Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha, who attended the inauguration ceremony, said the project aligns with the Malawi 2063 Agenda by supporting infrastructure and economic resilience.

Chinese Ambassador to Malawi Lu Xu said “The plant helps to address the current challenges by saving US$50m in foreign exchange expenditure annually, and generate US$15m in foreign exchange income.” She added that it is the largest manufacturing investment by a Chinese firm in Malawi and will create jobs, boost economic output and strengthen local industrial chains.

Austria: Alpacem Cement Austria will invest in new infrastructure at its Wietersdorf site in Carinthia to process and utilise low-CO₂ alternative raw materials in cement production. The project aims to cut process-related CO₂ emissions by 51,000t/yr. The company will construct a new plant, expand conveying and storage facilities and modernise dosing systems to raise the share of alternative raw materials to 35%. The project is supported by a €21.6m grant under Austria’s ‘Transformation of Industry’ programme.