Displaying items by tag: Plant

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.

Zimbabwe relaxed import rules on cement this week in a bid to bring down prices. This follows a high-profile visit earlier in November 2025 by Aliko Dangote with US$1bn investment plans including a new cement plant. Here’s what’s been happening.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Raj Modi, announced this week that the government was aware of price issues and was taking measures to fix it. This has included issuing licences to import around 0.15Mt of cement from October 2025 onwards. He commented that there was a backlog of cement at the border. He noted that the country has a shortage of clinker with only PPC currently manufacturing it. Local media reports that the price of cement rose by 42% in October and November 2025. This has been attributed to a local construction boom, limited local production, and constrained imports. Subsequently, vendors have run out of stock.

South Africa-based PPC has certainly done well out of the situation. Its revenue for the six months to September 2025 rose by 23% year-on-year from US$89.4m to US$110m. This was attributed to a 25% increase in sales volumes. It was also achieved despite a prolonged shutdown period at its integrated Colleen Baw plant in the first quarter of its financial year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 11% to US$25.9m from US$23.3m.

Import bans on cement in Zimbabwe have come and gone over the last couple of decades alongside the country’s wider economic issues in response to international sanctions. Zimbabwe is land-locked but it also shares a border with South Africa, a larger cement producer. The government implemented an import ban in 2021, prices have surged periodically and remedial actions, such as large-scale licence approvals, have been taken on occasion. An additional 30% surcharge on cement imports was introduced in May 2025.

The country clearly needs more local producers and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote flew to the rescue on 12 November 2025 to sign a memorandum of understanding with President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Details are light on the US$1bn investment deal, but it includes a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant, power generation and a 2000km fuel pipeline from Walvis Bay in Namibia that will reportedly run through Botswana. Dangote was previously in talks with the Mugabe regime in the mid-2010s but talks did not progress.

However, other plant projects are already on the way. In late October 2025 local press reported that the China-based 0.8Mt.yr Chegutu cement plant was over half-way complete. Production at the site is scheduled to start in early 2026. The WIH-Zim Cement plant is also being built at Magunje. This one has reported cement and clinker production capacities of 1.2Mt/yr and 1.8Mt/yr. Unfortunately, the local Environmental Management Agency (EMA) ordered the project to stop construction in August 2025 after inspectors found violations of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conditions, including failure to compensate displaced households. Further legal action has followed. This project is backed by Labenmon Investments, another China-based investment firm. Unfortunately, that company also popped up in the sector news this week in connection to a bribery scandal connected to an apparently separate grinding plant project in Bulawayo, according to the Herald newspaper. Two other unconnected and smaller grinding plants, JainQiang Cement and Zimsonc Industries, also reportedly started production making blended products in Hwange in mid-2025.

Of the existing cement producers, Khayah Cement entered into ‘corporate rescue proceedings’ in late December 2024, blaming international economic sanctions for causing an ‘untenable’ business environment. A public tendering process to find investors was announced by the former Lafarge subsidiary in May 2025. A US$60m rescue package from Uganda-based Hima Cement was approved by creditors and shareholders in September 2025. This includes refurbishing the company’s Harare plant. The country’s other local clinker manufacturer, Sino Zimbabwe, reportedly also restarted production in late November 2025.

The general economy in Zimbabwe was on track for a forecast 6% annual growth in July 2025 due to the agricultural sector and strong commodity prices. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reiterated this view in November 2025, singling out easing inflation amid exchange rate stability [LINK]. Quite possibly this has also benefitted the construction sector too, leading to the current issues with imports. In this setting, Aliko Dangote’s investment plans are a serious vote of confidence for both the cement sector and the wider business environment.

Nigeria: Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has presented a proposed US$604m budget for 2026, including plans to construct a US$102m state-owned cement plant.

Nwifuru said most of the spending would target infrastructure and economic growth projects. He attributed the rise from previous annual budgets, averaging about US$60m, to expanded fiscal space following the removal of the federal fuel subsidy.

The cement plant, conceived as a successor to the defunct NIGERCEM, will be financed through a US$102m self-repaying loan. “We agreed in council that this project will borrow money to fund itself from beginning to end. And this project will generate the same money to repay the loan,” Nwifuru said.

Geological assessments are currently underway to determine the most viable location with adequate limestone reserves.

Netherlands: Sweden-based Paebbl's demonstration plant at its Rotterdam research and development centre has reached a cumulative 500 hours of production in the eight months since it entered operation in March 2025. The plant uses captured CO₂ as a feedstock to produce carbon-storing cementitious materials. Meanwhile, Paebbl has operated its pre-existing pilot plant for a cumulative 2000 hours. The producer is now designing its first commercial-scale plant.

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.