Displaying items by tag: Plant

Türkiye: OYAK Çimento has appointed Turhan Erkayiram as the Plant Director of the Bolu cement plant.

Erkayiram previously worked as the plant manager of the İskenderun plant. Before this he held production manager roles with the company. Earlier in his career he worked for Vicat Group Türkiye, Limak Group and Aşkale Cement. He is a graduate in chemical engineering from Atatürk University.

Boral announced this week that it had secured around US$15m from the Australian government towards decarbonisation upgrades at its Berrima cement plant in New South Wales. The funding will go towards the company’s own investment in a kiln feed optimisation project. A new specialised grinding circuit and supporting infrastructure at the site is intended to increase the proportion of alternative raw materials (ARM) from 9% to 23% to decrease the amount of limestone the kiln uses. The use of more ARMs should also enable the unit to reduce its energy intensity. Boral plans to use ARMs including granulated blast furnace slag, steel slag, cement fibre board, fly ash and fine aggregates from recycled concrete. Commissioning and full operation of the changes are scheduled for 2028.

The Berrima plant officially opened its last set of changes, including a chlorine bypass unit, in December 2024. This was done to allow the plant to reach a thermal substitution rate (TSR) of 60% by the end of 2027. At the end of 2024 the company said it had a TSR of 30% having risen by 20% from 2023. Another similar decarbonisation project at the plant is a carbon capture and storage demonstration pilot trial involving the recarbonation of construction and demolition waste.

Parent company SGH said in its annual report for 2024 that Boral was continuing to advocate for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage and that it had taken part in the ongoing government review on the issue. This lobbying was visible earlier in March 2025 when the Cement Industry Federation (CIF) publicly addressed the government on the issue ahead of its next budget. It asked that carbon leakage be addressed in the form of an import tax to protect the local cement and lime sector. Cement and lime imports from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan are particularly seen as an issue. The government review into carbon leakage started in 2023 and is due to report back at some point in 2025, most likely after the parliamentary election in May 2025.

Another big sector news story to note is the ongoing acquisition of the cementitious division of the Buckeridge Group of Companies (BGC) by Cement Australia that was revealed in December 2024. Unsurprisingly, the European Commission (EC) approved the deal in late March 2025. Cement Australia’s parent companies Holcim and Heidelberg Materials are headquartered in Europe, but the EC concluded that the planned transaction was unlikely to dampen competition in Europe. The verdict of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is likely to be far more telling. It closed taking submissions on the proposed deal in late February 2025 and plans to release an update in May 2025.

The ACCC’s market inquiries letter reported that Cement Australia wants to run BCG Cement. However, under the acquisition proposal, BGC Quarries and BGC Asphalt will be acquired and operated by a new 50:50 joint venture between Holcim and Heidelberg Materials, which will operate as a production joint venture in respect of aggregates. Holcim and Heidelberg Materials have suggested taking four ready-mixed concrete (RMC) plants each in the greater Perth area. Finally, one RMC plant at Wangara could be divested due to the close proximity of existing plants run by Holcim and Heidelberg Materials. Whether this is what actually happens remains to be seen.

Finally, Holcim flagged-up Australia this week as one of the regions it intends to derive ‘profitable growth’ from after the planned spin-off of the US business. This approach is in line with the hunt by the big building materials companies for new growth markets as the cost of merger and acquisition activity in the US has risen. CRH, for example, bought a majority stake in AdBri in mid-2024. Further merger and acquisition activity in the cement sector in Australia seems less likely given its relative small size. Yet the higher economic growth forecast for the country compared to Europe is likely to keep multinationals interested.

UK: Drax Power has entered a 20-year joint venture agreement with Power Minerals to build a new facility to process pulverised fuel ash into supplementary cementitious material (SCM) for cement.

The facility will be located adjacent to Drax Power site and will produce 400,000t/yr of SCM for use in lower-carbon cement. Power Minerals will construct, own and operate the plant. Drax will supply ash, power and water, as well as share profits from SCM sales. There is no capital investment required by Drax.

Operations will begin by the end of 2026. Drax expects the project to generate incremental adjusted earnings by interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €6m annually between 2027 and 2046.

The Pacific Cement Corporation (PACEMCO) held a groundbreaking ceremony this week officially ‘reopening’ its cement plant in Surigao City. The revival of the plant has been supported by investments by San Miguel Corporation (SMC). Various dignitaries attended the event including John Paul Ang, the chief operating officer of SMC, the mayor of Surigao City mayor and the governor of Surigao del Norte.

The plant has been closed since 2014 due to financial problems. At the time, Global Cement reported that the cement plant stopped operations in May 2014 after the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative cut its power supply for unsettled debts worth at least US$0.5m. PACEMCO was originally set up in 1967 and the plant had a production capacity of 0.22Mt/yr via one production line in 2014.

Earlier in March 2025 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was keen to highlight the efforts that Taiheiyo Cement Philippines (TCP) is making towards supporting the country's infrastructure capacity. Company executives met with the DTI and revealed plans including building a distribution terminal in Calaca, Batangas with the aim of targeting the Luzon market. This follows the construction of a new US$220m production line at TCP’s San Fernando plant in Cebu in July 2024.

Both announcements follow the implementation in late February 2025 of a provisional tariff on cement imports. The DTI started investigating imports in the autumn of 2024 and later decided to initiate a ‘preliminary safeguard measure’ following the discovery of a “causal link between the increased imports of the products under consideration and serious injury to the domestic industry.” The tariff takes the form of a cash bond of US$6.95/t or US$0.28/40kg bag of cement. It will be in place for 200 days, to mid-September 2025, while the Philippine Tariff Commission conducts a final investigation. The two main countries that will be affected are Vietnam and Japan. A large number of countries are exempt from the tariff including, notably, China and Indonesia. Both of these two countries were larger sources of imports to the Philippines during the five-year period the DTI is investigating. However, imports from these places have declined since 2021 and 2023 respectively.

Graph 1: Import of cement to the Philippines, 2019 - 2024. Source: Department of Trade and Industry.

A preliminary report by the DTI published in late February 2025 outlines the reasons for the provisional tariff. In summary it found that imports rose from 2019 and 2024 and the share of imports increased also pushing down the domestic share of sales. In the view of the report, the domestic cement sector experienced declining sales, production, capacity utilisation, profitability and employment for each year apart from 2021. One point to note is that the imports were split roughly 50:50 between local and foreign companies. Local company Philcement, for example, was the largest importer for cement to the Philippines from 2019 to 2024. In its statement to the DTI it said that it had invested in manufacturing the processing sites in the country. It argued that overprotection of the market discouraged competition and might not be aligned with the economic goals of the country.

Last time Global Cement Weekly covered the Philippines (GCW669) in July 2024 it looked likely that the government would take further action on imports. This has now happened on a temporary basis but it looks likely that it will become permanent. Recent investment announcements from local producers such as PACEMCO and TCP may be coincidental but they suggest a tentative confidence in the local sector.

Philippines: The Pacific Cement Corporation (PACEMCO), one of Mindanao's largest cement manufacturers, reopened its plant in Surigao City, Barangay on 21 March 2025. The plant had been closed for 11 years due to financial constraints. The reopening was made possible through investments by San Miguel Corporation (SMC), which aims to revive the plant's operations and boost local economic activity.

John Paul Ang, SMC’s vice chair and CEO, led the inauguration alongside Surigao City Mayor Pablo Yves Dumlao II, Surigao del Norte Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers and Representative Robert Ace Barbers. “PACEMCO was a big part of Surigao's history and one of the region's largest companies. It is a Filipino-owned and controlled cement factory," Ang said.

Mayor Dumlao emphasised the potential of the reopening to create employment and stimulate economic growth, saying "The return of PACEMCO means new opportunities for employment, stronger local enterprise and increased revenue.”

Tunisia: Wan Li, the Chinese Ambassador to Tunisia, has revealed that a ‘Chinese company specialising in the cement sector’ is preparing to acquire a cement plant close to the capital city Tunis. The value of the transaction is reported to be more than US$100m. If completed, it would be the first Chinese investment in Tunisia in the 2020s.

Li said "We are confident that this state-of-the-art company will introduce modern techniques and upgrade the plant's equipment, which will have a positive impact on the environment." He also assured that this acquisition will improve the productivity and efficiency of the cement plant.

Australia/Europe: The European Commission (EC) has approved a deal that will see Heidelberg Materials and Holcim acquire joint control of Australian business BGC Cementitious via their joint venture Cement Australia. BGC Cementitious, the cementitious division of the Buckeridge Group of Companies, is active in the cement, concrete, quarrying, asphalt and transportation sectors. The EC concluded that the planned deal would not hurt competition given the limited impact on the European Economic Area. The transaction includes, among others, the Kwinana Cement plant in Western Australia. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

North Korea: Local press has reported that the Chonnaeri cement plant has “over-fulfilled its cement production plan every day.” In a rare statement it attributed this to the “devoted efforts of its officials and workers” who have contributed the Workers' Party of Korea's ‘grand construction plan.’The report follows a 2023 upgrade to the plant’s production line. The plant does not seem to have been affected by supply issues that have affected other producers in the country.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos grew its revenue and earnings in 2024 but its net income dropped significantly due to interest rate volatility. It noted ‘positive performance’ in its Europe and Asia region and a stable market in Brazil. It attributed its mounting earnings to its balanced portfolio, revenue in Europe and Asia, operational efficiency, reduced costs and new business.

The group’s net revenue grew by 3% year-on-year to US$4.69bn in 2024 from US$4.53bn in 2023. However, revenue fell slightly in local currencies due to negative exchange effects, particularly in North America. Cement sales volumes rose by 1% to 35.4Mt from 34.9Mt. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 16% to US$1.14bn from US$0.99bn. Earnings rose in all regions except for Latin America due to a ‘challenging’ market in Uruguay and lower prices in Bolivia. Despite this, its adjusted net income dropped by 17% to US$383m from US$461m.

“We ended the year with record-high operating results, supported by our geographic, product and business diversification, in line with our strategic mandate,” said Osvaldo Ayres, the group’s global CEO. The company invested over US$550m in 2024 towards decarbonisation, competitiveness and new businesses. A further US$880m investment plan in Brazil to 2028 was announced in early 2024. Ongoing projects include upgrades supporting higher thermal substitution rates at the Xambioá plant in Tocantins state and the Salto de Pirapora plant in São Paulo. A new 1Mt/yr cement grinding unit is being built at the Salto de Pirapora site. Construction of this project is scheduled for completion in the second-half of 2025. A new 1Mt/yr cement grinding unit was also announced at the Edealina plant in Goiás. This project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

Votorantim also revealed that it paid around US$190m to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) at the end of 2024 in connection with an agreement to end all administrative and judicial litigation. It said “We definitively resolved all pending disputes with CADE. We did not acknowledge, at any time, having committed any unlawful act or engaged in any anticompetitive behaviour.”

US: MTR Carbon Capture says that St Marys Cement’s Charlevoix plant in Michigan will be the first cement plant in the world to deploy its Polaris polymeric membrane-based technology. The pilot project aims to capture 3t/day of CO₂ during a six month testing period. It intends to demonstrate that a 95% CO₂ capture rate is achievable.

US-based Membrane Technology and Research (MTR) specialises in the development and production of membrane-based separation systems for the petrochemical, natural gas and refining industries. The company was set up in 1982 and has its headquarters in Newark, California.