Displaying items by tag: Production

Kenya: Cement production rose by 17% year-on-year to 4.85Mt in the first half of 2025 from 4.14Mt in the same period of 2024, according to The Kenyan Wall Street newspaper. Monthly output surpassed 0.8Mt consistently from March to June 2025, the first four-month streak above that level since July to November 2023. May 2025 was the strongest month, with 0.85Mt produced.

Cement consumption grew by 22% to 4.76Mt in the first half of 2025 from 3.90Mt in 2024. Consumption peaked in May 2025 at 0.83Mt, the highest monthly level since August 2023, supported by housing, infrastructure and commercial construction demand.

UK: Cement production dropped to 7.3Mt in 2024, the lowest level since 1950 and around 50% of 1990 volumes, according to the Mineral Products Association (MPA). Imports have nearly tripled over the past 20 years, rising from 12% of sales in 2008 to 32% in 2024, leaving supply chains more dependent on volatile international markets.

Diana Casey, executive director for cement and lime at the MPA, said “We’re calling on the government to help put domestic production on a level playing field so that it can compete fairly with imports. The UK has a choice: to build these vital development projects with UK-made cement, or to build them with imports – sending jobs, investment and economic growth overseas.”

The MPA said that high energy, regulatory and labour costs are threatening competitiveness and jobs, with 40% of cement produced in the Peak District and 60% across the rest of the UK. The group said the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) due in 2027 must be paired with a procurement policy that prioritises domestic cement.

Belarus: Construction materials producer Krasnoselskstroymaterialy (Grodno Oblast) plans to begin production of fibre cement boards, according to CEO Alexander Golda. He said “We are currently working on a new type of product – fibre cement boards – and have already prepared an initial business plan. Our cement will account for more than 80% of the composition of this product.”

Golda added that the company is working to increase output and replace materials such as silicate bricks, which are becoming obsolete on the market.

Bolivia: Cement production was 325,068t in June 2025, down by 4% month-on-month from 338,536t in May 2025 and by 2% year-on-year from 331,854t in June 2024, according to the Institute of National Statistics (INE). La Paz led output with 98,290t, followed by Santa Cruz with 90,385t. In the first half of 2025, cement production reached 1.9Mt.

Cement sales fell to 306,714t in June 2025, a 20% fall from 381,160t in May 2025 and down by 4% from 319,041t in June 2024. In the first half of 2025, sales declined by 1% year-on-year to 1.88Mt from 1.91Mt in the first half of 2024.

India: Travancore Cements, a state-owned producer under the Kerala government, has restarted production of white cement after a month-long shutdown, unveiling a three-phase restoration plan to stabilise the company, according to The Hindu newspaper. The company has secured 1000t of raw materials to resume operations.

A company official said “About 540t of raw materials have already arrived, which has helped save US$11,411 in deferred costs. The current plan is to increase white cement production gradually, targeting an average output of 2000t/month.”

The first two phases of the plan include increasing clinker unit capacity, developing value-added white cement products and restoring the company’s drydock. The third phase, dependent on receiving US$2.6m from a land sale in Kakkanad, will focus on clay calcination, green cement production and other diversification programmes in association with with the Board of Public Sector Transformation.

US: Shipments of Portland and blended cement, including imports, fell by 7.5% year-on-year to 8.91Mt in May 2025, according to the latest figures from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Shipments for January to May 2025 totalled 37.9Mt, down by 6% from the same period in 2024. Texas, Missouri, California, Florida and Michigan accounted for 39% of production, while Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and Illinois received 40% of shipments.

Clinker production was 6.38Mt in May 2025 , compared with 6.46Mt in May 2024. For January to May 2025, clinker output dropped by 10% to 24.5Mt. Imports for the period declined by 5% year-on-year to 9.81Mt.

China: Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that cement production in July 2025 reached 146Mt, down by 6% year-on-year and the lowest July level since 2009, according to Bloomberg. Output from January to July 2025 was 958Mt, representing a 4.5% year-on-year decline. The drop was attributed to the ongoing real estate crisis, weak infrastructure activity, and weather disruptions from heatwaves and storms. Bloomberg said that further declines are likely as producers shrink capacity to better align with demand.

Iran: Domestic cement demand fell by 8% year-on-year to 4.69Mt in July 2025, according to the Iran Cement Association. Cement output dropped by 11% year-on-year to 4.71Mt, while clinker production rose by 23% year-on-year to 6.31Mt. Cement exports grew by 1.4% during the period to 0.5Mt, but clinker exports declined by 11% to 0.5Mt.

In the first seven months of 2025, cement consumption fell by 7.3% to 34.6Mt from 37.3Mt in 2024. Cement output declined by 3.7% year-on-year to 37.8Mt, while clinker production was stable at 43.0Mt. Cement exports rose by 4.6% year-on-year to 3.37Mt, but clinker exports dropped by 21% to 3.53Mt from 4.45Mt.

The association attributed the fall in demand to a sluggish real estate market and difficult economic conditions. The government’s limits on cement production to address power shortages has also impacted production levels.

The second quarter of 2025 saw Russian GDP growth slow to 1.1% year-on-year, with a revised full-year growth forecast of 0.9%.¹ An economy bulked up on injections of military spending (budgeted at 33% of GDP in 2025)² since the invasion of Ukraine may slowly be keeling over. Faced with this eventuality, the Russian cement industry will likely be reviewing strategies not to be dragged down with the rest of the economy.

Prior to the release of the latest economic data, Russian construction had been forecast to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% in 2026 – 2029. Drivers included anticipated investments in oil and gas, transport, airports and renewable energy.

Purely in cement terms, the data no longer appear to corroborate this outlook. Market leader Cemros expects total domestic demand to drop from 67Mt in 2024, by 10 – 15% year-on-year, to 57 – 60.3Mt in 2025. In the first half of the year, Russia consumed 28.4Mt of cement, just 4% above production volumes of 27.2Mt in the same period. Cemros cited ‘declining cement consumption’ to account for its upcoming instigation of a four-day working week at its plants across Russia from October 2025.

On 12 August 2025, Cemros spoke out about a threat to the interests of the domestic industry: increased imports from Belarus. It said that Belarus’ three-plant industry is supplying Russia with cement at a rate equivalent to the combined production volumes of two-to-three cement plants. Time to cap them, it told the government, suggesting a ceiling of 1.5Mt/yr.
The producer may have received a shock on 18 August 2025, when Belarus-based Krasnoselskstroymaterialy announced an upcoming US$100m upgrade to its 700,000t/yr Vaŭkavysk cement plant in Grobno Oblast, Belarus.

By that time, the Russian cement association, Soyuzcement, had already called for an anti-dumping investigation into all cement imports. It expects that import volumes of 3.74Mt in 2024 may rise to 5Mt/yr ‘in the near-term future.’

Lingering behind these discussions is the fact of high operating costs, partly precipitated by Russia’s continuing burden of international sanctions.

Here, the cement sector’s hopes are riding on a very particular marketing campaign: that of President Vladimir Putin on the global diplomatic circuit. He must sell his war (or peace on his terms) in a way that fends off increased international sanctions or support for Ukraine. Existing sanctions were on show at the Alaska Summit in Anchorage, US, on 15 August 2025, where the Russian leader made his pitch to US President Donald Trump – including a request for de-sanctioning, alongside various proposed punishment measures against Ukraine. Before travelling back to Moscow, the Russian delegation reportedly had to offer to pay cash for aeroplane fuel.³

Though President Trump did not secure a ceasefire, he nonetheless held back from making good on threatened new sanctions, and rated the Alaska Summit ‘10/10.’⁴ Putin might be equally pleased with the inconclusive outcome as precisely the goal of all his obfuscations. For Russia’s cement producers, costs won’t suddenly rise, but nor will they come down any time soon.

Far from sitting idly by, the industry is seeking new ways to actualise the value of its product. On 20 August 2025, Soyuzcement hosted a meeting of nine producers and four retail chains to strategise ways to increase sales of bagged cement. It will be subject to mandatory digital labelling from 1 October 2025. Discussions included the possibility of batch labelling of bags on the pallet for ease of scanning at retail outlets.

For now, producers’ online media spaces give the impression of work continuing as usual. On 18 August 2025, Cemros announced a US$186,000 renovation of buildings at its Mikhailovsk building materials plant in Volgograd Oblast.

The cement business in Russia is big, established and diffuse. Transformation has been its defining feature in the 33 years since the fall of the USSR, including in the relatively stable latter decades of that period. Should macroeconomic or geopolitical events overtake it once again, we can expect some shapeshifting – but also survival.

References

1. Reuters, ‘Russia's GDP growth slows to 1.1% in Q2, says Rosstat,’ 13 August 2025, www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russias-gdp-growth-slows-11-q2-says-rosstat-2025-08-13/

2. Global Data, ‘Russia Construction Market Size,’ 30 June 2025, www.globaldata.com/store/report/russia-construction-market-analysis/

3. Spiegel, ‘Russen boten Rubio zufolge Barzahlung für Betankung ihrer Flugzeuge an,’ 18 August 2025, www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/trump-putin-gipfel-russen-boten-offensichtlich-barzahlung-fuer-betankung-ihrer-flugzeuge-an-a-fdd9303c-546a-43aa-89dd-4f746b8e9df3

4. Focus, ‘Jäger deutlich: "Putin verkauft Trump eine Illusion - und hat ihn jetzt in der Hand",’ 16 August 2025, www.focus.de/politik/ausland/jaeger-putin-braucht-trump-nicht-zu-fuerchten-er-hat-trump-jetzt-in-der-hand_67785013-a14b-485c-9a4a-51755ec483fa.html

Kyrgyzstan: Cement production in the Chui region rose to 867,300t in the first half of 2025, up from 476,400t in the same period in 2024, according to Central Asia News. The region now accounts for 50% of the country’s cement production, up from 35% a year earlier.