India: Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement recorded cement sales volumes of 30Mt during the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, which began on 1 April 2023. This corresponds to growth of 20% year-on-year from first-quarter levels in the previous financial year. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that ICICI Securities expects UltraTech Cement's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to fall by 3% year-on-year. Declining fuel prices are expected to have contributed to a drop in the producer's costs. Throughout the quarter, its capacity utilisation rate was 90%.

India: Prism Cement has taken delivery of a pendulum cooler supplied by Germany-based IKN at its Prism cement plant in Maharashtra. The new equipment will replace the 6.1Mt/yr plant's existing air beam technology cooler. The supplier says that this will help to improve the efficiency of waste heat recovery (WHR) processes at the plant.

Greece/US: Titan Cement Group has made new venture capital investments in two US-based disruptive technology suppliers. The cement producer enlarged its investment in energy storage specialist Rondo Energy, which has developed the Heat Battery. The technology enables cement plants and other industrial operations to access a constant supply of electricity using captive renewable energy sources. It also invested in venture capital firm Zacua Ventures, which handles a portfolio of companies involved in developing optimisation, automation and Construction 4.0 technology, including products relevant to the cement industry.

Titan Group Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said “We are committed to embracing innovation and fresh perspectives. By engaging with advanced construction and green technology startups through direct and indirect investments, as well as collaborations, we intend to forge more partnerships in the sector.”

US: ThyssenKrupp Polysius, a subsidiary of Germany-based thyssenkrupp, has delivered a Polysius booster mill to Mountain Cement's Laramie grinding plant in Wyoming. The Eagle Materials subsidiary will take delivery of further ancillary equipment, including material handling, process gas management and machine protection systems, throughout mid-late 2023. The supplier said that the mill will help to increase the Laramie plant's flexibility. It will also provide site services and technical support for optimisation and maintenance for two years after commissioning, also slated for 2023.

ThyssenKrupp Polysius' project manager Matthew Burchfield said "This is a very important and interesting project for ThyssenKrupp Polysius. This is the first booster mill system sold in the US and one of the first booster mills worldwide. We are tasked with a very tight engineering and supply schedule. ThyssenKrupp Polysius is working closely with Mountain Cement and its engineering teams."

Peru: Cementos Pacasmayo's consolidated sales declined by 12% year-on-year in the first half of 2023. The company recorded a general decline in its cement and concrete volumes of 18%. It said that its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5.9% to US$64.8m.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has secured a US$150m loan from the International Finance Corporation for an upgrade to its Salto de Pirapora cement plant in São Paulo. The producer aims to increase the alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate at the 4.8Mt/yr plant, and reduce its CO₂ emissions. It says that the loan is tied to sustainability performance indicators (SPIs), based on the reduction in the plant’s Scope 1 CO₂ emissions.

India: Shree Cement has pulled out of the race to acquire a 40 – 70% stake in Sanghi Cement for US$205 – 369m. The Financial Express newspaper has reported that Shree Cement said that it will shift its short-term focus to ‘internal expansion.’

Sanghi Cement operates 6.1Mt/yr of cement capacity and a 143MW captive power plant in Western India. It has debts of US$219m.

India: Adani Group subsidiary ACC says that it will add 16Mt/yr-worth of new cement capacity in the five years up to the end of the 2028 financial year in March 2028. CEO Ajay Kapur said that the producer may implement the expansion plan in as short a time as two years. Reuters has reported that the company expects cement demand in India to rise by 7 – 8% between the 2023 financial year and the 2028 financial year.

World: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) launched the Green Cement Technology Tracker on 20 July 2023. The Green Cement Technology Tracker presents users with a real-time overview of active initiatives to reduce CO₂ emissions in the global cement industry. At present, the tracker covers carbon capture projects, which account for 36% of planned emissions reductions under the GCCA’s 2050 Roadmap for Net Zero Carbon Concrete. The partners plan to subsequently expand the scope of coverage to other emissions reduction technologies.

GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot said “Unleashing technology such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage is key to achieving our net zero mission in our sector. Carbon capture pilots, projects and announcements are picking up pace across the world. This technology works, and our next goal is to scale up, working with stakeholders such as governments and the investment community to help transform the industry worldwide.”

The Green Cement Technology Tracker is freely accessible here on the LeadIT website.

UK: A team at Imperial College London has won a US$1.27m grant for its research into developing carbon negative cement from silica. The research won the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)’s Carbon Capture, Usage & Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 competition. The Imperial team sources its silica from natural olivine. It says that the compound behaves in the same way as other supplementary cementitious materials. Meanwhile, magnesia from the decomposition of the olivine can serve as a carbon sink in the form of magnesium carbonate. It, in turn, could serve as a raw material for concrete block production.

The DESNZ’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, of which the CCUS Innovation 2.0 competition is a part, has a budget of US$1.29bn.