Global Cement Newsletter

Issue: GCW750 / 11 March 2026

Headlines


Cement company shares prices in India fell this week due to energy supply concerns in the wake of the US-Israeli-led war with Iran. The situation appears similar, so far at least, to the energy shock that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. We will look at the available news on the situation so far and reflect on what happened in 2022.

The decision by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards this week to ‘close’ the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to US and Israeli air strikes is the key challenge to energy intensive industries outside of the region. Today’s news reports of commercial ships being damaged in the area further heightens tensions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that 20% of the world’s seaborne oil trade transits through the waterway. The markets reflected this with a jump in oil prices this week as well as a dip in the share prices of industries likely to be adversely affected, such as the cement sector.

At the end of last week, trade analysts Kpler released an assessment of how the start of the war had affected bulk commodity trade. It noted that Qatar’s decision to declare force majeure on gas exports was contributing to the increase in the price of gas and has major implications for the economics of switching between gas and coal not seen since 2022. Demand from Europe for seaborne coal might rise consequently. It also identified that petcoke exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman to China and India were particularly vulnerable to disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. It said that, “Indian cement producers, reliant on fuel-grade petcoke, face the sharpest supply risk and would be forced to source US petcoke at a premium or switch to coal.”

Sure enough the stock market in India reacted at the start of this week. As the Business Standard newspaper noted, for example, the stock price for Ramco Cement fell by 7%. It linked this to the vulnerability of cement production to energy prices, particularly those of petcoke and coal. Oil price increases can also increase logistics costs of moving input and output materials around, and raise the cost of electricity. It placed the volume of petcoke going through the Strait of Hormuz at 0.4 - 0.6Mt/month with India “...absorbing the majority of this.” The country imports half of its requirements of petcoke, signalling that prices are likely to rise. The brokers quoted predicted that these costs would be passed straight on to consumers.

In Pakistan the Iran war has prompted calls for development of the Thar coalfield to be exploited faster to reduce reliance on imports. This is a long-term project but recent events may hasten it. The Dawn newspaper reported that imported coal prices increased by 22% year-on-year in recent weeks to around US$110/t FOB. The local cement sector in Pakistan uses 5Mt/yr of coal and it plans to use up to 20% coal from Thar. Meanwhile, the local press in Bangladesh has been keenly interested in which ships had made it through the strait before the war. Shipments of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas that had transited in time were noted. As too were vessels carrying clinker, gypsum and limestone from the Gulf. The first of those is of particular interest in Bangladesh given its relative lack of domestic clinker production. However, alternative sources should be easy enough to find in a world making too much clinker.  

The energy market consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 were a spike in energy prices in the short term. In March 2022, for example, the head of Türkçimento warned that a jump in the price of Newcastle Coal posed a serious threat to the sector and that the cost of cement from a plant using imported coal might rise by around US$15/t. In the medium term, Russian gas and coal exports shifted away from European markets to Asian ones. For example, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that Europe and Türkiye received 32% of Russia’s coal exports in 2020. By 2024 this had fallen to 13%, with Türkiye accepting the vast majority. Natural gas exports fell from around two-thirds in 2020 to over one-third in 2024. Major multinational cement producers reported a mixed response to energy costs in 2022. Reasons for this included regional variation within operations, the hedging of energy costs and the use of alternative fuels. Cemex, for example, noted that it had been subject to “uncertain energy supply availability” as a result of the war in Ukraine. Heidelberg Materials said that the “...2022 financial year was characterised by a significant increase in production costs, especially in relation to energy, fuels, and raw materials, which we countered with price adjustments.”

Finally, there is no information readily available of the effects on the war upon the cement industry in the Gulf countries and Iran. Industrial sites such as refineries or desalination plants have reportedly been damaged in the Gulf countries. There is little to no information on the situation inside Iran. If readers have any information on the situation locally they should get in touch.

So far the war in Iran has shown the reliance that cement production in India has on petcoke from the Gulf. Stronger repercussions are likely the longer that the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Energy users may start to switch fuel types as the cost of previously favoured fuels escalate. Cement producers are likely to be hedged against this to an extent but there will be considerable regional variation. All of these price rises are expected to be passed to end consumers and inflation rates could rise. This, in turn, may slow construction rates. One positive to end on is that rising alternative fuels utilisation rates may protect cement producers somewhat. Expect more impetus for thermal substitution rates to carry on rising.


India: UltraTech Cement has appointed Jayant Dua as its managing director. He will start the role in April 2026. He succeeds KC Jhanwar in the role.

Dua joined the cement business of Aditya Birla Group in 1996 and has held a variety of management positions. He was the Joint Executive President of the cement division of Grasim India from 1996 to 2005. He later became the Group Executive President of UltraTech Cement in 2014 and 2015. He also held CEO positions for group companies, including Aditya Birla Insulators, Century Textiles and Chlor Alkali amongst others. He became the business head for the group’s renewables and textiles divisions in 2023.

Dua holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, a master’s of business administration qualification (MBA) from the International Management Institute and has completed the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.


Türkiye: Öner Akgerman the former chair of Çimentaş has died. He also held the position of the chair of Türkçimento in the 1980s.

Akgerman started working for Çimentaş in 1968 and later became the company’s general manager in 1976. In 1984 he became its deputy chair. During his time at Çimentaş he set up ready-mixed concrete, construction, insurance and tourism subsidiaries. Following the acquisition of Çimentaş by Italy-based Cementir in 2001, he founded AKG Group and created divisions specialising in autoclaved aerated concrete and insulation.


UK: Breedon Group launched its ‘British Cement Advocacy’ campaign alongside publication of its 2025 results. CEO Rob Wood wrote to ministers in the Departments for Business and Trade and Energy Security and Net Zero, and campaigned alongside the Mineral Products Association, calling for government action to support domestic cement production. The company said that rising cement imports risk exporting jobs, investment and emissions while increasing supply chain risks. Breedon called for the establishment of a carbon border adjustment mechanism, to address competitiveness challenges, to accelerate support for carbon capture technologies and for the promotion of domestically produced cement in public procurement.

Wood said “Using public procurement policy to support domestically produced cement would unlock huge opportunities and ensure the government’s investment in housing and infrastructure delivers wider economic growth. It would also protect thousands of highly skilled, well-paid jobs across all four UK nations. We will continue our engagement throughout 2026 as we strongly encourage the government and our customers to ‘Back British Cement’.”


Canada: Progressive Planet has developed a supplementary cementitious material named Planet LCD Cement, based on limestone calcined diatomite. The company said the material can replace up to 50% of Portland cement while maintaining compressive strength in mortar cube tests meeting ASTM C618 requirements. Current testing has reportedly demonstrated strong compressive strength replacing Portland cement on a ‘weight for weight’ basis at 20%, 35% and 50% replacement, with all compressive strengths passing ASTM C618.

CEO Steve Harpur said “Planet LCD Cement uses diatomaceous earth, limestone and gypsum, all of which are plentiful materials. We have created a highly-reactive cement without metakaolin. Waste diatomaceous earth powders sell for a fraction of the cost of metakaolin. This opens up opportunities to utilise waste diatomaceous earth powders globally to replace 50% of Portland with Planet LCD Cement.”

A trademark application for the name Planet LCD Cement has been filed in Canada and a provisional patent application for the composition of Planet LCD Cement has been filed in the US.


Oman: Oman Cement has launched a project at its Misfah plant in Muscat Governorate that uses industrial waste as fuel to reduce reliance on natural gas. The company installed a shredding machine to prepare industrial waste as fuel and awarded a contract to supply and install a system to feed the material into Kiln 1. The project reportedly forms part of the producer’s strategy to increase efficiency, increase capacity and reduce fossil fuel use and aligns with Oman Vision 2040 and the company’s decarbonisation targets. In 2024, Oman Cement said it was investing in a waste-to-energy plant designed to utilise refuse derived as an alternative energy source.


Spain: Cement consumption in Andalusia rose by 10% year-on-year to 3.56Mt in 2025. Clinker and cement exports fell by 26% to 4.17Mt while imports rose by 58% to 2.65Mt.

Cement production reached 3.30Mt in 2025, down by 0.4% year-on-year.

President of the Andalusian Cement Manufacturers Association (AFCA) Alan Svaiter said “Over the next few years, the sector will face a significant investment effort with the aim of fulfilling its Decarbonisation Roadmap to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with the intermediate milestones of reducing CO2 emissions by 44% by 2030 and 83% by 2040, compared to 1990. To achieve this, it is necessary for the cement sector to have competitive energy prices, increase the energy recovery from waste to rates similar to those of the most advanced countries, receive financial support and administrative simplification for decarbonisation projects in our factories, and for the various public administrations to prioritise the use of cements with a lower carbon footprint, which we are already manufacturing, through the adoption of green public procurement policies.”


Peru: Cement shipments reached 1.04Mt in February 2026, up by 11% year-on-year and by 9% over the previous 12 months. Cement production was 0.95Mt, up by 9% year-on-year and by 6% over the previous 12 months, while clinker production was 0.82Mt, up by 10% year-on-year and by 5% over the previous 12 months.

Cement exports reached 9630t in February 2026, down by 13% year-on-year but up by 2% over the previous 12 months. Clinker exports reached 37,003t, up by 1% year-on-year and by 39% over the previous 12 months. Cement imports reached 69,699t, up by 31% year-on-year and by 55% over the previous 12 months, entering through the Port of Chancay from Vietnam (87%) and the Tacna land terminal from Chile (13%). Clinker imports reached 35636t, down by 1% year-on-year and up by 14% over the previous 12 months, entering solely through the Port of Callao from Ecuador.


UK: Wirral Borough Council leader Paula Basnett will write to UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to urge the government to scrap the Peak Cluster CO₂ pipeline project, according to local press. The €69m scheme will transport CO₂ from cement and lime plants in Derbyshire and Staffordshire for storage in depleted gas wells in the Irish Sea. Local residents and campaign groups have opposed the project, with nearly 17,000 people signing a petition.

Campaign for the Protection of Rural England representative Jackie Copley said “When the government are weighing the balance between the benefits and the harm of projects like this, make sure those landscape harms are fully weighed in the balance. Because at the moment it feels like development is almost automatic, as if it does not matter what’s happening to the landscape.”

Peak Cluster chair David Parkin said “We acknowledge a 200km pipeline is a very significant infrastructure project and will have a level of construction disruption. The main process we are going to do is called trenched construction so essentially, we dig a large trench in a field, we weld up the pipe, drop it in, put the soil back and then the farmer can re-use the field as it was before.”


US: Utilities provider Georgia Power will extract and transport 2Mt of coal ash currently stored at its former Arkwright coal-fired power plant in Macon, Georgia. The ash is destined for Georgia Power’s nearby Branch power plant in Milledgeville. From there, the company plans to supply it for use in cement and concrete production. Tex Energy Report News has reported that shipments will commence in 2027 and continue until 2033. Georgia Power expects sales revenues to offset costs.


India: Cement producer Adani Cement has entered a strategic partnership with 15,000-member residential construction body the National Real Estate Development Council. The partners will coordinate efforts to advance sustainable construction practices and the adoption of new technologies, as well as upskilling and knowledge exchange. FCC News has reported that joint initiatives will include builder certification programmes.


Germany: Scheuch has secured a contract to install an OxiCat catalytic flue gas cleaning system at Holcim Süddeutschland’s Dotternhausen cement plant in Baden-Württemberg. The air pollution control equipment supplier will commission the system by 2027. When operational, the system will catalytically convert the plant’s NOx, CO and volatile organic compound emissions, using recovered waste heat from its kiln, with only small volumes of gas consumed as fuel for heat-up and as a backup.


Türkiye: Limak Cement has produced and certified Türkiye’s first limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) at its Trakya plant, according to a social media post by the producer. It said that the cement offers ‘high performance with a lower CO₂ footprint’ than other cements in its existing product portfolio. The company completed certification of the product as CEM II/A-M (Q-LL) 52.5 N calcined clay cement under the EN 197-1 standard.


Senegal: Dangote Cement has sold a 10% stake in Dangote Cement Senegal to the local government, reducing its ownership to 89.99% and making the government a minority shareholder. The government said the investment will increase participation in strategic sectors and allow involvement in production and pricing policies.

Dangote Cement Senegal has a cement production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr.


Saudi Arabia: Najran Cement awarded a US$13m contract to Sinoma International Engineering to build an electric grid connection project at its Sultana plant in Madinah province, under the Liquid Fuel Displacement Programme. The turnkey project will be completed within eight months.

The project will deliver electrical services to the plant to increase energy efficiency, reduce emissions from power generation and increase operational reliability of the electrical grid. The company said the project supports the objectives of the Liquid Fuel Displacement Programme and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.


Syria: The General Company for Cement and Building Materials Industry and Marketing (OMRAN) received clinker shipments from Egyptian company Cisco on 7 March 2026, following a memorandum of understanding signed in Cairo on 29 January 2026. The deliveries will support cement production at Syrian plants and are being carried out in phases based on local market demand and plant production capacity. OMRAN director Mahmoud Fadila said that the shipments aim to stabilise cement prices in the domestic market and reduce production costs by ensuring availability of raw materials.


Saudi Arabia: Cement sales fell by 11% year-on-year and by 16% month-on-month to 4.28Mt in February 2026, according to a report by Al Rajhi Capital, reflecting weaker demand due to Ramadan. Yamama Cement recorded growth of 12% year-on-year and held a 15% market share in February 2026. Clinker inventories fell by 0.3% month-on-month to 42.7Mt. Geographically, the Eastern region was the sole region that reported growth of 1.5% year-on-year, mainly driven by Eastern Cement, which saw growth of 17% year-on-year, while sales in the Northern and Southern region plunged by 22% and 16%, respectively.

Among the companies covered, Riyadh Cement held the lowest inventory at four months of the last twelve 12 months’ average sales, followed by Saudi Cement and Yamama Cement at six months and Qassim Cement at nine months. Najran Cement held 13 months of inventory, Arabian Cement 14 months and Yanbu Cement 15 months, while Southern Cement held the highest level at 20 months.


Argentina: Cement despatches were 0.71Mt in February 2026, down by 6% year-on-year from 0.74Mt in February 2025 and down by 12% month-on-month from 0.79Mt in January 2026. Domestic despatches reached 0.7Mt and exports were 4414t. Cement consumption reached 0.7Mt in February 2026, down by 5% year-on-year from 0.73Mt in February 2025 and down by 12% month-on-month. Total consumption for the first two months of 2026 was 1.48Mt.


Germany: Heidelberg Materials has announced that it will permanently close its 0.4Mt/yr-capacity Paderborn cement plant in North Rhine-Westphalia due to a ‘significant’ decline in cement sales driven by weak construction demand in Germany in the current economic conditions. The company said that the measure forms part of its ongoing optimisation of its European production network and a shift towards clinker-reduced cements produced across its sites. It said that as customers can now source clinker-reduced cements from the company’s sites throughout the country, the Paderborn plant is ‘losing its unique position’ within the group.

The closure affects 53 employees. The company said it is developing ‘socially responsible’ solutions in close consultation with the workers’ council, including transfers to nearby plants such as Geseke and Ennigerloh into positions created through early retirement programmes.

The activities of subsidiary Mineralik in the Paderborn quarry and operation of the local ready-mix concrete plant will continue. The Paderborn plant operated the smallest rotary kiln in Heidelberg Materials’ German operations and, since 2022, it had been used to produce Ternocem low-carbon cement in trial operation. Further development of Ternocem will continue at another site in the future.


Ghana: President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned ‘the world’s largest’ calcined clay cement plant in Tema, developed by CBI Ghana. The US$110m plant has a production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr of ‘environmentally-friendly’ cement, including 0.4Mt/yr of calcined clay. President Mahama said the opening of the plant is “a tangible step toward repositioning Ghana as a leading industrial hub in Africa.”

The facility will reportedly operate continuously under the government’s 24-Hour Economy policy and is expected to reduce Ghana’s dependence on imported clinker, using locally-sourced clay from the Torgome area in the Volta region.


Kenya: The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has said that cement demand in Kenya will rise by 7-8%/yr as the economy expands and the government advances its Affordable Housing Programme to build 1 million homes.

Tomasz Pawelec from UNIDO’s Net Zero Partnership for Industrial Decarbonisation (NZP-ID) said “Low carbon production processes are cheaper to install and run than expansion of traditional systems. Using these processes will also set companies up to seize new market opportunities as low-carbon cements become the norm. Boosting cement production usually means large investments in new clinker lines, but it’s totally viable to increase cement production by using smaller-scale solutions, like adding clay-based inputs, rather than building entirely new facilities. This approach allows companies to produce more cement with less clinker, reduce emissions, and avoid huge upfront costs - helping meet market demand more sustainably.”

The NZP-ID recently facilitated a workshop in Nairobi and a visit to Meru University of Science and Technology, home to a specialised laboratory under its Institute of Cement and Concrete, which focuses on limestone calcined clay cement (LC3). This cement allows up to 60% of clinker content in cement to be replaced without compromising strength or durability, reducing emissions by up to 40%. To help local cement producers explore low-carbon solutions and secure investments, the NZP-ID, in collaboration with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, will launch a call for expressions of interest. The call will invite producers to propose ideas for developing low-carbon cement production processes.

Pawelec added “We will offer technical assistance to design investments, for example, pre-feasibility studies. The idea is to help companies demonstrate that their low-carbon projects are feasible, offer good returns, and have short payback periods, thereby attracting investors and expanding a company’s ability to produce low-carbon cement.”


US: Shipments of Portland and blended cement including imports in the US and Puerto Rico totalled 7.86Mt in November 2025, up slightly from 7.84Mt in November 2024. Shipments for the year to November 2025 reached 94.6Mt, down by 2% year-on-year.

Clinker production, excluding Puerto Rico, totalled 6.56Mt in November 2025, up by 4% year-on-year. Production for the year to November 2025 reached 63.2Mt, down by 3% year-on-year. Imports of cement and clinker including the San Juan customs district reached 2.03Mt in November 2025, up by 3% year-on-year, while imports for the year to November 2025 totalled 23.6Mt, up by 2%.


Türkiye: Titan has completed the acquisition of 100% of Traçim Çimento following the agreement announced on 11 December 2025. The acquisition includes a cement plant with a production capacity of approximately 2.5Mt/yr serving the local market and export markets including neighbouring countries and the US. Traçim also holds a licence to build a second production line that will add a further 2.5Mt/yr of cement capacity and make the plant the largest cement production unit in the group, according to the company.


France: Lafarge France, part of Holcim, will increase production of activated clay cement to 1.1Mt in 2026 after surpassing 0.6Mt in 2025. The cements incorporate up to 22% activated clay (CEM IV/A) to reduce clinker content and CO₂ emissions while maintaining technical performance, according to the company.

Production of activated clays began in 2022 at its La Malle site and expanded in early 2023 with a dedicated line at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour using the proximA Tech process. Lafarge plans to build a second activated clay production line at Saint-Pierre-la-Cour under the Capt4Climate project, supported by the French government. The facility will become operational in 2029 and will triple the site’s capacity.


Spain: Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) are developing predictive models using artificial intelligence (AI) to produce cementitious material from construction and demolition waste. The researchers said that the material is a ‘cement-free cement’ which reduces the amount of demolition debris that ends up in landfills and reduces emissions because the material actively captures atmospheric CO₂. The CO2MCHRETE project reportedly demonstrates the feasibility of transforming demolition waste and steel slag into construction materials through mineralisation processes. The research team has also created a digital tool and an app to determine whether concrete from buildings scheduled for demolition can be reused.

The researchers analysed data from construction sites and laboratories and conducted tests using ultrasound, sclerometers and visual inspection, subsequently validated in the UPCT laboratories. The analysis integrated up to 100,000 data points to train predictive models assessing recycled concrete for three uses: fine grinding to produce geopolymers, filler material to reduce porosity and recycled aggregate to replace natural gravel.

The project is funded by the Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation under the Missions 2024 programme and is led by Técnicas Reunidas with the participation of Cementos Cruz, Ferrovial and Urdecón, along with research centres including CTC, TECNALIA and UCLM. The technology has reportedly reached technology readiness level five, validated at laboratory scale.


Morocco: Cement deliveries reached 2.09Mt in the first two months of 2026, down by 16% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of National Territorial Planning Urban Development Housing and Urban Policy. Distribution deliveries were 1.08Mt, down by 21%. In February 2026, deliveries reached 1.05Mt, down by 13% year-on-year. Cement deliveries had already fallen in January 2026 to 1.04Mt, down by 19%, amid heavy rainfall that slowed construction activity.