Global Cement Newsletter

Issue: GCW763 / 10 June 2026

Headlines


The opening days of June 2026 have thrown up multiple news stories about the global cement trade and its intertwined supply chains – formal or otherwise. High demand is one common thread across markets, along with predictably high prices.

In South America, authorities are looking into reasons for rising cement prices. The public prosecutor's office of Bolivia’s Oruro department launched an investigation in response to complaints from the public on 8 June 2026. In Venezuela, meanwhile, the matter will go all the way to the top, when National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez reports to acting President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez on his on-going talks with the Türkiye-based operators of unspecified cement assets in the country. Jorge Rodríguez is trying to find out why prices are as high as they are in cement-producing Trujillo state. When told the figure, Rodríguez reportedly remarked “It can’t be!”

Turkish investment in Venezuela’s cement industry commenced under ousted President Nicolás Maduro, before his eventual abduction in January 2026. Local news sources have described the sector and Türkiye as ‘one of the main allies’ of Maduro. Whatever the actual political dimensions, Türkiye’s transatlantic enterprises can be expected to continue to press their advantages under the watchful eye of the US government.

To the north west, Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement Company (CCCL) responded to a cement shortage in Jamaica by increasing its production by 50% and sales volumes by 23% month-on-month in May 2026. Sales reached a record 111,000t, 2% above the previous record month of March 2021. The group bolstered CCCL’s domestic supply with an additional 23,900t-worth of imports.

A volume of new capacity never before seen outside of China, meanwhile, is under construction across an area encompassing the entire Middle East & Africa region, east to India and north into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries – read about it in the ‘Contracts’ feature of the forthcoming Global Cement July-August issue. Just yesterday, the state-owned Iraq Cement State Company invited bidders for three further cement plant projects in Iraq. The past decade of Iraqi reconstruction has relied primarily on cement from neighbouring Iran. With intermittent attacks on Iran by Israel and the US escalating on 10 June 2026, one might view the new round of capacity-building in Iraq as an investment in more than just the immediate needs of the domestic market.

Sneakiness is rarely to be encouraged, but desperate times make for desperate measures – and sometimes substantial returns. Off Bangladesh, 20 people were piloting two fishing boats loaded with 1700 bags of cement on a course for Myanmar’s war-torn Rakhine state on 2 June 2026, when the Bangladesh Navy intercepted the operation. The Myanmar government has been blockading Rakhine state since mid-2023.

The Philippines government announced safeguard measures of its own against Chinese and Indonesian cement imports on 2 June 2026, after they each exceeded the current thresholds as a share of total import volumes for exemption from import duties. China was the source of 23% of the Philippines’ first-quarter imports of cement in 2026 and 8% came from Indonesia. Both were behind Vietnam, with a 63% share.

Growth attracts regulation. In an effort to rationalise taxation of minerals, the provincial government of Pakistan’s Punjab province is attempting to implement raw materials royalties on cement ex-factory at a rate of 6%. The matter came to court on 5 June 2026, with judges warning that cement prices can be expected to rise proportionally.

Five-month 2026 data from Argentina and Brazil, published this week, strike a dissonant chord. Though ‘confidence remains high,’ the construction sector faces labour shortages, high interest rates, inflation and cost pressures connected to the Iran War. Five-month consumption was 27Mt in Brazil, up by 1% year-on-year, and 3.87Mt in Argentina, down by 3%.

Through good times and bad, producers and distributors will find ways of extracting maximum value for their product. Whatever barriers are set in the way, cement will continue to find a way through the cracks.


Canada: CarbonCure Technologies has elected Onne van der Weijde as its chair. He succeeds William Holden, who has worked as board director, vice president of sales, chair of the industry advisory council and chair since 2014.

Van der Weijde joined the company’s board in 2024 and has served as vice chair since 2025. He is also senior advisor to the CEO of CRH, board member and chair of the finance committee at Siam City Cement and a board member of subsidiary Republic Cement. He previously served as managing director and CEO of both Dangote Industries and Ambuja Cements. Van der Weijde holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Bradford in the UK and an undergraduate degree in General Business Administration and Management from the Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.


Bangladesh: Masud Khan, the CEO of Crown Cement, has received a government appointment to serve as chair of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. The position will require Khan to sever all other professional affiliations before assuming office for his four-year term, the Financial Express newspaper has reported.


France: Holcim has launched the sector’s first industrial-scale carbon capture test platform in Martres-Tolosane, France, to enable field testing and validation of technologies alongside third-party partners. Developed by Holcim’s research and development teams in Switzerland and France, CaptureLab enables Holcim, as well as manufacturers, startups and researchers, to test breakthrough carbon capture technologies and adapt them to cement manufacturing. The 2500m² platform is capable of analysing and processing CO₂ and other emissions from the cement industry. Its ‘plug-and-play’ architecture accommodates different carbon capture systems that can be connected to Holcim’s Martres-Tolosane plant.

Ram Muthu, Head of Group Operational Excellence, said “With CaptureLab, Holcim has built a unique facility to test and scale the most advanced carbon capture technologies through an agile, open innovation model with our valued partners. Validated technologies will be used at Holcim’s own sites, advancing our industry-shaping decarbonisation roadmap and contributing to the production of ‘near-zero’ cement. CaptureLab will advance our vision to be the leading partner for sustainable construction.”

For CaptureLab’s launch, Holcim is operating the platform while the first pilot project is being conducted by Air Liquide using its Cryocap proprietary technology. CaptureLab will allow Holcim’s partners to test and validate current or next-generation technologies – such as cryogenic treatment, chemical absorption, physical adsorption, membrane separation or biological processes – in real-world conditions and at scale.


Brazil: Cement sales in Brazil fell by 1% year-on-year to 5.7Mt in May 2026, according to the latest statistics from the National Cement Industry Union (SNIC). Accumulated sales in the first five months of 2026 rose by 1% year-on-year. Sales continue to be supported by the labour market and the real estate market, driven by the Minha Casa, Minha Vida housing programme. However, the industry is facing high interest rates, inflation and cost pressures from the instability in the Middle East.

In the real estate market, sales rose by 4% in the first quarter of 2026. Confidence in the construction sector remained stable in May 2026, although the building segment showed more pessimism in the face of labour shortages and cost pressures. 

SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said "The sector is experiencing mixed signals. On the one hand, it is undeniable that the strengthening of the labour market and updates to housing programmes are cornerstones for positive results. However, we are dealing with a negative scenario of a smaller drop in the interest rate and high inflation, accentuated by instability in the Middle East. Furthermore, the industry is closely monitoring the vote on the bill that proposes ending the 6x1 work schedule, since this possible labour change has the potential to significantly increase the industry's operating costs."


Spain: Cemex has sold over one million zero waste cement bags in the Balearic Islands, Spain, according to a press release from 9 June 2026. Introduced to local markets in late 2023, the bags are designed to dissolve completely during the mixing process, without generating waste or affecting the technical performance of the cement. The solution has helped prevent over one million bags from being treated or disposed of in landfill so far.

The zero waste bags contain Cemex’s Vertua® Supremo cements, which offer at least a 55% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to conventional cements. The reductions are calculated using CEM I cement manufactured in 2000 as a baseline, with a value of 0.822t of CO₂ per tonne of cement, according to the criteria accepted by the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA).


India: Sagar Cements announced that its subsidiary, Sagar Cements Pvt Ltd, has commissioned an additional cement grinding capacity of 0.5Mt/yr at its plant in Jeerabad, Madhya Pradesh. The unit has commenced commercial operations and SCMPL's total cement grinding capacity now stands at 1.5Mt/yr. Sagar Cements’ total capacity is now 11Mt/yr.


Denmark: Aalborg Portland signed a contract on 9 June 2026 with the country's energy agency for €2.2bn in subsidies for its carbon capture and storage (CCS) project from 2030.

"We can ​now take the decisive step toward realising a project that is not only ​significant in a Danish context, but is also among the largest industrial CO₂ capture projects in Europe," Aalborg Portland CEO Soren Holm Christensen said in a statement. Aalborg Portland will receive €117/t of CO₂ captured, corresponding to up to €147m/yr for 15 years, with the subsidies covering the capture, transport and storage of up to 1.25Mt/yr of CO2. The company added that it expects the project to account for more than half of the Danish CCS subsidy pool's overall ​target of capturing 2.3Mt/yr of CO2 ​from 2029.

Air ⁠Liquide will provide the capture technology for the project, while Harbour Energy will provide the transport infrastructure and storage, according to the company.


Iraq: Government-owned Iraq Cement State Company (ICSC) has invited companies to bid for three projects to develop cement plants in the country. The first and second projects will develop two new integrated plants, each with a capacity of 6000t/day. The first facility is due to be developed in the Kufa quarries area in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Governorate, and the second is due to be developed in the Mosul district of Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate. The third project is focused on expanding the existing Hadbaa cement plant, which is also located in the Mosul district.

The scope of the project includes establishing a new dry-process, gas-fuelled line capable of producing 3200t/day of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and sulphate-resistant cement (SRC). The new line needs to be capable of producing cement suitable for dam filling, according to ICSC. ICSC has invited ‘Iraqi and Arab investors’ to participate in the projects, according to Yahoo, as well as companies specialised in developing cement plants. The deadline for submitting bids for all three projects is 23 June 2026.


France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has announced the launch of H-CLAY, a new technology that enables the cold processing of clay into a co-product for use in the formulation of 0%-clinker cements. This technology is based on a process for cold-processing clay, without resorting to traditional calcination or flash-calcination processes and their associated CO₂ emissions. H-CLAY enables the recovery of various types of clay to be integrated as a co-product in the formulation of low-carbon cements, similar to slag in some of the company’s 0%-clinker cements.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, co-founders of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, said "The launch of H-CLAY marks a new milestone in Hoffmann Green's technological history. Having demonstrated that it is possible to mass produce and market high-performance clinker-free cements, we are now breaking new ground with the cold processing of clay, without calcination or flash-setting. This innovation perfectly illustrates our ambition: to develop disruptive technologies able to significantly reduce cement's carbon footprint, while meeting the technical requirements of the construction market.”


Argentina: Total cement despatches in Argentina fell by 2% year-on-year to 810,000t in May 2026, and accumulated despatches in the first five months of 2026 fell by 3% year-on-year to 3.87Mt. Domestic despatches fell by 1% year-on-year to 807,000t in May 2026, while exports fell to 3083t from 4809t in May 2025. Total cement consumption fell by 1% year-on-year to 807,000t in May 2026, with accumulated consumption in the first five months of 2026 down by 3% year-on-year to 3.85Mt. Imports fell to 179t in May 2026 from 62t in May 2025.


Germany: The FEhS Building Materials Institute has published a report on the Save CO2 project investigating the suitability of electric hot metal slag (EHMS) from hydrogen-based direct reduction steelmaking for use in cement production. The project aims to establish whether EHMS might replace conventional ground granulated blast furnace slag. Laboratory and large-scale trials showed that EHMS achieves glass contents close to 100% and achieved comparable 91-day compressive strengths to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and other slag cements in a 50% blend. Lifecycle assessments indicated a 35% reduction in CO2 emissions, subject to renewable energy supply. The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space funded the research.

FEhS Building Materials Institute says that the next steps will be to secure REACH registration and standardisation, ahead of eventually building a large-scale plant at a Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe site.


Turkmenistan: The upcoming state-owned 1Mt/yr Baharden II cement plant in Ahal Region is on track for commissioning later in 2026, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan has reported.

President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov said "I am firmly confident that the industrialists of our independent, neutral fatherland will continue to work selflessly in the future to transform the country into an ever more developed state, uninterruptedly supplying construction sites and the population with high-quality construction products, making a worthy contribution to strengthening the potential of the national economy."

The existing 1Mt/yr Baharden I cement plant doubled its six-month cement production year-on-year in 2026-to-date, to 419,000t.


Japan: UK-based Silchester International Investors has reduced its stake in Sumitomo Osaka Cement by 1.1%. Reuters has reported that the hedge fund management company previously held 19.4% of shares, and now holds 18.3%.


Armenia: The Prosecutor General's Office has filed a lawsuit in defence of state interests over ‘violations’ during the privatisation of Ararat Cement, Emerging Market Watch News has reported. The plant is owned by Gagik Tsarukyan, president of Multi Group.

Tsarukyan will reportedly take legal action in response.

Global Cement News reported the planned nationalisation of Ararat Cement on 21 May 2026.


Bolivia: The public prosecutor's office of Oruro Department has opened an investigation into ‘unjustified cement prices rises’ following complaints. NF News has reported that the investigation will aim to identify the origin of price rises within the production and distribution chain.


Venezuela: The National Assembly President, Jorge Rodríguez, has summoned those connected to the supply of imported Turkish cement to explain a rise in prices. NF News has reported that the discussions will explore cost structures and market conditions.


Zimbabwe: Shuntai Investments has signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with China’s CBMI Construction for the development of a 6000t/day clinker production line in Zvishavane, Zimbabwe, according to NewsDay. CBMI managing director Zhang Sicai and Shuntai chair Xing Mingchang signed the agreement in Beijing.

“This collaboration fully reflects CBMI Construction’s technical expertise and professional advantages in the cement engineering sector, opening new avenues for the regional company to serve the Zimbabwean and surrounding markets,” CBMI said in a statement.

“Upon completion, the project will effectively boost local clinker and cement supply capacity, providing solid support for Zimbabwe’s infrastructure development and industrial growth.”


France: Vicat has announced an investment of €7.5m to electrify equipment at its Xeuilley site in Meurthe-et-Moselle based on technology from start-up Noc Energy, supported by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), according to local press. Electrically-generated heat will be used to preheat material in a crusher that was previously heated using coal. Vicat says that this will reduce its CO₂ emissions by 12,000t/yr, or 80%. Commissioning is planned for 2028 and will increase energy demand from 13MW to 28MW. Electrification of the clay firing is also planned for 2031.


Czech Republic: Cement Hranice, part of Germany-based Dyckerhoff, increased its net profit from US$46m in 2024 to US$51.1m in 2025. Revenues rose by 6% to US$140m, according to its annual report. In 2025, Cement Hranice sold cement worth US$122m, compared with US$111m in 2024. Export revenues totalled US$15.6m, down by US$2.6m year-on-year.

In 2025 Cement Hranice invested in improving technological processes, innovation and increasing production efficiency. Board chair Pavel Baros said "An investment of US$33.7m has been approved for our plant for separate grinding and the production of blended cements.”


Pakistan: The Federal Constitutional Court has raised concerns over Punjab’s 6% royalty imposed on the ex-factory price of cement, questioning whether the levy is being applied within legal bounds. The court observed that the structure appears to shift the royalty away from raw minerals and onto the finished product. During proceedings, judges highlighted that royalty, in principle, should be charged on extracted minerals such as limestone and clay, rather than on processed cement bags. The court said that the current mechanism could effectively function as a tax on production rather than a resource-based royalty. The court further observed that any upward adjustment in royalty is likely to be passed through the supply chain, ultimately hitting consumers through higher cement prices, rather than being absorbed by producers.


Brazil: CSN will receive binding offers for its ‌cement unit until 7 August 2026, according to Reuters, with the ​firm reportedly receiving at least seven proposals in the transaction's ⁠non-binding phase. Among interested investors for the ​deal, which could raise almost US$2bn, are China-based Sinoma and Huaxin Building Materials, Germany’s Heidelberg Materials and Brazilian firm ​Votorantim Cimentos. J&F and Suzano Holding were initially interested, but have reportedly already left discussions. CSN chair Benjamin Steinbruch said that the company had received “good proposals, in greater numbers than expected” and that it was “working to narrow these proposals down and quickly reach a conclusion.”


Libya: Gebr. Pfeiffer will supply an MVR 3750 R-4 vertical roller mill to Libya, marking the first MVR mill installed in the country, according to the company. The contract was awarded by Al Abraj Cement Industry, a Libyan manufacturer and supplier of cement and other building materials. The company is part of Whiba Holding and reportedly plans to increase the production capacity of its plants and build additional facilities. The raw mill is equipped with an SLS 3750 VR classifier and grinds 275t/hr of raw material to a fineness of 10% residue at 0.09mm. The raw material is dried from a feed moisture content of approximately 8.4% to a residual moisture of less than 1%. The mill drive has an installed power of 2350 kW. The project is being handled by China-based contractor Chengdu Design Institute. Commissioning is planned for the second half of 2027.


Jamaica: Caribbean Cement Company (CCCL) says cement availability has improved significantly in recent weeks, with supply increasing by more than 20% after heavy rainfall in April 2026 disrupted operations. In a statement on 3 June 2026, managing director Jorge Martinez said the company has been taking steps to stabilise supply and meet strong demand across the local market.

Martinez said “Between April and May 2026, CCCL increased production by more than 50% and customer despatches by over 23%, driving record sales of about 110,757t and surpassing the previous high of 108,500t set in March 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“To support local demand, we also leveraged our Cemex network to import up to 23,852t of cement at the end of May 2026, with additional shipments to reinforce supply and maintain market stability,” he added.

The company said it has introduced several strategic initiatives to improve operational efficiency, such as expanding warehouse capacity and adding equipment to increase production output.


Liberia: Cement production increased by 33% quarter-over-quarter, reaching 0.26Mt in the first quarter of 2026. This marks an increase from 0.19Mt in the preceding quarter, as reported in the latest Financial & Economic Bulletin released by the Central Bank of Liberia.

The rise in cement output has been attributed to sustained construction activity during the country’s dry season, coupled with new production capacity. Production has increased by 48% year-on-year from 172,590t recorded in the first quarter of 2025.


Bangladesh/Myanmar: The Bangladesh Navy has seized 1700 bags of cement from two fishing boats and detained 20 people on board who were bound for Myanmar’s Rakhine State, according to a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Bangladesh Armed Forces on 2 June 2026. The Navy intercepted the two boats during a patrol in the Bay of Bengal. According to the report, authorities recovered 900 bags of cement from a vessel named Ma-2 and 800 bags from another named Nishan-2. 20 individuals were arrested for attempting to illegally smuggle the cement into Myanmar.

During initial questioning, the detainees admitted they were trafficking the cement to Rakhine State in hopes of turning a high profit. Both the seized cargo and the suspects have been handed over to the police for processing. Since the resurgence of the conflict in May 2023, the Myanmar military junta has strictly prohibited the transport of goods from central Myanmar into Rakhine State. As a result, the region has relied heavily on consumer goods imported from India and Bangladesh through informal agreements. However, the Bangladeshi government has actively cooperated with the Myanmar military regime to restrict such movements.