South Korea: Cement packaging will now be required to display information on waste materials used in production under the revised Waste Management Act, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment has announced. The regulation mandates that packaging show the types and amounts of waste materials used as alternative raw materials. A ministry source said “The outer surface of the packaging will only display the types of waste materials input, and scanning the QR code will link to a detailed information page about heavy metals and other components.”

Combustible waste such as tyres is also used as kiln fuel. The ministry said that South Korea is the first country to legally require disclosure of the kinds of waste material used in cement. The government is also pursuing revisions to the Housing Act to ensure that the types of cement used in new buildings are publicly disclosed.

Pakistan: Local cement despatches rose by 15% year-on-year to 3.93Mt in October 2025, up from 3.41Mt in October 2024, according to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). Exports fell by 23% from 1.1Mt to 0.83Mt, bringing total despatches to 4.75Mt, an increase of 6% year-on-year. In the first four months of the 2026 financial year, total despatches reached 17.3Mt, up by 15% from 15Mt a year earlier. Domestic sales rose by 18% to 13.9Mt, while exports increased by 6% year-on-year from 3.22Mt to 3.42Mt.

An APCMA spokesman said “The decline in exports over the past two months is a matter of concern. If this trend continues, it may dent our hopes of a full cement sector revival.”

Ukraine: PrJSC Mykolaivcement recorded a 1.9-fold rise in net profit to US$10.9m between January and September 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Income from ordinary activities grew by 34% year-on-year to US$45.6m, while gross profit rose by 48% to US$17m. Retained earnings fell by 81% to US$2.6m. In the third quarter of 2025, the company produced 204,500t of cement worth US$12.5m and sold 210,700t for US$20m.

Mykolaivcement said its operations were affected by martial law, exchange rate fluctuations and reduced construction activity due to the political and economic situation in the country. The company cited labour shortages, slow economic recovery and geopolitical instability as continuing challenges.

India: Ambuja Cements recorded a profit after tax of US$259m in the second quarter of the 2026 financial year (FY2026), which runs from July to September, up from US$55.8m in the same period of the 2025 financial year. Revenue from operations rose by 18% year-on-year, from US$850m to US$1.03bn.

CEO Vinod Bahety said “This quarter has been noteworthy for the cement industry. Despite the headwinds from prolonged monsoons, the sector will benefit from the tailwinds of several favourable developments including GST 2.0 reforms, the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), and the withdrawal of coal cess (tax). We have upped our FY2028 target capacity by 15Mt/yr, from 140Mt/yr to 155Mt/yr. This increase of 15Mt/yr from debottlenecking initiatives will come at a much lower capex of US$48/t.”Bahety said that debottlenecking of plant logistics infrastructure will also increase the utilisation of the company’s existing capacity of 107Mt/yr by 3%.