Belgium: Holcim kicked-off its Go4Zero project at its Obourg plant on 16 May 2024 in an event attended by the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and the European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra. The €500m Go4Zero project, supported with €230m of funding from the European Union, will enable the integrated plant to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 30% by 2027 and to produce 2Mt/yr of CO2-free cement by 2029. When fully operational, the Obourg plant will capture 1.2Mt/yr of CO₂.

The Go4Zero project incorporates a number of approaches to achieve net-zero CO₂ cement. The centrepiece is an oxy-fuel combustion process to generate an easy-to-handle exhaust gas with up to 80% CO₂. This will be coupled to a cryogenic purification unit to generate a >99%-pure CO₂ stream .The project will also make use of waste heat recovery (WHR), new exhaust filtration equipment and Europe’s largest floating solar panel farm.

Colombia: Cementos Argos reported revenues of US$1.3bn in the first quarter of 2024, 6.4% year-on-year lower than the same period of 2023. The company recorded adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$291m, 2% above the value in the same period of the previous year. It reported decreases of 13% and 6% in cement and concrete volumes respectively, which it attributed to there being five fewer business days in the 2024 period due to the timing of Easter holidays.

US: Sublime Systems has announced the first-ever commercial application of its low-carbon Sublime Cement product at WS Development’s One Boston Wharf building in Massachusetts. The concrete placement is located in the Paseo indoor public space at the office building. The floor will be marked with educational materials explaining the significance of decarbonised cement in combating global climate change.

Leah Ellis, the CEO and Co-Founder of Sublime Systems, said “Buildings are monuments to the values of the people who build them, and the One Boston Wharf project represents WS Development’s leadership in ushering in our post-carbon future.” She continued “They are creating not only the building but the world where people want to be. We are honoured to have Sublime Cement featured so prominently here and are confident this pioneering place will inspire infrastructure owners everywhere to embrace low-embodied-carbon materials as a powerful tool for achieving our global net-zero goals.”

Saudi Arabia: The net profit of Southern Province Cement rose by 27% year-on-year to US$16.5m in the first quarter of 2024 from US$13.0m a year earlier. However, its revenues fell by 16% relative to the first quarter of 2023, reaching US$66.9m.