Global Cement News

India: A report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), funded by power provider BP, has estimated that India’s cement and steel sectors will require capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments of US$627bn in order to reach net zero CO₂ emissions. The report stated that waste heat recovery (WHR) and other efficiency-enhancing upgrades to cement plants can immediately reduce the industry’s emissions by 32%.

United News of India has reported that CEEW CEO Arunabha Ghosh said "Incentivising renewable energy will play a pivotal role in decarbonisation, through lower or no transmission charges at central and state levels. The government of India should develop a policy for and expedite the establishment of a carbon capture, utilisation and storage ecosystem to abate more than half of the emissions from the existing steel and cement plants.” Ghosh added “Since hydrogen will play a key role in its implementation, the next phase of the National Green Hydrogen Mission should focus on this agenda."

India: BK Birla Group subsidiary Kesoram Industries sold 3.73Mt of cement during the first half of its 2024 financial year (1 April 2023 – 30 September 2023). This corresponds to a rise of 17% year-on-year from 3.19Mt in the first half of the previous financial year. The producer’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 57% to US$26m from US$16.6m.

Colombia: A court has ordered Grupo Argos to hand over 490 hectares of land in Sucre. The El Colombiano newspaper has reported that the land’s original owners sold their land to Grupo Argos between 2005 and 2007, amid civil conflict. The company argued that it had made the purchase in good faith, however the court rejected this, given that paramilitary violence in the area was a matter of public knowledge. Grupo Argos subsidiary Tekia subsequently planted teak trees on the land as part of the group’s carbon offsetting efforts. The Colombian Land Restitution Unit will now use the land to generate funding for repatriation programmes for people who fled the war.

UK: First Graphene and Breedon Group have entered into a development and commercialisation agreement. Together, the companies aim to enhance Breedon Cement’s CEM II Portland limestone cement (PLC) through the use of First Graphene’s graphene enhanced grinding aids and cement admixtures. Breedon will provide increased access to cement production lines in order to optimise the understanding of the processing environment and operating conditions.

Breedon Group’s Hope cement plant in Derbyshire previously conducted a 24-hour graphene-enhanced cement production trial on 28 June 2023.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement reported sales of US$65.2m during the first nine months of 2023. This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 4.8% from US$68.5m in the corresponding period of 2022. Steppe Cement forecast a year-on-year decline in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in full-year 2023 from US$30.9m in 2022, due partly to the impact of inflation on costs, including energy costs.

CEO Javier del Ser Perez said "Despite a slightly smaller domestic cement market so far in 2023, we remain confident that the company will continue to deliver strong sales figures going forward."