Vietnam: Exports of cement and clinker from Vietnam totalled 23.9Mt during the first nine months of 2023, down by 0.4% from nine-month 2022 levels. Việt Nam News has reported that the value of the country’s cement exports dropped by 2.6% year-on-year to US$1.03bn.
Throughout 2022, Vietnam exported 31.1Mt of cement, for US$1.36bn.
India: Heidelberg Materials has entered preliminary discussions over the possible acquisition of its Indian business by JSW Cement. The business commands 13.4Mt/yr in cement production capacity, 7.1Mt/yr (53%) of it via Zuari Cement and 6.3Mt (47%) via HeidelbergCement India.
ET Now News has reported that JSW Cement made an unsolicited offer for the assets. The company aims to raise its capacity by 46% to 60Mt/yr by the end of 2028, in order to be among the top five cement producers in India.
Pakistan: Cement producers increased their sales volumes by 23% year-on-year during the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, which began on 1 July 2023. They recorded despatches of 11.9Mt during the quarter, compared to 9.62Mt during the first quarter of the previous financial year. The Express Tribune newspaper has reported that exports grew by 72% year-on-year to 1.75Mt from 1.02Mt.
UK: The Cement 2 Zero project has successfully concluded its first trial melt of recovered cement paste in an electric arc furnace at the Materials Processing Institute’s Teesside campus. The project uses the paste as flux for electric steel recycling. Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) has demonstrated that the ‘slag’ from this process can be ground into fine clinker that, when mixed with gypsum and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), produces net zero CO2 cement. The Cement 2 Zero project to produce CEC’s cement at an industrial scale launched in March 2023, with US$7.85m in funding from UK Research and Innovation. Tarmac will grind the clinker from the project’s trial melts for testing in order to obtain certification and specification as a usable cement product.
