US/Canada: President Donald Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on a wide range of goods from Canada, including cement, for what he called ‘unequal treatment’ of US cars, dairy and alcohol. Trump invoked Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which permits a president to impose punitive tariffs of up to 50% against trading partners deemed to have ‘discriminated’ against US goods. It marks the law’s first known usage in nearly 100 years of existence, according to Reuters. The new tariffs will take effect in 30 days, or from 19 August 2026.

No more specific details were disclosed regarding the impact on the cement sector. Canada has a production capacity of 19Mt/yr and the US is its major export market, so major disruption is expected.

UK: Dragon Alfa Cement, a subsidiary of Cementos Portland Valderrivas that imports cement into the UK, has been fined €1.1m after one of its workers died after being crushed by equipment at the company’s bagging plant in Gloucestershire. Martin Bennett, 35, was crushed by a 1.6t concrete weight, used to raise pallets containing 25kg bags of cement. The fatal incident took place on 4 August 2021. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that a large section of the equipment’s perimeter fencing had been removed routinely over a prolonged period, allowing full access to dangerous, moving parts of the machinery. Dragon Alfa Cement was fined and ordered to pay an additional €11,275 in costs at court in Bristol on 21 July 2026.

India: JK Cement has partnered with Billion Electric to deploy more than 150 heavy-duty electric trucks during its current financial year, which began in June 2026, to decarbonise its operations. The partnership began with the deployment of 20 trucks, with a gross vehicle weight of 55t, from JK Cement’s Muddapur plant in Karnataka. The trucks will transport cement to stockpiles across Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa. The deployment will be supported by ChargeZone’s high-speed charging network across the three states.

Spain: According to the latest data by the Spanish Cement Manufacturers Association (Oficemen), 8.35Mt of cement were consumed between January to June 2026, 0.58Mt more than in the same period of 2025. In June 2026, consumption reached 1.56Mt, representing a year-on-year increase of 9% and 129,232t more than in the same month of 2025.

From July 2025 to June 2026, consumption stood at 17.23Mt, 12% more than in the previous twelve months. Conversely, exports continued their downward trend. For the first half of 2026, they fell by 15% to 1.95Mt, which is 0.35Mt less than the first half of 2025.

In June 2026, foreign sales fell by 12% to 0.36Mt. Exports declined by 15% year-on-year to 4.14Mt. The general director of Oficemen, Elena Guede, stated that the decline in exports is due to a structural problem and noted that the sector's foreign sales have been reduced by more than half since 2016, falling from 9.8Mt to 4.5Mt in 2025. Guede called for structural measures to reduce the energy costs of the Spanish cement industry and stated that the sector competes with a higher electricity cost structure than other European countries.

Oficemen anticipates a slowdown in the second half of the year and estimates that cement consumption growth will be around 2% by the end of 2026.