Australia: James Hardie has published its Sustainability Report 2023, recording its progress towards achieving its sustainability goals up to the end of the 2023 financial year on 31 March 2023. The producer's Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions dropped by 26% compared to 2019 levels, against a new target of a 42% drop by 2030. Environmental product declarations (EPDs) covered 94% of its sales, ahead of a target for the year of 80%. The company launched a new goal to include 30% minority-identified people in its US management.

Chief sustainability officer and vice president, environmental social and governance, Jill Kolling said “Sustainability is a continuous journey, but a necessary one to drive value for our stakeholders, while delivering on our ambition to be a more resilient company. From our boardroom to our manufacturing plants, we are giving sustainability a place at the table to drive meaningful impact and instill accountability across all facets of our organisation.”

US: Heidelberg Materials North America and Levy Group of Companies signed a granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contract on 9 August 2023. Under the contract, Levy Group of Companies will supply Heidelberg Materials North America with 400,000t/yr of GBFS for use in its slag cement production. Deliveries will begin in early 2024. Heidelberg Materials North America says that it has upgraded its Speed cement plant in Indiana to increase the efficiency with which it grinds GBFS. Following the inauguration of its nearby 2.4Mt/yr Mitchell cement plant in June 2023, Heidelberg Materials North America plans to transition the 1Mt/yr to 100% speciality and slag cement production. Levy Group of Companies will supply the GBFS from steel industry sites in the Midwest Region.

Heidelberg Materials Midwest US president Axel Conrads said “Our agreement with the Levy Group of Companies to secure a consistent supply of slag granules will help us accelerate the transition of the Speed plant to slag cement production and better meet the increasing demand for more sustainable cement products in the growing Midwest market.”

Tajikistan: Cement producers exported 538,000t of cement during the first half of 2023, down by 20% year-on-year from 676,000t during the first quarter of 2022. Uzbekistan received 342,000t (64%) of Tajikistan's cement exports, while Afghanistan received 194,000t (36%). The Tajik government banned cement exports for five days in July 2023, due to a domestic cement shortage that affected important infrastructure projects. Asia-PLUS News has reported that the government now expects producers to export 1.5Mt of cement throughout 2023. The Tajikistan cement industry is expected to produce 4.5Mt of cement in 2023, corresponding to a capacity utilisation of 80% across its 5.6Mt/yr installed capacity.

Italy: Alpacem subsidiary W&P Cementi has concluded a deal to buy Buzzi’s Fanna cement plant in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The plant has a clinker capacity of 660,000t/yr. As a part of the deal, Buzzi will obtain a 25% stake in Alpacem’s Austrian subsidiary Alpacem Zement Austria. Alpacem said that the deal expands the companies’ existing strategic partnership into the Austrian market. The parties expect to conclude the deal, pending the approval of competition authorities, in 2024.

Alpacem chief executive officers Bernhard Auer and Lutz Weber said “We are pleased to be expanding the strategic partnership. There are many future challenges in the cement sector that we can solve better together than we can individually.”