Global Cement News

Denmark: FLSmidth has entered into a share purchase agreement with Nrep and AG Gruppen to sell its subsidiary Matr. No 2055 A/S, which owns the land and buildings at Vigerslev Allé 77 in Valby, Copenhagen. The company has been based at the Valby site since 1899, with the current buildings built in 1956. In 2022, FLSmidth announced plans to relocate its headquarters to a news site in Havneholmen, Copenhagen in late 2025.

FLSmidth expects net cash proceeds of approximately US$112m upon the closing of the transaction, scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2026, subject to approval by the Danish Consumer and Competition Authority.

India: The Karatoya cement plant in Rajganj, West Bengal, will suspend operations for two months following the termination of its commercial agreement with a business partner, according to The Siliguri Times. The closure affects around 80 permanent and temporary workers, who staged a protest outside the plant. The company had reportedly been producing cement under contract for a ‘reputed’ cement brand for several years. The plant initially operated independently before transitioning to contract production.

Tapan Dey, president of workers organisation INTTUC Jalpaiguri district, said that plant management must provide at least two months of financial support to affected workers and that the matter would be raised with the Jalpaiguri Deputy Labour Commissioner.

Kyrgyzstan: President Sadyr Japarov has launched a new 0.8Mt/yr clinker production line at the Kant Cement plant. The project created over 300 new jobs and is expected to increase cement supply to the domestic construction industry. Construction of the dry-process line began in early 2024, with equipment supplied by China's Beijing Triumph International Engineering, a subsidiary of Sinoma. US$50m of the US$61m total investment was provided by the Eurasian Development Bank. In 2024, the plant produced 1.15Mt of cement.

President Japarov said “The launch of the new line is not just another production facility. It is a symbol of our industrial growth, professionalism of domestic engineers and workers, and, most importantly, the trust of investors in our country.”

Philippines: Just 53% of domestic cement production capacity is in use, according to Cement Manufacturers of the Philippines president Reinier Dizon, who raised concerns over the long-term sustainability of local producers amid an increase in ‘cheap’ imports.

Dizon spoke during a Tariff Commission public hearing, of which five days are scheduled until 20 June 2025, examining the imposition of definitive safeguard measures on imported Portland and blended cement.

The Department of Trade and Industry imposed a provisional safeguard in February 2025, following a preliminary finding that the rise in imports caused serious injury to the domestic industry between 2019 and June 2024. Vietnam and Indonesia, which supply 93% and 5% of imports respectively, were not exempted, while China, which supplies 1%, was.

Ireland: Irish Cement (ICL) has opposed a planned 139-home development by Tergnum Properties in Mungret over concerns it could ‘inhibit’ its future expansion, according to the Limerick Leader newspaper. The company said “This planning application is not consistent with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area,” and has reportedly written twice to the local authority to express its concern. The company’s agents indicated that permission would be sought for its own expansion plan in the future, which could take its plant just 40m from the rear wall of some of the proposed houses. They also said that Tergnum Properties should implement measures such as triple-glazed windows, to mitigate against the noise from the plant.

Irish Cement has 14 days to decide if it will appeal the council’s decision or lodge an appeal to the national planning authority.

“It is imperative to ICL that its strategically important cement plant facility and associated proven long-term reserves are protected. It is not evident from this application that limestone resources and cement plant activities on the adjacent lands will not be impacted by the proposed development,” the firm’s agents concluded.