Mexico: Cemex has launched a sustainability-linked financing framework. It says that it is the ‘most comprehensive’ such framework in the building materials sector. The framework further aligns Cemex’s corporate sustainability commitments to its financing strategy, as part of its ‘Future in Action’ program. It establishes Cemex’s guiding principles when issuing new sustainability-linked financing instruments, including public bonds, private placements, loans, derivatives, working capital solutions and other financing instruments. Sustainalytics, an independent company that specialises in providing environmental, social and corporate governance research, ratings and data to institutional investors and companies, validated the framework’s alignment with the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles, the International Capital Market Association’s Climate Transition Finance Handbook and the Loan Market Association’s Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles.

“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we will continue to address it as a fundamental component of our business strategy,” said Maher Al-Haffar, Cemex's chief financial officer. “Cemex is committed to increasing the role sustainable finance plays in its capital structure by potentially linking the cost of financial instruments to the achievement of targets, directly aligning our corporate finance strategy to sustainability commitments and further contributing to a low-carbon future.”

Cemex has included three key performance indicators in the framework: net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious product, clean electricity consumption and alternative fuels rate. All of them were qualified by Sustainalytics and deemed aligned with the company’s climate action strategy. Cemex currently has a 2030 target of reaching below 475kg/t of CO₂ for cementitious products.

Switzerland: Holcim has announced further details of its ‘nature-positive’ 2030 biodiversity and water management strategy. The producer says that under the strategy it will implement a 33% reduction in its cement operations’ water intensity by 2030. It will reduce the water intensity of its ready-mix concrete operations by 15% over the same period. Across all its activities, it is aiming to achieve water positivity at 75% of its sites and install a water recycling system at every site. The company says that it will continue to develop and deploy its nature-based approach across its products and solutions.

Sweden: Cementa has said that it ‘views positively’ the Swedish government's rapid action in proposing a new bill on limestone mining licencing. It lobbied the government to stick to its schedule to have a temporary licence in place for Cementa’s use of its quarries in Gotland by 31 October 2021. The group said that it is working ‘with full force’ to find practical and legal solutions to secure the Swedish cement supply in the short and long term.

Sustainability manager Karin Comstedt-Webb said “It will be important that the time frames are not limited by the new bill, but that it enables flexibility to secure Swedish cement supply in the future, so that we avoid ending up in the same problematic situation again in just a number of months.” She added “I want to emphasise that Cementa in all situations works with high environmental requirements. Our ambition remains to be able to show that our industrial operations and the production of the building material cement can go hand in hand with protection of Gotland's nature, water and people.”

US: The US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a 0.8% year-on-year increase in total US cement shipments in the first half of 2021 to 50.4Mt from 50.0Mt in the first half of 2021. Domestic deliveries constituted 85% of the total at 42.6Mt, against 7.75Mt of imports (15%). Clinker imports were 1.23Mt, with a total value of US$81.6m. Turkey was the lead exporter of clinker to the US in 2020 at 470,000t (38%), followed by Saudi Arabia with 466,000t (38%) and Canada with 276,000t (22%).