While the outlook for the German cement sector is expected to stay positive, all forces are now focussed towards achieving climate targets. With 2050 still far in the future, the industry is building on introducing cements with lower clinker factors to the market, and initiating first pilot and demonstration plants for capturing CO2. It is already clear that this immense transformation process cannot be achieved by the industry alone but needs strong support from policymakers and, finally, acceptance by society. By Martin Schneider and Dennis Behrouzi, VDZ, Germany.
With 21 companies the German cement industry is represented by a mix of medium-sized, often family-owned enterprises as well as large international organisations. They operate 54 cement plants, including 33 integrated plants. With around 8000 employees and using 51Mt of raw materials, the industry produced 35.5Mt of cement and 24.7Mt of cement clinker in 2020. In doing so, it generated a revenue of around EUR3.1bn (see Table 1).
