Madhumitha Jaganmohan
Research expert covering climate and environmental sustainability
Global cement industry - statistics & facts
Cement is a key construction material used throughout the world as a binding agent in concrete and mortar. The history of cement dates back nearly 2,000 years to ancient Rome and Greece, when lime was mixed with volcanic ash and water to form a binder. Today, raw materials used in the production of cement include lime, silica, alumina, and various other mineral ingredients. This mixture is ground, mixed, and heated at high temperatures in a rotary kiln to produce clinker, an intermediary product. The clinker is then finely ground and mixed with gypsum to produce cement.
Mixing cement with water and coarse aggregates like stone and gravel produces concrete, the world’s most widely used building material. Applications of concrete include building foundations, massive constructions such as dams, and as load-bearing structural elements of buildings when the concrete is combined with steel. In 2021, nearly 73 percent of the cement used in the United States was for ready-made concrete mixes. Global cement production has increased substantially since the 1990s. The leading producers of cement in 2021 included China, India, Vietnam, the United States, and Turkey. All of these nations experienced an upward trend in cement production compared to 2010 levels.
Mixing cement with water and coarse aggregates like stone and gravel produces concrete, the world’s most widely used building material. Applications of concrete include building foundations, massive constructions such as dams, and as load-bearing structural elements of buildings when the concrete is combined with steel. In 2021, nearly 73 percent of the cement used in the United States was for ready-made concrete mixes. Global cement production has increased substantially since the 1990s. The leading producers of cement in 2021 included China, India, Vietnam, the United States, and Turkey. All of these nations experienced an upward trend in cement production compared to 2010 levels.
China: a key player in the global cement industry
China’s booming construction industry has made it the world’s largest market player in the cement sector. Annual cement production in China far outpaces every other nation. In 2020, the Chinese cement company CNBM was the world’s leading cement manufacturer in terms of revenue. The intense industrialization that China has undergone in the past two decades has contributed greatly to the nation’s production of cement. In 2020, nearly 2.4 billion metric tons were produced, compared to around 600 million tons at the turn of the century.Cement sector emissions
Due to the energy intensity of its production process, the cement industry is one of the leading emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2). Moreover, there has been an upward trend in CO2 emissions from cement production in many countries over the past two decades. As cement emissions are rising significantly in industrializing nations, the environmental impacts of the cement sector are sure to be a pressing issue for years to come.
