The Mineral Products Association has appointed former Cemex communications and public affairs director Martin Casey as senior director for cement and lime, succeeding Diana Casey after more than 20 years with the producer and a year consulting for the MPA on government engagement. His appointment comes as UK cement imports have tripled in two decades while domestic output has fallen to a 75‑year low, intensifying pressure on local kilns and clinker capacity. New EU carbon border charges this year are expected to divert more global cement shipments towards the UK, sharpening competitiveness and carbon‑policy risks for domestic producers.

Nordic–Dutch startup Paebbl is producing an olivine-based cement substitute via accelerated CO2 mineralisation in low-energy reactors, claiming a net negative footprint of –14.4kg CO2‑equivalent per tonne (cradle-to-gate) and storage of about 21kg CO2 per m³ of concrete at typical replacement rates. The material has moved from gramme-scale tests to an operational pilot in 18 months and has already been used in a Rotterdam quay wall grout by Hakkers, the 1917 Veerhuis restoration, and a 7m-span “carbon-neutral” concrete footbridge by Heijmans. Classified as CCUS, the process permanently binds captured industrial CO2 into stable carbonate minerals that remain locked in even after demolition, offering structural-grade, carbon-storing concrete mixes rather than purely low-embodied-carbon variants.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and Empa have developed a recyclable sawdust–struvite composite board that is stronger in compression perpendicular to grain than spruce and shows cone calorimeter ignition times of 45 seconds, around three times longer than untreated timber. The material uses an enzyme from watermelon seeds to control crystallisation of struvite from newberyite, forming large crystals that infill voids between sawdust particles and act as an inorganic flame retardant, potentially matching cement‑bonded particleboard fire classes with only 40% binder by weight. Panels can be mechanically ground, heated to just over 100°C to release ammonia, and fully separated for reuse or as a phosphorus fertiliser, with future cost reductions possible by sourcing struvite from sewage treatment plant deposits.