On September 22, the interim board of directors of Taiwan Cement passed an authorization to TCC Group EMEA by its Dutch subsidiary with an enterprise value not exceeding 750 million euros (about 5.732 billion yuan). Acquisition of Ivano-Frankivskcement (IFCEM), a Ukrainian cement enterprise, together with 100% equity in three affiliated companies of roof building materials, gypsum products and dry-mixed mortar.
IFCEM is the second largest cement company in Ukraine, with a market share of about 36%. It is based in Ivano-Frankivsk in the west, about 760 kilometers away from the war zone. Its products are exported to Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.
Almost at the same time, a bigger hand came from the other direction. According to Bloomberg News on September 18, Huaxin submitted a binding offer of about 11 billion reals (about 14.2 billion yuan) to bid for CSN Cimentos, Brazil's second largest cement manufacturer, with an annual capacity of about 17 million tons (including grinding stations). It should be noted that the details of the offer came from unnamed people familiar with the matter. CSN's official announcement only said that it had "received a binding offer" and did not disclose the list and amount. At present, the winning bidder has not yet announced.
AI Health Map is for reference
only. Why do the leading enterprises increase their overseas prices one after another? Huaxin's data for the first half of the year gave the most straightforward explanation. In the first half
of 2026, Huaxin's revenue was 19.497 billion yuan, up 21.5% year on year; its net profit attributable to parent company was 1.713 billion yuan, up 55.22% year on year. Almost all the growth came from overseas: the sales volume of overseas cement and clinker was 13.1752 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of 57.06%; the overseas revenue was 8.542 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 106.93%, accounting for 46.2%, and the gross profit rate was 46.4%.
During the same period, the domestic volume increased and the price decreased-cement sales increased by 11.7% year-on-year, while revenue decreased by 11.62%. Overseas segment profits totaled 3.080 billion yuan, an increase of 276% over the previous year, accounting for more than 90% of the company's total profits.
When the domestic market falls into the stock game, overseas high gross profit and high growth rate have become the main support for the growth of leading enterprises. The fundamental driving force of
this round of overseas layout is the cold and hot domestic and international markets.
Domestic market: The demand continues to decline, and the incremental space is very small. The deep adjustment of
real estate has not yet ended, the growth rate of infrastructure investment has slowed down, and the two pillars of cement demand have weakened at the same time. In the first half of 2026, the total cement output in China was 736 million tons, down 8% from the same period last year, the lowest level in the same period in recent years. The more intuitive signal is the price: Huaxin's domestic cement sales in the first half of the year increased by 11.7% compared with the same period last year, but its revenue dropped by 11.62%-selling more goods, but receiving less money. This is not the plight of individual enterprises, but the true portrayal of the cycle of "quantity for price, price for quantity" in the whole industry.
Overseas market: The demand space is broad, the price and the profit are both high. In sharp contrast
to the domestic stock game, many overseas markets are in a period of demand expansion. Ukraine's reconstruction and rehabilitation needs over the next decade are estimated to be about $588 billion, nearly three times its nominal GDP in 2025. Local cement consumption has fallen from 10.6 million tons before the war to 4.5 million tons in 2022, and has now stabilized to 6.2 million to 6.5 million tons, with a clear space for rehabilitation. Brazil is the largest cement market in Latin America. The annual production capacity of CSN Cimentos is about 17 million tons, supporting terminals and distribution centers all over the country. Huaxin has acquired four aggregate plants in Sao Paulo in 2025. If it wins CSN cement, it will form a complete coverage of "aggregate + cement". The
difference is finally reflected in the profit: in the first half of 2026, the overseas gross profit rate of Huaxin reached 46.4%, and the overseas gross profit rate of Conch Cement was 47.44%, both of which far exceeded the domestic level. On the one hand, the more you sell, the less you earn. On the other hand, the more you sell, the more you earn. Profits will point to their own direction.
In this round of overseas layout, the western cement is one of the samples with the most obvious structural changes. In the first half
of 2026, the company's overseas revenue was 3.029 billion yuan, accounting for 67% of the group's total revenue; the overseas profit was 739 million yuan, an increase of 61.9% over the same period last year; the overseas sales volume was 5.39 million tons, accounting for 51.1% of the group's total sales volume, surpassing the domestic market for the first time. Overseas gross profit per ton was RMB222, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.65%, and the overseas business contributed approximately 92% of the Group's gross profit.
On the contrary, the domestic revenue in the same period was 1.549 billion yuan, down 50.56% from the same period last year, with a profit of-204 million yuan, turning from profit to loss. The gross profit per ton in Shaanxi, the core market, was only 16 yuan/ton, while that in Guizhou was-43 yuan/ton. For
this reason, the company's strategy has been very clear: the domestic business promotes asset divestiture, and the overseas business continues to increase. With the production capacity of Uganda production line climbing, Zimbabwe and Angola production lines put into operation within the year, the proportion of overseas production capacity will be further increased.
Going to sea is no longer the tactical action of individual enterprises. Statistics from China Cement Network show that by the end of 2025, 92 clinker production lines have been put into operation overseas by domestic cement enterprises, with a total capacity exceeding 102 million tons, an increase of 17.01% over the same period last year. Among them, China New Building Materials ranked first with 26.598 million tons of overseas clinker production capacity, Taiwan Cement ranked second with 18.035 million tons, and Conch Cement ranked third with 16.461 million tons.
However, this road is not a sure thing. Conch Cement's overseas revenue in the first half of the year increased by 20.98% year-on-year, gross interest rate reached 47.44%, but the net exchange loss in the same period was as high as 606 million yuan. Money in Southeast Asia and Africa is not so easy to earn, and local currency devaluation, foreign exchange control and exchange rate fluctuations continue to erode book profits.
Domestic overcapacity is structural, and it can not be increased by price reduction. The allocation of production capacity and capital to the market with growing demand and strong prices is an inevitable choice after the industry matures-but whether it can be stable or not is not only the ability to take orders, but also the real ability to control exchange rate exposure and transnational operation.
浙公网安备33010802003254号