Recently, the cement industry in Japan and South Korea is facing weak demand and profit pressure, and several major producers have announced plans to stop production or transform to cope with the cyclical adjustment of the market. The measures taken by two representative enterprises in Japan and South Korea reflect the common challenges faced by the regional market and their different coping strategies.
Japan's UBE Mitsubishi Cement plans to completely stop the production of the second area plant in Kyushu by the end of March 2027. The decision marks the withdrawal of the old plant, which has an annual capacity of about 1.5 million tons and has been operating since 1964. The shutdown will lead to a reduction of the company's overall production capacity by about 12%, which will have a certain impact on the supply side of the industry. The direct reason for the decision is the continuous shrinkage of domestic cement demand in Japan, which is expected to fall below the original 32 million tons in 2025. At the same time, the profitability of overseas export business in Southeast Asia and other markets has deteriorated significantly due to the impact of Chinese cement competition. In order to optimize the allocation of resources, the company decided to centralize production to the first regional factory in Tiantian to improve the overall operational efficiency. What is
more noteworthy is that the factory in the second area of Tian will be transformed into a waste recycling base, which reflects the strategic intention of enterprises to extend to the field of circular economy. The region will use existing waste plastic crushing and foreign matter removal equipment to process various types of waste and convert it into energy for clinker production in the first region plant. This transformation is deeply in line with UBE Mitsubishi's sustainable development goals, and the company plans to increase the proportion of waste alternative energy to 50% by 2030, creating new value growth points while reducing carbon emissions. 98 original employees will be transferred internally or resettled in the new recycling base to minimize the social impact of personnel adjustment. On the
South Korean side, Hanyi Cement announced a complete suspension of the operation of the Sunyang Sangu plant from January 1, 2026. The plant, which has been in operation for nearly 58 years since 1967, was shut down as a direct result of a sharp decline in cement shipments caused by a prolonged slump in the construction market. At present, the factory has about 40 employees and 70 cooperative enterprise personnel. After the shutdown, only 5 minimum personnel will be retained for mechanical inspection, and the rest will be transferred to Shanyang factory and Ningyue factory. The company's management admitted that the shutdown is a temporary measure, the observation period is expected to be 3 to 5 years, to be considered after the recovery of the construction market to restart, in the short term, the focus of production will be on the two main factories in Shanyang and Ningyue.
On the whole, although enterprises in both countries have cut production capacity in response to low demand, their path choices are different. Japanese enterprises pay more attention to industrial upgrading and green transformation, transforming idle production capacity into environmental protection assets, while Korean enterprises adopt a conservative wait-and-see strategy to retain production capacity for market recovery. Behind these adjustments, they all point to the current situation of oversupply in the Asian cement market and the far-reaching impact of China's overcapacity on the regional trade pattern. In the next few years, industry integration and transformation will become the mainstream trend, and enterprises need to find a new balance between scale contraction and quality improvement.
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