Heidelberg Materials said it has made a very good start to the 2025 financial year. The company increased its revenue by 5% to €4,715 million (previous year: €4,488) in the first quarter. The result from current operations (RCO) rose by €3 million to €235 million (previous year: €232 million). The company’s North American business was up 1.8%.
”Despite the political and economic uncertainties as well as difficult weather conditions in some regions, we got off to a very good start to the 2025 financial year,” said Dr. Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board of Heidelberg Materials. ”In particular, we benefited from significant growth in the Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia Group area.
“In the first three months, we continued to set the course for our sustainable transformation. Final preparations for our CCS lighthouse project in Brevik, Norway, are currently well underway. We started capturing, liquefying, and temporarily storing CO₂ a few days ago as part of the plant’s ramp-up. We are particularly proud of this historic milestone for our industry and look forward to the grand opening of the world’s first large-scale industrial carbon capture facility at a cement plant in June.
”We are optimistic about the remainder of the year and anticipate a sustained stabilisation of demand in our core markets. At the same time, we will continue to implement price adjustments and strict cost management. Against this backdrop, we confirm our forecast for the full year 2025.”
The company’s Transformation Accelerator initiative announced in November has already contributed to company results in the first three months of 2025 with significant savings. The focus of the initiative lies on the optimization of the production network, cross-functional efficiency enhancements and technical initiatives on a global scale. Particular emphasis is being placed on optimising the clinker and cement network in Western Europe. Thanks to the transparent approach all over the globe with a clear focus on innovation and efficiency, all Group countries and company levels are making a contribution.
Based on the positive experiences in the first quarter, Heidelberg Materials is confident that it will achieve the targeted annual savings of €500 million by the end of 2026.
Heidelberg Materials continued its ongoing portfolio optimisation over the course of the year and signed an agreement in January 2025 on the sale of its majority stake of 91% in Cimenterie de Lukala SA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The transaction includes an integrated cement plant in Lukala, near the capital city of Kinshasa.
In April 2025, Heidelberg Materials completed the acquisition of Giant Cement Holding Inc. and its subsidiaries Giant Cement Company, Dragon Products Company, and Giant Resource Recovery on schedule. Giant Cement Holding Inc. is a cement producer on the U.S. East Coast with a strong focus on using waste-derived alternative fuels.
Furthermore, Heidelberg Materials concluded a purchase agreement in April to acquire the ready-mixed concrete business of the Australian family-owned company Midway Concrete. The company operates four concrete plants in the Melbourne and Geelong metropolitan areas. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2025.
Heidelberg Materials continues to drive forward efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of its products. For example, the company is focusing on reducing the proportion of clinker in cement and using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). In Ghana, the company commissioned the world’s largest calcined clay plant, with a capacity of more than 400,000 tonnes per year, in April. Calcined clay makes it possible to largely replace the CO₂-intensive clinker in cement.
Heidelberg Materials’ CO₂ reduction targets for 2050 have been validated as being in line with the SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard and a 1.5°C target pathway. The company was also included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) Europe, one of the most prestigious indices in the field of sustainability, for the first time.