Ozinga completes construction of low-carbon cement plant in East Chicago, Indiana

US concrete and building materials producer Ozinga has completed construction of a low-carbon cement mill in East Chicago, Indiana, the company said.

Ozinga began building the plant in June 2025 and said it is the largest of its kind in North America. Once fully operational, the facility is expected to have an annual production capacity of 1 million metric tons of slag cement. The plant has direct access to rail, waterways and highway routes, allowing it to ship across the Midwest and other regions.

"The plant's strategic location and advanced process of recycling slag, which is produced during steelmaking, directly address the economic and environmental challenges of making cement—a key ingredient in concrete that is supplied largely by foreign-owned multinational companies," Ozinga said in an Oct. 13 statement.

The facility will produce ASTM C989-compliant low-carbon slag cement as well as proprietary blends meeting ASTM C1157 performance standards, according to Ozinga

Once fully operational, it will deliver up to an 80% reduction in embodied carbon compared with traditional Portland cement and offset more than 700,000 mt/year of CO₂ emissions.

The slag for the plant will be initially processed at US steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs' Indiana Harbor complex.

"Supply constraints in recent years have contributed to allocations, delivery delays and price swings for Portland cement, the primary binder in concrete, hurting the US construction industry and slowing economic development," Ozinga said. "Adding new domestic capacity alongside reliable, imported supply helps keep projects on schedule and construction costs in check."

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed CEMDEX Turkey at $57/mt FOB Oct. 8, up 4.6% year over year.