The visit allowed for a valuable opportunity to showcase its operations and discuss the significant and urgent challenges facing the sector, from rising energy costs to increased imports and declining demand for construction materials due to the drop in infrastructure projects and market uncertainty.
The Rugby plant is one of the UK’s key cement manufacturing facilities, boasting the largest cement kiln in the country, and playing a critical role in supplying materials for construction and infrastructure projects across the country.
Cemex values open and honest dialogue with elected representatives and policymakers to ensure the importance of supporting the UK construction industry, and the vital infrastructure it builds, is well understood.
Industry bodies have repeatedly warned that without action to address energy costs and ensure a level playing field with imports, domestic production capacity could face further pressure.
Badenoch’s visit underlines the increasing political focus on industrial competitiveness and energy policy, with cement and other foundation industries likely to remain at the centre of debates over how to balance net zero ambitions with economic growth and resilience.
Touring the site alongside members of Cemex’s UK leadership team and the Mineral Products Association (MPA), Badenoch called for a renewed focus on domestic manufacturing and lower energy costs, and she has pointed to the scale and capability of British industry, while warning that current policy risks undermining its future.
“Britain should be making more. We must end the decline, and back our industry,” she said. “Walking through the plant, seeing the kiln, the silos and the scale of the operation, one thing was clear: British industry has the talent, discipline and ambition to compete.”
The visit comes amid growing concern across the construction materials sector over high energy costs, rising imports and weak demand linked to a slowdown in infrastructure and construction activity.
Craig Williamson, from Cemex, said the industry was facing "significant" threats from high energy charges, employment costs and the increasing taxation on business.
He said: "We're seeing more cement imports from Europe and outside Europe and it's a real threat to the investments we have here in the UK," he said.
"We're not asking for special treatment, we want fair energy pricing, we'd like burdens around employment costs reviewed and we'd like the net zero policies clarified quickly so it's water-tight and really effective."
