The Swedish cleantech cement producer will receive €27.5 million in grant funding from the EU Innovation Fund - a backing that will help establish a plant in the Latvian seaport.

The planning and approval process for the 500,000 tonnes of yearly capacity production facility is underway. The €75 million investment project is expected to add 120-150 ship calls per year to Ventspils, as well as provide employment for 30 persons.

"Cemvision's Re-ment material is manufactured using industrial by-products [e.g., steel-industry slags], making it possible to reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 95% compared with traditional cement production," the Port of Ventspils highlighted in a press release.

The port authority added, "The production technology used by Cemvision allows the facility to operate within a significantly smaller plot, occupying only approximately 1-2% of the land area required by a conventional cement plant."

"Being selected by the Innovation Fund confirms that our technology is ready to move from demonstration to industrial scale," said Claes Kollberg, CEO of Cemvision.

He furthered, "This grant brings us a decisive step closer to building our first commercial plant, and to showing that Europe can make the cement it needs from its own industrial residues, with a fraction of the emissions."

Cemvision's plant will be located in the existing port industrial zone.