AI Model Transforms Cement Industry: Conch Group Leads the Way in High-Quality, Sustainable Growth

"The world looks to China for cement, and China looks to Conch for cement." This noteworthy review from the renowned International Cement Review (ICR) Magazine perfectly sums up Conch Group's leading position in the global cement industry. Founded in 1997, Anhui Conch Cement Co., Ltd. (known as Conch Group) has built China's largest cement clinker production base, which is also the world's largest single-brand cement producer with an annual capacity exceeding 403 million tons. Consistently ranking second globally in the cement industry, Conch Group has played a key role in notable projects such as the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower, and Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

However, recent years have seen significant fluctuations in the cement market. The intricate cement production process, encompassing raw material proportioning, kiln burning control, equipment maintenance, and various other stages, poses challenges in meeting today's industrial requirements for efficiency, safety, and environmental sustainability with traditional manual management and experiential decision-making methods. The industry is currently at a critical juncture as it transitions towards advanced and environmentally friendly practices.

In response to the ongoing wave of intelligent transformation, Conch Group started developing AI model scenarios in 2024. By 2025, they had established an AI training center powered by the Huawei Cloud Stack (HCS) foundation, harnessing the Pangu model to co-develop the industry's first AI large model—Yungong Large Model. Through comprehensive intelligent modernization, Conch Group aims to revolutionize cement production methods.

AI conducts preemptive health checks for cement, accurately predicting clinker strength

Clinker is a semi-finished product obtained during the cement production process by calcining raw materials such as limestone and clay at 1,400°C. What is commonly referred to as "cement" is the finished product, made by grinding clinker, gypsum, and a small number of mixed materials. The final strength of cement is a major indicator of its quality, and clinker quality is key to determining this strength—how hard the clinker is dictates whether the compressive strength meets standards.

Conventionally, strength testing is manual and involves forming clinker samples into test pieces, professionally curing them for a set period, and then testing them at 3 days and 28 days. The 3-day strength is the earliest touchstone that intuitively reflects clinker quality, representing early performance, while the 28-day strength is the industry-recognized hard indicator of final performance. However, cement production is a continuous process. By the time the 28-day test results are available, the corresponding batch of clinker has long been produced and stored, meaning that any production adjustments can only be made on subsequent batches.

To address this, Conch Group integrated data from more than 150 digital production lines, including raw materials preparation, burning, and clinker formation. Using Huawei's prediction model capabilities, they trained a Multi-gate Mixture-of-Experts (M-MoE) clinker strength prediction model that combines the foundation model with operating condition models. This model performs inference analysis based on compositional data of clinker samples, enabling prediction of 3-day and 28-day strength with an accuracy of over 85% within ±1 MPa (compared to 70% accuracy with manual estimation).

This analysis by an AI model is like a preemptive health check for cement, predicting its strength early in the process. This scientific approach optimizes the blending ratio of raw materials at the beginning and ensures precise control of finished cement at the end, shifting the focus from post-production adjustment to real-time regulation. This enhances the stability and consistency of product quality.

So, how can production costs be reduced without compromising cement quality?

AI-powered smart kilns for cement calcination help lower costs, boost efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions

The cement production process can be summarized as two grinding stages and one burning stage, with the latter being the most important. Variations in kiln temperature not only affect the mineral content of cement clinker but also influence its crystal structure, both of which are closely tied to clinker strength. Calcination is the most energy-intensive and costly stage in cement production, accounting for 50% of production costs. For this reason, minimizing coal consumption during calcination is essential for controlling overall production costs.

To tackle this challenge, Conch Group leveraged Huawei's prediction model to develop global optimization capabilities for cement burning. By integrating process mechanisms, expert knowledge, and data-driven insights, they built a hybrid optimization model that enables precise, intelligent control of production parameters through multi-dimensional analysis and value mining of the burning system.

Previously, kiln fire control during the burning process relied entirely on operator experience. Now, the Yungong Large Model uses deep learning to study control methods for cement burning systems. By analyzing live production data like feed rate, temperature, and pressure in rotary kilns, it adjusts process settings in real-time and identifies the best operating approach to ensure production of cement clinker with consistent strength and quality. This model reduces free lime or free calcium oxide (f-CaO) variation by 10%, lowers coal consumption by an additional 1% compared to the Class A energy efficiency standard, and establishes a new standard for eco-friendly, intelligent production. For a typical clinker line with a daily output of 5,000 tons, this translates to over 4,500 tons of reduced CO₂ emissions annually. Based on the estimate that one tree absorbs 18.3 kg of CO₂ per year, this reduction is equivalent to planting 245,000 trees.

AI builds a "smart safety net" for cement production, promptly alerting to potential risks and hazards

Safety is a non-negotiable in the building materials industry. Cement production sites are complex environments with many hazards including high-temperature gases, high-voltage electricity, and heavy machinery, making real-time, comprehensive safety monitoring through traditional methods impossible.

Conch Group addressed this by deploying cameras and sensors in key areas such as electrical rooms, preheaters, and paper bag warehouses. They integrated multi-dimensional data from the power management platform and distributed control system (DCS) to build a unified safety management platform. This platform monitors over 20 types of safety risks related to personnel, equipment, and the environment, providing real-time graded alerts. Leveraging Huawei's large vision model, Conch Group is able to detect over 95% of abnormal situations, effectively mitigating and preventing safety risks at their source.

Conch Group also applied AI to the "shuttle buses" of raw material transportation—belt conveyors. These systems operate at high speeds and handle massive volumes of materials, often spanning over ten kilometers. Traditional inspections relied on manual patrols using visual checks, listening, and equipment testing—methods that are neither efficient nor precise.

Now, by incorporating multi-source data such as fiber-optic acoustic monitoring, weak magnetic detection, and high-frequency vibration analysis, Conch Group and Huawei co-developed an integrated AI solution for belt conveyors. It monitors 28 scenarios including roller abnormalities and belt tearing, enabling 24/7 equipment monitoring and early warning. This transforms inspection methods from relying on human effort to AI-driven intelligence.

When AI models meet traditional cement manufacturing, intelligence turns data into a new kind of fuel for production and drives a green transformation in traditional sectors. This is not only a technological upgrade—it's a completely new production paradigm. Moving forward, Conch Group will continue to collaborate with Huawei and other industry partners to advance the steady and rapid development of cement, building materials, and manufacturing through AI.

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Video 1: Smart Construction: AI Transforms Cement Industry

Video 2: Breaking Stones: Smart Cement Production on Huawei Cloud