Ericsson and Vodafone Portugal helped deploy a mobile private network at cement production units for multinational cement and industrial materials producer Cimpor.

The deployments spanned three of Cimpor’s sites in Portugal – in Lhandra, Loulé, and Souselas – leveraging private 5G technology from Ericsson to create purpose-built private networks with latency of less than 10 milliseconds.

Cimpor’s new network spans IoT sensors, autonomous vehicles, and other connected systems, allowing its engineers to monitor assets and operations more efficiently, even in conditions heavily affected by significant vibrations and dust.

“This implementation of private 5G networks across our production units marks a decisive step in strengthening the resilience, efficiency, and safety of our industrial operations,” Cimpor Global CTO Berkan Fidan noted in a statement. “This technology lays the foundation for a new generation of digital applications and enables us to operate with greater precision and responsiveness. This is only the beginning of a wider journey.”

Ericsson provided drones, video cameras for safety monitoring, and worker tablets to the project. Vodafone Portugal worked with Cimpor to define the core network parameters and helped with the installation and configuration of the radio equipment.

The network was set up in such a way that Cimpor can now duplicate the model and extend it across other areas of its business. The manufacturer’s internal assessments suggested that the network’s ability to support improved inventory and maintenance optimization alone could translate into up to $1 million in annual savings per plant through avoided downtime and asset failures.

Beyond asset-level optimization, Cimpor claims its Ericsson-enabled private 5G networks yield a 1% increase in overall efficiency, in what would represent apparent savings of up to $15 million, directly and indirectly in annual economic impact, while reducing approximately 140,000 tons of CO₂ emissions.

“The implementation of private 5G networks in these three Cimpor factories not only demonstrates the company’s determined commitment to its sustainable future but also reinforces the role these networks play in enhancing economic competitiveness, particularly in industrial activities," Henrique Fonseca, executive board member in Vodafone Portugal's Enterprise Business Unit, commented. “With immediate communications and large-scale sensing, data can be interpreted quickly, and a wide range of remote activities becomes possible, expanding the reach of these factories well beyond their physical locations.”

“As enterprises move toward more automated and real-time processes, demand for reliable private cellular networks continues to grow," Manish Tiwari, head of enterprise 5G at Ericsson, added. "By establishing a replicable approach across three sites, Cimpor now has a strong blueprint it can apply across its wider global footprint."