15 February 2017
Siwertell receives order for road-mobile ship unloader 15 February 2017
Sweden: Siwertell, part of Cargotec, has received an order for a road-mobile ship unloader for an undisclosed client. The 10 000 S trailer-based, diesel-powered unit will be used to unload cement at a rated capacity of 300t/hr. It will join the customer's existing Siwertell 10 000 S road-mobile unloader, which it has been operating since 2015.
The new unit will be equipped with a dust filter and a double-bellows system, allowing uninterrupted discharge when changing between trucks or rail wagons. It will be constructed at Siwertell's premises in Bjuv, Sweden, with delivery scheduled for March 2017. The customer has also signed a Siwertell Service Contract for both units to cover servicing and support.
Fairport Engineering reports work on filters at Ketton cement plant 15 February 2017
UK: Fairport Engineering has reported work on its replacement of two electrostatic (ESP) filters at Hanson’s Ketton cement plant in Rutland. Following discussion in early 2016 Fairport was contracted to replace ESP filters at the plants Mills 9 and 10. Both mills were shut down for planned three-week periods each to remove the old filters and install the new ones. The new system on Mill 9 also required the installation of new screw conveyors, rotary airlocks and the reconfiguration of existing control panels, plus the installation of new 160KW central exhaust fans and associated clean gas ducting. Fairport reports that, to date, the daily averages on both filters are well below the target emission level.
Six companies join bid for Hyundai Cement 15 February 2017
South Korea: Six companies have made bids for Hyundai Cement. Ssangyong Cement Industrial, Halla Cement, IMM Private Equity, LK Investment Partners, Hyundai Sungwoo Holdings and PineStreet Group have submitted terms to acquire a 84.6% stake in Hyundai Cement, according to the Maeil Business Newspaper. Creditors and sales advisors of the cement producer intend to choose a preferred bidder before the end of February 2017. The sale is expected to raise up to US$525m.
Australia: Boral’s revenue from its cement business fell by 4% year-on-year to US$118m in the first half of its financial year, which ended on 31 December 2016. Total cement sales volumes rose by 3%. The building materials producer blamed the fall in sales revenue on low wholesale clinker volumes due to higher direct sales volumes of cement. Its sales prices for cement grew by 1% for bulk cement and 3% for packaged products. It added that, although competition pressure and energy costs are rising, its cost improvement plans are helping.
Overall, Boral’s sales revenue fell by 5% to US$1.6bn from US$1.68bn. However, its profit after tax rose by 9% to US$114m from US$105m. It attributed this to a ‘solid’ performance in Australia combined with good earnings from Boral USA and USG Boral.
European Parliament votes to reduce carbon credits for Emissions Trading Scheme by 2.2% each year 15 February 2017
France: The European Parliament has voted to approve a proposal by the European Commission to reduce carbon credits by 2.2%/yr from 2021 in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). This is an increase from the 1.74% reduction specified in existing legislation. It will also double the capacity of the 2019 market stability reserve (MSR) to absorb the excess of credits or allowances on the market.
Members of the European Parliament (MEP) want to review the so-called ‘linear reduction factor’ with the intention to raising it to 2.4% by 2024 at the earliest. In addition MEPs want to double the MSR’s capacity to mop up the excess of credits on the market. When triggered, it would absorb up to 24% of the excess of credits in each auctioning year, for the first four years. They have agreed that 800 million allowances should be removed from the MSR as of 1 January 2021. Two funds will also be set up and financed by auctioning ETS allowances. A modernisation fund will help to upgrade energy systems in lower-income member states and an innovation fund will provide financial support for renewable energy, carbon capture and storage and low-carbon innovation projects.
The draft measures were approved by 379 votes to 263, with 57 abstentions. MEPs will now enter into negotiations with the Maltese Presidency of the European Council in order to reach an agreement on the final shape of the legislation, which will then come back to Parliament.
Environmental campaign group Sandbag has complained that the new proposal fails to hold to the European Union’s (EU) emissions reduction targets by 2030 that were signed as part of the Paris Agreement in 2016.
“Unless the Council intervenes to substantially strengthen the System, the EU ETS will now become simply an accounting mechanism, leaving meaningful climate action to happen elsewhere. The fact that the carbon price is unchanged as a result of the vote, still at a paltry Euro5, speaks volumes. Without being realigned with real emissions levels in 2020, the EU ETS may well end up existing for 25 years by 2030 without giving the any substantial impetus to decarbonisation,” said Rachel Solomon Williams, Managing Director at Sandbag.