Items filtered by date: 03 August 2018

Italy: Buzzi Unicem’s sales revenue and earnings have suffered from negative currency effects in the first half of 2018. Its net sales fell by 1.2% year-on-year to Euro1.34bn from Euro1.35bn and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5.7% to Euro227m from Euro241m. However, its cement sales volumes grew by 3.8% to 12.9Mt from 12.5Mt. By region the cement producer reported that its net sales rose in Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the US. Net sales fell in Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ukraine and Mexico.

US: Summit Materials’ mid-year results have been negatively affected by poor cement sales and lower aggregate sales from its Houston operations. Revenue rose by 15% year-on-year to US$717m in the first half of 2018 from US$623m in the same period in 2017. However, its sales volumes of cement fell by 10% to 0.97Mt from 1.08Mt. The company’s net loss rose to US$19m from US$3m.

“Organic sales volumes in our cement segment were impacted by a combination of high precipitation levels during April and May, together with competitive pressures in the markets we serve,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Tom Hill.

The building materials producer operates an integrated cement plant under the Continental Cement subsidiary at Hannibal in Missouri.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has formed a strategic partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to facilitate sustainable development of the cement and concrete sectors. As part of the new agreement, the work carried out by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) will transfer from WBCSD to the GCCA on 1 January 2019 with activities managed out of the GCCA’s London offices. The new partnership will also create synergies between work programmes to benefit both the GCCA and WBCSD and their respective member companies.

“Transferring the activities of the CSI to the GCCA is a logical step and further underlines the cement and concrete sector’s commitment to advance sustainable development across the construction cycle. As the authoritative worldwide voice of the cement and concrete sector, the GCCA is ideally placed to take this work to the next level, building on the strong foundations established by WBCSD,” said Albert Manifold, chief executive officer (CEO) of CRH and GCCA President.

The CSI, which was established in 1999 and currently operates under the auspices of WBCSD, is a global effort by 24 major cement producers to advance sustainable development. Over its 19-year history, the CSI has focused on understanding, measuring, managing and minimising the impacts of cement production and use by addressing a range of issues including: climate change, fuel use, employee health and safety, airborne emissions, concrete recycling and quarry management.

Algeria: LafargeHolcim Algeria has exported 40,000t of clinker from the port of Oran. This is the company’s first export of clinker, following exports of cement carried out earlier in the year, according to the Algeria Press Service. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim operates two cement plants in the country and it holds stakes in two others.

Belarus/Russia: The Belarusian Architecture and Construction Ministry says that the trade turnover of the Belarusian-Russian cement market reached up to US$400m between 2014 and 2018. Following the signing of a bilateral agreement in 2014 Belarusian cement was allowed to be sold in Russia via Eurocement Group, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). Belarusian Architecture and Construction Minister Anatoly Cherny and Eurocement Group President Mikhail Skorokhod met in early August 2018 to discuss performance in the first half of 2018.

Poland: Lafarge Poland officially opened the Siekierki ash separation plant in July 2018. The unit was developed with local power generation company PGNiG Termika. The plant uses technology from the US’ Separation Technologies, using its proprietry electrostatic process.

The unit converts fly ash into two products: ProAsh containing less than 5% flammable parts and HiCarbon fuel containing about 30 - 50% flammable parts. ProAsh ash is used as a construction product used in cement production, ready-mix concrete and prefabricated construction. HiCarbon is used as a fuel because it contains significant amounts of unburnt carbon and so it can be reused in furnaces.

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFEP&WM) awarded the project a loan of around Euro9m. PGNiG Termika operates a 2078MW coal-power plant at Siekierki.

Italy: Cemitaly has been allowed to use slag and ash in cement production at its Taranto plant following an investigation, according to the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper. The former Cementir unit was investigated in 2017 as part of an illegal waste probe that examined whether the Taranto plant purchased ‘illegal’ by-products from Enel and the ILVA steel plant to produce cement.