- Written by David Perilli, Global Cement Magazine
The Caterpillar Asia Pacific Quarry Days, held on 3 – 7 June 2013 in Japan, assembled delegates from across the Asia Pacific area to discuss Caterpillar products, technology and services. Broken into two sessions for low-regulated and high-regulated countries in the Asia-Pacific and Australasia region, the event took its guests from downtown Tokyo to the quarry and aggregate machinery manufacturer's Chichibu Demonstration Centre, the largest training centre for construction machinery in Asia. Global Cement attended at the kind invitation of Caterpillar.
Quarry Days covered a wide range of Caterpillar's products and services so this article will concentrate on those with a direct application for the cement industry. Both sessions of the event comprised a day of classroom sessions in Tokyo, followed by a day 'in the iron' (to use Caterpillar speak) at the Chichibu
Demonstration Centre. Here guests could see and clamber over the latest models of hydraulic excavators, hammers, large wheel-loaders, off-highway trucks and more. Participants were even able to take their prospective purchases for test-drives around the facility.
- Written by Peter Edwards, Global Cement Magazine
Hope Construction Materials is a new cement and building materials producer in the UK with assets that include the largest cement plant in the UK at Hope. Although the cement plant itself is over 80 years old, the company is looking towards the future. Global Cement recently visited the plant and met key figures at this ambitious new company...
Hope Construction Materials was launched as a new company on 7 January 2013. It is owned by Mittal Investments and holds the majority of the assets sold by Lafarge Tarmac as a condition of the UK joint venture between Tarmac and Lafarge UK.
The company's flagship facility is the Hope cement plant in Hope, Derbyshire, which has been in operation since 1929. Under the stewardship of Blue Circle it saw a major overhaul in the 1970s. After Blue Circle was acquired by Lafarge in 2001 the plant passed over to the French multinational, which invested heavily in the 2000s.
- Written by Edwin Trout, Cement Industry Suppliers’ Forum
2012 and the opening months of 2013 saw the UK celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. However, it also saw the country dealing with a faltering economy, cost reduction and job losses, the failure of some cement companies and the birth of two new ones. New fuels, packing plants, trials of new cements, improved water management, a railway extension, crises in the carbon market and the construction of two Climafuel plants for Cemex have also hit the headlines. Let's have a look in more detail...
- Written by Günther Walenta, Cédric Comparet & Vincent Morin - Lafarge Research Centre
Lafarge recently completed its second successful industrial trial for Aether®, its new-generation clinker for lower carbon cements. These trials have confirmed the feasibility of industrial-scale production of Aether cements, in existing installations and using conventional raw materials, for a lower overall environmental footprint. Aether cements open up a new avenue for CO2 mitigation in the cement sector.
For many years Lafarge has been working to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2001, as part of its partnership with environmental NGO WWF International, the group made a voluntary public commitment to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of cement.
- Written by Peter Edwards, Global Cement Magazine
The 55th annual IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference was held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA on 14 - 18 April 2013. The event attracted a total of 916 delegates from across the US and further afield who heard a total of 45 high-quality presentations and were able to visit 165 different exhibitors.
The 2013 IEEE-IAS/PCA conference opened on Sunday 14 April 2013 with closed meetings of the IEEE-IAS CIC Committee and commenced for other participants with an evening reception in the exhibition hall and events in the many exhibitor hospitality suites. On the following day delegates were able to take part in tutorials on drives, environment, energy, sustainability, automation, power generation and health and safety, many of which were over-subscribed. In the afternoon the exhibition area opened with exhibitors and delegates taking the opportunity to catch up with current suppliers and to make new contacts. In the evening further events were held in hospitality suites within the hotel well into the early hours.
