Articles on the cement industry from Global Cement

Brazil is a massive country, covering almost half of the area of South America. Its industries are well developed and its large cement industry is still growing rapidly. Such growth looks set to continue and may accelerate ahead of substantial government infrastructure projects and work for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Oly1mpic Games.

Introduction

Brazil, by far the largest country in South America, and the fifth largest in the world, is also the world's fifth most populous country.¹ As of 26 December 2011 it reportedly had the sixth largest economy in the world, overtaking the UK at the end of the year.²

The country is not short of money, which has helped give rise to vibrant industrial and technological sectors, a highly-developed infrastructure and a large cement industry. However, its wealth, much of which stems from its natural minerals and oil, is very unevenly distributed among its 203.4 million inhabitants.² The country suffers from very wide social and economic inequality, ranking 10th from bottom on an index of household income equality in 2011.³ As is the case around the world, where rich and poor are in close proximity, high levels of crime follow, especially in the larger metropolises such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

As part of the company's sustainability ambitions, HeidelbergCement is aiming to increase its alternative fuel and raw material use and at the same time reduce its stack emissions. By viewing waste as a resource, HeidelbergCement is reducing the use of natural materials such as coal and limestone. As a consequence, CO₂ emissions are being reduced and an environmentally-sensitive and economically sensible waste removal service is provided to local citizens, industries and agricultural activities.

In recent years, HeidelbergCement has proven to be successful in terms of its environmental strategy. Table 1 shows the reduction of emissions to air by the whole group, while increasing the alternative fuel rate.

In all areas of the group a wide range of alternative fuels and raw materials are being used. Globally available waste streams are municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, hazardous waste and fly-ash.

Iraq has a troubled past that has adversely affected its development for decades. The country now needs foreign investment to (re)develop its cities and wider infrastructure that have seen under-investment for years. Subject to an increasingly stable political situation, the country is likely to be a hot-bed of development, with oil reserves among the highest in the world. Now that the last US military personnel have left the country, has the time come for Iraq to fully exploit its development potential? The cement industry will have a major role to play if it does.

The Republic of Iraq has never been far from the news headlines in the past 30 years. Under the Ba'athist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein it waged war against its neighbour Iran (1980-88) before invading Kuwait in 1990, sparking the original Gulf War (1990-1991).

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Hussein increasingly taunted the international governments that claimed the country was developing 'weapons of mass destruction' (WMD). UN weapons inspectors were finally admitted to the country in 1998, the same year that 'regime change' for Iraq became official US foreign policy.

The election of George W Bush as US President in 2000 caused another escalation in international hostility to Iraq, especially post 9-11, and in 2003 the US, the UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq, decisively toppling Hussein in just 21 days. Ultimately the inspectors found no indication of supposed WMD.

The contract for the construction of the Sinjar Cement Plant, located near to Mosul in Ninevah Governate in northern Iraq, was signed between the government of Iraq and the Romanian company Uzine Exportimport in 1981. The project endured a long period of construction and work was not completed until 1990. Despite being designed with two dry-process 3200t/day OPC clinker production lines, (giving it a capacity of 2Mt/yr), its contractual production capacity was never acheived. The original Gulf War (1990-91) caused production at the plant to be stopped almost as soon as it had begun in 1990.

No cement was produced again at the site until 1993. In 1994 the Northern State Company of Cement started to improve the plant. It operated it at reduced production capacity for the best part of a decade before suffering damage and being the subject of sabotage during the US-led invasion in April 2003. Following the damage it underwent limited repair and maintenance work. Its electrical power supply was limited to 10MW and between 1995 and 2006 it only produced an average of 0.23Mt/yr, around a tenth of its capacity.

The price of cement is the subject of questions often asked but seldom answered satisfactorily. Manufacturers, certainly in the UK, tend not to publicise anything other than an aspirational percentage increase from time to time and the government issues figures that reveal only trends against an index. Market commentary generally confines itself to comparative statements, rather than identifying absolute prices.

In seeking accurate cement prices, there are several variables to consider. The price will alter according to the specification of the cement, white is traditionally about three times the price of grey for instance and will be subject to commercial negotiation and discounts based on the level of business a customer can provide. In some markets prices are quoted with transport cost included, others excluded. Bagged cement prices are always different from the price of cement in bulk.

The practice in the UK is to cite the price of a tonne of cement in bulk, excluding transport and discounts. Any price of this sort is, therefore, a conventional one. It therefore needs to be seen as such; suitable to identify trends and perhaps adequate to incorporate into construction estimates, but not reliable enough to be used as the basis of a commercial decision. Individual series are compiled from different sources of data. While these are consistent with themselves over time, they cannot often be compared to each another.