Issue introduction

Cement producers around the world have been on a cost-cutting drive over the past decade due to the global economic conditions and overcapacity in many markets. Once all costs have been cut, what else can be done? Now the largest groups are looking more deeply at how their plants operate to understand, optimise and unify their assets globally, often across wide technological and cultural divides. To find out more, Global Cement recently spoke to Angus Maclean of management consulting firm Proudfoot about the company’s Target Operating Model (TOM) tool for group-wide optimisation.

Building Pressure, a new report that analyses 13 of the world’s largest publicly-listed cement companies, reveals that they need to double the emissions reductions efforts to date if they are to limit global warming to below 2°C, as agreed in the Paris Climate Deal. The companies analysed in the report from CDP have a total market capitalisation of US$150bn and represent 16% of global cement production. The cement sector itself accounts for 6% of global CO2 emissions.

Sika AG’s Matthias Dietrich shows the added value of carefully selected grinding aids for vertical roller mills (VRMs)...

Efficient single-step crushing with low content of small grain sizes...