France: LafargeHolcim has launched a Euro100m upgrade to build a new clinker production line at its Martres cement plant in Tolosane. Construction work on the new line will start in the third quarter of 2018 and will be completed in mid-2020. A key feature of the upgrade will be a focus on using alternative fuels in the new kiln, particularly tyres. Following the project’s completion the plant will have a substitution rate of 80% from 30% at present.
The project, the largest investment made by the group in France for 40 years, is part of a wider package of Euro300m for France that the company announced in 2016. Tenders for the project at Martres will be issued in early 2018. LafargeHolcim has also made a point of saying that priority will be given to local, French and European companies. Previously the French media published concerns that the project might be awarded to a Chinese contractor.