28 October 2021
Dalmia Bharat increases cement sales, earnings and profit in first half of 2022 financial year 28 October 2021
India: Dalmia Bharat’s consolidated cement sales in the first half of the 2022 financial year were 5.1Mt, up by 6.2% year-on-year from 4.8Mt in the first half of the 2021 financial year. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 1.6% to US$178m from US$176m. The company recorded a net profit of US$67.1m during the period, up by 19% from US$56.3m. During the second quarter of the year, which ended on 30 September 2021, Dalmia Bharat commissioned a second line at its Cuttack, Odisha, cement plant and began trial production at its newly acquired Murli cement plant in Maharashtra.
The Orissa Diary newspaper has reported that managing director Puneet Dalmia said "We are pleased with our performance during the quarter. In spite of unprecedented costs related headwinds across all regions, our razor sharp focus on operational efficiencies and execution has helped us contain our costs and deliver an industry-leading performance. We have made considerable progress on our immediate priorities, including expanding our capacity, driving organisational transformation, reinforcing our brand and redefining our corporate governance framework. Looking ahead, we remain focused on further strengthening our momentum to drive sustainable and profitable growth and generate top-tier returns for our stakeholders.” He continued “As India's economy continues to rebound from the lows of last year, we expect the demand and pricing environment for the sector to improve for the rest of the 2022 financial year."
Carbon Re receives Euro1.19m in funding 28 October 2021
UK: The Clean Growth Fund has led a Euro1.19m investment in cement industry decarbonisation software developer Carbon Re. Other investors are Blue Impact Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise Fund and UCL Technology Fund. The supplier says that its deep reinforcement learning AI product can reduce cement plants’ operating costs by Euro1.97 – 5.09/yr and eliminate 20% of Scope 1 emissions. Five pilot installations of its Delta Zero platform are installed at cement plants in the EU, India, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.
CEO Sherif Elsayed-Ali said “Our mission is to reduce global emissions at the gigatonne scale, starting with the cement industry, and to become the leading global AI company to deliver industrial decarbonisation. Carbon Re’s AI technology provides heavy industry with an effective solution to address their critical challenges of energy costs and emissions reduction.” He added “The road to a zero-carbon world will be long, but with the support of the Clean Growth Fund and our other investors, our AI-products and solutions will evolve to accelerate the transition of energy intensive industries.”
Systems Change Lab report accuses cement industry of failing to make progress towards 2030 climate change target 28 October 2021
World: A Systems Change Lab report on the state of climate change action has warned that the global cement industry is making insufficient progress towards its 2030 climate change targets and that a step-change in action is required. It recorded the carbon intensity of global cement production at 635kgCO2/t in 2018 with the 2030 target of no more than 370kgCO2/t. The rate of change over the previous five years was reported as being 2.9% but an annual rate of change of 22.5% would now be required to meet the 2030 target.
It also noted that emissions intensity from the cement industry had actually increased slightly in recent years. It reached this conclusion by using a different methodology from the Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) project. Instead it estimated the global emissions intensity by using global data on process emissions and energy data from the International Energy Agency and the GNR.
The report said that the cement sector would need to go beyond traditional mitigation options such as improving energy efficiency and switching fuels to meet its climate commitments. However, carbon capture utilisation and/or storage (CCUS) and novel cements were described as costly and immature. In its view, “Decarbonisation in the long term thus will depend on significant investments in research, development, and demonstration, alongside efforts to create a demand for low-carbon cements and policies to support investment in decarbonisation technologies.” It described both strategies as, “not yet fully mature in terms of technology development, costs and scaling.” The ‘critical enablers’ it identified to help the cement sector meet its target included stricter regulations, increased demand for low-carbon cement and investment in pilot and industrial scale projects looking at novel cements.
Overall, the report said that change towards averting climate change across 40 key areas in power generation, buildings, industry, transport, land use, coastal zone management and agriculture was not happening fast enough and that none were on track to meet their respective 2030 targets. Change was happening but not at the required pace. Systems Change Lab is a collaboration between the High-Level Climate Champions, Climate Action Tracker, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund and World Resources Institute.
Siam Cement Group establishes Philippines logistics subsidiary 28 October 2021
Philippines: Siam Cement Group has established a subsidiary to provide logistics services for its business in the Philippines. Reuters News has reported that the group has injected US$205,000-worth of investment into the company.
Cemex joins investors in logistics digitisation startup 28 October 2021
UK: Cemex has joined its subsidiary Cemex Ventures and Taronga Ventures in investing in construction logistics digital platform developer Voyage Control. The group said that the supplier’s product can reduce delays, waste and cost overruns through optimised delivery scheduling, and provide an overview of all transactions in real time. It currently helps to coordinate 6 million deliveries annually at 200 sites across North America, Europe and Asia.
Cemex Ventures director Gonzalo Galindo said “Cemex Ventures seeks to integrate Voyage Control with Cemex's digital assets, which will allow us to provide a better and more complete service to our clients. Now, we can collect more information, continue to promote operational efficiency and sustainable reporting and improve our health and safety criteria to reduce risks.”
LafargeHolcim Bangladesh launches Holcim Shokti cement 28 October 2021
Bangladesh: LafargeHolcim Bangladesh has launched a new early strength rapid set cement known as Holcim Shokti. The company said that the product is the first on the Bangladeshi market to use rapid set technology to enhance its early strength by 50% within 48 hours, reduce its setting time by 15 – 25% and optimise water requirements. The producer estimates that project costs will fall by US$16.4/t of Holcim Shokti cement used compared to those of projects using ordinary Portland cement (OPC).
Holcim Shokti cement is available across Bangladesh in bagged form.