September 2024
France: Ireland-based Ecocem has partnered with CB Green to launch a joint venture to scale up production of 70% reduced-CO2 cement based on Ecocem's ACT technology. The technology combines widely available alternative raw materials into a product with enhanced strength and durability compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The new joint venture will build a grinding plant in Dunkirk, Nord Department. The plant will produce 600,000t/yr of limestone filler for use in alternative cement production with ACT technology. The partners expect to invest Euro60m in the plant's construction, with commissioning scheduled for mid-2025.
Ecocem managing director Donal O’Riain said “This long-term cooperation agreement with CB Green marks a major milestone in our work to scale ACT, our low carbon cement technology, and deliver on our commitment to help the cement industry cost-effectively decarbonise by 50% by 2030. It secures production of fillers and access to high quality limestone, and is an important next step to ensuring that our ACT technology can be distributed at scale and start delivering on its potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 70%. Technology is no longer the issue, scale and speed are what matters now."
UK lime sector commits to net zero by 2040 22 June 2023
UK: Mineral Products Association Lime (MPA Lime), the body representing the UK lime sector, has launched the Net Negative 2040 Roadmap. The association said that the roadmap sets out the strategy for its to 'go beyond net zero' by 2040. The industry will rely on the deployment of fuel switching, carbon capture, renewable energy sources and green transport technologies, among other approaches. It called on the government to support its aims through the implementation of carbon accounting, subsidisation of renewables and decarbonisation technologies, the development of green hydrogen infrastructure, ensuring that UK lime can remain competitive in the UK and overseas markets.
MPA Lime director Mike Haynes said “Each lever will contribute to decarbonisation – many initiatives are happening already or will come on stream this decade." He added "The combination of using biomass fuels with carbon capture and lime product carbonation will result in removal of 250,000t/yr of atmospheric CO2, making the sector net negative overall. Other levers, especially indirect emissions and transportation, require broader collaboration and enabling action by government and other industries.”
Through their actions to date, MPA Lime members reduced their absolute CO2 emissions by 25% between 2005 and 2022.
Shree Cement facilities raided by tax authorities 22 June 2023
India: The government's income tax department has carried out raids at five locations belonging to Shree Cement. Reuters has reported that the authorities said they conducted 'survey action' on 21 June 2023.
World: Market Research Future has forecast a composite annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% between 2022 and 2030. This would result in a market value of US$505bn in 2030, compared with US$335bn in 2022. The report added that the rate of new construction projects is increasing across all regions.
Taiwan: A 57-year-old worker died after falling into slag cement in the production line of CHC Resources Corporation's Kaohsiung slag cement plant at 16:00 on 22 June 2023. CNA English News has reported that the victim was submerged for a prolonged period. A second man, aged 51, also entered the cement, but escaped with 'minor injuries.' The workers had been carrying out cleaning work on the line. Local authorities reportedly said that CHC Resources Corporation had 'No proper safety protocols' in place for the activity.
Update on South Africa, June 2023 21 June 2023
Mining and materials company Afrimat said it was buying Lafarge South Africa this week. The assets it is acquiring include aggregate quarries, ready mix concrete (RMX) batching plants, one integrated cement plant, two cement grinding plants, cement terminals and fly-ash sources. The means of purchase is somewhat unusual, as Afrimat is paying around US$6m but it also appears to be taking responsibility for around US$50m of outstanding debt that Lafarge South Africa owes its parent company, Holcim. In a statement Afrimat’s chief executive officer (CEO) Andries van Heerden talked up the benefits for his company in terms of the boost to its aggregates and concrete businesses.
This is quite the change from 2012 when India-based Aditya Birla Group was reportedly looking into buying Lafarge South Africa. At this time the value for the business for a similar mix of assets, including 55 RMX plants and 20 quarries, was said to be to US$900m. Prior to this, Lafarge South Africa spent around US$170m in the late 2000s on increasing the production capacity at its integrated Lichtenburg plant and building its Randfontein grinding plant. Then in 2014, when the merger between Lafarge and Holcim was announced, Lafarge consolidated its Nigeria-based and South Africa-based operations as Lafarge Africa. It later decided to move the South African business to another Holcim subsidiary, Caricement, in 2019 to keep the business in Nigeria more profitable by reducing its debts. This transaction was valued at US$317m. At the time chair Mobolaji Balogun said that Lafarge South Africa’s operations had faced a challenging market in South Africa, with shrinking demand in an aggressively competitive sector. Afrimat is now buying Lafarge South Africa and its subsidiaries from Caricement.
Holcim isn’t alone in making an effort to sell up in South Africa. In April 2023 the Valor Econômico newspaper reported that Brazil-based InterCement was receiving offers for its remaining African-based assets in Mozambique and South Africa with a potential deal valued at around US$300m. InterCement runs Natal Portland Cement in South Africa, which operates one integrated plant and two grinding units. This follows the sale of its Egypt-based assets in January 2023 to an unnamed buyer.
PPC, the country’s largest cement producer, is staying put. However, it issued a mixed trading update this week ahead of the formal release of its annual results to 31 March 2023. Trading conditions in the interior of South Africa and Botswana were described as being ‘difficult,’ with cement sales volumes down by nearly 6% year-on-year and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) down by 26%. Yet the group says it was able to grow its revenue. PPC’s CEO Roland van Wijnen added, “We therefore remain hopeful that the South African government will roll out its infrastructure development plans and protect the local cement market through the introduction of import tariffs to create a level playing field for domestic producers.” Dangote Cement subsidiary Sephaku Cement was more circumspect in its recent trading update but it too warned that, “deteriorating economic conditions and persistent challenges in the cement industry impacted Sephaku Cement’s financial performance to break-even levels.”
Much of the above makes for gloomy reading. As the local trade association Cement and Concrete South Africa (CCSA) has laid out to local media, the market faces the problem of having 20Mt/yr of production capacity, 12Mt/yr of demand and over 1Mt/yr of imports compounding the problem. Lobbying by local producers against imports has been a feature of the market since the early 2010s and this work continues through the efforts of the CCSA and others. However, the plea by PPC for government infrastructure spending suggests that the market faces more systemic problems. As a consequence some cement producers are trying to leave the market, while others are attempting to tough it out.
Ken McKnight elected as president of Cembureau 21 June 2023
Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has elected Ken McKnight as its president and Jon Morrish as vice-president. McKnight, a member of the CRH executive committee, succeeds Isidoro Miranda in the role. Morrish is the chief executive officer for Western & Southern Europe of Heidelberg Materials.
Germany: Schenck Process has appointed Jörg Ulrich as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its Schenck Process EMEA and Asia subsidiary. He succeeds Christoph Haar, who is leaving the company. Ulrich previously held the position of CEO at Linde Hydraulics for more than 10 years. He has also worked in the private equity sector most recently as the Chief Transformation Officer at TK Elevator.
The company’s EMEA and Asia division employs more than 1100 people on four continents and focuses on chemical and high-performance materials as well as infrastructure and energy market segments.
UK: British Rema has appointed Tony Goodwin as its Group Managing Director. He holds 30 years of experience in industrial powder processing and handling. He was previously the managing director of Oliver Valves. Prior to this he spent much of his career working for Kemutec and related companies, firstly in engineering roles and then in operations.
British Rema Group comprises three divisions: British Rema Process Equipment; British Rema Processing; and British Rema Rotary Engineering. The three companies provide powder processing equipment, contract processing and rotary engineering services to the mineral, chemical and recycling industries.
CRH to acquire Buzzi’s Ukrainian business 21 June 2023
Ukraine: Buzzi has agreed to sell its business in Ukraine to Ireland-based CRH for US$109m. The assets additionally include Buzzi’s Slovakian ready-mix concrete business. The Ukrainian business is comprised of the 2Mt/yr Volyn cement plant and 1Mt/yr Nikolajev cement plants, as well as ready-mix concrete operations in Kiev, Nikolajev and Odessa.
Italy-based Buzzi retains its operations in Russia, including the 3.6Mt/yr Suchoi Log cement plant in Irkutsk Oblast and the 700,000t/yr Korkino cement plant in Chelyabinsk Oblast.