September 2024
Flender enlarges Voerde production plant 17 May 2023
Germany: Flender has officially completed construction work on an expansion at its site in Voerde with the opening of its new logistics and storage hall for the assembly of large gear units. The hall has been built on an open area on the company's premises covering almost 8000m2. The new building is part of the drive manufacturer’s investments to be able to handle the expected growth in the global wind energy business and to drive the energy transition in Europe. In addition to large components for wind power gearboxes, the logistics hall will also serve its industrial business. The company has also leased another 10,000m2 hall, directly next door to its Voerde unit, to further support its logistics.
Flender’s chief executive officer Andreas Evertz said "With the new storage areas, we are making our logistics processes sustainable and thus reducing a considerable part of the previous transport routes and the associated CO2 emissions. Components that were previously stored elsewhere can now be stored centrally and made available for assembly more quickly with optimised transport routes.”
Flender’s Voerde plant is the company’s largest in Germany with an area of 276,000m2. It employs 1500 people.
Canada: Lafarge Canada signed a tri-partite agreement with Dimensional Energy and Svante Technologies for the construction of a synthetic hydrocarbons plant to use captured CO2 from its Richmond cement plant on 15 May 2023. The upcoming plant will convert the Richmond cement plant's 1t/day captured CO2 emissions into 1.5 barrels/day of synthetic hydrocarbons. The producer, a subsidiary of Holcim, selected this particular solution due to the lack of CO2 transport and sequestration infrastructure in the area of British Columbia where the Richmond plant is located. The project marks Phase 3 of the installation of Lafarge Canada and Svante's carbon capture project at the Richmond plant.
Holcim's Western Canada regional head of sustainability and environment, Stephanie Voysey, said "Carbon capture is an important lever in our net-zero roadmap. However, for a carbon capture project to succeed, it must be paired with permanent geologic sequestration or utilisation technology that will permanently isolate the CO2 in a specific media or product. If this pilot can be scaled to capture and use all facility emissions, it would be a first-of-its-kind project for Lafarge and advance export and global adoption of this technology.”
India: UltraTech Nathdwara Cement has commissioned its upgraded Neem Ka Thana grinding plant following an 800t/yr capacity expansion. The project expanded the plant's capacity by 57% to 2.2Mt/yr.
The Hindu Business Line newspaper has reported that parent company UltraTech Cement's 22 integrated cement plants, one clinker plant and 27 grinding plants give it an 80% market reach in India.
Australia: James Hardie's sales were US$3.77bn during the 2023 financial year, up by 4% year-on-year from 2022 financial year levels. Its flagship North America fibre cement segment increased its sales by 9% to US$2.79bn, its Asia Pacific fibre cement segment increased its sales by 1% to US$527m and its Europe Building Products segment increased its sales by 3% to US$470m.
James Hardie's CEO, Aaron Erter, said “We delivered full-year adjusted net income and operating cash flows of US$606m and US$608m respectively. I am pleased with how the team adjusted during the 2023 financial year to prepare the company to thrive through this cycle. This is reflected in our strong fourth quarter results, including all three regions delivering significant earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin improvement sequentially in the fourth quarter.”
Looking forward to the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, James Hardie forecast adjusted net income growth of between -6% and +6.9%, to US$145 - 165m, throughout the quarter.
Savannah Cement to be placed under receivership 16 May 2023
Kenya: A court has ruled in favour of Absa Bank Kenya and Kenya Commercial Bank's right to appoint an administrator for Savannah Cement. The banks are seeking to recover US$72.9m owed by the producer. The Star newspaper has reported that a previous court ruling in December 2022 prevented the lenders from appointing an administrator or seizing assets.
Mexico: Cemex's waste management subsidiary Regenera has signed a deal with the municipal council of Huajuapan de León to receive the latter's sorted non-recyclable municipal solid waste (MSW). Under the deal, Regenera will receive up to 6000t/yr of MSW, which it will supply to Cemex's Tepeaca cement plant in Puebla.
Heidelberg Materials to invest Euro65m in Bussac-Forêt cement plant calcined clay upgrade 15 May 2023
France: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials announced a planned Euro65m upgrade to its Bussac-Forêt cement plant in Charente-Maritime Department on 14 May 2023. The project will involve the installation of systems for the production of calcined clay cement. The producer says that this will enable the 0.8Mt/yr plant to reduce its CO2 emissions by 20%.
Chief sustainability officer Nicola Kimm said “In Bussac-Forêt, we are investing in a technology with great potential. It will allow us to significantly expand the range of low-carbon products. Using calcined clay as a clinker substitute is an important measure to reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete. In principle, a CO₂ reduction of up to 40% is possible when substituting cement clinker with calcined clay.”
Heidelberg Materials is already involved in the on-going pilot trial of a 400,000t/yr clay calcination plant in Ghana.
NCL Industries to acquire Vishwamber Cements 15 May 2023
India: NCL Industries has concluded a share purchase agreement with the owners of Vishwamber Cements. Under the deal, NCL Industries will acquire 100% ownership of Vishwamber Cements. The group says that it plans to merge the newly acquired subsidiary into its own cement business. It noted that Vishwamber Cements owns 130 hectares of active limestone quarries.
Italy: Buzzi Unicem reported first-quarter sales of Euro956m in 2023, up by 20% year-on-year from Euro800m in the first quarter of 2022. The producer's cement volumes dropped by 8.8% to 5.8Mt from 6.36Mt. It attributed this to a general slowdown of the construction sector across its markets. Local low demand from the residential market and adverse weather compounded the regional sales contraction in Central Europe. On the other hand, the group recorded volumes growth in Mexico and Russia and stability in Brazil. Both Mexico and Brazil produced revenues growth, while Buzzi Unicem's revenues fell in Russia due to the effect of the appreciation of the ruble against the comparison period in 2022, when the start of the on-going Russian invasion of Ukraine devalued it.
Overall, the group expects to 'easily' match its 2022 full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2023. It said that that it could not currently delineate a 'clearly different picture,' but added "The stabilisation of energy prices, albeit at higher levels than in 2022, if confirmed, will allow us to have better visibility on the unfolding of the production costs from spring onwards."
Italy: Caltagirone Group subsidiary Cementir Holding reported year-on-year growth in sales of 15% to Euro415m during the first quarter of 2023. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 34% to Euro81.2m. The group ended the period under review with a net debt of Euro32.1m, down by 64% year-on-year.
Cementir Holding said that its cement sales volumes rose in Türkiye, but failed to offset declines in its Nordic & Baltic, Belgium and US regions, resulting in an overall decline of 4%.