September 2024
US: The Market Intelligence Group at the Portland Cement Association (PCA) has made an additional update to its Winter 2020 – 2021 economic forecast. Senior vice president and chief economist Ed Sullivan revised the association’s assessments regarding the path of Covid-19, vaccine supply, government Covid-19 relief and inflationary pressures.
The association said that it expects domestic cement consumption to grow by nearly 1% in 2021, fuelled largely by residential construction. It estimated ‘weak’ non-residential construction performance, with soft economic activity affecting government funds at federal state level. It added that the new federal government Covid-19 relief targeting state government would likely limit public cement’s drag on 2021 cement consumption growth.
Cemex USA uses Kespry drones for stockpile management 11 March 2021
US: Kespry says that Cemex USA is using its drone and software product for stockpile management at its operations. A Cemex representative said that it has mapped 74,500ha of land over more than 4000 drone missions using Kespry’s product. The supplier uses autonomous aerial drones to gather survey data and then uses machine learning techniques to analyse the results.
Director of aggregate resources Matt Lewis said, “Kespry plays a critical role at both our cement and aggregates sites, despite operations being significantly different. Since initially adopting Kespry, we have been able to measure 21,100 stockpiles across our aggregates sites, while also collecting massive amounts of topographic data into the Kespry Cloud across our cement sites. The amount of time and money the Kespry platform has saved us is unmatched, and we wouldn’t be able to operate at this level if it weren’t for Kespry.”
FLSmidth opens service centre in Kazakhstan 11 March 2021
Kazakhstan: Denmark-based FLSmidth has announced the opening of its new ‘Service Supercenter’ in Karagandy, Qaraghandy region. The service centre has a focus on mining, but will also serve cement customers with equipment delivery, component maintenance and rapid on-site service backed by local support. The centre consists of a 2500m² warehouse and 1200m² workshop, as well as a customer service office, customer training centre and other support facilities.
Mining president Mikko Keto said, “The main concept of the Supercenter is to get closer to our mining and cement customers across Kazakhstan and Central Asia and support them with the best solutions, fast access to spare and wear parts, and, of course, local knowhow and expertise. This move supports FLSmidth’s ever-growing focus on customer service and aftermarket.”
Sika develops CO2-binding concrete recycling process 11 March 2021
Switzerland: Sika has developed ReCO2ver, a process which produces limestone, sand and gravel from the combination of concrete and CO2 with an additive developed by the supplier. The process enables demolition companies to completely recycle used concrete, while storing captured CO2 at a rate of 60kg/t of crushed concrete. The materials produced can be used as aggregates to make concrete of comparable strength to an all-new product.
Chief executive officer Paul Schuler said, "The five largest European Union countries alone generate roughly 300Mt/yr of old concrete. With complete recycling of these materials, up to 15Mt/yr of CO2 emissions can be stored. We are convinced that our new process has the potential to benefit both our customers and the environment."
Update on Saudi Arabia: March 2021 10 March 2021
Many Saudi Arabian cement producers have reported increased annual sales and profits in recent weeks. Southern Province Cement’s sales revenue rose by 27% year-on-year to US$440m in 2020 from US$347m in 2019. Net Profit after zakat and tax increased to US$162m from US$123m. Other producers enjoyed similar boosts. The reason can be seen in the country’s domestic cement sales. They rose by 21% year-on-year to 51Mt in 2020 from 42Mt in 2019. After a promising start to the year the coronavirus pandemic hit local production hard in the second quarter of 2020. However, it nearly doubled year-on-year in June 2020 and kept up the pace thereafter.
Graph 1: Domestic cement sales in Saudi Arabia, 2010 – 2020. Source: Yamama Cement.
Graph 1 above puts the cement sales in 2020 into context over the last decade. Sales hit a high in 2015 but then started to wane as infrastructure spending dried up due to lower oil prices and decreased government spending. A ban on exporting cement was subsequently relaxed but the general market appeared to adapt to the new situation. This changed significantly in 2020 with analysts attributing the turnaround to programs organised by the Ministry of Housing. This growth has carried into 2021 with NCB Capital forecasting an increase of 3.5% in local cement sales in 2021 due to the ongoing housing programs, the country’s so-called ‘Giga’ projects and investment by its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), as part of its 2021 - 2025 strategy. They reported that demand created by the country’s large-scale projects began to be felt along the supply chain in the fourth quarter of 2020 and associated contracts have started to be issued.
To give an example of the scale of some of these schemes, one of the proposed giga projects is to build a new city called Neom from scratch near the Red Sea coast. The resulting conurbation is intended to showcase new technologies and diversify the Saudi Arabian economy away from hydrocarbons. It has a price tag of US$500bn. An airport was built in 2019 and a next step was announced in January 2021, introducing a 160km linear city without roads called ‘The Line.’ Doubtless it will require lots of cement to realise the dream in whatever forms it happens to end up taking.
The wider picture here is that global oil prices hit a low in April 2020 as coronavirus lockdowns triggered a worldwide drop in demand although they then started to recover. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product fell by just under 4% in 2020. In response the PIF has upped its investment in the local economy including in the ‘Giga’ projects like Neom. There has been scepticism internationally about whether these projects will progress any further beyond press releases and actually get built. However, the cement producers’ financial results, cement sales figures and reporting from analysts like NCB Capital show that some investment is happening and it’s having results. The sector still faces a battle against overcapacity. It had a production utilisation rate of just under 70% despite the increase in cement production in 2020. Yet cement producers in Saudi Arabia have done well. While the Saudi Arabian government continues to spend on infrastructure in order to rebalance its economy this looks set to continue.
UK: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson has appointed Michael Wildmore as the technical development manager for its cement business. He holds over 30 years’ experience in senior technical and quality management roles in the building materials industry, according to Construction Index.
Wildmore joined Hanson UK, part of the HeidelbergCement, as a technical sales advisor in January 2020 having previously spent five years with Tarmac, latterly as technical manager at Tarmac Building Products. Before that, he worked for 20 years with Redland and subsequently Lafarge and LafargeHolcim after acquisitions and mergers. He is an associate member of the Institute of Concrete Technology and is on technical committees of the Mineral Products Association (MPA).
Andrey Rubtsov appointed as marketing director of SibCem 10 March 2021
Russia: Siberian Cement Holding Company (SibCem) has appointed Andrey Rubtsov as its marketing director. He was previously the general director of Iskitimcement, a subsidiary of SibCem. Rubtsov holds a degree in management from the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Management College of Southern Africa (MANCOSA). He has worked in the cement industry since 2001.
Chile: Melón’s new 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant that it is building at Punta Arenas is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first half of 2021. The unit is forecast to produce around 80,000t of cement in its 12 months, according to the La Prensa Austral newspaper. It has had an investment of US$30m and will create around 50 jobs. Spain-based Cemengal was previously reported as the supplier of the mill. It is intended to supply the Magallanes Region including Tierra del Fuego. The cement producer is also considering doubling the production capacity of the grinding plant to 0.5Mt/yr if the market supports it.
East African Holding partners with West China Cement for Lemmi National Cement industrial complex 10 March 2021
Ethiopia: East African Holding and China-based West China Cement have formed a joint venture. The Xinhua News Agency has reported that the partners plan to establish a multi-industrial complex in Ensaro Woreda district, Amhara regional state. Called Lemmi National Cement complex, the facility will house a 10,000t/day cement plant in addition to other industrial plants. The partners say that the facility will create 5000 jobs.
The first phase of the project will establish the cement plant and reach completion in late 2022.
Philippines: Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary Taiheiyo Cement Philippines has announced the formation of the Philippines Renewal Construction Project team. The company says that the team will support work on a new production line at the company’s integrated San Fernando cement plant in Cebu. When finished, the upgrade will give the company a total production capacity of 3Mt/yr. The producer said that expanding production capacity in the country is among its biggest growth strategies. Its longer-term sales target is 5Mt/yr, corresponding to a domestic sales share of 10%.
The company anticipates a growth in cement demand in 2021, in part due to the government’s infrastructure budget of US$20.8bn, over 5% of gross domestic product.