September 2024
Vassiliko Cement is a gold Environmental Protector 28 February 2020
Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has bagged the Environmental Protector gold award for the second consecutive year at the Pancyprian Environmental Awards for Organizations and Businesses 2019. The event was held at the Cypriot Presidential Palace by the Cyprus Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CyCERE), the Environment Commissioner’s Office, the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) Agricultural Faculty, the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB), the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises (ACTE), the Business and Professional Women of Limassol (BPW) and the volunteers’ network Together Cyprus. The company said that its “key aim is to promote environmental practices across all aspects of its activities, in order to protect the communities where it operates, achieving sustainable development.”
LafargeHolcim reports on record year 27 February 2020
Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has announced a Euro1.95bn profit in 2019, up by 32% from Euro1.48bn in 2018. The profit was a company record, made possible by ‘lower restructuring costs and financial expenses,’ according to LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jenisch. Sales were Euro25.1bn, up by 3.1% from Euro24.4bn, ‘driven by good growth in Europe and North America, good price dynamics across all business segments and higher prices in most markets,’ according to Jenisch. “We have achieved all our targets for 2019 and have moved our company to a new level of performance,” he said.
Dangote shares 2019 results 27 February 2020
Nigeria: Dangote Cement’s profit in 2019 was US$685m, down by 17% from US$822m in 2018. Sales were US$2.46bn, down by 1.1% year-on-year from US$2.49bn in 2018. “Export sales were affected by the Nigeria-Benin border closure in the second half of 2019. Looking ahead, I expect an increase in volumes in 2020 as we commence clinker exports via shipping from Nigeria,” said Dangote Cement CEO Joe Makoju. The group reported pan-African volume growth to 9.4Mt/yr, noting a 94% growth in Tanzanian volumes, aided by the commencement of operations at a temporary gas power plant in the East African country.
Retiring from the company, Makoju said, “I am proud to have watched Dangote Cement grow from a local producer back in 2007 to a major force in global cement production. Dangote Cement has eliminated Nigeria's dependence on imported cement.” He wished his successor Michel Puchercos all the best in his new role.
Adelaide Brighton’s profit flops 27 February 2020
Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s profit in 2019 was US$31.1m, down by 74% from US$122m in 2018. Sales were down by 7% to US$997m from US$1.07bn. Adelaide Brighton chairman Raymond Barro explained that ‘increased competition and softer demand for construction materials’ locally impacted revenue and earnings. He said that ‘cost pressures across sea freight, transport and raw materials’ caused the dive in profit.
Cembureau cranks up Environmental Product Declaration standards 27 February 2020
EU: Cembureau has responded to the European standardisation organisation Cenelec’s CEN/TC 350 ‘sustainability of construction works’ rules by amending its European Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for CEM I, CEM II and CEM III, corresponding to Portland cement, Portland-composite cement and blast furnace cement respectively. It says the update brings the three main cement types into ‘full alignment with the EU Commission strategy for a sustainable built environment.’
Charah Solutions wins Entergy ash contract 27 February 2020
US: Charah Solutions has secured a contract with energy supplier Entergy for provision of environmental services to three coal-fired power plants in Louisiana and Arkansas. The gives Charah Solutions the right to dispose of or market 0.9Mt/yr of coal combustion residuals (CCR), including to cement producers in the region for use as a cement additive.
Quarry health & safety in Australia 26 February 2020
The Queensland state government in Australia took a blunt approach to health and safety earlier this month when a report it commissioned said that it expected 12 deaths to occur in the mines and quarries sector over the next five years unless changes were made. This is far removed from the usual news stories that industry magazines like Global Cement and others cover. Typically, these are either plants or companies reaching Lost Time Injury (LTI) milestones or sad (but thankfully rare) reports of death.
The forecast in Queensland was based on a review of fatalities in the sector that the state commissioned from Sean Brady, Department of Natural Resource, Mines and Energy, looking at the years 2000 to 2019. Year-by-year the figures were significantly lower than those occurring in the 1900 to 2000 period but didn’t appear to have any discernable pattern. However, when presented as a 12-month rolling sum of fatalities, a two to three year cycle seemed to occur. Brady then went on to look at how the fatalities happened, how the industry behaved and reacted and what could be done to improve the situation. His recommendations included looking more deeply at the causes of seemingly unrelated accidents and then changing overall organisational behaviour and insight through methods such as adopting principles of High Reliability Organisational theory, simplifying the reporting system and changing the standard safety indicators like LTI.
That last point is interesting given the prevalence of LTI indicators on corporate sustainability reports in the cement industry. The point that Brady cites here is that LTI can become a measure of how well injuries are managed, not how safely an organisation is performing. For example, the definition of what an injury is can be manipulated, leading to distortion, as can workers being brought back to work before they recover or into lighter duties. Instead he recommends that ‘serious accidents’ be used in place of LTI. These are defined as incidents that result in a fatality or incidents where an individual requires admission to hospital for treatment of an injury. The preference here is based on so-called ‘serious accidents’ being unambiguous and transparent because they are defined by a third-party medical practitioner.
Wider critiques of health and safety measurements have identified under-reporting of incidents arising from safety incentive programmes, safety culture, employee perceptions of reporting and workplace bullying. This isn’t to say that the LTI measure is not fit for purpose. It has undoubtedly led to higher safety conditions around the world, with reduced injury and mortality from working conditions, and it allows for comparisons between organisations. Yet, any health and safety metric or indicator could be liable to bias or manipulation either unconsciously or consciously. Serious accidents, for example, could be potentially undermined by an organisation having its own medical centre and would also suffer from different health care systems in different locations. Throw in different legislative frameworks around the world and comparing countries can also start to become confusing.
This tension between data and real-life safety is acknowledged by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) in its sustainability guidance from late 2018. It distinguishes between so-called ‘lagging’ indicators, like LTI and fatalities, which show the effectiveness of a safety programme after the fact and the importance of continual safety improvement plans that aim to prevent adverse events before they happen. It is easy to become lost in a dust storm of facts and figures on health and safety but, as the Queensland authorities and the GCCA agree, measuring health and safety is a means to an end. The aim is zero harm to everyone involved.
New MD and CEOs for LafargeHolcim subsidiaries 26 February 2020
India: Bimlendra Jha, Managing Director and CEO of Ambuja Cement, a member of LafargeHolcim, has left the company to pursue other interests. The company has appointed Neeraj Akhoury as MD and CEO with effect from 21 February 2020. His appointment is subject to the approval of the shareholders.
Meanwhile, LafargeHolcim’s other Indian subsidiary, ACC, which is in the process of merging with Ambuja, has promoted its chief commercial officer Sridhar Balakrishnan to the position of MD and CEO.
Cem’In’Eu appoints director for Rhône Ciments 26 February 2020
France: Cem’In’Eu, the France-based operator of modular grinding plants, has appointed Magali Laurenço as director of its Rhône Ciments subsidiary. She has been in post since January 2020.
Magali Laurenço spent the first years of her professional career at Ciments Calcia, where she held the positions of manufacturing engineer (2006 - 2008), manager of the mechanical maintenance sector (2008 - 2014), then manager of the maintenance and new works (2015 - 2020) and production and maintenance service manager (2018-2020).
UK: Germany-based HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Hanson Cement will be the subject of a study in the use of biomass and hydrogen fuels coordinated by the Mineral Products Association (MPA). The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is funding the Euro3.81m study, the results of which it says will be shared across the cement industry. HeidelbergCement CEO Dominik von Achten said, "In addition to our activities in the field of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), this project is an important step towards realising our vision of carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.”