Displaying items by tag: Adbri

Australia: Adbri has extended Independent Cement and Lime (ICL)'s contract to exclusively distribute its products to the New South Wales and Victoria markets. ICL is a 50% subsidiary of Adbri. Volumes under the renewed contract will be similar to those during 2022, while prices will reflect market conditions. Adbri said that ICL distributes a 'substantial' proportion of the cement produced at its Birkenhead cement plant in South Australia.

Adbri's interim chief executive officer Mark Irwin said “Independent Cement and Lime is Victoria’s pre-eminent cementitious products distributor and is an important part of Adbri’s supply chain across Victoria and New South Wales. We are pleased to extend our distribution arrangement with ICL through to the end of 2023. We look forward to the commissioning in 2023 of the Melbourne cement facility’s new 45,000t silo at Port Melbourne, which will enhance Independent Cement and Lime’s ability to service the Victorian market.”

Adbri had previously considered buying Barro Group's cement assets, which included the remaining 50% stake in Independent Cement and Lime, in 2018.

Australia: AdBri says that the cost of an ongoing upgrade at its Kwinana grinding plant has risen to US$177m - 200m following a review of the project. Initial findings reported that the project cost had been inflated by a range of factors, including the escalating cost of construction in Western Australia and constraints on available labour. The project was originally budgeted at around US$140m. The company has already invested US$64m in it.

The cement producer is now conducting a more thorough analysis of the project. It says it might be able to ‘optimise value’ through re-scoping, cutting costs and improving the synergies with AdBri’s existing operations and logistics network. It expects the review of the project to be complete by early 2023. The upgrade was previously scheduled for commissioning in mid-2023.

Australia: Cockburn Cement has awarded US$1.65m-worth of increased work scope to construction company SIMPEC on an existing contract with the producer. Business News Australia has reported that SIMPEC is carrying out work on Cockburn Cement's Kwinana grinding plant upgrade. The cement company is in the process of consolidating its Western Australian cement production at an expanded 1.5Mt/yr facility at the site, at a cost of US$152m. A new US$35.1m clinker terminal at Kwinana Bulk Terminal will receive up to 40,000t/yr of clinker for use at the plant and in fellow cement producer BGC's local operations.

In Australia and New Zealand, four producers operate a total of six integrated cement plants, with another 13 grinding plants situated in Australia. This relatively small regional cement industry has been on a decades-long trajectory towards ever-greater sustainability – hastened by some notable developments in recent weeks.

Oceania is among the regions most exposed to the impacts of climate change. In Australia, which ranked 16th on the GermanWatch Global Climate Risk Index 2021, destructive changes are already playing out in diverse ways.¹ Boral reported 'significant disruption' to its operations in New South Wales and southeast Queensland due to wet weather earlier in 2022. This time, the operational impact was US$17.1m; in future, such events are expected to come more often and at a higher cost.

Both the Australian cement industry and the sole New Zealand cement producer, Golden Bay Cement, have strategies aimed at restricting climate change to below the 2° scenario. Golden Bay Cement, which reduced its total CO₂ emissions by 12% over the four-year period between its 2018 and 2022 financial years, aims to achieve a 30% reduction by 2030 from the same baseline. The Australian Cement Industry Federation (CIF)'s 2050 net zero cement and concrete production roadmap consists of the following pathways: alternative cements – 7%; green hydrogen and alternative fuels substitution – 6%; carbon capture – 33%; renewable energy, transport and construction innovations – 35% and alternative concretes – 13%, with the remaining 6% accounted for by the recarbonation of set concrete.

Australia produces 5.2Mt/yr of clinker, with specific CO₂ emissions of 791kg/t of clinker, 4% below the global average of 824kg/t.² Calcination generates 55% of cement’s CO₂ emissions in the country, and fuel combustion 26%. Of the remainder, electricity (comprising 21% renewables) accounted for 12%, and distribution 7%. Australian cement production has a clinker factor of 84%, which the industry aims to reduce to 70% by 2030 and 60% by 2050. In New Zealand, Golden Bay Cement's main cement, EverSure general-purpose cement, generates CO₂ at 732kg/t of product.³ It has a clinker factor of 91%, and also contains 4% gypsum and 5% added limestone.

Alternative raw materials

Currently, Australian cement grinding mills process 3.3Mt/yr of fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). In Southern Australia, Hallett Group plans to commission its upcoming US$13.4m Port Augusta slag cement grinding plant in 2023. The plant will use local GGBFS from refineries in nearby Port Pirie and Whyalla, and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant, as well as being 100% renewably powered. Upon commissioning, the facility will eliminate regional CO₂ emissions of 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr following planned expansions. Elsewhere, an Australian importer holds an exclusive licencing agreement for UK-based Innovative Ash Solutions' novel air pollution control residue (APCR)-based supplementary cementitious material, an alternative to pulverised fly ash (PFA), while Australian Graphene producer First Graphene is involved in a UK project to develop reduced-CO₂ graphene-enhanced cement.

Golden Bay Cement is investigating the introduction of New Zealand's abundant volcanic ash in its cement production.

Fuels and more

Alternative fuel (AF) substitution in Australian cement production surpassed 18% in 2020, and is set to rise to 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050, or 60% including 10% green hydrogen. In its recent report on Australian cement industry decarbonisation, the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) noted the difficulty that Australia's cement plants face in competing against landfill sites for waste streams. It described current policy as inadequate to incentivise AF use.

Cement producer Adbri is among eight members of an all-Australian consortium currently building a green hydrogen plant at AGL Energy’s Torrens Island gas-fired power plant in South Australia.

Across the Tasman Sea, Golden Bay Cement expects to attain a 60% AF substitution rate through on-going developments in its use of waste tyres and construction wood waste at its Portland cement plant in Northland. The producer will launch its new EcoSure reduced-CO₂ (699kg/t) general-purpose cement in November 2022. In developing EcoSure cement, it co-processed 80,000t of waste, including 3m waste tyres. The company says that this has helped in its efforts to manage its costs amid high coal prices.

Carbon capture

As the largest single contributor in Australia's cement decarbonisation pathway, carbon capture is now beginning to realise its potential. Boral and carbon capture specialist Calix are due to complete a feasibility study for a commercial-scale carbon capture pilot at the Berrima, New South Wales, cement plant in June 2023.

At Cement Australia's Gladstone, Queensland, cement plant, carbon capture is set to combine with green hydrocarbon production in a US$150m circular carbon methanol production facility supplied by Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company. From its commissioning in mid-2028, the installation will use the Gladstone plant's captured CO₂ emissions and locally sourced green hydrogen to produce 100,000t/yr of methanol.

More Australian cement plant carbon capture installations may be in the offing. Heidelberg Materials, joint parent company of Cement Australia, obtained an indefinite global licence to Calix's LEILAC technology on 28 October 2022. The Germany-based group said that the method offers effective capture with minimal operational impact.

Cement Australia said “The Gladstone region is the ideal location for growing a diverse green hydrogen sector, with abundant renewable energy sources, existing infrastructure, including port facilities, and a highly skilled workforce." It added "The green hydrogen economy is a priority for the Queensland government under the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy.”

Logistics

Australian and New Zealand cement facilities' remoteness makes logistics an important area of CO₂ emissions reduction. In Australia, cement production uses a 60:40 mix of Australian and imported clinker, while imported cement accounts for 5 – 10% of local cement sales of 11.7Mt/yr.

Fremantle Ports recently broke ground on construction of its US$35.1m Kwinana, Western Australia, clinker terminal. It will supply clinker to grinding plants in the state from its commissioning in 2024. Besides increasing the speed and safety of cement production, the state government said that the facility presents 'very significant environmental benefits.'

Conclusion

Antipodean cement production is undergoing a sustainability transformation, characterised by international collaboration and alliances across industries. The current structure of industrial and energy policy makes it an uphill journey, but for Australia and New Zealand's innovating cement industries, clear goals are in sight and ever nearer within reach.

References

1. Eckstein, Künzel and Schäfer, 'Global Climate Risk Index 2021,' 25 January 2021, https://www.germanwatch.org/en/19777

2. VDZ, 'Decarbonisation Pathways for the Australian Cement and Concrete Sector,' November 2021, https://cement.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Full_Report_Decarbonisation_Pathways_web_single_page.pdf

3. Golden Bay Cement, 'Environmental Product Declaration,' 12 May 2019, https://www.goldenbay.co.nz/assets/Uploads/d310c4f72a/GoldenBayCement_EPD_2019_HighRes.pdf

Australia: AdBri says that Nick Miller will be leaving the role as its chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director. Mark Irwin has been appointed as interim CEO with immediate effect. Recruitment for a permanent CEO will start soon. In a trading update, the company said that its earnings were being negatively affected by rising costs, particularly energy and diesel costs, and poor weather.

Miller originally became the CEO of AdBri in 2019 and was later appointed its board of directors as managing director in late 2021.

Australia: Adbri has reported that the ongoing upgrade at its Kwinana cement plant, previously estimated to cost US$137m, is now likely to cost closer to US$157m. It cited inflation and supply chain issues as the main reasons behind the 15% increase to the cost of the project, which seeks to combine its Western Australia operations at a single site, while raising its capacity by 36% to 1.5Mt/yr. The company said the upgrade was about 25% compete as at 30 June 2022, while procurement was about 75% committed. It is scheduled for commissioning in mid 2023.

Elsewhere, Adbri has also said that its definitive feasibility study for a Kalgoorlie lime kiln is on track for completion in the first half of 2023. The study includes mine planning and front-end engineering design.

Australia: Adbri is part of a consortium of eight Australian industrial manufacturers, developers and port operators collaborating with AGL Energy on a feasibility study for a green hydrogen plant at the site of the latter’s Torrens Island power plant in South Australia. AFR Online News has reported that any future hydrogen plant established by the partners would rely on solar and wind power, which has large potential in the region.

The South Australian government previously launched its first US$414m green hydrogen project in Whyalla in March 2022.

Australia: Adbri’s chief executive officer Nick Miller has told investors at the Macquarie Australia Conference that his company is interested in buying parts of BGC, according to the Australian newspaper. Market analysts speculate that Adbri is interested in acquiring BGC’s cement, concrete and aggregate operations. However, Adbri is likely to face opposition from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission with regards to any attempted offer for BGC’s cement business.

BGC reportedly started its latest attempt to sell the company in April 2022. An indicative bidding round is planned for June 2022.

Australia: Adbri has committed to reduce its cement's CO₂ emissions by 20%/t by 2030. WA Today News has reported that the company also aims to offset 100% of CO₂ emissions from its electricity consumption by 2030. It aims to achieve net zero carbon cement production by 2050. Adbri says that it is Australia's only cement producer not to use coal, relying instead on a combination of gas and refuse derived fuel (RDF).

CEO Nick Miller said "This net-zero emissions roadmap builds on our strong decarbonisation progress to date and establishes clear targets and actions we will advance as we strive to achieve net zero emissions by 2050."

Australia: AdBri’s consolidated revenues reached US$1.13bn in 2021, corresponding to a 7.6% year-on-year rise from US$1.05bn. Cement sales constituted 39% of the group’s revenues and rose by 12% year-on-year. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were US$128m, down by 0.4% from US$129m. The company recorded a net profit after tax of US$85.7m, up by 3.1% from US$83.2m in 2020.

Chair Raymond Barro said “The many challenges of 2021 revealed the strength of our people and the depth of their skills, capabilities and experience. On behalf of the board, I would like to commend (managing director and CEO) Nick Miller, his executive leadership team and all our people for their commitment, dedication and resolve as they have continued to deliver for our stakeholders.”