Displaying items by tag: Aggregates

Thailand: Siam Cement Group’s concrete and aggregates division SCC Concrete Products and Aggregates (CPAC) has entered into a joint venture agreement with Swedish digitisation specialist BIMobject for the formation of BIMobject Thailand Co., Ltd. (BIMobject TH) on a 51:49 basis in favour of CPAC. This will provide building information modelling (BIM) - a service platform for use in conceptual design, material selection, and construction simulation of customers’ projects. Siam Cement Group president and CEO Roongrote Rangsiyopash said, “This is in line with SCC’s strategic plan to extend its breadth of innovative construction solutions.” The joint venture will have US$170,000 registered capital.

UK: Cemex has entered a conditional agreement with Breedon Group for the divestment of certain UK assets, including 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries and a cement terminal for Euro211m including Breedon Group’s assumption of Euro27.3m lease liability. Cemex UK retains the 1.2Mt/yr Rugby cement plant in Warwickshire. Breedon Group CEO Pat Ward said, “We expect the deal to be accretive to both earnings and free cash flow in the first full year, with a positive ongoing impact on the cash generation of the enlarged Group.” Cemex CEO Fernando Gonzalez said that the transaction ‘further rebalances our portfolio into our core markets, enhances our profitability and enables us to continue to focus on deleveraging.’

The businesses being handed over also include concrete products operations, depots and asphalt plants and fall under all six of Breedon Group’s regional divisions. Ward has said the acquisitions will significantly enlarge the group’s footprint in underrepresented divisions, implying that the cement terminal in question may be the Leith terminal in Scotland or the Newport terminal in Wales, two regions in which the company currently has no terminals to receive cement produced at its 1.5Mt/yr integrated Hope cement plant in Derbyshire. Breedon Group will seek to hire employees working on the operations from Cemex and expects to bring its total UK personnel to 3600 people as a result. It says its mineral reserves will exceed 1.0Bt.

Cemex UK retains 259 concrete plants and 36 aggregates quarries and dredging operations. Cemex said it ‘will retain a substantial integrated business in the UK encompassing cement production.’

UK: Hanson’s ship Arco Avon has uncovered a mammoth tooth whilst dredging the seabed for aggregates for use in cement production off the east coast of Norfolk. Natural History Museum palaeontologists have identified the specimen has having belonged to a 35-year-old animal that died between 10,000 and 0.35m years ago. The dredging lane, 10km offshore from Great Yarmouth, has previously turned out mammoth vertebrae and a tusk fragment.

Bulgaria: The Bulgarian government has terminated Devnya Cement’s concessionary contract for the extraction of quartz sand for cement production from the Selski Nivi deposit. SeeNews has reported that the company requested the contract’s termination due to alterations to its production strategy in response to market conditions.

In 2018, Devnya Cement generated a revenue of Euro70.3m, which translated into Euro8.65m profit.

Spain: The European Union of Aggregates Producers has granted two Sustainable Development Awards to Brazil’s Votorantim Cimentos for its El Toril quarry restoration plan and cave conservation plan for the Cova Eirós mine, which provided raw materials for clinker produciton at its 0.7Mt/yr integrated Oural plant. Votorantim Cimentos has partnered with the University of Santiago de Compostela to facilitate archaeological study of Cova Eirós, where 50,000-year-old findings have been made. Meanwhile at El Toril, the pit will be filled, levelled and enhanced for fertility so that it may resume its previous use as arable land.

Uzbekistan: Construction has begun at Russia’s Eurocement’s 2.0Mt/yr integrated Ankhangarancement plant in the Tashkent region of a facility to house the limestone and clay used in cement production. When the installation is operational, the materials will be relayed from it to the plant’s four wet lines by a conveyor belt and 1400t/hr stacker, whence the mixture is conveyed by 600t/hr-capacity truck to one of the vertical roller mills.

UK: Chris Leese has decided to leave Cemex UK after 30 years with the company. His varied career at Cemex has seen him taking responsibility for a broad range of activities, notably as Vice President of Readymix VP and more latterly as Vice President of Aggregates.

Leese has been a long-standing champion of health and safety improvements, taking a lead role at Cemex and the broader industry. He was the chair of the MPA Health and Safety committee for over nine years.

US: Summit Materials' revenue rose by 3% year-on-year to US$739m in the first half of 2019 from US$717m in the same period in 2018. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 4% to US$147m from US$141m. Cement sales volumes increased by 2% to 1Mt from 0.97Mt. Tom Hill, the chief executive officer of Summit Materials, noted that flooding on the Mississippi River had presented ‘significant’ challenges for its cement business during the second quarter of 2019.

Summit Materials is active in the aggregates, asphalt and concrete sectors. It also owns Continental Cement, a cement producer that runs two integrated cement plants at Hannibal, Missouri and Davenport, Iowa.

US: The Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL), GreenOre Clean Tech, Columbia University and Wyoming Infrastructure Authority (WIA) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to test carbon utilisation and recycling technology. GreenOre Clean Tech, using technology under license from Columbia University, will use testing space at the Integrated Test Center (ITC) near the Dry Fork Station coal-fired power station in Gillette, Wyoming. Calcium carbonate produced through CO₂ mineralisation could then potentially be used for aggregates, concrete production or in paper production. The test will be funded by JCOAL with additional support from project partners.

The State of Wyoming and JCOAL have been working together since 2016, when they signed an initial MOU committing to cooperation in coal research and development of technologies and coal trade. JCOAL operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and is supported by more than 120 member coal-related businesses, including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Nippon Steel and Toshiba. Kawasaki is scheduled to test its solid sorbent capture technology at the ITC beginning in 2021.

India: Ambuja Cement is looking for ready-mix concrete (RMX) and aggregate assets to buy as part of its growth plans. A company source quoted by the Business Standard newspaper said that it was considering ‘growth options’ in all of its core businesses of cement, RMX and aggregates. Industry analysts have interpreted this as an effort to diversify the business away from dominance by the cement sector. However, expansion in the RMX market is expected to be difficult owing to the lack of local organisation in the market.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has a cement production capacity of 63Mt/yr, including those of ACC. Both Ambuja Cement and ACC use a master supply agreement to coordinate sales, marketing and logistics.