Displaying items by tag: Argos

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that 10 cements plants have received its Energy Star certification in 2022 from a total of 86 manufacturing plants across all industries. The certification is awarded to the top 25% performers in energy efficiency in each sector. The EPA cited examples of how Titan America’s Troutville plant in Virginia and its Medley plant in Florida had converted production to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), and achieved a 12% reduction in electricity use and an 18% reduction in CO2 emissions, respectively, thanks to improved energy management. It also mentioned Cemex’s Miami plant in Florida, which increased its energy performance in 2022 by modifying a finish mill, optimising the ball charge on the largest mill and identifying and correcting potential energy losses while also increasing the production of PLC.

Cement plants awarded the Energy Star certification in 2022 include: Drake Cement’s Paulden plant and Salt River Materials Group’ Clarkdale plant in Arizona; GCC’s Pueblo plant in Colorado, Cemex’s Miami plant and Titan America’s Medley plant in Florida; Argos USA’s Harleyville plant in South Carolina; GCC’s Rapid City plant in South Dakota; Buzzi Unicem USA’s Chattanooga plant in Tennessee; Titan America’s Troutville plant in Virginia; and Ash Grove Cement’s Seattle plant in Washington.

US: Argos USA has ordered a 490 M-type ship unloader from Swden-based Bruks Siwertell for cement and fly-ash handling at the Port of Houston in Texas. The unloader will have a continuous rated cement handling capacity of 800t/hr and is designed to accommodate vessels up to 65,000 dwt. It will be assembled on site and is planned for delivery in February 2024. Bruks Siwertell will also supply the complete screw conveyor system for transporting dry bulk material from the unloader to a storage dome, along with support structures and walkways.

Honduras: Argos Honduras is set to start a new hydrogen injection process at its integrated Piedras Azules cement plant. During the process, water molecules are split using electricity into hydrogen and oxygen and then injected into the kiln through the main burner. The main objective of this technology is to reduce the use of fossil fuels, CO₂ emissions levels and energy consumption at the plant.

Luis Eduardo Tovar, the manager of Argos Honduras, said “We are proud to be committed to innovation and new technologies that allow us to keep our operation at the forefront of the industry. This project has allowed us to reduce our C0₂ emissions and optimise our processes to become increasingly efficient."

A pilot was previously conducted in conjunction with Portugal-based UTIS. It showed that by using the technology the plant could increase its clinker production and reduce petcoke consumption.

US: Argos USA has launched its new Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) brand EcoStrong.The company says the its will complete its conversion to 100% EcoStrong PLC cement production across all facilities in 2023.Its Roberta, Alabama cement plant and Atlanta, Georgia grinding plant will transition by mid-2022, while its Newberry, Florida cement plant will transition by October 2022.Argos USA plans to use EcoStrong cement at all of its Eastern US ready-mix concretesites by mid-2022.

Cement technical director Steve Wilcox said“I am excited to be part of Argos’ brand announcement for our PLC Type IL product. EcoStrong PLC encompasses everything we have worked for over the past decade, to offer a high-quality product with lower embodied carbon, which contributes to the ultimate goal of decarbonising across our operations. Our PLC product is engineered to reduce the harmful effects on the environment and perform similar to or better than our ordinaryPortland cement (OPC) Type I/II. EcoStrong PLC empowers our customers, specifiers, architects, and engineers to design and execute their projects with resilience and sustainability.”

US: Argos USA has agreed to sell a total of 23 US ready-mix concrete batching plants to Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete for US$93m. 18of the plants are situated in North Carolina and the remainder in Southwest Florida. The El Colombiano newspaper has reported that the deal includes a five-year cement supply agreement for all 23 plants. Cementos Argos said that the divestment is part of its plan to divest assets in suburban markets or that are not already integrated into its production and logistics chain.

Colombia: Argos North America has taken out a US$300m loan where the interest rate is linked to CO₂ emission reduction indicators and the increase in the percentage of women in leadership positions. It will be used to prepay an existing syndicated loan. The loan has been taken out from BNP Paribas Securities, Natixis, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and the Bank of Nova Scotia. This loan is the first linked to environmental, social and corporate governance performance that Argos has signed with international banks.

US: A US court has fined Argos USA US$20m for violations of antitrust rules between 2011 and 2016 with regards to the ready-mixed concrete market. The subsidiary of Columbia-based Cementos Argos subsidiary has admitted to collusion with another ready-mix producer. The US Department of Justice says that the companies coordinated price rises, submitted collusive non-competitive bids to customers, allocated markets in Southern Georgia and elsewhere and charged fuel surcharges and environmental fees.

Argos says the conspiracy was committed by, “a small number of former employees of a small, local sales office” that joined Argos when it acquired another company, according to Reuters. It added that its management “did not participate in or condone the conduct, which was undertaken in contravention of company compliance policies.”

With events moving fast in Europe with regard to the on-going health crisis, here are a few threads to consider from the cement industry news this week.

Firstly, there have been two solar power stories over the last week in North America. Grupo Argos said that it had installed a 10.6MW solar power plant at Cementos Argos’ Piedras Azules cement plant in Comayagua. Then US-based Alamo Cement Company was reported to have signed a contract with Renergetica to build a solar power plant at its integrated plant in San Antonio, Texas. Global Cement has looked at this topic on and off over the years from the steady addition of photovoltaic (PV) solar plants around the world to supply electricity to cement plants to more ambitious plans such as research into using concentrated solar power to start powering creating clinker directly. These two latest PV stories follow projects in El Salvador and Cyprus so far this year. We’re not going to comment now on the overall progress the cement industry is making towards moving away from fossil fuels but the general trend is encouraging.

Next, there are on-going investments and upgrade projects being announced. Germany’s KHD revealed on 17 March 2020 that is building a new raw mill and pyroprocessing line for an ACC plant in India. FCT combustion recently announced that it has won a deal to supply Titan Cement in the US with an upgrade to a kiln line to natural gas. Buzzi Unicem’s SLK Cement in Russia has agreed to co-process solid municipal waste at its Sukholozhskcement plant. South Africa’s PPC has invested in a pneumatic offloading facility and a silo for its George Depot cement terminal in the Western Cape. These will have likely been agreed before the global coronavirus outbreak but they are reminders that some level of capital expenditure by cement companies is happening.

In China the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said this week that the domestic cement sector’s net profit grew by 20% year-on-year to US$26.6bn in 2019. With this in mind the first quarter results for 2020 from cement producers in China will make essential reading for producers from elsewhere around the world wondering what to expect. However, a recent interview with the president of Huaxin Cement, a company based in Hubei province at the epicentre of the outbreak, revealed that despite the short term economic disruption from the quarantine the company was expecting a rapid economic rebound after April 2020 provided that there is a suitable government stewardship. He also mentioned the key role the company was playing in disposing of clinical waste. As such it was hoping for tax breaks to support continuing incineration and the advancement of co-processing in general.

Finally, also on the health crisis, many cement industry events have been cancelled or postponed as work practices change including those organised by Global Cement. We’re taking our events online in the short term as virtual conferences with opportunities for information exchange and networking. We encourage as many of you as possible to register.

Panama: Argos Panama plans to install a line for the production and storage of clinker at its plant in Buena Vista, Colón Province. In an environmental impact study submitted to Panama’s Ministry of Environment, Argos estimated the total cost of the project, called the Balboa Project, at US$168m.

Colombia: Argos, the cement company of Grupo Argos, reported a 10.6% increase in revenue during the first half of 2019, driven mainly by higher cement volumes in the US and the start of price recovery in Colombia. Its consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 4%.

The company earned US$1.42m in revenue, with a net profit of US$22m, 33.5% higher than in the first half of 2018. Its EBITDA in the US was US$262.4m. Cement shipments were close to 8Mt, 1.2% higher than in the first half of 2018, and concrete dispatches were 5Mm3, a decrease of 2.5% due to the impact of heavy rains in some regions of the US.

“In the first half of 2019 we continued to strengthen our operation and our presence in the United States with the execution of the BEST 2.0 efficiency plan, which, added to the best price dynamics that we began to see in Colombia, allowed us to compensate the pressure we experienced in energy costs,” said Juan Esteban Calle, CEO of Argos. “The significant progress of our divestment plan in non-strategic assets allows us to continue focusing on improving the competitiveness of the company and innovating in products, services and solutions to support the growth of our customers.”

In the US Argos earned revenues of US$781m, 3.5% higher than in the first half of 2018. Its US EBITDA was stable year-on-year at US$108m. Cement dispatches in the US increased by 6.9% to exceed 3Mt, but concrete dispatches decreased by 3.8%, mainly due to heavy rains in the south-central region. The profit in the US was US$11m.

In Colombia revenues during the first half of 2019 were US$352m, 3.3% higher than in the first half of 2018. EBITDA was US$72m, 4% lower year-on-year. Cement dispatches totaled 2.4Mt, a 2.5% reduction. On the other hand, concrete sales remained stable at 1.4Mm3. The company reported that its Argos ONE digital platform continued to give ‘great’ results. From January 2019 to July 2019, 63% of cement and 44% of concrete dispatches were made through this digital platform.

In the Caribbean and Central America, the company highlighted that operations in the Dominican Republic and Haiti continued to be positive, compensating for the challenging political environment that was evident during the period in Honduras and Panama.

In this region, revenues stood at US$286m, a 4.5% reduction year-on-year. EBITDA in this region came to US$79m dollars, 19.8% lower year-on-year. Cement dispatches were 2.5Mt and concrete dispatches were 194,000m3, 1.5% and 3% lower respectively year-on-year.