Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Cement Australia’s Gladstone cement plant in Queensland will host a study of methanol production from green hydrogen and captured CO₂. Japan-based Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will supply its green methanol production technology, while hydrogen and oxygen feedstocks will be sourced locally. Cement Australia and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will collaborate on commercialisation of their green methanol. Cement Australia said that carbon capture and its utilisation in value added products is a strategic pillar of the company’s decarbonisation roadmap.

The cement producer 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. The green hydrogen economy is a priority for the Queensland government under the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy.”

Brazil: Germany-based INFORM has established a joint venture with its partner Portia LAC in São Paulo. The new company called INFORM PORTIA will take over sales, consulting and support for INFORM software products in Brazil.

Andreas Meyer, the chief executive officer of INFORM, said “With this joint venture, we are expanding our presence in South America to meet the growing demand for software solutions to optimise business processes.” He added, “This joint venture is an important building block in our global network. We strive to maintain a relationship with our customers based on partnership and trust. However, this is much more successful if you also have a local presence.” In addition to its headquarters in Aachen in Germany and new joint venture in Brazil, INFORM is represented by five other INFORM related companies in the US, Chile, Australia, Singapore, and Portugal respectively.

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: Boral has appointed Belinda Shaw as its chief financial officer (CFO). She succeeds Jared Gashel, who has held the position of Acting CFO since April 2022.

Shaw holds over 25 years of professional experience, including more than 10 years of senior executive finance experience across multiple industries. She was appointed as Acting CFO of Sydney Airport, after three years at the company. Her previous roles included Deputy CFO, General Manager Finance, General Manager Investor Relations & Financial Control, and Head of Finance Transformation & Strategy. Prior to her time at Sydney Airport, Shaw worked at General Electric Company where she held roles including CFO ANZ & PNG, CFO Global Mining, and CFO Global Locomotive. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of South Australia and is a Fellow Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA).

Australia/China: A Charles Sturt University team has found that the use of clay in soft soil foundation stabilisation can eliminate 40% of cement used in this type of construction. Australian Associated Press News has reported that China-based Kunming University of Science and Technology also supported the research.

Australia: First Graphene has appointed Lester Lee as its Commercial Manager – Cement & Concrete. Singapore-based Lee holds nearly 30 years of experience working in the cement and concrete industries. This includes management roles in Hong Kong and Singapore with multinational companies such as Fosroc Construction Chemicals, K Wah Concrete Company and WR Grace.

First Graphene is an Australia-based supplier of graphitic materials and product formulations to sectors including cement and concrete, composites and plastics, coatings, adhesives, silicones and elastomers (CASE) and energy storage applications.

Australia: Fremantle Ports has broken ground on its construction of a new US$35.1m cement terminal at Kwinana Bulk Terminal in Western Australia. Business News Western Australia has reported that contractor COVA-Haywards will build a 40,000t-capacity clinker storage dome at the site. The terminal will supply BGC and Cockburn Cement's local grinding operations. Commissioning is scheduled for 2024.

State development minister Roger Cook said"It will significantly improve our capability to move clinker faster, more safely and with very significant environmental benefits, and provide the capacity for the port facility to accommodate future trade growth. It's a great example of planning assets to integrate the state-owned port with adjacent private facilities, with benefits for all."

UK: Innovative Ash Solutions, a joint venture of Levenseat and Organic Innovative Solutions, has launched a new air pollution control residue (APCR)-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM). The supplier produces the material at its Lanarkshire treatment facility using APCR local from municipal solid waste (MSW) and wood biomass incinerators. Innovative Ash Solutions has received planning permission for a 54,000t/yr industrial-scale APCR-based SCM plant, and plans to establish a total of three plants in the UK, one of which will reach a capacity of 500,000t/yr. It has also signed an exclusive licensing agreement with an Australia-based importer for the material.

The SCM is designed to replace pulverised fly ash (PFA), of which the UK imported 325,000t in 2019, more than four times its 2012 import volumes of 76,000t.

Innovative Ash Solutions director Robert Gren said “We are excited to bring this new product to market. Innovative Ash Solutions is the first and, so far, the only company in the UK to have achieved ‘End of Waste’ accreditation for a PFA replacement for this type of use. Our research shows there is potential to produce more than 500,000t/yr of PFA replacement from UK APCRs every year, which would reduce the need for importing materials and support the decarbonisation of cement and concrete products.”

Australia: Boral has announced that Vik Bansal will start work as its chief executive officer and managing director on 10 October 2022. It was previously announced that he would succeed Zlatko Todorcevski in early December 2022.

Australia: BGC has cancelled its latest attempt to sell the company, blaming the decision on labour shortages and supply chain disruption. It said it had received “very strong interest from a range of parties” but had made the decision based on poor market conditions, according to the West Australian newspaper. A shortage of skilled tradespersons in West Australia is negatively affecting the local home construction sector and reducing BGC’s value consequently. A second attempt to sell the company started in April 2022 with Macquarie Capital appointed to run the process. The company plans resume its sale in 2023 when market conditions have improved.