Displaying items by tag: Austria
Austria: Lafarge Austria and Perlmooser Beton will operate under the new name Holcim Austria from May 2023. Both companies have been part of Holcim Group since 2015. The rebranding exercise follows the renaming of LafargeHolcim as Holcim that took place in mid-2021.
Lafarge Austria operates two cement plants, at Mannersdorf and Retznei respectively, with a total production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr. Its headquarters is in Vienna. The company employs around 250 people.
Lafarge Zement to establish Recycling Centre Mannersdorf
14 December 2022Austria: Lafarge Zement plans to invest Euro8m in the establishment of the Recycling Centre Mannersdorf at its 1.2Mt/yr Mannersdorf cement plant in Lower Austria. Niederösterreichische Nachrichten News has reported that the facility will process demolition waste into alternative raw materials for use in the cement producer’s operations.
Plant manager Helmut Reiterer said “The Recycling Centre Mannersdorf is of great importance for the construction industry. It enables people to build in a much more environmentally friendly way, increases the recycling rate and strengthens the domestic circular economy.”
Austria: Rail logistics company ÖBB Rail Cargo Group (RCG) says that its haulage of 80,000t/yr of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and clinker to and from w&p Zement's Wietersdorf cement plant in Carinthia by rail has removed 3200 trucks/yr from the road since its start in 2019. RCG's trains deliver the plant's clinker to the Peggau-Deutschfeistritz railway station in Styria, and return to the plant laden with GBFS from steel producer Voestalpine's nearby Leoben refinery.
RCG said that w&p Zement is currently working to increase its operations' reliance on rail, adding "Further innovative transport solutions are already being worked on."
Starlinger launches 22% recycled cement bag
23 September 2022Austria: Starlinger launched its new 22% recycled plastic cement bags at the K Show trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany. The bag implements Starlinger’s GripTEC technology, which increases the coefficient of friction on bag surfaces so that stacked bags do not easily slip.
PERI and STRABAG build 3D printed office building
23 September 2022Austria: PERI and STRABAG have used a COBOD 3D printer to successfully build Europe’s first 3D printed office building in Hausleiten, Lower Austria.
PERI board member for innovation and marketing Thomas Imbacher said "The building in Hausleiten is a milestone for STRABAG, for PERI, for all involved. We are convinced that 3D printing of buildings will be part of the future of construction, as this technology offers solutions for challenges that are currently occupying our industry: digitalisation, efficiency, shortage of skilled workers and much more."
RHI Magnesita leads refractories recycling project
02 September 2022Europe: RHI Magnesita is heading a European Union Horizon project called ReSoURCE. The project seeks to develop a sensor-based refractory waste sorting and powder handling system. It involves academic partners in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the UK. The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) supplied Euro6m in funding for the study, while the UK government supplied Euro1m. Global refractory waste generation is currently 28Mt/yr.
RHI Magnesita chief executive officer Stefan Borgas said “On average, 60% of all spent refractories generated by refractory-consuming industries go to landfill, while only 30% are recycled. With the ReSoURCE project, we aim to increase it up to 75%. This means we can achieve significant savings of CO2 emissions per annum. With this research project, we have the chance to make a difference in the world.”
Austria: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita increased its consolidated sales by 33% year-on-year to Euro1.6bn in the first half of 2022 from Euro1.2bn in the first half of 2021. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 37% to Euro245m from Euro 179m. Profit before tax rose by 14% year-on-year to Euro142m from Euro125m.
Looking forward to its full-year 2022 results, RHI Magnesita forecast unchanged earnings, based on ‘strong demand’ in the year to date and its order book for the second half of the year. It said that inflation and monetary policy responses, labour and energy market tightness and on-going supply chain disruption have impacted its global growth outlook. It will rely on price rises to maintain its margins, as well as on strategic cost saving initiatives.
Chief executive officer Stefan Borgas said “In the first half of 2022 we further demonstrated the benefits of prioritising customer deliveries in an environment of continued supply chain volatility. Our investment in inventories to ensure our customers remain supplied with essential refractories has underlined the importance of supply reliability and has enabled us to simultaneously increase prices and gain market share. Following major investments in our production network, a reduction in our selling, general and administrative expenses and progress on our sales strategies, the group is in a strong position to maintain its leadership position in the refractory industry and to navigate future challenges.”
Austria: RHI Magnesita’s customers can now rely on Environmental Indicators on all of its products’ Technical Data Sheets to check their CO2 emissions. The indicators state the CO2 equivalent emissions per tonne of each product. The supplier calculated the figures in line with ISO standards under on-going external supervision.
Chief sustainability officer Gustavo Franco said “One of RHI Magnesita’s main targets is to significantly reduce emissions over the next few decades, with the long-term goal of achieving net-zero operations in all areas of the company. It is clear that a solid basis for sustainable decisions and developments can only be achieved by creating a valid audited database.”
Austria: RHI Magnesita says it has released CO2 emissions data for all of its 200,000 products. Technical Data Sheets now include a field ‘Environmental Indicators’ in which the CO2 equivalent emission of one metric ton of the product is listed. The calculation method for these indicators is developed with and supervised on an on-going basis by an external organisation under the principles of ISO standards. All greenhouse gases ‘cradle-to-gate’, from raw material extraction to production to packaging to gate are considered in these CO2 footprint calculations.
Chief sustainability officer Gustavo Franco said "This project marks an important milestone towards a green transformation. Thus, one of RHI Magnesita's main targets is to significantly reduce emissions over the next few decades, with the long-term goal of achieving net-zero operations in all areas of the company. It is clear, that a solid basis for sustainable decisions and developments can only be achieved by creating a valid audited database."
Solex to work with Cemtec on mineral cooling project
01 June 2022Austria/Canada: Canada-based Solex Thermal Science has been selected by Austria-based Cemtec for a mineral cooling project based in Central Europe. As part of the agreement, Solex will deliver a customised plate-based moving bed heat exchanger (MBHE) that will be used to indirectly cool a milled, mineral-based powder that’s similar to cement. The unit is expected to be delivered by the summer of 2022.
Solex says that the use of a welded plate-channel design allows the powder to flow by gravity within a vertically orientated exchanger and between banks of stainless-steel plates. A heat transfer fluid passes within the plates to cool the material by conduction. The use of indirect heat transfer technology, combined with customised plate spacing, provides the necessary residence time to eliminate caking within the unit while also ensuring consistent temperature profiles at the outlet.
“We are excited to bring our decades of thermal engineering experience to this collaboration with Cemtec,” said Gerald Marinitsch, Global Director, Industrials for Solex Thermal Science. “We are confident that our MBHE technology will provide a reliable, real-world solution to this unique and important cooling application.”
Cemtec is a specialist in providing wet and dry grinding technologies for many types of bulk materials and minerals including the cement sector. Solex Thermal Science develops indirect heat exchange technology for the heating, cooling and drying of free-flowing granular materials such as solid granules, pellets, beans, seeds and particles.