Displaying items by tag: Belgium

Belgium: FEBELCEM, the Federation of the Belgian Cement Industry, has elected Morgan Malecotte as its president. He succeeds Christoph Streicher in the post. The appointment has a duration of two years.

Malecotte is currently the CEO of Holcim Belgium and has been in this position since late 2022. Prior to this he worked for Arkema in management roles from 2014 to 2022. He eventually became its general manager France – BU Construction & Consumer Adhesive. Earlier in his career he worked for the chemicals company Henkel from 2002 to 2014. He holds an bachelor's degree in marketing and management from the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, a master’s degree in the same subject from OMNES Education and an executive master’s of business administration (MBA) from INSEAD.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has elected Jon Morrish as its president and José Antonio Cabrera as its vice president. They will serve in the positions for a two-year term.

Morrish has been the CEO for Heidelberg Materials in Europe since 2024 and a member of its managing board. He joined Hanson in 1999 and became a member of the group’s managing board in 2016. He was the head of the North America Group area until early 2020 and then took on responsibility for the Western and Southern Europe Group. He holds an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Leeds and a master’s of business administration (MBA) qualification from the Cranfield School of Management.

Antonio Cabrera is the president of Cemex Europe, Middle East & Africa. He joined Cemex in 2000. Notable positions include president for Cemex in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Haiti, Vice President of Strategic Planning for Cemex in the Asia, Middle East and Africa region. He started his professional career at Cemex in cement operations. He holds a undergraduate degree in physics from La Laguna University in Spain and an MBA from the IE Business School.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has appointed Cliona Cunningham as its Public Affairs & Communications Director. She will lead the association’s public affairs and communications strategy, ensuring coherence between advocacy, narrative and stakeholder engagement.

Cunningham previously worked as the Head of Communications for CER - the Association of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies from 2021 to 2025. Before this she worked for The Association of European Vehicle Logistics from 2013 to 2021. Earlier in her career she worked for Sony. She is a graduate of University College Cork and the University of Siena.

Belgium: Gebr. Pfeiffer has received an order for an MVR 5000 R-4 vertical roller mill. The mill is intended for a new 4800t/day line at Holcim Belgique's Obourg cement plant, the site of the GO4ZERO decarbonisation project.

The mill will grind 370t/hr of cement raw material to a fineness of ≤15%R to 0.090mm and reduce moisture content from 4% to <0.7%. The mill is expected to reduce both emissions and specific operating costs.

Chinese contractor CBMI is managing the installation, with commissioning planned for the second half of 2025. The mill will be integrated into the plant's oxyfuel operations to achieve efficiency in the CO₂ capture process.

Belgium: Holcim has selected the joint venture between BESIX and DENYS as the main contractor for the civil works of the upgrade at its Obour, Mons, plant. The GO4ZERO project will produce nearly 2.3Mt/yr of carbon-neutral cementitious materials by 2029. In a separate contract, BESIX’s subsidiary Franki Foundations is handling the deep foundations. Work began in August 2024 and will conclude in February 2025.

Italy: Cementir Holding has blamed a fall in earnings in the first nine months of 2024 on “lower results achieved in all geographical areas except Egypt.” It added that sales had fallen due to a decrease in volumes in some places and negative currency effects in Türkiye and Egypt. The group’s revenue fell by 5% year-on-year to €1.24bn in the first nine months of 2024, from €1.30bn in the same period in 2023. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 9% to €296m from €326m. Sales volumes of cement and clinker remained stable at 7.98Mt. It noted that volumes increases were reported in Türkiye and, to a lesser extent, in Malaysia and the US. However, volumes of ready-mixed concrete rose by 5% to 3.33Mm³ from 3.18Mm³.

Francesco Caltagirone Jr, chair and CEO, said “The results for the first nine months of 2024 are in line with our expectations and, after several quarters of contraction, signs of a market turnaround in some geographies are emerging in the third quarter of 2024. We are strengthening our competitive position through initiatives such as: the investment on Kiln 4 in Belgium, the restart of the second line in Egypt, the acquisition in concrete in Nordic & Baltic, a new limestone quarry in Malaysia, and the repurchase of a large part of the minority interest in our Egyptian subsidiary, to prepare ourselves for any upcoming market opportunities”.

Belgium: Heidelberg Materials Lixhe (formerly CBR) has applied to expand the Romont quarry towards Kanne, ensuring the Lixhe plant's operations for the next 20 years with an additional 94.75 hectares. This expansion marks the third and final phase, intending to continue marl extraction on Walloon territory. A public inquiry is scheduled from 16 September - 30 October 2024.

Director Benoit Gastout said "Based on a recent environmental impact report, we are now requesting the partial revision of the regional plan and an environmental permit for the desired extension. We are very aware of the impact of the quarry on the region. That is why we have been taking various measures for years to ensure that Romont is embedded in the landscape as well as possible and that the fauna and flora are respected because of the rich biodiversity. The priority in all of this remains that we want to live in harmony with the local population.”

Heidelberg Materials inaugurated a plant near Katowice in Poland this week for separating and sorting demolition concrete. This gives us the chance to catch up with the state of construction and demolition waste (CDW) for the cement and concrete sectors and consider the differences between the strategies of the multinational heavy building materials companies in Europe and the US.

The new CDW recycling unit has a capacity of up to 100t/hr. Heidelberg Materials says that it is the “first company in the industry to introduce high-quality, selective concrete separation at this scale.” The company is using its proprietary ReConcrete process to sort out fractions from the CDW including sand, gravel and, finest of all, recycled concrete paste (RCP). That last one is particularly valuable because it can either be used as an alternative raw material for clinker production by replacing limestone or as a secondary cementitious material. Heidelberg Materials is also promoting the potential use of RCP as a carbon sink over the lifetime of a concrete structure via ‘enforced carbonation.’ The RCP is exposed to raw exhaust gases from cement production allowing it to both mineralise CO₂ and act as a clinker substitute. To further explore this option Heidelberg Materials is building an industrial pilot at its Górażdże plant to test the concept with construction expected by the end of 2024.

Both Holcim and Heidelberg Materials have been visibly busy buying up more aggregate recycling companies over the last nine months since Global Cement Weekly last reported on CDW. Holcim acquired Germany-based Mendiger Basalt in January 2024, Switzerland-based Cand-Landi Group and UK-based Land Recovery in June 2024, and Belgium-based Mark Desmedt in July 2024. It also said at the start of the year that it aimed to conclude 15 - 20 new acquisitions in 2024 with a focus on CDW companies in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. Heidelberg Materials bought UK-based B&A Group in May 2024 and US-based Highway Materials and Aaron Materials in July 2024. Holcim has set itself a target of recycling 12Mt/yr of CDW by 2030 by using its ECOCycle technology. It reported 8.4Mt/yr in 2023 and hopes to reach 10Mt/yr in 2024.

Some of the recycling companies mentioned above are based in the US but the pace of CDW acquisitions have generally been faster in Europe. In the US, meanwhile, the heavy building materials producers have tended to buy more general aggregates companies. Heidelberg Materials announced on 30 July 2024 that it was buying Albany-based Carver Sand & Gravel. This followed the companies mentioned above and Texas-based Victory Rock, also in July 2024. Holcim said in its first half-year results for 2024 that it had ‘executed’ a bolt-on acquisition in the US that would strengthen its aggregate and ready-mixed concrete business. Cemex also revealed a joint-venture agreement with sand and gravel supplier Couch Aggregates and marine bulk product distributor Premier Holdings in July 2024. It said that the move was part of its “ongoing strategy to accelerate growth in the US and expand its aggregates business.” A big recent deal in the sector was the merger of the US-based operations of Summit Materials and Cementos Argos that completed in January 2024. Although at the time we concentrated on the cement-side of the transaction, it also gave the organisation just under 5Bnt of aggregate reserves.

It may be a stretch to call what’s going on here a trend. Yet the large heavy building materials companies do appear to be acting differently in the US and Europe with regards to aggregate companies and CDW recyclers. The main drivers here are the strength of the US market and the stricter environmental legislation in Europe. Higher population density in Europe compared to the US may also be playing a part in the differences in speed of adoption between the two markets. The ongoing Holcim spinoff demonstrates the differences between the two market regions in bold terms. In short, the company has decided to split itself in two in order to meet the different needs of each market. As for CDW, the trickle of acquisitions keep coming and momentum is steadily building.

Italy: Cementir Holding increased its sales volumes of cement by 0.3% year-on-year to 5.13Mt in the first half of 2024. Nonetheless, group sales fell by 3%, to €812m, and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 4%, to €193m. The producer succeeded in raising its net profit, by 7% to €97m. During the half, it invested €24.7m in decarbonisation, primarily in upgrading the kiln line of its 2.5Mt/yr Guarain cement plant in Belgium.

Chair and CEO Francesco Caltagirone said "Results for the first half of 2024 were in line with our expectations. The adverse weather conditions in the first months of the year and a still weak residential market in the most important geographies, as well as a significant negative exchange rate impact, affected the results for the period, which nevertheless benefited from the reduction of main operating costs".

Cementir Holding confirmed its earnings guidance for the year of €385m (down by 6% year-on-year), but revised its revenues guidance downwards by 6% from €1.8bn to €1.7bn, in line with 2023.

Belgium: Holcim has completed the acquisition of Mark Desmedt, a Belgium-based company that recycles more than 0.5Mt/yr of construction demolition materials. This acquisition aligns with Holcim's goal to recycle 10Mt/yr of construction demolition materials.

CEO of Holcim, Miljan Gutovic said "With the Mark Desmedt team, we are accelerating our vision to drive circular construction in the key metropolitan areas where we operate to build cities from cities. Strategically located between Brussels and Antwerp, Mark Desmedt will scale up our ECOCycle technology across Belgium, making circularity a driver of profitable growth.”