Displaying items by tag: Belgium

Belgium: Cembureau has issued it support for the decision by the European Parliament to amend the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The European cement association has welcomed the decision that its says does not ‘deliberately discriminate between sectors and to apply a fact-based approach to policymaking.’ It added that the changes would make European industry more CO₂ efficient, while maintaining its competitiveness.

Particular parts of the decision it welcomes include the inclusion of dynamic allocation, a benchmark with a minimum reduction of 0.25%, the introduction of a 5% flexible reserve in relation to the allowances available for free and those designated for auctioning and the impetus given to funding for carbon capture and use. It added that it was pleased to see that the amendments for an importer inclusion scheme, which it viewed were targeted at the cement sector, were not accepted. Finally, it reinforced its call for a ‘sector-neutral’ policy that does not differentiate between industries.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European cement association, has lobbied members of the European Parliament with its opinion that the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) must maintain free allowances at the level of best-performers in order to achieve real emission reductions whilst maintaining a competitive industry in Europe. It expressed its views ahead of a scheduled vote in the plenary session of the Parliament in February 2017. One of its key demands was that fairness should be a key principle of policy making and that jobs in one sector are just as important as those in other sectors.

Cembureau called for the proposal to amend the EU ETS to ensure that all energy-intensive industries are on the carbon leakage list and all installations receive a free allocation based on ‘ambitious but realistic’ benchmarks, and benefit from free allocation based on actual production. It wants a sufficient number of free allocations for energy intensive industries at risk of carbon leakage to be made available, hence the auction share should not be higher than 52%. It also wants no further burden to be imposed on EU-ETS sectors. The 43% reduction objective and the 2.2% linear reduction factor for phase IV should not be further increased. Lastly, it has asked for support for innovation focus on energy intensive industries with an extension to cover the whole range of low carbon technologies including industrial carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The Innovation Fund should be fully financed from the auctioning share.

In response to an amendment made by the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee (ENVI) the cement association said that it did not believe that this proposal could work. Its main concerns were: that introducing such a mechanism with a consequential loss of free allowances could create legal uncertainty and hamper further investments by the cement sector in Europe; that it would be impossible to measure the CO₂ performance of third country producers; an overall lack of clarity as to how such scheme would operate; serious concerns about World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatibility; that application to a few sectors would only lead to discrimination in the downstream market where cement competes with other building materials (steel, glass, wood, asphalt) that are not subject to such a scheme; and that the suggested scheme would lead to a competitive disadvantage for European cement producers on export markets where local cement players are not subject to similar CO₂ constraints.

Cembureau also used the opportunity to highlight some of the research projects the local sector is undertaking to improve its environmental performance, reduce CO₂ emissions and improve energy efficiency.

Belgium: Environmental campaign group Sandbag says that research it has conducted has shown that proposed tariffs can protect European Union (EU) cement from ‘dirty’ competition and reward EU companies that produce low-carbon cement. It has released its data ahead of the a vote by the European Parliament in mid-February 2017 to decide on whether to adopt a new border adjustment mechanism (BAM) proposed by the Parliament’s Environment Committee.

The non-government organisation says that a BAM would require importers of cement and clinker into the EU to surrender emissions permits corresponding to the embedded carbon in their products, in the same way that domestic EU cement manufacturers are required to do at present. At the same time, cement, would no longer receive free allocation.

Previous research carried out by Sandbag suggests that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has driven cement emissions higher, whilst other European and national regulations and product standards discriminate against low-carbon cement companies. Over the last decade, the EU carbon market may have delivered more than Euro4.7bn in ‘windfall’ profits to cement companies. However, Sandbag say that border taxes could set cement producers on a level playing field by harmonising incentives to reduce product emissions within the EU.

“The EU can now implement a pragmatic and politically feasible solution for boosting low-carbon cement in Europe, and ending the scandal of enormous windfall profits to cement companies. However, this isn’t simply about cement. In a world of developing carbon markets with no unified set of rules, it is necessary to account for discrepancies in order to avoid offshoring of production,” said Wilf Lytton, an analyst at Sandbag.

Belgium: Gebr Pfeiffer has received an order from Cemminerals to supply a grinding plant for slag and cement. The plant, in Flanders, will use a MVR 5300 C-6 type mill. The order was taken in December 2016 and the mill is scheduled for commissioning in early 2018.

The Pfeiffer MVR 5300 C-6 slag and cement mill will be used to grind five different cement qualities as well as pure slag to three different fineness degrees. The mill is guaranteed to achieve capacities of 132t/hour pure slag, ground to 5000cm²/g acc. to Blaine, and of up to 200t/hour CEM II, ground to a fineness of 3500cm²/g acc. to Blaine. The mill main drive is designed for an installed power of 4600kW, and the SLS 4750 BC high-efficiency classifier, mounted on top of the MVR mill, enables high material fineness degrees of up to 5000cm²/g acc. to Blaine.

In addition to the MVR mill the contract includes handling equipment, two in-feed devices to enable moist slag and dry clinker to be fed to the mill separately, the plant filter, the plant fan, the magnetic drum separator and all ductwork including chutes, expansion joints and the stack. The scope of supply also includes a hot gas generator for the heating of the mill, as well as all electrical drives, starters, frequency converters and the electrical switchgear.

Belgium: Philippe César has been appointed member of the board of directors of Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB), a company acquired and added to the Cementir Group’s consolidation in October 2016. He will also be appointed as the chairman of CCB’s board of directors.

Belgium: Taner Aykac has been appointed the managing director of Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB). The board of directors has also appointed Eddy Fostier as general manager of the company.

Aykac, a Belgian national aged 53 years, holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a MBA. He started his career in the agrochemical sector for Pioneer Overseas Corporation/DuPont in 1988 and subsequently worked for chemical and pharmaceutical multinationals such as Ciba-Geigy, Novartis and Zeneca, where he held various senior roles until 2000 before working for Syngenta Group. In 2011, Aykac was appointed CEO of Cimentas, a Cementir Group subsidiary in the Turkish cement and ready-mixed concrete business, contributing to the reorganisation of the company. He worked in Turkey until the end of 2015.

Belgium: HeidelbergCement has completed the sale of its operations in Belgium, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB) to an affiliate of Cementir Holding. The European Commission has approved the agreement.

“With the disposal of the Belgium assets we fulfill the obligation of the European Commission and improve the net financial position of HeidelbergCement after the acquisition of Italcementi,” said Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement.

HeidelbergCement and Cementir Holding announced the sale on 25 July 2016. The transaction has an enterprise value of Euro312m on a cash and debt-free basis.

Belgium: Data from the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) suggests that the carbon intensity of European Union (EU) cement increased from 2008 to 2014, according to analysis by the environmental campaign group Sandbag. It adds that the sector made greater strides in reducing emissions in the years prior to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). Since 2011, the EU cement sector has increased exports of cement clinker outside the EU, demonstrating that the EU ETS has not made the sector globally uncompetitive.

“EU policymakers have overprotected the cement sector in the EU ETS to such an extent that companies have not taken any action to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The EU’s approach is killing with kindness; by maintaining the status quo on free allocation of allowances they are making their own climate targets undeliverable,” said Wilf Lytton, analyst at Sandbag.

Sandbag say that this highlights the inability of the EU’s climate policy, as currently designed, to address European cement sector emissions. Meanwhile, low-carbon new entrant cement companies operating outside of the EU ETS have commercialised technologies to dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of cement, yet are struggling to scale-up as they fight through a mass of regulation and product standards that support the high-carbon status quo.

Research by Sandbag revealed in March 2016 that incentives in the design of the EU ETS have driven higher greenhouse gas emissions emissions in the cement sector.

And the winner of the Italcementi assets in Belgium is… Cementir. The Italian multinational cement producer picked up Compagnie des Ciments Belges for Euro312m this week. The deal included all of Italcementi's cement, ready-mix and aggregates assets in Belgium, Italcementi's stake in an existing limestone joint-venture with LafargeHolcim and a portion of HeidelbergCement's limestone quarry in Antoing. It was offered by HeidelbergCement to the European Commission to ensure approval of its acquisition of Italcementi.

The assets from Compagnie des Ciments Belges comprise one 2.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant, three terminals and 10 ready-mix concrete plants. As ever, the add-ons confuse the final price but the deal values the cement production capacity at Euro125/t or US$138/t. This figures seems low compared to the other big sale this week of Holcim Lanka to Siam City Cement. There, the Thai producer picked up an integrated cement plant and a grinding plant with a combined cement production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr for US$400m. That values the cement production capacity at US$250/t.

Increasing its presence in western Europe makes a lot of sense for Cementir. It’s one of the smaller European multinational cement producers with 14 cement plants, often white cement producers, in Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Egypt, the US, China and Malaysia. Altogether this comes to 15.1Mt/yr in cement production capacity. In its press release, Cementir described Gaurain-Ramecroix, the cement plant it is buying, as the largest integrated cement plant in France-Benelux, region with ‘state-of-the-art’ technology and long-life mineral reserves.

Italcementi reported a 2.9% year-on-year fall in cement and clinker sales volumes in Belgium in 2015, noting a general reduction in cement consumption in all areas of the construction industry. The mineral reserves were confirmed at least as environmental clearance as granted and work began at the new Barry quarry at Gaurain-Ramecroix.

Cementir has rebuilt its revenue since hitting a high of Euro1.15bn in 2007 although it dipped again in 2014. Despite this ordinary portland and white cement sales volumes have been slowly falling from a high of 10.5Mt in 2011 to 9.37Mt in 2015. That said though its businesses in Scandinavia generated just under half of its operating revenue in 2015. So far in 2016, total group revenue rose by 2.8% to Euro210m in the first quarter of the year, with a fair portion of that attributable to Scandinavia. Bolting on a cement and concrete business in (relatively) nearby Belgium makes sense in this context provided the construction market eventually rallies.

Yet, another on-going Cementir acquisition back home in Italy may make the company reflect on the risks of buying assets in Belgium. Cementir is drawing closer to purchasing the cement and concrete arm of Sacci as it plans to pick up five cement plants and assorted ready-mix concrete assets for the bargain price of Euro125m, following a protracted bankruptcy. Cementir may remember that Lafarge sold some of these assets to Sacci for Euro290m in 2008 before the situation deteriorated. The top brass at Cementir must be praying that the Sacci’s fate doesn’t await them in Belgium.

Belgium: HeidelbergCement, through its subsidiary Ciments Français, has agreed to sell its operations in Belgium, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s Belgian subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges (CCB), to Aalborg Portland Holding, a subsidiary indirectly 100% controlled by Cementir Holding. The transaction has been valued at Euro312m on a cash and debt-free basis. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2016.

“With the disposal of the Belgium assets we fulfil the obligation of the European Commission and improve the net financial position of HeidelbergCement after the acquisition of the 45% share in Italcementi,” said Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement. “We are well on track to reach our target of at least Euro1bn of proceeds from disposals.”

The divestment of operations in Belgium was offered to the European Commission in order to address competition concerns caused by the group’s acquisition of Italcementi. The sale to Cementir Holding is subject to the approval of the European Commission.