Displaying items by tag: CRH

Philippines: Republic Cement, a subsidiary of Ireland’s CRH, has won the Quarry Operations award at the 2021 Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Awards in Quezon City for its work sustainably supplying limestone to its Bulacan and Batangas cement plants. The Batangas quarry also won the Safest Quarry award, while the Bulacan quarry won the Best Mining Forest Programme in the Non-metallic category. The company’s Iligan quarry won the Platinum Achievement for Quarry Operations award. President Lloyd Vicente received the prizes.

Ireland: CRH has appointed Jim Mintern as group finance director with effect from 1 June 2021. He will also join the company’s board of directors at the same time. He succeeds Senan Murphy who is retiring.

Mintern, aged 54 years, is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin. He has over 30 years of experience in the building materials industry, nearly 20 years of which have been with CRH.

He joined CRH in Ireland as finance director for Roadstone in 2002 and since then has held several senior positions across the group, including country manager for Ireland and managing director of each of the Western and Eastern regions of our Europe Materials business. Mintern is an executive vice president of CRH and a member of the group’s Global Leadership Team. In his most recent role as chief of staff to the chief executive officer he worked with divisional and operational leadership, having oversight of group performance programmes and leading the planning and execution of some of the group’s recent large acquisitions including Ash Grove in North America in 2018.

UK: CRH subsidiary Tarmac has appointed Chris Bradbury as the plant manager at its integrated Dunbar cement plant in East Lothian, Scotland. He previously worked at Tarmac’s Tunstead plant in Derbyshire. Bradbury began working in the cement industry as an apprentice in 1994 and has held many roles at plants both in the UK and in Nigeria and the Philippines.

Ireland: CRH’s consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 5% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to US$4.6bn in 2020 from US$4.5bn in 2019. Sales fell by 2% to US$27.6bn from US$28.1bn. The group reported a net debt/EBITDA ratio of 1.3x, its lowest since 2010.

Chief executive officer Albert Manifold said, "Our 2020 performance is testament to the commitment of our people and the strength and resilience of our business model. Through the repositioning of our business in recent years and our relentless focus on continuous business improvement, we have delivered record levels of profitability, margins and cash generation. Although the near-term outlook remains uncertain, our unique portfolio of businesses together with the strength of our balance sheet leaves us well positioned to capitalise on the growth opportunities that lie ahead."

By division the group reported growth in its US cement sales volumes in 2020 on a like-for-like basis due to demand in the west, surpassing the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic elsewhere. However, volumes fell in Canada, particularly in the first half of the year. In 2020, CRH adopted the Ash Grove brand for all its North American cement businesses, unifying 12 cement plants and 42 cement terminals under one brand. In Europe sales and earnings fell due to poor markets in the west despite better conditions on the east. The group noted that it grew its profit in the Philippines due to a strong recovery in the second half and cost savings despite plant shutdowns.

Ukraine: The District Administrative Court of Kiev has dismissed Belarusian Cement Company (BCC)’s claim against the government’s Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade for the cancellation of anti-dumping duties on cement. The duties on imported cement are 57% the value of goods from Belarus, 94% from Moldova and 115% from Russia. The commission introduced the tariffs in late May 2019 and they will expire in late May 2024.

The law firm representing third parties Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Ukraine and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement said "The court recognised the need to protect the violated rights of national cement producers in Ukraine from dumped imports of goods to Ukraine.” It added that the imports had caused ‘significant damage’ to national producers.

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has appointed Jeremy Greenwood as the Chair of UK Concrete. He will work with Chris Leese, the Director of UK Concrete, to coordinate the work of the Concrete Centre, MPA Cement, British Ready-mixed Concrete Association (BRMCA) and British Precast on the roadmap the sector is implementing to go ‘Beyond Net Zero by 2050.’ Greenwood previously worked for Tarmac as its managing director, having been at the company since 1988.

Switzerland: Dürr is supplying a regenerative thermal oxidation system (RTO) to Jura Cement Fabriken integrated plant in Wildegg as the main stage in its air pollution control system. The upgrade is intended to enable the cement producer to comply with anticipated lower gas emission limits for carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and ammonia (NH₃). The supplier says its solution combines Dürr’s Ecopure RTO multiple-chamber principle with an optimisation of the existing process technology in the calciner. It is scheduled to start operation in 2022.

Jura Cement operates two integrated plants in Switzerland. It is part of the Switzerland-based Jura Materials Group, which has been part of the Ireland-based CRH since 2000.

France: Eqiom’s Rochefort cement plant has won the Safety Trophy from the French cement industry union (SFIC). The award recognises work to reduce all types of workplace accidents. The subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH also won a safety award for its Chelles terminal, recognising its connected approach to logistics management.

US: HeidelbergCement is considering selling assets in California. Bloomberg News reports that it is working with Morgan Stanley on a potential divestment and it hopes to raise around US$1.5bn. It is reportedly approaching competitors including Martin Marietta Materials, Cemex, CRH, Summit Materials and LafargeHolcim, as well as companies in China and Latin America. The first bids are not expected until early 2021.

The Germany-based building materials company operates three integrated cement plants in California, as part of its Lehigh Hanson subsidiary, in addition to concrete and aggregates units. Divestment of these assets would focus the company instead on markets in the East Coast, Midwest and Canadian regions of North America.

In July 2020 HeidelbergCement announced that it had reduced its value of its assets by Euro3.4bn following a review. It blamed this on reduced demand for building materials due the coronavirus pandemic and the devaluation of its Hanson subsidiary in the UK, in part related to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Germany: CRH subsidiary Opterra’s Karsdorf cement plant has been awarded a Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) Gold certificate for ecologically, socially and economically responsible cement production, including in its supply chains. The company says that it achieved top marks across 96% of audited areas.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Danilo Buscaglia said, “The CSC certification leads to a continuous increase in the sustainable management of the cement and concrete industry. With this in mind, the Karsdorf plant has provided evidence of responsible behaviour in an extensive auditing process. We are proud that we have achieved gold certification status. At the same time, the good results are an incentive for us to continue working on improvements in the manufacturing process and in product development.”