Displaying items by tag: Canada

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales were US$6.41bn in 2020, up by 19% year-on-year from US$5.41bn in 2019. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 35% to US$1.21bn from US$899m. The group attributed the growth to increased cement volumes sold in Brazil, Canada and the US. Total global cement sales increased by 8% to 32.4Mt. Net revenue grew in all regions, but the sharpest growth was reported in North America at 43% to US$945m.

Chief financial officer Osvaldo Ayres Filho said, “The past year has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic and its impacts across the planet. We have implemented a contingency plan to protect people's lives and preserve operations. This allowed us to respond with agility both in Brazil and in the other markets in which we have operations, ending the year with increased sales, cash generation growth and the lowest leverage in the past ten years.”

During the year, the group unified its joint-venture in Uruguay, with Cementos Molins, at a single site and merged its Canadian and US businesses under a new 83% owned subsidiary. It suspended its Pecém grinding plant expansion in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in September 2020. Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2021. The producer also released its Sustainability Commitments for 2030 in November 2020.

Canada: St Marys Cement, part of Brazil-based Votoronatim Cimentos, has installed a US$19.9m wet scrubber at its Bowmanville cement plant in Ontario. The installation will reduce the plant’s sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions by 90%. The producer says it is the first wet scrubber installed at a cement plant in Canada.

Operations Manager Jim Storey said “This investment in technology to improve the plant’s environmental performance has proven to be effective in removing SO₂ produced in the cement manufacturing process. We are also pleased that the scrubber was assembled on-site and installed by local Ontario contractors and crews during our annual scheduled plant shutdown.”

Canada: Lafarge Canada, part of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim, has made its first delivery of 2021 to Northern Ontario. The Lafarge ship Alpena made the journey across the Hudson Bay. Sales and logistics vice president Andrew Stewart thanked the US Coastguard for its icebreaking assistance.

US: Data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) shows that cement producers achieved volumes of 87Mt of Portland cement in 2020, a slight increase from 2019 levels. Portland and masonry cement volumes rose by 1% year-on-year to 89Mt from 88Mt, while clinker volumes remained level at 79Mt. Total cement shipments remained level at 103Mt. The value of shipments in 2020 was US$12.7bn. Total exports of cement and clinker were 1.0Mt, down from slightly over 1.0Mt in 2019. The USGS said that on-going upgrades, closed and mothballed plants, low capacity utilisation and relatively inexpensive imports constrained the industry’s growth.

Domestic consumption fell by less than 1% to 102Mt from 103Mt. Cement imports totalled 15.0Mt, up slightly from 14.7Mt, while clinker imports rose to 1.4Mt from 1.2Mt. This corresponded to a 15% rise in reliance on imports of cement and clinker. The main exporters of cement and clinker to the country were Canada, accounting for 33% of US imports, Turkey (16%), Greece (15%) and China (12%).

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.

Canada: Progressive Planet Solutions has appointed Randy Gue and Chris Halsey-Brandt to its advisory board. The company is developing pozzolan-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM) products. It operates its Z1 Zeolite quarry in Cache Creek, British Columbia and is working on other projects also in the province.

Gue will advise on introducing Progressive Planet's developing products into the marketplace with the initial focus on markets for PozGlass SCM. Randy spent 17 years with Lafarge Canada as the Director of Business Development and Resource Recovery where he led Lafarge's Western North American initiative to reduce variable operating costs by developing business-to-business relationships primarily related to the recovery and reuse of wastes and by-product streams from industries and institutions.

Halsey-Brandt will assist in financial analysis of the first PozGlass SCM manufacturing plant and will also assist in evaluating opportunities to grow the company through strategic acquisitions. He is both a chartered professional accountant (CPA) and a chartered business valuator (CBV). At present Halsey-Brandt owns and operates a successful food processing business. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he was a partner at Blair Mackay Mynett Valuations, an independent firm in Vancouver providing business valuation services.

Germany: HeidelbergCement has completed a review of its business and identified five assets to sell. Reuters has reported that the company plans to sell the first of the five assets in early - mid-2021. Chairman Dominik von Achten said that the group would not exit ‘rock-solid’ markets like Northern Europe. He added that Indonesia, where it holds a 51% stake in Indocement, is an ‘important market.’

Von Achten said that the group has made a strong start to 2021, though ‘visibility on future prospects’ remains low. Its focus is on raising the productivity of underperforming assets or selling them. He added that a margin improvement plan in its underperforming North American region is on track.

Canada: Lehigh Hanson has launched of EcoCem Plus at its Edmonton cement plant in Alberta. The product is a blended Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) made using inter-grinding clinker, fly ash, limestone and gypsum. It is available in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The subsidiary of Germany-based HeildebergCement says it provides strength and durability while reducing the carbon footprint of concrete.

“The motivation behind the EcoCem brand of products is to reduce the embodied carbon of cement and concrete,” said Shawn McMillan, Vice President, Cement for Lehigh Hanson’s Canada Region. “The introduction of EcoCem Plus to the Prairie market builds on our commitment to providing environmentally responsible types of cement that deliver excellent performance while dramatically reducing CO2 emissions.”

Lehigh Cement has also published product and plant-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) for all of its cement products produced at its Edmonton plant.

Canada: Svante has raised US$75m in an investment round. The financing was led by Temasek and includes strategic investors Chart Industries, Carbon Direct and Export Development Canada (EDC). Existing investors OGCI Climate Investments, BDC Cleantech Practice, Chevron Technology Ventures, The Roda Group and Chrysalix Venture Capital also participated in the round.

The investment gives the company will allow the company to advance a number of initiatives over the next three years, including work to support several commercial scale carbon capture facilities to address hard-to-abate emissions from industrial operations such as cement manufacturing, blue hydrogen production and natural gas boilers. Svante has now attracted more than US$150m in funding since it was founded in 2007 to develop and commercialise its solid sorbent technology.

“Lowering the capital cost of the capture of the CO₂ emitted in industrial production is critical to the world’s net-zero carbon goals required to stabilize the climate. Leaders from industry, financial sectors and government agree on the enormity of the challenge and the critical need to deploy carbon capture and carbon removal solutions at Gigatons scale. The carbon pulled from earth as fossil fuel needs to go back into the earth in safe CO₂ storage,” said Claude Letourneau, President CEO of Svante.

Canada: Lehigh Cement and the International CCS Knowledge Centre are conducting a feasibility study looking at carbon capture and storage (CCS) at the Edmonton cement plant in Alberta. The project aims to find out whether capturing 90 – 95% of the CO₂ from the plant’s flue gas is viable. Completion of the study is scheduled for the autumn of 2021.

The Lehigh CCS Feasibility Study will consider an engineering design using carbon capture technology owned by Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering (MHIENG), part of MHI Group. The KM CDR process, which is being deployed at 13 commercial plants globally, will be examined for integration with Lehigh’s plant and output specifications, such as a flue gas pretreatment system and the carbon capture and compression process.

The aims of the study are to: deliver a Class 4 cost estimate; to work with a capture technology provider (MHI Group) to perform engineering design tailored to the Lehigh plant; to manage the process and engage third parties, as necessary; to complete a detailed business case; and to develop the budget for Front End Engineering Study (FEED). The project has received US$1.4m in funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) through its Partnership Intake Program.