Displaying items by tag: Canada

Canada: Testing specialist Giatec has launched Roxi, an artificially intelligent (AI) concrete visualisation programme for builders. PR Newswire has reported that Roxi “provides insights regarding the amount of cement that is needed, including the amount that can be removed without compromising the concrete's setting time or strength development,” aiding project completion while diminishing extraneous cement demand.

The company thanked Sustainable Development Technology Canada for its US$1.83m grant towards the development of Roxi, part of the fund’s US$44.6m total contribution to “clean technology projects” so far in 2020.

Canada: Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer has announced the death of vice president of sales Nicolas Belanger. He died unexpectedly a week before his 50th birthday. He was the former co-owner of Machinex Group, where he worked for over 20 years. He was also the co-founder and president of Waste Robotics.

“Our hearts are heavy, and we’re stunned by the untimely and devastating passing of our colleague, friend and industry icon,” said Peter Everson, the chairman of Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer. “Nicolas had been instrumental in moving our company - and the industry - forward over the past 25 years. He was a talented engineer and strong business leader, whose industry knowledge and experience were second to none. He is greatly missed, and we share the grief of his family, friends and colleagues.”

Canada: Public pensions and insurance fund Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) has bought the debt from “all present and future accounts receivable arising from contracts” of McInnis Cement. The Journal de Québec newspaper has reported that the move is intended to benefit the company’s liquidity position. CDPQ first vice-president Michel Nadeau said, “It’s a solution to find cash quickly.”

CDPQ injected US$152m into McInnis Cement on 2 July 2019 as part of a total US$380m private capital refinancing.

Canada: Brazil-based Votorantim Cimentos is in talks with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) over possible acquisition of the investment company majority stake in McInnis Cement. Quebec Premier François Legault said, “Quebecers have already invested a lot in the cement plant. For nationalism reasons, I would like a Quebec company to be ready to invest,” according to the Journal de Montreal newspaper. Béton Provincial has registered for a government grant of US$115m in order to acquire the stake, which has been for sale since January 2020. Investissement Québec and the Beaudier Group are both minority shareholders.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos recorded a loss of US$94.0m in the first half of 2020, up by 99% year-on-year from US$47.2m in the first half of 2019. Sales fell by 8% to US$680m from US$739m. During the period Votorantim Cimentos and its subsidiary St Mary’s Cement increased the balance withdrawn from credit facilities by US$247m, in order to “strengthen liquidity as protection within the current crisis context due to the Covid-19 pandemic and to cope with the seasonality that recurrently affects North America.” The group says that it will reduce the value of its 2020 investments by 25% to US$545m from a planned US$726m, down by 6.3% year-on-year from US$581 in 2019.

Canada: Residents at Port-Daniel-Gascons in Quebec reported dust emissions from the McInnis Cement plant in June and July 2020. This has been blamed on mechanical breakdowns and a computer failure, according to the Journal de Québec newspaper. The cement producer says it has reported the situation to the local authorities. Commercial production at the plant started in mid-2017. The incidents reportedly took place as the plant reached its maximum production capacity.

US: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim has announced the start of sales via its local subsidiaries of its ECOPact range of 30 - 100% reduced CO₂ concretes. Chief executive officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch said, “I am proud to introduce ECOPact, the industry’s broadest range of green concrete for high-performing, sustainable and circular construction.”

The company says that, where regulatory conditions allow, ECOPact products integrate upcycled construction and demolition materials, further closing the resource loop. ECOPact concretes will enter the Canadian, Latin American and UK markets in mid-late 2020. “With the roll-out of this Green Concrete, we are accelerating the transition to more sustainable building materials for greener construction,” added Jenisch.

Canada: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Canada has dismissed an employee after a thorough investigation into a piece of racist graffiti ended in discovery of the guilty party. Canada Newswire has reported that the harmful drawing, which occurred at the company’s 1.0Mt/yr integrated St Constant plant in Quebec, has been removed. Lafarge Canada said, “To increase employee awareness and strengthen everyone's role in creating a positive work environment, we have communicated with all of our employees on all of our sites and encourage them to speak up if they see, hear or feel any concerns whatever.”

Canada/US: Lehigh Cement says that it has adopted the latest North American Product Category Rules (PCR) across its entire product range.

Lehigh Hanson Canada regional cement sales and logistics vice president Shawn McMillan said, “We have made it one of our top priorities to benchmark and lower our CO₂ emissions with ambitious targets. Much like food nutrition labels highlight calorific values, our plant and product-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) communicate the environmental impact through global warming potential (GWP) for cement in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. We intend to use the added product transparency to more effectively gain adoption for our lower carbon products. We have several research projects and studies on-going to continue to optimise the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC) and Rediscover Concrete have issued a joint declaration to the federal government in which they urge it to absorb the costs of state infrastructure projects and put construction ‘at the core of the COVID-19 recovery plan.’

CAC president and chief executive officer (CEO) Michael McSweeney said, “A successful economic recovery will require a commitment to use time-sensitive infrastructure spending. We have a very short construction season in Canada and municipalities have lost much of their financial capacity to fund important infrastructure projects this year. We need the federal government to help municipalities get local community infrastructure projects going to boost economic activity and public confidence.”