Displaying items by tag: Canada

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.”

Canada: Progressive Planet, a company developing pozzolan-based cementitious products, has appointed Doug Brown as a Scientific Advisor with immediate effect. Brown is a materials scientist who holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Calgary. He has worked with the team that founded Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company that is developing industrial-scale technology to remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. He has also worked in the private sector in the field of green building technologies and he is a board member of the Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Green Building Council.

Canada: Votorantim Cimentos subsidiary St Mary’s Cement has completed a 30m-high stack extension at its 0.8Mt/yr integrated St Mary’s plant in Stonetown, Ontario. The Canadian Press newspaper has reported that the upgrade is a response to increased odour complaints from Stonetown residents.

Votorantim Cimentos St Mary’s plant manager Jose Soraggi said, “Growing along with the community also means adapting along with it. We consider ourselves fortunate to maintain good relations with local residents and the town and to serve as an integral part of the business community in St Marys and Perth County. We take every opportunity to hear from our constituents and find solutions toward a positive and mutually beneficial future. The stack extension is an excellent example of that.”

Canada: Haver & Boecker Niagara has launched a new service programme. Called PROcheck, the programme conducts operational analysis of screens used in raw materials processing. PROcheck reports to Haver & Boecker, which is then able to recommend to producers the best practices for raw materials processing proficiency. Haver & Boecker Niagara North America and Australia president Karen Thompson said, “By partnering with our customers through the PROcheck service programme, we are monitoring the efficiency of their screening process to identify potential problems early on.”

Thompson said, “We are experts at looking at the big picture,” “We engineer and manufacture both vibrating screens and screen media, and this gives us the insight to offer valuable advice producers won’t find elsewhere.”

Ireland: CRH has said that it had a ‘positive start to the year’ in the first three months of 2020. Total sales over the period rose by 3% year-on-year. In the Americas region, cement volumes rose by 4% and prices by 6%. European cement sales were ‘broadly in line with the same period of 2019’ due to general volume and price increases offset by a fall in volumes in Western Europe.

Government-implemented covid-19 restrictions on construction towards the end of the period impacted sales in Canada, the UK and France. The likely effects on 2020 profit ‘cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.’ CRH chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Manifold said, “With the financial strength of CRH and the experience of our leadership teams, we will endure through these unprecedented and uncertain times.”

Canada: Albarrie says that there has been no interruption in any provision of products to its customers. Its production capabilities are not affected by novel coronavirus and it is implementing travel restrictions and health guidelines in line with government and World Health Organisation (WHO) advice. Key features include heightening risk assessments for employees, improved workplace hygiene, bolstered information technology support to allow home working and the cancellation of all nonessential domestic and international travel. Albarrie produces textile products including filtration products used by the cement industry.