Displaying items by tag: Czech Republic

Czech Republic: Cement Hranice’s sales rose by 13% year-on-year to US$89m in 2021. Its cement sales rose most sharply in its domestic Czech market, especially in the second half of 2021. As a result, the company increased its net profit for the year by 4% year-on-year to US$25.6m.

Czech News Agency Business News has reported that the company said "The past year was marked by increased demand for cement. Especially at the end of the year, we were forced to reduce our clinker and cement stocks to the lowest possible level, but we still had to slightly reduce deliveries to our customers."

Czech Republic: The high prices of European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) emission allowances, more than Euro84/t of CO₂ emitted in the week to 28 January 2022, are likely to make cement production more expensive. Manufacturers are currently unclear how much prices will have to rise but stated that they could no longer absorb the rising cost of buying extra allowances.

Pavel Pavel Zdeněk, sales director of Lafarge Cement, the local Holcim subsidiary, said "The price of emission allowances are around Euro85/t. This year, the price may remain the same, but it could also rise to Euro100/t. This will already be reflected in the costs."

Czech Republic: Ceskomoravsky Cement is planning a Euro12m upgrade of its integrated Radotín plant. The work will include installing a new vertical grinding mill and other environmental measures, according to the Czech Information Agency. The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement will choose suppliers and apply for building permits by early 2023, ahead of construction in mid-2023 and potential operation in 2025.

Europe: US-based CASE Construction Equipment has won a contract to supply Cemex with a new fleet of backhoe and wheel loaders for its building solutions operations in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK.

Europe regional mobile equipment fleet and category manager Craig Hooper said “As one of the world’s largest building solutions providers, Cemex is committed to leading on the path to a low carbon economy and is closely evaluating all areas of its business to make efficiency improvements. The vehicles we use as part of our work are a key part of this and we are pleased to have agreed this contract with CASE for these vehicles, which will provide a significant sustainability benefit to Cemex’s European operations. They incorporate advanced technology alongside lower fuel consumption due to an improved power to weight ratio. We look forward to working with CASE to explore other opportunities to enhance the eco-credentials of our fleet.”

Italy: Buzzi Unicem’s consolidated sales rose by 5.6% year-on-year to US$2.54bn in the first nine months of 2021 from US$2.41bn in the first nine months of 2020. It recorded consolidated cement sales of 23.4Mt, up by 7.5% from 21.7Mt in the corresponding period of 2020. Sales growth in Eastern Europe - especially the Czech Republic and Poland - and the US offset a partial slowdown in Italy, particularly in the third quarter of the year.

The group expects global construction activity to generally remain level into the fourth quarter of 2021. It forecast “favourable” volume and price effects in its full-year results for 2021. It nonetheless noted “growing concern” at rising energy, fuels, logistics, raw materials and services costs in various regions. It forecast group recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) not in excess of 2020 levels.

Italy: Buzzi Unicem’s net sales grew by 5.8% year-on-year to Euro1.61bn in the first half of 2021 from Euro1.52bn in the same period of 2020. Its sales volumes of cement and clinker rose by 10.9% to 14.8Mt from 13.4Mt. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 12.3% to Euro352m from Euro314m. The group reported cement sales volumes growth in all territories with the exception of Poland, and Germany to a lesser extent. It also noted growth in ready-mixed concrete sales volumes of 7% to 5.8Mm3 with development in Italy, Poland and Ukraine more than compensating for ‘unfavourable’ changes in the US, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement reported its best income result ever in 2020. The subsidiary of Switerland-based LafargeHolcim saw its sales rise by around 9% year-on-year to Euro66.7m in 2020 and its pre-tax profit grew by 60% to Euro21.7m, according to the Czech News Agency. The company reported that its operational and staff costs grew due to the coronavirus pandemic but that it made sufficient savings to offset this. Electricity and carbon credit costs grew particular. The building materials producer exported around one third of its output to the German market in 2020.

Czech Public: Ukraine-based Betonmash has fulfilled an order for a Granit-42 ready-mix concrete batching plant from a customer in the Czech Republic. The 42m3/hr-capacity plant consists of a 750l rotary mixer and 75t hopper. Italy-based Bonfiglioli supplies the Grant-42’s drives, Italy-based Camozzi supplies its pneumatic components and Italy-based WAM supplies its screw conveyors. It uses sensors produced by Netherlands-based Zemic.

UK: Czech Republic-based EP Power Europe has agreed to acquire ash company Power Minerals from Germany-based Steag. The company supplies UK cement production with fly ash via its three sites centred around its Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, headquarters.

Managing director Nigel Waldron said "This deal is a huge vote of confidence in Power Minerals, the broader sector and the UK."

Czech Republic: Mexico-based Cemex plans to install a 2MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant using supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) at its Prachovice cement plant. The unit is intended to provide up to 8% of the plant’s electricity requirements.

The producer is part of a consortium studying new sCO₂ WHR systems. The EU Horizon 2020 Industrial Heat to Power fund awarded Euro14m in financial backing to the consortium. The project is intended to demonstrate a cheaper and more flexible method of waste heat valorisation compared to the steam or organic rankine cycle approaches conventionally used in WHR.

Plant director Karol Czubara said, “The new sCO₂ technology has a smaller footprint and higher operational flexibility than conventional power plant cycles, which produce power from turbines using water or steam.”