Displaying items by tag: Georgia
US: Cemex USA’s Clinchfield Cement Plant in Georgia has been awarded the ISO 14001:2015 certification for its environmental management system (EMS). It is the first Cemex cement operation in the country to earn this certification. The EMS at the plant follows a continuous cycle of environmental policy: planning, support and operation, performance evaluation, then improvement.
The International Organization of Standardisation (ISO) developed ISO 14001:2015 as a standard of processes for organisations to use when setting up, improving or maintaining their environmental management systems to follow established environmental policies and requirements. The guidelines are designed to help organisations improve efficiency, reduce waste, improve overall environmental impact and manage environmental obligations.
The Clinchfield Cement Plant is also one of several Cemex sites to achieve certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council. The plant is also active in the Georgia Black Bear Project. Cemex is currently in the process of achieving ISO 14001:2015 Certification at its eight other active cement plants in the US.
Georgia: Mamuka Bakhtadz, the prime minister of Georgia, has officially opened a US$100m upgrade to HeidelbergCement’s Kaspi cement plant. Work on the new dry production line at the site started in mid-2016. A filtration system and equipment for continuous emission control were installed to allow for online monitoring of the plant's dust and emission volumes. The project was supported by the Georgian Co-Investment Fund and Honeywell Partners.
HeidelbergCement sale now on
16 January 2019More details from HeidelbergCement this week on its divestment strategy. It has sold its half-share in Ciment Québec in Canada and a minority share in a company in Syria. A closed cement plant in Egypt is being sold and it is working on divesting its business in Ukraine. Altogether these four sales will generate Euro150m for the group. Chairman Bernd Scheifele said that the company expects to rake in Euro500m from asset sales in 2018. It has a target of Euro1.5bn by the end of 2020.
In purely cement terms that is something like seven integrated plants. So the usual game follows of considering what assets HeidelbergCement might consider selling. The group offered a few clues in a presentation that Scheifele was due to give earlier this week at the Commerzbank German Investment Seminar in New York.
First of all the producer said that it was hopeful for 2019 due to limited energy cost inflation, better weather in the US, the Indonesian market turning, general margin improvement actions and sustained price rises in Europe. It then said that its divestments would focus on three main categories: non-core business, weak market positions and idle assets. The first covers sectors outside of the trio of cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete. Things like white cement plants or sand lime brick production. Countries or areas it identified it had already executed divestments in included Saudi Arabia, Georgia, Syria and Quebec in Canada. Idle assets included depleted quarries and land.
The first obvious candidate for divestment could be the company’s two majority owned integrated plants in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These might be considered targets due to the political instability in the country. However, this is balanced by the potential long-term gains once that country stabilises. Alternatively, some of the plants in Italy seem like a target. The company had seven integrated plants, eight grinding plants and one terminal in 2018.
The presentation also pointed out the sharp rise in European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) CO2 emissions allowances, from around Euro5/t in 2017 to up to Euro20/t by the end of 2018. In late 2018 Cementa, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement in Sweden, said it was considering closing Degerhamn plant due to mounting environmental costs. The group reckons it can fight a high carbon price through consolidation, capacity closure, higher utilisation, limited exports and pricing. It also pointed out that it is a technology leader in carbon reduction projects. It will be interesting to see how environmental costs play into HeidelbergCement’s divestment decisions.
Finally, a tweet by Sasja Beslik, the head of sustainable finance at Nordea, flagged up a few cement companies as being the worst companies for increasing CO2 emissions between 2011 and 2016. HeidelbergCement was 19th on the list after LafargeHolcim and CRH. Sure, cement production makes CO2 but it’s far from clear whether the data from MSCI took into account that each of these companies had expanded heavily during this time. In HeidelbergCement’s case it bought Italcementi in 2016. Cement companies aren’t perfect but sometimes there’s just no justice.
Georgia: HeidelbergCement Georgia plans to close a kiln at its Rustavi cement plant due to imports from Iran. It will also reduce production at the Dedoplitskaro limestone quarry, according to GBC Daily News. The Georgian Cement Association has lobbied the government to enact anti-dumping measures against Iranian imports.
Sempertrans USA officially opens Atlanta warehouse
13 July 2018US: Sempertrans USA has officially opened its new Atlanta warehouse in Georgia. The event was attended by distributors and end-customers. The Sempertrans USA team which includes sales, customer service, technical management and finance moved into the new location in December 2017. At the beginning of June 2018 Sempertrans USA was able to process, cut and slit to order and distribute heavy-duty textile belts from the unit. Sempertrans belts from the site can be slit within 24 hours and then distributed across North America.
“Our North America Team is ready to tackle any challenge. From impact and abrasion resistant belt solutions, our wide product portfolio ensures safe and highly efficient conveying even under the most demanding conditions,” said Wes Tyre, Head of Sales North America.
Sempertrans is a conveyor belt manufacturer. Its portfolio includes textile belts and steel cord belts for applications in the cement, mining and steel industries as well as other applications such as ports, quarries and the chemical industry.
Akkord Cement to increase production by a third
08 June 2018Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement plans to increase production at its Gazakh plant to 1.3Mt/yr from 1Mt/yr. It is working with an unnamed German company on the investment for the project, according to the Trend News Agency. The cement producer mostly sells its cement locally, with some export sales to Georgia.
HarbisonWalker International obtains ISO certification for refractory plants in Georgia and Kansas
29 March 2018US: HarbisonWalker International has obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification for its Thomasville monolithic and precast refractory plant in Georgia and its South Shore refractory brick plant in Kansas. The refractory manufacturer now plans to achieve the new ISO standard at the rest of its plants by the end of 2018.
Raysut Cement to consider building plant in Georgia
21 March 2018Georgia: Oman’s Raysut Cement has approved an initial study to consider building a 1Mt/yr cement plant in Georgia. The company’s subsidiary Pioneer Cement Industries Georgia owns a limestone mine with reserves of over 30Mt about 60km from Tiblisi. A final decision on the project is expected to be made by June 2018. Discussions have also commenced with possible partners for both equity participation and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracting.
HeidelbergCement sells half of its Georgian business
13 November 2017Georgia: HeidelbergCement has sold 50% of the voting rights in its Georgian business to Cement Invest, an investment company jointly managed and owned by the Georgian Co-Investment Fund (GCF) and Hunnewell Partners. HeidelbergCement and Cement Invest will jointly control the resulting joint venture. The transaction will contribute in total about Euro115m to cutting HeidelbergCement’s net debt.
“The joint venture’s competitiveness will be improved with the modernisation of the Kaspi cement plant, where the construction of a modern dry kiln line already started in 2016 and is expected to be finalised by the end of 2018. The disposal is part of our portfolio review and optimisation with the goal to generate additional cash flow in order to support our disciplined growth and increase shareholder returns,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.
HeidelbergCement started operating in Georgia in 2006. The new joint venture operates three integrated cement plants, a cement grinding facility and a cement terminal on the Black Sea coast. The cement production capacity exceeds 2Mt/yr. A network of 13 ready-mixed concrete plants and two aggregate quarries supports the cement business.
Cemex USA cement plants in Florida, Georgia and California gain Energy Star Certification
22 June 2017US: Four Cemex USA cement plants have achieved the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star certification for 2017. The Clinchfield plant in Georgia has achieved certification for the 11th consecutive year, the Miami plant in Florida for the 7th consecutive year, the Victorville plant in California for the 6th consecutive year and the Brooksville plant in Florida for the 5th time.
"These plants follow initiatives each day to ensure they operate with sustainability in mind and lead the way in our industry. They serve as models for others to follow with their repeated recognition for their efforts. We are very proud of the work they've done to achieve Energy Star certification this year by maintaining these high standards," said Hugo Bolio, Executive Vice President, Cement Operations and Technology for Cemex USA.