Displaying items by tag: Germany
Solusi Bangun Indonesia orders two silos from Claudius Peters
18 January 2023Indonesia: Solusi Bangun Indonesia (SBI) has ordered two EC22 cement silos from Germany-based Claudius Peters. The silos have a volume of approx. 17,200m3 and will be installed by contractor PT Hutama Karaya (Persero). The scope of supply includes all process equipment for the silos from conveyors to filters.
SBI is a subsidiary of Semen Indonesia Group. It is expanding the export capacity of its integrated cement plant at Tuban by building a new terminal. The group has a cement production capacity of 65Mt/yr.
India: KHD’s India-based subsidiary Humboltdt Wedag India has appointed Ajay Pal Singh as Deputy Manager. He previously worked for India-based components manufacturer Zetwerk. Before this he held managerial and engineering roles with KHD India.
Mari Kuijs appointed as General Manager After Sales at Aumund
11 January 2023Germany: Aumund has appointed Mari Kuijs as General Manager After Sales. He previously spent over 30 years working for ThyssenKrupp Group holding jobs in Germany, the Netherlands, Turkiye and the Middle East. He holds qualifications in energy technology, business administration and management studies.
ThyssenKrupp Polysius wins burner order for cement plant in Vietnam
29 December 2022Vietnam: ThyssenKrupp Polysius’ Asia Pacific division has secured an order for two Polflame-type main burners for an unnamed cement plant. The equipment supplier has highlighted the ability of its burner product to cope with low-grade coal and support high alternative fuel substitution rates as key selling factors. The order follows the purchase of an Impact Crusher by the same customer previously.
Lukas Schoeneck, the chief executive officer of Polysius Asia Pacific, said "We are very proud to add burners number 17 and 18 to our installed base in Vietnam which ensures our market leader position. Now we have to put our focus on the delivery and installation of the burner - in time and quality.”
Vecoplan opens Ferrara service and sales office
21 December 2022Italy: Vecoplan has announced the inauguration of its new Ferraro service and sales office in Emilia-Romagna. The supplier says that the facility has sufficient space for it to work on entire machines. In the future, it will also offer welding services for special components, including rotors.
Vecoplan's services head Jochen Pfeil said “The new warehouse will enable us to increase the availability of our machines and plants."
Germany: Menzel Elektromotoren held a topping out ceremony for the erection of the last structural beam in its upcoming Hennigsdorf motors plant in Berlin on 16 December 2022. The motors manufacturer expects to complete construction in mid-2023 and commission the facility late that year. Full-capacity operations will commence from January 2024. Menzel Elektromotoren will relocate existing equipment from its Central Berlin plant to the new 6500m2 site. The Hennigsdorf plant will offer an increased hoist capacity of 80t, enabling it to handle larger pieces of equipment.
In the cement industry, Menzel Elektromotoren motors run blowers, conveyor systems, crushers, fans and mills.
National Transmission and Despatch Company to build new grid station for Chakwal cement plants
19 December 2022Pakistan: National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) has secured a US$46.6m loan from German state-owned bank KfW for construction of a new 500kV grid station in Chakwal, Punjab. The German government loaned NTDC a further US$2.55m for power capacity expansions. The investments will go towards increasing the availability of electricity in Chakwal, primarily for the benefit of the district's multiple cement plants.
Bestway Cement, DG Khan Cement and Gharibwal cement operate four cement plants with a total capacity of 8.5Mt/yr in Chakwal.
Beumer Group appoints V-Line Middle East as Saudi service provider
14 December 2022Saudi Arabia: Beumer Group has appointed V-Line Middle East to provide services for its customers in Saudi Arabia. Beumer Group said that the new partnership will help it to strengthen its focus on sales in the region.
Beumer Group’s director of sales André Tissen said “Our partnership will bring us closer to customers and strengthen our customer service in key industries. Through V-Line Middle East, we can offer our customers in Saudi Arabia access to a network of local specialised suppliers, augmenting our range of services.”
Energy for the European cement sector, November 2022
30 November 2022This week’s Virtual Global CemPower Seminar included an assessment on how interventions in European power markets might affect efforts to decarbonise industry. The presentation by Thekla von Bülow of Aurora Energy Research outlined how different countries in the European Union (EU) were implementing the forthcoming electricity price cap on ‘inframarginal’ producers to 180Euro/MWh. Each of these different proposals will entail differing levels of structural change to the wholesale energy market. For example, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) has recommended establishing a series of frameworks including a stronger focus on Contracts for Difference (CfD) schemes to promote renewable energy sources.
These changes are a consequence of the EU’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gas prices surged and then pushed up other energy prices in turn to record levels. As this column covered in September 2022, the price of electricity shot up in the summer of 2022 whilst at the same time Russian gas imports ceased. Cembureau, the European Cement Association, called for urgent action to be taken to support cement production due to large increases in the cost of electricity. For example, in its latest overview of the German cement industry, the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) said that the sector has an electrical consumption of 30TWh/yr. Clearly energy policy is of great interest to the industry.
Since then, in late September 2022, Heidelberg Materials’ chief executive officer Dominik von Achten told Reuters that his company was preparing to shift production at its Germany-based plants to times and days when power prices are lower including at the weekend. However, this was dependent on negotiations with the unions. Von Achten also warned of plant closures being a possibility. Then, in November 2022, it emerged that Zementwerk Lübeck’s grinding plant in northern Germany had reportedly been only operating its grinding plant at night and at the weekend due to high electricity prices. Also in November 2022 European energy news provider Energate Messenger reported that Heidelberg Materials was preparing its cement plants in Germany with emergency backup power to keep critical services running in the case of electricity power cuts. One view from the outside came from equipment supplier FLSmidth’s third quarter results where it noted it had, “...started to see the first cases of budget constraints imposed by customers to counter the increasing energy cost. A high utilisation is still driving service activity in Europe, but some customers have put large capital investments on stand-by and we have experienced a slowdown in decision-making processes.” On the other hand it also pointed out that this trend is driving sales of products that helped reduce energy usage and/or switch to alternative fuels.
On the financial side, Holcim reiterated in its half-year report that, on the country, level the group uses a mixture of fixed price contracts, long-term power purchase agreements, on-site power generation projects and increased consumption of renewable energy at competitive prices to reduce the volatility from its energy bills. Both Cemex and Heidelberg Materials said similar things in their third quarter results conference calls. Cemex said that nearly 70% of its electricity requirements in Europe were fixed in 2022 with nearly 30% fixed for 2023. It went on to reveal that around 20% of its total costs for cement production in Europe derived from its electricity bill. Interestingly, it added that a higher proportion of its electricity costs in Germany were fixed than elsewhere in Europe, due to the use of a waste-to-electricity system owned by a third party that is fed with refuse-derived fuel (RDF), but that it was more exposed to floating fuel rates in Spain. Heidelberg Materials added that it supported energy price caps in both Germany and the EU whether they affected it directly or not.
So far it has been a mild start to winter in Europe. This may be about to change with colder weather forecast for December 2022. This will stress test the EU’s energy saving preparations and in turn it could force the plans of industrial users, such as the cement sector, to change. Some of the cement producers have commented on the financial implications of rising fuel costs but they have been quieter publicly about how they might react if domestic consumers are prioritised. Plant shutdowns throughout cold snaps are the obvious concern but it is unclear how likely this is yet. The variety of energy policies between fellow member states, their own supply situations and the differences between cement plants even in the same country suggest considerable variation in what might happen. If large numbers of cement plants do end shutting throughout any colder periods, then one observation is that it will look similar to winter peak shifting (i.e. closure) of plants in China. The more immediate worry in this scenario though is whether these plants actually reopen again.
The proceedings pack from the Virtual Global CemPower Seminar is available to buy now
Update on CRH, November 2022
23 November 2022CRH released its third quarter trading statement this week and the results were rosy, especially when compared to its peers in the cement business. Double digit growth in both sales revenue and earnings was reported for the nine month period so far in 2022. The company’s figures mainly attributed this to growth in its Americas Materials and Building Products divisions, although the presentation in its trading update took care to point out that the Europe Materials division had reported growth in the first half of 2022 only for it to run into a slowdown in the third quarter as energy prices increased. Even this wasn’t as bad on a like-for-like basis, with only earnings down in the third quarter in Europe. Chief executive officer Albert Manifold summed it up as follows: “This performance reflects the resilience of our business and the benefits of our integrated and sustainable solutions strategy.”
Manifold’s focus on integrated products was unsurprising given that the group has spent US$3bn in the year to date on businesses that make these kinds of things. These acquisitions have been added to its Building Products division adding to its already strong growth so far in 2022. The big one was the US$1.9bn deal to buy Barrette Outdoor Living, a US-based retailer and distributor of residential fencing and railing products. This was completed in July 2022. Other so-called bolt-on investments in 2022 have reached a total of US$1.1bn for 20 companies including Calstone, Hinkle, Rinker and Normandy in outdoor living, road and critical utility infrastructure sectors.
At the same time the group divested its architectural glass Building Envelope business for an enterprise value of US$3.8bn to private equity company KPS Capital Partners. That deal was completed in May 2022. On a smaller scale, it is also worth noting that Thomas Gruppe announced in early November 2022 that it had signed a purchase agreement to buy Opterra Zement and Opterra Beton. This includes the integrated Karsdorf cement plant, the decommissioned Sötenich grinding plant and the Neufahrn ready-mix concrete plant. However, there was no mention by Thomas Gruppe of the integrated Wössingen plant operated by Opterra Wössingen. Neither Opterra or CRH appears to have commented on this publicly yet though.
How CRH tweaks its business portfolio is interesting in comparison to the other cement companies. As Global Cement Magazine has covered recently, Holcim is bulking up a fourth business in light building materials and Cemex, Heidelberg Materials and others are similarly diversifying away from cement production to various degrees. CRH has generally held a more mixed portfolio away from the heavy materials trio of cement-concrete-aggregates over the last decade. However, it concentrated more on heavy materials when it picked up assets divested in the merger of Lafarge and Holcim in 2015. Since then it has been steadily pulling out of developing markets and focusing on North America and Europe. So, to see CRH moving out of the building envelope sector at the same time as Holcim and others dive in is a clear difference in approach.
The other point to highlight is that Manifold links sustainability to the group’s integrated products plan in his quote above. Earlier in 2022 the company revealed a new 25% reduction target in absolute CO2 emissions by 2030, that has been certified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and a continued goal of becoming net-zero by 2050. It clearly takes sustainability seriously as Manifold was also previously the president of the Global Cement and Concrete Association when it was set up in 2018. Other indicators include the company’s use of an internal carbon price as indicated in its 2021 sustainability report. It also mentioned here that 43% of its direct CO2 emissions were covered under an emissions trading scheme. One implication here is that focusing on doing business in developed markets means that the group has to take its CO2 emissions seriously, as legislators in these places do too.
CRH is one of the largest building materials companies in the world and its cement business has grown and shrunk a little over the last decade. Despite this it remains in the top 10 of cement producers globally based on production capacity. Its purview of multiple markets in building materials continues to make it a company to watch as the more traditional heavy materials cement companies adjust their own product portfolios.