Displaying items by tag: Government

Philippines: Taiheiyo Cement Philippines plans to install a second production line at its 0.8Mt/yr San Fernando cement plant in Cebu. The Philippines Department of Trade and industry says that the new line will more than double the plant’s capacity to 3Mt/yr. It will also entail an upgrade to reduce its total energy-related CO2 emissions by 10%. The Philippine Daily Enquirer newspaper has reported that the producer will additionally build a 700,000t/yr terminal at Calaca in Batangas. The facility will cost US$68.4m. Altogether, the company expects its growth plans to generate 2000 new jobs in the Philippines. The Philippines government has committed 6% of gross domestic product (GDP) to infrastructure investments annually.

Taiheiyo Cement Philippines previously indicated in August 2022 that the San Fernando cement plant might eventually expand to a capacity of 5Mt/yr. At that time, it expected to commission the new Line 2 in May 2024.

Special trade representative to the Philippine Trade and Investment Centre in Tokyo, Dita Angara-Mathay, said "The company's latest announcement materialises its plans to expand to Luzon from its long-time base in the Visayan region."

Malaysia: Police reported the death of a man at a cement plant in Kinta District on 16 August 2023. The 26-year-old contractor had been cleaning hardened cement from a silo through its manhole, when he fell in and was submerged by cement. Medical staff pronounced him dead after his arrival at hospital. Perak State Occupational Safety and Health Department has issued a stop-work notice to the contractor.

Cement plants in Kinta District include Aalborg Portland Malaysia’s Aalborg Perak plant, Malayan Cement’s Kanthan plant and Tasek Cement’s Tasek cement plant.

Uzbekistan: Uzbek six-month cement production was 5.7Mt during the first half of 2023, the Agency for Statistics of Uzbekistan has reported. The figure corresponds to growth of 10% year-on-year.

Australia’s Climate Change Minister announced plans this week to look at a potential carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). Chris Bowen told an Australian Business Economists forum in Sydney that policies were needed to ensure a level playing field for Australian firms. Mentioning the European Union’s (EU) CBAM by name, he said that his department would prepare a review to assess carbon leakage risks, develop policy options and look at the feasibility of an Australian CBAM, particularly in relation to steel and cement.

The Antipodean nation has past form when it comes to carbon legislation. Back in 2012 it introduced the Clean Energy Act under the Gillard administration. The legislation was intended to introduce an emissions trading scheme with a carbon pricing scheme. However, it faced opposition from rival political parties and the Cement Industry Federation warned that the local cement sector was vulnerable to overseas competitors outside of the scheme. Job losses followed and Adelaide Brighton appeared to react by focusing more on imports. The Abbott administration then abolished the act in 2014 putting forward its Clean Energy Future package instead, which focused more on investing towards change. Jump forward nearly a decade and the Albanese government passed its Climate Change Bill in 2022. This set legally binding targets, including a commitment to cut CO2 emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030. Bowen’s look at a CBAM is an obvious next step from here, addressing one of the main criticisms of the previous Clean Energy Act.

Local building materials company Boral reacted positively to a CBAM in its annual results released earlier this week with chief executive officer Vik Bansal saying that the company was “...advocating for an effective Carbon Border Adjusted Mechanism for Australia.” He also reconfirmed the group’s commitment to a target of net zero emissions by 2050. However, at the same time, Boral also reduced its emissions reduction target to 2025 from 2019 figures to up to 14% from 19% previously. This was blamed on “external factors” such as delays in securing the required regulatory approvals for the next phases of an alternative fuel program. Mining company Rio Tinto also warned in late July 2023, as part of its half-year financial results, that it might potentially miss its emissions target for 2025 unless it resorted to buying carbon credits.

CBAMs became serious in 2023 when the EU passed its own scheme into law in May 2023. The EU CBAM will now enter into a transitional phase from 1 October 2023 until the end of 2025. During this period importers of goods covered by the legislation will be required to report greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) embedded in their imports (direct and indirect emissions) but they will not have to make any financial payments or adjustments. The system will then enter its full format from 1 January 2026, with affected importers being forced to purchase and surrender CBAM certificates, which will be priced at the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) rate, currently at around Euro88/t. Other CBAMs have also been mooted in Canada and the US. In Canada the government ran a consultation on border carbon adjustments in 2021. It is currently considering its next steps. The US meanwhile has had both Republican and Democrat party senators make separate suggestions for a CBAM since at least 2021.

Just because the EU is set to implement its CBAM and other countries are considering their own versions doesn’t mean that they are necessarily a good idea. Cembureau, the European cement association, has been steadily lobbying on the details such as indirect emissions and waste incineration in the EU CBAM for years. Criticisms of CBAMs in general include potential clashes with World Trade Organisation rules, accusations of protectionism, triggering inflation, not being equitable to less developed nations and even failing to stop carbon leakage in the first place. The EU CBAM has also linked itself to the local ETS price. So, even after the transitional period, the carbon price may start to jump about in unpredictable ways once the system fully goes live in 2026.

The game-changer in recent years for international carbon emissions reduction legislation though was arguably when the US government introduced its Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. This is because it served both sustainability and self-interest on a grander scale than seen previously. The act promised US$369bn in subsidies for companies to invest in low carbon technology. However, the catch was that the investment tied supply chains to the US market, much to the ire of some of the US’ trade partners such as the EU. CBAMs offer a similar opportunity to governments around the world if they choose. They can be used to protect domestic carbon emission reduction effects in heavy industry but they can also be used for protectionism. Hence Bowen was due to say during his speech that the Inflation Reduction Act and other policies elsewhere “mean that Australia needs to act to stay in the game.” Australia has the advantage that it can watch how the EU CBAM pans out before it implements its own version.

Vietnam: The government has launched a public consultation over a proposed environmental protection fee. The Vietnam Investment Review newspaper has reported that the proposed policy would require emitters of dust, NO_x, sulphur oxides and carbon monoxide, including cement plants, to pay a basic fee of US$127/yr. Additional variable rates of US$0.02 – 0.03/t would apply to emissions of each of the pollutants. If it enters into force, the regulation will require cement plants to submit quarterly fee declarations to the government. The government says that the policy aims to encourage investment in emissions mitigation technologies.

Australia: The Ministry of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is holding a consultation over the possible implementation of a Cross-Border Adjustment Mechanism to penalise imported cement for its CO₂ emissions in line with the Australian cement industry’s emissions reduction goals. The Guardian Australia newspaper has reported that the government expects to publish its report on the policy in mid-late 2024. The government began implementing new CO₂ emissions limits for Australia’s 200 largest industrial emitters in July 2023. It expects these to eliminate 200Mt-worth of CO₂ emissions over the period up to 2030. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said “80% of these companies, and 86% of covered emissions, are covered by corporate net zero commitments.” Australia is committed to net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

With regard to the proposed Cross-Border Adjustment Mechanism, Bowen said “It’s a potentially important mechanism to ensure domestic sovereign capability and supply. One of the biggest challenges we face is supply-chain crunches, and any measure which helps us deal with that is a positive thing for the transition.”

Tajikistan: Cement producers exported 538,000t of cement during the first half of 2023, down by 20% year-on-year from 676,000t during the first quarter of 2022. Uzbekistan received 342,000t (64%) of Tajikistan's cement exports, while Afghanistan received 194,000t (36%). The Tajik government banned cement exports for five days in July 2023, due to a domestic cement shortage that affected important infrastructure projects. Asia-PLUS News has reported that the government now expects producers to export 1.5Mt of cement throughout 2023. The Tajikistan cement industry is expected to produce 4.5Mt of cement in 2023, corresponding to a capacity utilisation of 80% across its 5.6Mt/yr installed capacity.

Israel: Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises has received an order from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to reduce emissions from its Ramle cement plant. BALLEG News has reported that the plant violated pollution rules over non-focal emissions and particle emissions values. Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises also reportedly failed to submit data about defects, malfunctions and abnormal emissions, following 'several incidents.'

The producer previously paid a US$1.64m pollution fine in August 2022.

Australia: Alternative cement and concrete producers have welcomed a new Australian civil engineering standard that allows builders to use reduced-CO₂ geopolymer concrete in infrastructure projects. Wagners, which produces Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC), said that the revision has removed on if its key barriers to wider market acceptance. EFC replaces 100% of cement with supplementary cementitious materials, including ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and pulverised fly ash, by virtue of its binder technology. Wagners previously supplied EFC for the London Power Tunnels project in the UK, based on local technical approval-based building codes. The producer now expects a new standard like the Australian one to follow in the EU.

Kenya: East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) says that it is ready to resume full-scale cement production at its 600,000t/yr Athi River cement plant. The Standard newspaper has reported that the plant is currently operating at 50% capacity, following refurbishment. EAPCC replaced a 16m-long section of kiln shell in the plant's clinker line, at a cost of US$3.5m. Managing director Oliver Kirubai said that the company raised the funds through the sale of land located in Athi River.

Kirubai said "Our employees have cut back a lot, in a situation where we have been struggling even to pay their salaries. We are now back on our feet." He added "A number of companies owed us millions of Shillings. They have been ordered to pay us by the government. If they honour the agreement, the problem we are facing will be a thing of the past.”

EAPCC says that it expects the scale-up of production at the Athi River plant to help lower the cost of cement for its customers.