Displaying items by tag: Portugal

Portugal: Cimpor has won a contract to supply cement for a new 80km railway line linking Elvas to Évora. It expects to delivery up to 0.14Mt of cement for the project, according to the Dinheiro Vivo newspaper. Cement will be supplied from its Alhandra integrated plant and ready-mixed concrete from other sites. The project is expected to be completed in early 2023.

Europe: Australia-based Calix has announced that construction will begin on its second low emissions intensity lime and cement (Leilac) carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation at a ‘European cement plant’ on 7 April 2020. ASX ComNews has reported that collaborators on the project, which has received Euro16m under the EU’s Horizon 2020 grant scheme, are Portugal-based Cimpor, Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Germany and France-based energy companies Ingenieurbüro-Kühlerbau-Neustadt (IKN) and Engie and Belgium-based minerals and lime company Lhoist. Calix has said that the 100,000t/yr process emissions capture facility will be operational in late 2024.
The company has appointed Emma Bowring Leilac-2 project leader.

The first Leilac installation was completed at HeidelbergCement’s 1.5Mt/yr integrated Lixhe plant in Belgium’s Limburg province in mid-2019.

Cape Verde: Turkey’s OYAK is planning to invest in pozzolan extraction following a meeting between OYAK's Cement Concrete Paper Group chairman Suat Çalbiyik and prime minister Ulisses Correia e Silva. Mining activity has remained muted since Cabocem, an Italian company, closed in 2013, according to Sapo. OYAK has operations in the country via Portugal’s Cimpor, which it acquired in 2019.

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement’s profit has risen so far in 2019 due to stable cement prices and falling coal prices. Its net profit increased by 11.1% year-on-year to US$214m in the first nine months of 2019, according to the Taipei Times newspaper. However, its sales revenue fell by 3.5% to US$2.87bn. The cement producer says it has a production capacity of 102Mt/yr following the formation of a joint venture in Turkey and an acquisition in Portugal in 2018.

The company reported higher labour, transportation and raw material costs in China in the third quarter of 2019. Its expenses were also inflated by environmental upgrades. Company president John Li said, that despite falling prices in Guizhou province, demand in regional markets, including Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangsu provinces was expected to remain beneficial.

Trinidad & Tobago: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is continuing to hear arguments about whether Rock Hard Cement should be exempt from higher taxes applicable to third party goods. Both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO) previously ruled that Rock Hard Cement imports from Turkey and Portugal were correctly classified as ‘other hydraulic cement,’ according to Barbados Today. However, lawyers on behalf of Trinidad and Tobago and Trinidad Cement have dismissed this classification of the imports, insisting that the classification of the World Customs Organization (WCO) and COTED were ‘unsafe, unreliable and incorrect.’ As such the imports should be classified as ‘building cement grey’ and liable to a tariff of 15% instead of 5%. The case continues.

Germany/Portugal: Talleres Alquezar has been using two BHS mixers in a modular plant to produce a total volume of 400,000m³ of hydro dam concrete in Portugal since 2017. Two DKX 4.5 type twin-shaft batch mixers, each with a capacity of 4.5m³, have been integrated into the plant. Germany’s BHS says that using twin-shaft batch mixers has shown that can be utilised successfully to produce this kind of specialised concrete.

Three hydro dams are being built on the Tâmega River that are expected to generate 1760GWh for the Iberian market once they have been commissioned as part of Spanish energy group Iberdrola’s large-scale hydroelectric project in Portugal. 242,000m³ of concrete is needed in Daivões for the dam wall alone, which is planned to be 78m high and 265m long. Spain’s Talleres Alquezar is the project partner for this hydro dam. Once built, the construction in Daivões is expected to dam up to 56,200,000m³ of water.

Portugal: Researchers at the Department of Materials Engineering and Ceramics at the University of Aveiro have developed a so-called ‘eco-cement’ that uses waste cellulose and clay. The cement type uses waste from the pulp industry such as ash and lime grains. This makes up 70% of its composition with the remaining 30% being metakaolin clay. The cement can be manufactured at room temperature reducing its energy consumption massively compared to Ordinary Portland Cement. The research team includes Manfredi Saeli, Rui Novais, Paula Seabra and João Labrincha.

Portugal: Turkey’s Oyak Cement has completed it acquisition of Cimpor. The completion of the transaction follows the approval of the European Commission in mid-January 2019, according to the Expresso newspaper. The purchase includes three integrated cement plants, two grinding plants, 20 quarries and 46 ready-mix concrete plants in Portugal and Cape Verde.

Belgium: The European Commission has approved the acquisition of sole control over Cimpor Portugal by Turkey’s Oyak. The commission ruled that there are no competition concerns between the cement producers given that they operate in different geographic markets. The deal was announced in late October 2018.

Portugal: Proença de Carvalho has resigned as the president of Cimpor. Three independent directors of the cement producer have also resigned, according to the Jornal de Negócios. The departures follow OYAK Cement’s acquisition of Cimpor’s assets in Portugal and Cape Verde from Brazil’s InterCement.