Displaying items by tag: Review

US: Eagle Materials are started a strategic review of its portfolio of businesses including heavy materials, light materials, and oil and gas proppants. It says it commissioned the review, “…following consultation and input from the company's largest shareholders.” During the process it will consider options, including divesting businesses.

Nigeria: Osita Anthony Aboloma, the Director General of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has blamed poor cement as a major cause of building collapses. He made the comments via a deputy at a technical committee meeting for the review of the standard for cement (NIS444-1.2014) in Lagos, according to the Nigerian Sun newspaper. The standard is being reviewed for the next five years.

Also at the meeting, Joseph Odigure, the chairman of cement standards at Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) at the University of Lagos, was appointed chairman of the technical committee. Professor Garuba Abu was appointed as its Vice Chairman.

Switzerland: The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) has published a technology review on current and anticipated developments that can be used to mitigate CO₂ emissions in cement production. The report includes 52 individual papers on existing technologies and seven additional summary papers

The CSI initiated a review of its original technology papers, which were originally developed in 2009, when the sector issued the first ever low-carbon technology roadmap in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement. The European Cement Research Academy (ECRA) and a stakeholder consultant processes have also supported the project.

Key technological fields covered in the current review include: thermal energy efficiency, electric energy efficiency, use of alternative fuels, materials and biomass, reduction of the clinker content in cement, new binding materials, CO₂ capture and storage (CCS), and CO₂ use (CCU). The report also includes an assessment of the level of possible implementation, the challenges and costs of these technologies in future scenarios for 2030 and 2050.

“The publication of these revised and new technical papers sets robust foundations for the overall exercise of updating our 2009 roadmap. It is also a major step in the implementation of commitments made by the cement sector in Paris through the Cement Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi) and it demonstrates that the business is more than ever focused on supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement,” said Philippe Fonta, managing director of the CSI.

The CSI and IEA plan to share the initial results of the updated global technology roadmap for the cement sector at COP 23 in Bonn, Germany.

Nigeria: Nigeria's Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga has announced that he will conduct an independent assessment of the country's cement industry to make it more competitive. The move follows a dispute between importer Ibeto Cement Company and leading producer Dangote Cement.

According to Aganga, at a meeting for stakeholders from the cement industry held on 7 January 2013 in Abuja, by the end of the entire review the Federal Government will draw up with a new strategy for the industry with three goals. The first is to bring down the price of cement in the country, the second is increase consumption of cement and the third is work on policies to open up the export market.

Aganga defended Nigeria's 10-year implementation of the Backward Integration Policy (BIP). According to Aganga the BIP has resulted in about US$6bn of investment in the sector, with a growth from 2Mt/yr to 28Mt/yr, and it has saved the country foreign exchange of about US$1.4bn/yr. The Nigerian cement industry provides direct and indirect employment for about two million people.

"We have achieved everything we set for ourselves 10 years ago when the BIP was introduced; we want to take the next step as part of our strategy on the way forward," said Aganga.