Displaying items by tag: Spain

Spain: Cemex España has announced plans to invest Euro4m in upgrades to its Buñol, Valencia, Muel, Zaragoza, Raspeig, Alicante and Rubí, Barcelona mortar plants. The upgrades will increase production capacity, safety and efficiency and improve product quality. The company said that the promotion of its range of over 160 special mortars is a main focus of the investment.

Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia regional president Sergio Menéndez said “We recognise the growing demand for innovative mortar solutions for new and existing buildings to reduce carbon emissions in our cities and support the EU Renewal Wave. Our wide range of mortars for dry silos, in bags and ready to use, is reinforced by expert solutions for paving streets, plastered walls, tunnel solutions, plasters and special sands.”

The group is also investing in upgrades to production and packaging systems in its mortar segment in Poland and the UK.

Cement imports were one of the themes in this week’s news, with stories on the topic from South Africa and Ukraine. The former concerned the latest chapter in that industry’s saga on slowing down imports. The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) has started a review on tariffs imposed on cement from Pakistan that were introduced in 2015.

Local producers in South Africa have experienced mixed fortunes since 2015, such as PPC and AfriSam’s failed merger attempt or the introduction of a local carbon tax, and were starting to complain again about imports even before the effects of coronavirus in 2020. This led the Concrete Institute to lobby ITAC in 2019 about rising imports from other nations, principally Vietnam and China.

Back in 2013 cement imports from Pakistan to South Africa were 1.1Mt. This represented the vast majority of all imports to the country. Tariffs of 14 – 77% were imposed on Pakistan-based exporters in mid-2015, initially for six months, but this was then extended. Roughly a year later in mid-to-late 2016, Sephaku Holdings said that imports of cement had ‘significantly’ declined on a year-on-year basis, particularly from Pakistan. By the end of June 2016 approximately 0.16Mt had been imported compared to 0.5Mt in the previous period. However, it noted that 75% of the volume was from China. Since then imports started to creep up. Cement imports reportedly rose by 84% year-on-year in 2018 and then by 11% in 2019. Data from construction industry data company Industry Insight suggests that Vietnam accounted for 70% or 0.47Mt of the 0.68Mt of cement imported into South Africa in the first nine months of 2020. The remaining 30% or 0.20Mt came from Pakistan. In this kind of environment it seems unlikely that ITAC will do anything other than extend tariffs.

Meanwhile in the northern hemisphere, in Ukraine this week a court in Kiev dismissed a challenge by the Belarusian Cement Company to remove cement import tariffs from Russia, Belarus and Moldova that were introduced in mid-2019 for five years. Notably, a law firm representing Dyckerhoff Cement Ukraine, HeidelbergCement Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Ukraine and CRH subsidiary Podilsky Cement commented favourably upon the court’s decision to uphold tariffs. These producers form UKRCEMENT, the association of cement producers of Ukraine. However, the association doesn’t include Russia-based Eurocement, which operates Ukraine’s largest cement plant at Balakleya. Relations have been poor between Russia and Ukraine since a war between the countries that started in 2014. So any trade tariffs implemented upon Russia and/or Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members will inevitably carry the whiff of geopolitics. Yet, in Ukraine’s defence, it also started an anti-dumping investigation into cement imports from Turkey in September 2020. Nationalism may be relevant but let’s not discount hard-nosed economics just yet.

Turkey’s involvement in Ukraine leads to last week’s presentation at Global Cement Live by Sylvie Doutres, DSG Consultants on cement and clinker trade in and out of the Mediterranean region. Readers can watch the presentation here but the headline story here was the trend of reducing exports away from southern European countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece, to greater exports from North African countries and Turkey over the last decade. Turkey particularly has pushed its share of exports even more in 2020 despite (or perhaps because of) a tough domestic market. The general trend here away from southern Europe has been blamed on European Union-based (EU) producers becoming less competitive often against newer plants in nearby countries.

Battles between producers and government tariff policies are a perennial feature of any market in commodities such as cement. The ebb and flow of import and export markets cover many factors including production costs, distribution networks, tariff structures and more. Distinctive features of cement trading, for example, are the high cost of transporting heavy building materials over land and the world’s chronic cement production overcapacity. In the EU’s case one reason that often gets blamed is the emissions trading system (EU ETS) and the mounting cost it is imposing upon cement production. For example, today’s story that Holcim España wants to convert its integrated Jerez plant into a grinding unit has been blamed on falling exports and a reduction in ETS credits. It is noteworthy then that the EU ETS rate breached the Euro30/t level in December 2020. This may be good news for the sustainability lobby but the exodus of exports away from Southern Europe tells its own story. What form the EU ETS carbon border adjustment mechanism takes as part of the EU Green Deal will be watched closely by producers both inside and outside the EU.

Global Cement Live continues on 21 January 2021 with Kevin Rudd, Independent Cement Consultants, presenting 'Independent or third party factory acceptance testing of major cement plant equipment and critical spare parts and the challenges of Covid’

Spain: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim España has informed the works council and employees of its Jerez de la Frontera cement plant of possible planned changes to the plant’s production structure. The company intends to convert the cement plant into a grinding-only facility. The reasons for the decision were regional overcapacity, falling export volumes and prices and reduced allocations of EU CO₂ emissions credits. It says that under the plan the new grinding plant would continue to serve the market in the region. The communication constitutes the beginning of a collective dismissal process.

General director Isidoro Miranda said that the company wants “to work with the social partners to reach an agreement that allows the continuity of our activity in the town of Jerez.”

Spain: Cementos Molins has increased its stake in concrete design specialist Escofet to 76% from 37%. The company says that it hopes to retain the public architecture producer’s management team. It said that it will integrate the subsidiary under its prefabricated concrete division to combine industrial expertise with design excellence.

Chief Executive Officer Julio Rodríguez said that the company’s 2020 – 2022 strategy prioritises “both organic and inorganic growth,” seeking new acquisitions while “maintaining financial discipline and selecting projects where the return on investment is clear."

Spain: LafargeHolcim has successfully demolished a 78.5m high silo at its Los Barrios Port Terminal in the Port of Algeciras. The company is currently dismantling its unit at the port. A specialised company was hired by the cement producer to conduct the operation following a survey.

Spain: Cementos Molins has dismantled kilns 3, 4 and 5 of the Sant Vicenç dels Horts cement plant in Catalonia. The company says that it will use 48,000t of waste material from the demolition process in cement production in kiln 6 at the plant. The material consists of 35,000t of concrete, 10,000t of scrap metal, 1450t of refractory material and 1500t of other waste.

The total investment cost of the dismantling work was Euro2m. The company said that the demolition of silos presented the most complex challenges of the 24-month process.

The plant mothballed lines 3, 4 and 5 upon the opening of line 6 in 2010.

Spain: The Spanish cement association Oficemen has targeted a 43% emissions drop by 2030 across its entire value chain compared to 1990 levels. The objective has been published as part of the association’s sustainability roadmap to 2050. It is a tightening of the previous target of 27% by 2030. Oficemen intends to meet the tougher reduction by using the so-called 5C approach - clinker, cement, concrete, construction and built environment, and (re)carbonation – as detailed by Cembureau, the European Cement Association. Oficemen also revealed that it is working with the Spanish Technological Platform for CO₂ (PTECO₂) on identifying potential locations for storing captured CO₂. Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment, participated remotely with the launch event.

Oficemen also reports that Spanish cement consumption fell by 12% year-on-year to 12.2Mt in the first 11 months of 2020. Exports declined by 5%.

Egypt: The US-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has ruled in favour of the Egyptian government in a compensation case raised by Spain-based Cementos La Unión concerning its Arabian Cement Company (ACC) subsidiary. The El Economista newspaper has reported that the company sought US$286m in compensation, due to the Egyptian government’s decision to retroactively impose new activity and electricity licences shortly after ACC built a new integrated cement plant in Suez Governorate. Cementos La Unión argued that the additional licences breached a bilateral agreement between Spain and Egypt covering investments that were already in place.

The company said that it will continue to pursue its claim, which is also progressing in Egypt.

Spain: Mexico-based Cemex plans to merge Spain-based Cemex España with Netherlands-based New Sunward Holding. The transaction will be registered in late 2020 or early 2021 and dated retroactively to 1 December 2020.

Spain: Cementos Cosmos has partnered with France-based EDF energy to establish a 6.2MW solar power plant in Toral de los Vados, León, at a cost of Euro4m. The Diario de León newspaper has reported that the plant intends to use 9.0GWhr/yr of energy from the new unit. This will provide 15% of the electrical power requirements at the cement plant. The 14,000-panel project is scheduled for completion in mid-2021.