Displaying items by tag: Spain

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV) has appointed Jaime Rocha Font as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Pedro Carranza Andressen in the post, according to Alimarket-Construcción. Rocha Font is currently the CEO of Mexico-based Elementia and he will continue to hold this position. Elementia owns a controlling share of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), the parent company of CPV.

Rocha Font has been the head of Elementia since 2020. Prior to this he was the head of Elementia’s cement division, including subsidiaries Cementos Fortaleza and Giant Cement in the US, from 2015. He also held the position of president of the National Cement Chamber of Mexico between 2019 and 2022. Earlier in his career he spent over 20 years working for Holcim from 1992. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile and a master's degree in international economics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles amongst other qualifications.

Spain: Votorantim España plans to invest Euro15m in an upgrade to improve the efficiency of its subsidiary Cementos Cosmos' Toral de los Vados cement plant in Léon. The project will reduce the plant's power consumption by 7%, while increasing its clinker production by 11% to 3100t/day. Cementos Cosmos expects to commission the newly upgraded plant before the end of 2023. ALIMKC News has reported that the local authority has altered the plant's environmental authorisation accordingly.

Spain: Cyprus-registered Grit Cement, a 3910t-capacity cement carrier, struck a berthed chemicals tanker in harbour in the autonomous city of Ceuta on 9 January 2023, sustaining damage. FleetMon News has reported that the vessel was coming into port from Carboneras, Alméria. It has since disembarked on its return journey to Carboneras.

Spain: Mexico-based Cemex and its venture capital subsidiary Cemex Ventures have invested in Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions (WtEnergy), an energy startup company that has developed a process to transform solid waste into synthesis gas (Syngas) for industrial purposes.

WtEnergy converts biomass and non-recyclable waste into Syngas, which can be used in the short-term as a fossil fuel alternative or be upgraded in the medium- and long-term to gases such as biomethane or pure hydrogen. Cemex intends to incorporate this energy source into its clinker and cement manufacturing process, looking to further reduce the carbon footprint of its operations. Cemex aims to increase its fossil fuel substitution rate by 20% by 2030.

Gonzalo Galindo, the president of Cemex Ventures, said, “This investment aligns with our strategy to find innovative clean fuel and energy sources for the cement industry.” He added, “We have outlined an ambitious rollout strategy across multiple operations, starting with Spain and other European countries before expanding to other international markets.”

Spain: FCC subsidiary Cementos Portland Valderrivas has completed its acquisition of global investment company KKR's Andalusian business, including its subsidiary Surgyps. Surgyps operates an 800,000t/yr grinding plant in Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2010, but continued to operate the plant under a government concession, lasting until 2031.

The El Economista newspaper has reported that Cementos Portland Valderrivas said "With this operation, the group complements its position in Andalusia by taking a decisive step in our commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of cement."

The group controls six integrated cement plants across Spain, with a total capacity of 9.9Mt/yr.

This 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

Spain: LafargeHolcim España has appointed Ricardo de Pablos as Commercial Director Cement. He has worked for the group in a variety of roles since 2005 notably as a regional director of aggregates and the export director for Spain. De Pablos holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and a master’s in business administration (MBA) from the IE Business School.

Europe: The Carbon Negative Biofuels from Organic Waste (Carbiow) project has received EU funding under the Horizon Europe initiative. Carbiow seeks to develop a dense, dry homogenous marine and aviation biofuel by carbonising gasification ash with oxygen and captured CO₂ from cement plants. 12 consortium members from the Benelux, Germany, Nordic countries, Slovenia and Spain are participating in the project.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ net revenue grew by 18% year-on-year to US$3.60bn in the first nine months of 2022 from US$3.04bn in the same period in 2021. Its cement sales volumes rose slightly to 27.8Mt. However, its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16% to US$659m from US$780m.

Domestically the group said that its revenue grew because price rises counteracted falling sales volumes of cement. Outside of Brazil it reported growing revenue, apart from in its Latin American business. Here it blamed the fall on a new competitor entering the Uruguayan market and market issues in Bolivia. Earnings were noted to have decreased in every region mainly due to mounting fuel, raw material and energy costs.

Votorantim launched a new logo in October 2022 and completed its acquisition of Heidelberg Materials' Southern Spanish businesses in November 2022. The purchase included an integrated cement plant located in Málaga, three aggregates quarries and 11 ready-mix concrete plants in the Andalusia region.

Spain: Cementos Molins' consolidated sales were Euro959m over the first nine months of 2022, up by 37% year-on-year from the same period in 2021. Cementos Molins attributed the growth to an increase in sales across all of its businesses and the 'significant' contribution of new acquisitions from 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 11% to Euro208m, while its net profit rose by 3% to Euro90m. The group noted a 'strong performance' by its South American and Asian business. In general, it faced high costs growth, offset partly by increased product prices and the effects of its successful operational efficiency plans. Costs rose especially sharply in Spain, leading to margins deterioration there, while the impacts of hyperinflation in Argentina were lower than in the corresponding period of 2019.

Cementos Molins' net debt continued to decline throughout the period, to reach Euro137m, 0.5x its EBITDA. The group said that its financial position will give it leverage in its execution of new growth opportunities and its 2030 sustainability roadmap.

Regarding the company's third-quarter 2022 performance, chief executive officer Julio Rodríguez said "Despite a very challenging and uncertain global environment and the negative impact of high inflation costs, once again Cementos Molins has delivered very solid results in the third quarter. This performance is the outcome of the contribution of a very professional and committed team worldwide, whom I would like to thank for their big effort in such a difficult environment."