Displaying items by tag: Spain

Spain: Miguel Ángel López has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Siemens Spain following the resignation of Rosa García García. García has decided to leave the company and will handover the role on 1 December 2018 and then continue in an advisory role until the end of the year. López, aged 53 years, has been working most recently as the chief financial officer (CFO) of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE). The CFO role will be filled by David Mesonero, currently SGRE's Head of Corporate Development, Strategy and Integration.

Spain: Demand for cement in Spain in the first half of 2018 was 8% higher than in the first half of 2017, according to the national cement association Oficemen. The rate of growth was down, however. The country recorded an 11% year-on-year increase in demand between the first half of 2016 and the first half of 2017. Oficemen had expected demand to pick up by 12% for the whole of 2018 but now expects an increase of 7% instead. If realised, this would mean sales of around 13.3Mt for 2018.

“At the beginning of the year, the Department of Studies of Oficemen expected to close 2018 with a 12% increase in domestic demand. Now, with public works almost paralysed, we are talking about lowering our forecasts by 5 percentage points,” explained the president of Oficemen, Jesús Ortiz. “The weak recovery of the construction that began in Spain in 2017 depends on the building sector. Although it is growing at a good pace, it does so from absolute values that are still very low.” It is estimated that 2018 will close with around 100,000 new homes started, a figure that, while ignoring the years of the construction boom, represents less than half of the average of the homes that were built in Spain in the period 1970-1995.

“Public investment in Spain remains at 63% of the average investment of Germany, the UK, France and Italy, which takes us dangerously away from our neighbours. There is a consequent loss of competitiveness for our country, especially in the most exposed sectors: exports, tourism, treatment and prevention of environmental risks, driver safety, and so on,“ added Ortiz.

Cement exports were also down year-on-year, for the 13th month in a row. Ortiz primarily blamed this on the devaluation of the Turkish Lira, which has helped Turkish cement exports advance their competitiveness compared to Spain. He also highlighted rising electricity costs, which are expected to be 20% higher at the end of 2018 than at the start. This will make electricity 28% more expensive than for German cement producers, according to Ortiz. “What has recovered in the domestic market in these two years, is being lost abroad, with production that remains stagnant at 20Mt since 2013, a figure that accounts for half of the installed capacity of our factories. Therefore, the uncertainty and concern for our industry is maintained,” concluded Ortiz.

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas’ (CPV) Alcalá de Guadaíra plant near Seville has updated its environmental standard. It uses an integrated environmental management system, based on the UNE-EN ISO 14001: 2015 standard and the European regulation on eco-management and eco-auditing (EMAS) CE No. 1221/2009, modified according to regulation (EU) 2017 / 1505. The plant has been certified since 2004 but this was updated to the new version of the standard in mid-2018.

The plant also uses a health and safety management system certified since 2009 according to 18.001: 2007 OHSAS. The unit reported that it had no accidents to the end of August 2018.

Spain: FYM-HeidelbergCement has reached a record two years without an accident at its Malaga cement plant. The milestone also includes no accidents for subcontractors working at the site. The company has operated a ‘Zero Accident’ program since 2000 that has focused on improving the safety culture for all staff.

Spain: Votorantim Group has appointed Alan Svaiter as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Votorantim Cimentos España. He succeeds Jorge Wagner, who has been promoted to the role of CEO of Votorantim Cimentos Europe, Asia and Africa. In his new position Svaiter heads a subsidiary running four cement plants, two mills, 29 concrete plants, eight aggregate operations and one mortar plant. He also directs a team of more than 500 people.

Svaiter, a Brazilian national, joined Votorantim Group in 2008. After leading the logistics of its cement division for two years he was appointed the director of Engemix, the company’s concrete business in Brazil. In 2014 he became director of the supply chain of the cement group for the entire Brazilian market.

Svaiter, a production engineer trained at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, holds a master's degree from the INSEAD business school. He started his professional career working for the Ambev brewery before joining the mining company Vale.

Spain: Cemex España has submitted a proposal to the local government to extract a total of 15Mt of limestone from its Can Negret quarry near to its Lloseta cement plant in Majorca. The proposal will run until 2032, according to the Ultima Hora newspaper. The company was previously granted a concession at the quarry in 1982.

Spain: Cementos Tudela Veguín has bid for a concession at the El Musel section of the Port of Gijón. The cement producer plans to build a dedicated terminal at the site, according to La Nueva España newspaper. Cementos Tudela Veguín has used the northern extension of the port since 2012. It processed 1.04Mt of cement and clinker at the site in 2017.

Spain: LafargeHolcim España has appointed Carmen Díaz as its commercial director. Díaz was previously the general manager of the group’s ReadySet Mix digital venture. She succeeds Simón Kronenberg in the post who has moved on to a new role with the group in Switzerland.

Díaz is a chemical engineer from the University of Oviedo and she also holds an MBA. She joined LafargeHolcim in 2002 and has held various roles including Area Manager in Madrid and the Vice President of Commercial Performance and Head of Ready Mix Commercial in France.

Spain: Cementos Molins has allocated Euro200m towards dismantling old production lines at its Sant Vicenç dels Horts plant near Barcelona. Kilns, towers, silos and obsolete buildings will be removed as part of the project, according to the La Vanguardia newspaper. The plant operates a single 1.4Mt/yr production line that was commissioned in 2010.

Spain: LafargeHolcim has chosen its Carboneras cement plant in Almeria as a refrence training centre for its European operations. The plant was selected due to its port and high level of staff expertise amongst other reasons. A group of LafargeHolcim engineers from Poland, France, the UK, Romania, Croatia, Greece and Serbia have all recently visited the site for a training course.