Displaying items by tag: Sustainability

Colombia: Cementos Argos is celebrating its inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the eighth consecutive year. The company said that the listing acknowledges its “good practices in economic, environmental and social matters.” Its owner Grupo Argos came second in the materials sector, which accounted for 4.3% of the total index weight, while the company itself came third. The index also highlighted it within the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA)-Pacific Alliance.

The company said, “One of the main advantages of this index is that it is a lever to promote cutting-edge business practices that seek to improve the impact of companies on society and the environment and, increasingly, to strengthen their relationship with different interest groups, whether they are communities, investors, suppliers, employees or authorities, among others.”

US: The Department of Energy has granted Cemex funding to “research and develop innovative carbon capture technology” at its Balcones, Texas cement plant. The company says that this will partly fund an 18-month feasibility study of partner company Membrane Technology & Research’s membrane carbon capture product at the plant. It says that, if successful, the study will be “an important advancement towards Cemex’s ambition to deliver net-zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) concrete globally by 2050.”

USA president Jaime Muguiro said, “At Cemex, sustainability is embedded in our operations and we are consistently looking for opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint. We strive to develop and gradually adapt new technology which will help us achieve our ambition to deliver net-zero CO₂ concrete to all of our customers. With this grant, we will be able to leverage our expertise to define the feasibility of implementing the membrane carbon capture technology in a cost-effective manner.”

Membrane Technology & Research has supplied membrane-based separation systems to the petrochemical, natural gas, and refining industries since 1992. Vice President of Technology Tim Merkel said, “Cement plant emissions are a good target for the CO2 capture membrane technology that we’ve been developing with Department of Energy support.” He added, “We look forward to working with Cemex on this exciting project to confirm that our technology can capture cement plant emissions at a minimal cost.”

China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has named Anhui Conch Cement subsidiary Chongqing Conch’s integrated cement plant in Chongqing State a National Green Factory for its “resource conservation, recycling and harmonious development.”

The company says that its efforts include “implementation of precision denitrification, wet flue gas desulfurisation, belt corridor noise reduction, electricity conversion bags, rainwater collection and other environmental protection technology reforms,” as well as co-processing domestic waste from the city of Chongqing as fuel. The plant has also undergone greening, and its 30,000 new trees form a habitat for wildlife. It said that the scenery also “greatly enhances employees' sense of happiness and gain.”

China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has named Huaxin Cement’s Yangxin plant in Hubei province on its National Green Manufacturing 2020 list. The list includes industrial facilities that have taken successful measures towards sustainability and pollution reduction.

The company said that the plants have together invested US$15m in “dust collection system transformation, rain and sewage separation projects, mill sound insulation and noise reduction treatment, kiln bypass air release and other large-scale environmental protection projects, supplemented by “greening and cleaning” and tree planting.” It added that the plant processes 219,000t/yr of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), saying, “This signifies our successful transformation from a traditional cement company to a green and environmentally friendly building materials company.”

Spain: HeidelbergCement subsidiary FYM has partnered with the University of Malaga (UMA) to create a chair on climate change at the institution. The position aims “to create and promote the study, research and development of new solutions to the climate emergency and its consequences for nature and daily life.” The company said that this consists in: “deepening the knowledge of the causes and consequences of climate change in Malaga Province, investigating the possibilities of its mitigation, especially through circular economic processes, encouraging research, development and innovation within the different lines of action in the fight against climate change, setting and substantiating industry targets and promoting understanding of the effects of climate change and the different forms of mitigation and adaptation.”

Mexico: Cemex has signed an agreement with Canada-based Carbon Upcycling Technologies to “improve the processing of residue or by-products of industrial processes to produce nanomaterials.” Carbon Upcycling Technologies’ equipment increases the cementitious properties of residues such as fly ash and steel slag by physical processing them into nanomaterials and adding captured CO₂, enabling the partnership to produce concrete additives with “greater reactivity and a lower carbon footprint” than their raw materials.

Cemex Ventures Head Gonzalo Galindo said, "This agreement with Carbon Upcycling Technologies is yet another example of our determination to deliver net-zero CO₂ concrete products globally by 2050. Our roadmap to achieve this global ambition involves continuing to innovate our technology internally while continuing to seek complementary innovation outside of Cemex through investments in start-ups, consortia, and high-value collaboration agreements such as the one reached with Carbon Upcycling Technologies."

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas has renewed its Alcalá de Guadaíra integrated cement plant’s registration to the European Environmental Management System (EMAS). The company says that EMAS registration “encourages transparency in plant management and provides information verified and validated by an external body” to help it to comply with controls and self-controls in its Integrated Environment Authorisation (IEA).

Environment manager Pedro Lanagrán said, “The company maintains a very demanding environmental policy and is committed to innovation to achieve continuous improvement, relying on the application of the best available technologies.” He added, “We understand social responsibility as a transversal concept and are convinced that it is essential to reconcile economic and social progress with the protection of people and nature."

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has announced the launch of EcoLabel, a brand to encapsulate its green cements and concretes. All products bearing the label must have either a 30% lower carbon dioxide (CO₂) footprint compared to the local industry standard or use 20% recycled content. The company says that the reason behind EcoLabel is to “support builders in making greener choices” and to “accelerate the company’s Net Zero Journey.”

Chief sustainability officer Magali Anderson said, “I am very proud of how our company is turning our net zero pledge into action across more than 70 countries, with our broad range of green building solutions. The EcoLabel is a key milestone on this journey, confirming LafargeHolcim’s commitment to lead the way in sustainability and innovation.”

Argentina: The Instituto del Cemento Portland Argentino (ICPA) has announced that a series of ten talks, entitled Vision 2030 – a Decade of Action, will take place in late October 2020. It says that the presentations, “will provide a space for reflection on 10 key topics on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda.” 

The event is also a celebration of ICPA’s 80th anniversary.

There’s no single theme this week, just a few news stories of note that may have wider significance.

Firstly comes the news that Semen Indonesia subsidiary Semen Padang has been exporting 25,000t of cement to Australia. This follows a consignment of 35,000t of clinker to Bangladesh. The company is hoping to hit a cement and clinker export target of 1.58Mt in 2020 in spite of the on-going coronavirus pandemic. It reached 1.09Mt (about 70%) of this by mid-September 2020 through exports to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

The wider picture here is that local sales in Indonesia fell by 7.7% year-on-year to 27.2Mt in the first half of 2020 from 29.4Mt in the same period in 2019, according to data from the Indonesian Cement Association (ASI). Cement and clinker exports are up by 32.8% to 3.7Mt from 2.8Mt. Semen Indonesia’s revenue is down but it has managed to hold its earnings up so far. During press rounds in late August 2020 its marketing and supply chain director, Adi Munandir, told local press that he expected domestic demand to fall by up to 15% in 2020 due to effects of coronavirus on private construction and government infrastructure plans. Analysts reckon that the worst of the demand slump hit in the second quarter of 2020 when government-related coronavirus restrictions were implemented, so Semen Indonesia’s third quarter results will closely scrutinised.

One of Semen Padang export targets is the Maldives. This chimes with another story this week because Oman-based Raysut Cement has just bought a majority stake in a cement terminal from Lafarge Maldives for US$8m. The 9000t capacity Thilafusi cement terminal is located on the island of Thilafusi, Kaafu and was expanded in 2015. Raysut Cement has tended to stick to markets in the southern Arabian Peninsula and the east coast of Africa, with projects planned in Madagascar and Somaliland. Yet expansion plans in places further away such as India and Georgia have also been mentioned publicly. A greater presence in the Maldives is a solid step towards Raysut heading eastwards. This would also mirror the plans of the country’s gypsum sector to dominate African and Asian markets and a general longer term shift in global markets from west to east.

One place west that has been doing well in cement though is Brazil. National Cement Industry Union (SNIC) data for September 2020 show a 21% year-on-year boom in cement sales to 5.8Mt and a 9.4% year-on-year increase to 44.6Mt for the first nine months of 2020. Earlier in the year the country’s limited coronavirus suppression methods were attributed for letting the recovering cement sector grow. Now, SNIC has directly thanked government support for civil construction. However, Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of SNIC said. “The results are surprising so far, but that doesn't give us security in the long run,” due to a bubble of real estate and commercial activity that already appears to be declining. Given the slump in cement demand from 2015 to 2018 it’s understandable that SNIC is taking the recovery cautiously.

And to finish we have two connected stories about Cemex. Following the release of its resilience strategy in September 2020, the company has now declared that its integrated Rüdersdorf cement plant in Germany will be the centrepiece of its CO2 reduction plans as part of ‘Vision Rüdersdorf.’ Details are light at present but we expect some kind of carbon capture and storage or usage project. An addendum to this – or perhaps it’s the other way round (!) – is that Cemex has also just announced further credit amendments but with sustainability-linked metrics. Cemex’s chief financial officer (CFO) Maher Al-Haffar said, “We are especially proud that this transaction represents one of the largest sustainability-linked loans in the world.” The teeth of this arrangement remain to be seen but the integration of finance and sustainability has serious implications generally.

Watch out for a research and development themed interview with Cemex and Synhelion in the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine