Displaying items by tag: Sweden

Sweden: Cementa plans to restrict its exports to the Baltic countries and Denmark. Finwire News has reported that the subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement is enacting the measure in order to focus its cement supply on its Swedish customers.

Cementa’s prospects for continued mining limestone in Sweden beyond the end of October 2021 have been looking dubious recently. The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement wants to carry on mining limestone at its quarries near its integrated Slite plant in Gotland after 31 October 2021 when its current permits expire. However, the Supreme Land and Environmental Court rejected its renewal application in July 2021 on the grounds that the impact of the quarries on groundwater had not been sufficiently investigated. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it had no basis for appeal at the end of August 2021. This leaves the cement producer hanging on for proposed government plans to make legislative changes to keep limestone mining ongoing for another eight months until mid-2022 and then for whatever scheme the legislators cook up next.

In July 2021 construction multinational Skanska publicly said that it was taking the situation ‘seriously’ because its concrete suppliers had warned it of the impending risk that they would potentially be unable to meet demand in the third quarter of 2022. At the same time the Swedish Construction Federation and related bodies noted that up to 175,000 jobs in construction could be adversely affected with a loss of investment of nearly Euro2bn/month due to the predicted cement shortage. In their view, increasing imports in the short term was unrealistic due to capacity constraints at ports and import terminals. Understandably, the Swedish government has been scrambling to keep the quarries open to protect cement supply and has been accused by both the local press and environmental bodies of circumventing legal norms in the process.

This is not a good situation to be in for either Cementa or anyone who might want to use cement locally in the near future. The cement producer operates both of Sweden’s integrated plants, at Slite and Skövde respectively, with Slite holding around 80% of the company’s production capacity. On its own, the Slite plant alone supplies 75% of the country’s cement, with about another 10 – 15% provided by importer Schwenk Zement. As a whole Cembureau data shows that the country’s market was just under 3Mt/yr in 2020 and stable despite the coronavirus pandemic. A small decline in the residential segment was reported, coupled with a ‘flat’ infrastructure segment, although increased demand from wind farm construction was noted. Cementa stopped production at a third local integrated plant, Degerhamn, in mid-2019 due to low profitability at the site and tightening environmental regulations.

Cementa and HeidelbergCement are putting up a fight by publishing lots of information on Cementa’s website about the permit application process and working towards both solutions in the short and longer term. In early September 2021 Nordkalk signed a deal with Cementa to supply it with limestone. However, as Thomas Lind, the head of cement for HeidelbergCement Northern Europe, pointed out in August 2021, the agreement won’t cover the entire shortfall, nor would it be ideal from logistical or environmental angles. On the opposing side, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has joined with the Supreme Land and Environmental Court in opposing the quarry permit renewal along with other environmental groups. Plus the government decision to force through a permit reprieve has also given ammunition to its political rivals.

The argument over Slite’s quarry sums up some of the challenges facing society over continued cement production in a world with ever-tougher environmental legislation. Cement plants are likely to face mounting opposition on environmental grounds but most governments will panic when facing the potential consequences of societies running out of essential building materials. There are many ways to avoid this scenario, such as far greater community and political involvement on the part of cement companies, recognition by governments of the importance of building materials, supporting the development and uptake of concrete made with less Ordinary Portland Cement or switching to higher ratios of other building materials and so on. Yet, without preparation, legislators elsewhere will also find themselves in similar positions to the one the Swedish government is in now.

Slite’s problems have arisen in part over a perceived direct threat to local drinking water, although Cementa says that this is absolutely not the case. Typically, cement plants in similar battles find themselves in opposition to local communities due to the immediate impacts of quarrying or production on water, or due to noise or dust. Yet the hidden consequence of clinker production is significant process CO₂ emissions with resulting global climate change. The particular tragedy in Gotland is that HeidelbergCement is one of the more sustainable-minded cement companies, with investment to match. In June 2021 it announced ambitions to upgrade the Slite plant to become the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant through bio-based fuel substitution and a carbon capture and storage unit by 2030. This may be eight years away but it is one of very few full scale cement plant carbon capture upgrades that have been promised worldwide.

Sweden: Cementa has said that it ‘views positively’ the Swedish government's rapid action in proposing a new bill on limestone mining licencing. It lobbied the government to stick to its schedule to have a temporary licence in place for Cementa’s use of its quarries in Gotland by 31 October 2021. The group said that it is working ‘with full force’ to find practical and legal solutions to secure the Swedish cement supply in the short and long term.

Sustainability manager Karin Comstedt-Webb said “It will be important that the time frames are not limited by the new bill, but that it enables flexibility to secure Swedish cement supply in the future, so that we avoid ending up in the same problematic situation again in just a number of months.” She added “I want to emphasise that Cementa in all situations works with high environmental requirements. Our ambition remains to be able to show that our industrial operations and the production of the building material cement can go hand in hand with protection of Gotland's nature, water and people.”

US: Sweden-based Bruks Siwertell has delivered a 5000 S road-mobile ship unloader to Ozinga. The product was originally ordered in 2020 and it provides a continuous rated unloading capacity of 300t/hr for vessels up to 5000dwt. It is Ozinga’s first order from Bruks Siwertell.

Ozinga specialises in concrete, dry bulk materials and natural gas energy solutions. It operates a network of truck, rail, barge and ship terminals mostly in the mid-west region of the US, where the new ship unloader will be used.

Sweden: Cementa will not be able to appeal a land and environmental court’s ruling preventing it from using its quarries on the island of Gotland. The Swedish supreme court has ruled that the subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement has no basis for appeal. Its previous application to extend mining activities at the sites until 2041 failed due to shortcomings in its environmental impact assessments. The quarries supply cement production at the company’s Slite cement plant in Gotland.

US: Sweden-based Bruks Siwertell has commissioned a 1500t/hr rail-mounted Siwertell ST 640-M screw-type ship unloader for an undisclosed cement customer at Houston, Texas. The unloader will serve ocean-going vessels on the Buffalo Bayou watercourse. The producer is transitioning from bagged to bulk dispatch. Contract manager Per Wahlström said that the company was also looking to expand its US operations.

The supplier says that the new unloader offers continuous dust-free cement handling with a peak capacity of 1650t/hr, discharging vessels up to 80,000dwt with zero spillage. Bruks Siwertell also supplied192m-long jetty conveyors with a belt width of 1.6m. Wahlström said “The Siwertell unloader was an ideal choice for this terminal. It was light enough to minimise costs, yet deliver the through-ship capacity required.”

Sweden: Cementa says that the decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court to reject its renewal application to continue mining limestone at its quarries in Gotland will create a ‘crisis’ for consumers in the autumn of 2021. The quarries supply its integrated Slite cement plant. The producer said that the ‘majority’ of Swedish cement production could cease in November 2021 following the expiry of the current licence in October 2021.

“We are seriously concerned but also surprised by the court's ruling today,” said Magnus Ohlsson, the chief executive officer of Cementa. “Limestone has been mined in Slite for over 100 years, which has built up a huge knowledge bank about how the business affects the surrounding environment. Our application is solid and clearly shows that it is possible to conduct a continued sustainable limestone mining in the area. We must go through the decision carefully and then set up the strategy for how we will handle the situation,” He added, “For Sweden, our customers and for us and our employees, it is important that political decision-makers and authorities quickly draw up new guidelines for how the supply of critical building materials such as cement and concrete should work.”

The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidebergCement originally received clearance in 2020 to renew its mining operations at the site until 2041. However, this was subsequently challenged. The current decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court was reached as they said they had insufficient evidence to assess the environmental impact of the application.

Caribbean: Sweden-based Bruks Siwertell has won a new contract to deliver a Siwertell enclosed screw-type ship loader for cement and clinker. It will serve a new cement plant being built by an unnamed end user in the Caribbean. The type-1B ship loader will deliver cement and clinker handling at a continuous rated capacity of 600t/hr, with a peak loading rate of 750t/hr, for vessels up to 20,000dwt. It will be delivered in 2021 and is scheduled to be operational later in the year.

“This is our first Siwertell loader installation in this particular region and it will have to work in one of the most earthquake-prone zones of the world,” said Axel Dahl, Sales Manager, Bruks Siwertell. “The cement industry in the area is currently undergoing some of its most advanced improvements in decades, and as part of this, environmental protection is very much under the magnifying glass.

Sweden: Germany-based Fuchs has signed an agreement to buy the lubricants business of Gleitmo Technik in July 2021. It will be integrated into its Fuchs Lubricants Sweden subsidiary. The acquisition includes the company’s customer base, product portfolio, staff and a lease agreement of the Gleitmo office and warehouse in Kungsbacka. The purchase is intended to make strengthen Fuchs Lubricants Sweden business position in Sweden and the Nordic Region.

Sweden: Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Cementa plans to upgrade its Slite unit in Gotland to become the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant. This will be achieved through modification of the plant’s fuel system to ‘significantly raise’ biobased fuel substitution, as well as 100% carbon capture and storage (CCS) via a 1.8Mt/yr CCS installation. Full-scale capturing of the plant’s CO₂ emissions is scheduled by 2030.

Chair Dominik von Achten said, “HeidelbergCement will be the leader in the global cement industry on its transformation path towards climate neutrality. The key for decarbonising our industry is to find, apply and scale technical solutions for carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCU/S). After having gained valuable experience with CCU/S technologies in Norway and other countries, we are now excited to make the next step with a completely carbon-neutral cement plant in Sweden.”