Displaying items by tag: Sweden

Italy: Cementir Holding recorded revenues from sales and services of Euro1.22bn in 2020, up by 1% year-on-year from Euro1.21bn in 2019. Cement and clinker volumes rose by 13% to 10.7Mt from 9.49Mt. Volumes registered the sharpest increase in Turkey, of 39%. Ready-mixed concrete (RMX) volumes grew by 7.8% to 4.4Mm³ from 4.1Mm³. The company maintained its 2019 earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) levels of Euro264m. It said that an improvement in performance in Turkey, Denmark, Egypt, China and Sweden balanced out negative effects on earnings in Belgium, US and Malaysia.

Chair and chief executive officer Francesco Caltagirone said, “In 2020, despite the serious pandemic, the group showed significant resilience with a 13% increase in cement volumes sold and revenue reaching the historical record. On a recurring basis, EBITDA increased by 2%, EBIT was up by 4% and yearly cash generation was Euro119m."

Under Plan 2021 – 2023 Industrial Plan, the company says that it envisages sales growth of 20% to Euro1.47bn and EBITDA growth of 29% to Euro340bn in 2023 compared to 2020 figures. It said that digitalisation investments begun in 2019 will contribute an expected Euro15m to EBITDA in 2023. As part of its sustainability commitments it has set a CO₂ emissions reduction target of around 30% by 2030, with emissions below 500kg/t of grey cement. However, it said that under the future European Taxonomy criteria white cement emissions are not included.

The group is planning to invest around Euro107m from 2021 to 2023 on sustainability and digitalisation. This includes a the construction of a new calcination plant in Denmark for the production of its Futurecem product and, the installation of wind turbines with an installed capacity of 8.4MW. It is also planning to increase the alternative fuels substitution rate at its integrated Gaurain plant in Belgian to 80% from 40% and invest in the use of natural gas and biogas in some of its plants.

Sweden: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Cementa has appointed Jörgen Staflund as the plant manager of its integrated Skövde cement plant with effect from the start of 2021. He succeeds Matilda Hoffstedt, who has been in the post since 2010. She has been appointed to the role of Technical Support Manager within HeidelbergCement Group.

Staflund started his career working for Volvo in Skövde before becoming the maintenance manager for Cementa at the Skövde plant. He later worked as the Senior Technical Advisor Cement Operations Northern Europe before becoming the plant manager of Cementa’s Degerhamn plant in 2018 and 2019. He was recently been working on setting up a new concrete plant in Norway.

Sweden: Sandvik says that it will launch Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions in on 1 January 2021. The new business area will consist of its current Crushing and Screening division, which is part of the Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology business area at present. It said the reason for the restructure was “to accelerate profitable growth.”

Chief executive officer (CEO) Stefan Widing says, “Sandvik is market leading within rock processing, and our Crushing and Screening division is a well-performing business with exciting growth opportunities, operating quite independently, with its own manufacturing, sourcing and aftermarket. By establishing Rock Processing Solutions as a business area we will improve transparency and strengthen our growth ambitions within the area."

Sweden: Cementa says that it has added a second biogas-powered Volvo FH460 LGB truck to its logistics fleet. Based at the 0.6Mt/yr Skövde cement plant in Västergötland, the company says that the truck will supply customers in western Sweden with cement. Finland-based Gasum will fuel the trucks with biogas, which it says emits 90% less nitrous oxides (NOx) than diesel.

Singapore: Jurong Port has ordered three Siwertell ship unloaders from Bruks Siwertell to handle cement imports. The port’s cement terminal already has three Siwertell ship unloaders that have been used for over 20 years. Two of these will be replaced as part of the upgrade project.

The three new ST 490-M screw-type rail-travelling unloaders will each discharge cement, fly ash and cement slag from vessels up to 50,000dwt at a continuous rated capacity of 800t/hr. Two of the new unloaders are scheduled for delivery in May 2022 and the third by the end of 2022. All will be fully assembled prior to delivery and transported by heavy-lift ship. Final commissioning and performance tests will be carried out in Jurong Port.

Sweden: UK-based Vortex Global subsidiary Mespo has announced the establishment of a sales office in Sweden in order to “better serve the Nordic region.” While continuing to serve Danish customers from its Denmark branch, Mespo will use the new office to “create customer relationships, arrange site visits and follow up on customer enquiries” in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Sweden: The Swedish Transport Association (ST) has arranged with Cementa for the supply of ‘climate-enhanced’ cement for the completion of an expansion of the Malmö – Lund Southern Main Line between Arlöv and Lund, including an underground section and three new stations. The company first concluded the contract with ST in 2017 and has since supplied normal Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to the major infrastructure project. It has now agreed with the client to switch to ‘climate-enhanced’ OPC produced at its 2.5Mt/yr integrated Slite cement plant, which burns over 60% alternative fuels in its kiln lines, for production of the remaining 65,000m³ of concrete required for the project. Cementa southern district manager Jenny Larsson said, “This project is in line with Cementa’s climate-enhanced vision for infrastructure.”

Sweden: Germany-based BHS-Sonthofen has announced its supply of a twin-shaft DKXS 4.0 batch mixer for Tecwill as part of the 1100-turbine Markbygden Wind Farm in Norrbotten County. The mixer produces 4m³ of fibre concrete per batch and allows for casting up to three windmill bases per day. Tecwill has supplied a mobile concrete batching plant to the project consisting of five aggregate bins, four cement silos, a fibre dosing module and turbo-heating container including a buffer tank for cold water.

Sweden: The Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) and the Swedish Association for Construction Equipment (SACE) have announced that the CECE Congress will take place on 8 October 2020 via livestream from Stockholm. CECE said, “In the world of digitalisation, acknowledging the unprecedented situation that the COVID-19 outbreak has imposed on Europe, we present to you a digital CECE Congress.” CECE said that the event would be of interest to anyone involved in the cement industry. Attendance is free of charge.

Sweden: Refractories specialist Höganäs Borgestad opened its new headquarters at Gävle, Gävleborg county on 27 April 2020. The facility will house the Energy and Kiln Engineering, Installation and Management departments.

During the coronavirus lockdown one project of note for Höganäs Borgestad has been refractory maintenance at Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Norcem’s 1.2Mt/yr Brevik cement plant in Telemark, Norway, for which it supplied 600t of refractories and 45 workers over a three week period.