Displaying items by tag: Terminal

US: Hollingshead Cement, a division of SRM Concrete, has opened a cement terminal in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on the same site as an SRM Concrete ready-mix plant and block production facility. The terminal will receive cement by rail and can store over 50,000t.

SRM Concrete CEO Jeff Hollingshead said “We are excited to begin distributing cement from our new facility in Chattanooga. With this investment, we are better positioned to ensure a consistent and reliable supply of cement across our entire network of ready-mix and block locations, while also serving our cement customers with greater efficiency.”

The facility is the eleventh in Hollingshead Cement’s US terminal network, which supplies bulk cement for multiple construction applications.

Ecocem announced this week that it has achieved certification in the US for its ACT low-carbon cement technology. This follows CRH’s agreement to buy US-based Eco Material Technologies, a supplier of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), which was revealed in late July 2025. These moves and others mark a flurry of activity by various companies in the US SCM sector in recent months.

Donal O’Riain, the founder and managing director of Ireland-based Ecocem, underlined the importance of certification in North America when he said that “The US is one of the largest cement markets in the world, and this certification will support integration into existing supply chains and offers a pathway for the sector to rapidly decarbonise.” The country imported just under a fifth, 19Mt, of its Portland and blended cement in 2024 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Ecocem started out as a manufacturer of cements made using ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), a SCM, in the early 2000s. Its ACT technology was formally announced in 2022. It is described as a process that can make cements using “available fillers like limestone and local SCMs.” It is currently scheduled for a commercial launch in 2026, starting in France. In the US it is planning to build a terminal and mill at the Port of Los Angeles in California. This follows a previous attempt to build a slag grinding plant, also in California, in the 2010s.

CRH, another cement company with strong links to Ireland incidentally, said on 29 July 2025 that it had agreed to acquire Eco Material for US$2.1bn. The latter operates a network of fly ash, pozzolan, synthetic gypsum and green cement operations. It partners with electricity generators to process about 7Mt/yr of fly ash and 3Mt/yr of synthetic gypsum and other materials. As CRH’s CEO Jim Mintern put it, “this transaction secures the long-term supply of critical materials for future growth and puts CRH at the forefront of the transition to next generation cement and concrete.” The deal is expected to close by the end of 2025. In separate comments to analysts Mintern added that he expects the market for SCMs to double in the US by 2050.

Other players have also been busy in recent months. Amrize, for example, noted in its financial results for the second quarter of 2025 that it had broken ground on a new fly ash beneficiation facility in Virginia in the reporting period. Last week, Graymont and Fortera signed an agreement to produce Fortera’s ReAct low-carbon cement product by using Graymont’s existing lime production operations. Fortera runs a plant in Redding, California that takes captured CO₂ from the adjacent CalPortland cement plant and uses it to manufacture its own proprietary SCM. Back in April 2025 Buzzi Unicem said that it had partnered with Queens Carbon to produce a novel cement and SCM. The start-up was intending to build a 2000t/yr demonstration plant at Buzzi Unicem’s cement plant in Stockertown, Pennsylvania.

The backdrop to all of this attention on SCMs in the US are the cost of cement and sustainability. Using more SCMs reduces clinker usage in cement and it can reduce the cost. At the same time reducing the amount of clinker used decreases the amount of CO₂ emissions. So, for example, Ecocem says that its ACT technology can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 70% compared to conventional cement.

A report by Mckinsey on SCMs in the autumn of 2024 reckoned that growth in the cement market in North America was expected to be ‘robust’ in the next 15 years to 2050. However, the sector faces material, particularly clinker, and labour shortages. Enter SCMs! It went on to assert that much of the available stocks of GGBS and fly ash in the country are effectively used. Yet, traditional industrial SCMs such as GGBS, fly ash and limestone are anticipated to be available for longer than in Europe as industries such as steel manufacture and electricity generation will take longer to decarbonise. Hence companies such as Ecocem are preparing to import them, ones like CRH are cornering existing stocks and others such as Fortera and Queens Carbon are working on creating their own ‘virgin’ sources. At the same time the American Cement Association has been promoting the use of Portland Limestone Cement in the country.

All this helps to explain the interest in SCMs in the US right now. It’s a busy moment.

Philippines: Taiheiyo Cement Philippines (TCPI) has said it is on track to open its US$64.9m cement terminal in Calaca, Batangas by early 2026. The facility will produce 0.7Mt/yr of blended cement, increasing the company’s total capacity to 4Mt/yr.

The new terminal forms part of the company’s multi-phase investment programme. TCPI plans to expand its production capacity to 5Mt/yr by 2030, while securing a 10% market share. The Department of Trade and Industry confirmed in a statement that manufacturing will begin in the second quarter of 2026.

Titan Group announced this week that it will build a processing and beneficiating unit for fly ash at Warrington in the UK. The move marks both a trend in fly ash projects in the UK recently and Titan’s own focus in the country.

Titan has struck a deal to use ponded fly ash at the former Fiddler’s Ferry power station in the North-West of England. It aims to process 300,000t/yr of wet fly ash from 2027 onwards with the option to double this capacity if desired. The processed fly ash will meet the BS EN 450 standard for subsequent use in cement or concrete. Crucially, Titan intends to use the technology of its subsidiary, ST Equipment & Technology (STET). This company has a proprietary dry electrostatic process that it uses for fly ash beneficiation. Titan acquired STET in 2002. It says its process is being used at 12 power stations in the US, Canada, the UK, Poland, and South Korea. The project at Fiddler’s Ferry will be the 20th fly ash project developed with STET technology.

Titan has not commented on the specifics of its arrangement with site-owner PEEL Group other than to describe it as a ‘long-term agreement.’ It currently operates a terminal in Hull, on the other side of the country, 160km from Warrington. As for Fiddler’s Ferry, the coal-fired power plant closed in 2020. Prior to this though RockTron Group built a 800,000t/yr unit at Fiddler’s Ferry to process both ‘fresh’ and stockpiled fly ash in the late 2000s. Unfortunately the company entered administration in 2013. Later, Power Minerals was reportedly selling fly ash from the plant at the time that its closure was announced in 2019. A report commissioned by consultants Arcadis for the local council reported that ash including pulverised fuel ash (PFA) was present in the lagoons at the site.

Other companies have also been looking at the fly ash market in the UK. Invicta, a joint venture between Türkiye-based Medcem and Brett Group opened a terminal at Sheerness in Kent in 2024 to import PFA and cement. In April 2025 a ship unloader supplied by Van Aalst was delivered to the port. Then in May 2025 it was announced that Mecem is planning to build a terminal in Liverpool to import cement and supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), such as fly ash and granulated blast furnace slag. The terminal will have a combined storage capacity of 45,000t in four silos in its initial phase and is scheduled for completion in mid-2026. Meanwhile, the Drax power station said in March 2025 that it had signed a 20-year joint venture agreement with Power Minerals to process legacy PFA. A unit at the now biomass power plant in Yorkshire is scheduled to start by the end of 2026 with an initial production capacity of 400,000t/yr.

The background to this interest in fly ash in the UK appears to be a local cement sector struggling with high energy costs and low capacity-utilisation rates. Reports in local media in late June 2025 cited preliminary estimates that cement output may have reached an ‘all-time low’ in 2024. High electricity prices were blamed for the situation by the Mineral Products Association (MPA) and it warned of mounting imports from the EU and North Africa. All of this was timed to coincide with a release of a new Industrial Strategy by the UK government. For more on the UK cement sector in general see Global Cement Weekly in May 2025 and Edwin Trout’s feature in the June 2025 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Readers will be aware of the growing attractiveness of SCMs for cement and concrete production for both cutting costs and meeting sustainability goals. A report by McKinsey on SCMs for the cement sector in late 2024 forecast that SCMs and fillers in Europe could represent an emerging value pool that could reach €8 – 10bn in 2035 as the price of cement steadily rises. The SCMs being used are likely to change as sources of industrial SCMs such as slag and ash dwindle and others such as clays, pozzolans or limestone become more available. The UK may have closed its last coal-powered power plant in 2024 but ash from ponds can still be reclaimed or ash can be imported if the economics makes sense. Recent investments by Titan, Medcem and Power Minerals suggest that the price is indeed right. The interest of two major cement exporting companies amongst the three names above also indicates changing market dynamics. Expect more of these kinds of deals and investments in the UK, Europe and elsewhere in coming years.

UK: Holcim UK has completed all civil engineering works at its new Tilbury Cement Terminal on the River Thames, marking the transition to structural and mechanical installation.

The three-year project has now progressed beyond excavation, foundations, utilities and site roads. Wright Brothers Industrial Services will lead the next phase, installing materials handling and processing systems. Collinson Construction is installing the storage hall superstructure, while Dome Technology begins work on the dome silo, which will hold up to 30,000t of cement.

Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has announced that Taiheiyo Cement’s US$67m Luzon Distribution Terminal, which will supply up to 0.7Mt/yr of cement to Luzon, will begin operations in early 2026. The plant will use a high proportion of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), including fly ash, slags and natural pozzolans.

Taiheiyo Cement has said that the terminal represents the Japan-based company’s long-term commitment to the Philippine cement market and that it is aware of recent DTI rules that aim to safeguard domestic cement producers.

UK: Medcem, a subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Eren Holding, and UK-based Peel Ports Group will begin construction of a new deep-water cement terminal at the former P&O site at Gladstone Dock, Liverpool. Construction is scheduled to start at the end of May 2025, according to Construction Management magazine.

The €41m project’s first phase will include four silos with a combined capacity of 45,000t for cement and supplementary cementitious materials. The 2.3-hectare site allows for future expansion and increased capacity in subsequent phases. Completion is expected by mid-2026.

Medcem business development and investments director Enver Celikbas said “This new terminal significantly strengthens our presence in the UK market, consolidating our position as the leading provider of low-carbon cement and cementitious materials in Europe. The logistical advantages of Liverpool allow us to enhance our ability to accommodate large vessels and product handling.”

US: Heidelberg Materials North America is upgrading its Cementon cement distribution terminal in New York. The producer will build a new packaging line with a 200t/hr Haver & Boecker rotary packing machine and a fully-automated Beumer palletising system. It will also expand its cement storage silos in order to support the growth of its bulk cement sales.

US: Eco Material Technologies has announced the opening of the Blissville Rail Terminal in Queens, New York. The new terminal will enable Eco Material to distribute approximately 50,000t/yr of fly ash from its national network to support local infrastructure projects in the New York metro area. The terminal will utilise rail transportation to deliver fly ash and cementitious materials, which the company says can replace up to 25% of carbon-intensive Portland cement in standard concrete mixes, with Eco Material's technologies reportedly allowing for up to 100% replacement in select applications.

"The opening of the Blissville Terminal is a major step in our efforts to expand access to low-carbon cement alternatives in all major metro areas, " said Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies. "By strengthening our presence in New York, we can better serve future infrastructure projects with innovative materials that reduce reliance on traditional Portland cement and imported steel slag.”

India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned a 3.35Mt/yr brownfield clinker line and one of two 2.7Mt/yr cement mills at its Maihar unit in Madhya Pradesh. The second grinding mill will be commissioned in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year. The producer also commissioned brownfield expansions at its Dhule grinding unit in Maharashtra (1.2Mt/yr) and Durgapur grinding unit in West Bengal (0.6Mt/yr), and launched its first bulk terminal in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, with a handling capacity of 1.8Mt/yr.

“Consequent to the above, the company’s total domestic grey cement manufacturing capacity stands at 183.36Mt/yr. Along with its overseas capacity of 5.4Mt/yr, the company’s global capacity stands at 188.76Mt/yr,” UltraTech Cement said.