Displaying items by tag: ThyssenKrupp

Germany: ThyssenKrupp has reported a first-half net loss before tax for the fiscal year 1 October 2019 – 30 September 2020 of Euro743m compared to a profit of Euro45.0m for the first half of the previous fiscal year. Net sales fell by 3.0% year-on-year to Euro19.8bn from Euro20.4bn. The period brought a medium-sized cement line order from the US and a low-CO₂ calcined clays cement plant order from Cameroon. As a result of the coronavirus crisis, ThyssenKrupp has cut 3000 jobs on a short-to medium-term basis.

ThyssenKrupp chief financial officer (CFO) Klaus Keysburg said, “Irrespective of the current difficult environment, we are convinced that the Steel Strategy 2030 is the right response to the enormous challenges facing the steel sector.”

Cement and concrete products with sustainability credentials have increased in recent years as societies start to demand decarbonisation. In spite of the recent drop in the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) price, there has been a trend in recent years in the construction industry towards offerings with better environmental credentials. Indeed, this week’s position paper from Cembureau on a carbon border mechanism concerns directly the growth of these kinds of products within Europe. Typically, the higher profile projects have been slag cement or concrete implementations such as Hanson’s use of its Regen cement substitute in a London sewer project or David Ball Group’s Cemfree concrete in a road project also in the UK. In this short review we’ll take a selective look at a few of the so-called low carbon cement and concrete products currently available.

Table 1: Some examples of methods to reduce embodied CO₂ in cement and concrete. Note - the product examples are selective. In some cases many other products are available.

Looking at cement first, the easiest way for many producers to bring a lower carbon product to market has been to promote cements made using secondary cementitious materials (SCM) such as granulated blast furnace slag or fly ash. These types of cements have a long history, typically in specialist applications and/or in relation to ease of supply. For example, cement producers in eastern India often manufacture slag cements owing to the number of local steel plants. However, cement producers have more recently started to publicise their environmental credentials as they reduce the clinker factor of the final product. Alongside this though, in Europe especially, a number of so-called low carbon cement producers have appeared on the scene such as EcoCem and Hoffman Green Technologies. These newer producers tend to offer SCM cement products or other low carbon ones built around a grinding model. It is likely that their businesses have benefitted from tightening EU environmental legislation. How far cement producers can pivot to SCM cement products is contentious given that slag and fly ash are finite byproducts of other industries that are also under pressure to decarbonise. Although it should be noted that other SCMs such as pozzolans exist.

As will be seen below a few of the methods to reduce embodied CO₂ in cement and concrete can be used in both materials. SCMs are no exception and hold a long history in concrete usage. As mentioned above David Ball Group sells Cemfree a concrete product that contains no cement. Harsco Environmental, a minerals management company, invested US$3m into Carbicrete, a technology start-up working on a cement-free concrete, in late 2019.

Limestone calcined clay cements are the next set of products that are starting to make an appearance through the work of the Swiss-government backed LC3 project, more commercial offerings like FutureCem from Cementir and H-EVA from Hoffman Green Technologies and today’s announcement about ThyssenKrupp’s plans to fit the Kribi cement plant in Cameroon with its Polysius activated clay system. They too, like SCM cements, reduce the clinker factor of the cement. The downside is that, as in the name, the clay element needs to be calcined requiring capital investment, although LC3 make a strong case in their literature about how fast these costs can be recouped in a variety of scenarios.

Calcium silicate cements offer reduced process emissions by decreasing the lime content of the clinker lowering the amount of CO₂ released and bringing down the temperature required in the kiln to make the clinker. Solidia offers its calcium silicate cement as part of a two-part system with a CO₂ cured concrete. In the US LafargeHolcim used Solidia’s product in a commercial project in mid-2019 at a New Jersey paver and block plant. Solidia’s second core technology is using CO₂ to cure concrete and reducing water usage. They are not alone here as Canada’s CarbonCure Technologies uses CO₂ in a similar way with their technology. In their case they focus more on CO₂ mineralisation. In Germany, Schwenk Zement backed the Celitement project, which developed a hydraulic calcium hydro silicate based product that does not use CO₂ curing. Celitement has since become part of Schwenk Zement.

Solidia isn’t the only company looking at two complementary technologies along the cement-concrete production chain. A number of companies are looking at recycling concrete and demolition waste. Generally this splits into coarse waste that is used as an aggregate substitute in concrete and fine waste that is used to make cement. LafargeHolcim has Evopact for the coarse waste and Susteno for the fine. HeidelbergCement has EcoCrete for the coarse and is researching the use of fines. Closing the loop for heavy building material producers definitely seems like the way to go at the moment and this view is reinforced by the involvement of the two largest multinational producers.

Of the rest of the other low carbon cement methods detailed in table 1 these cover other non-Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) such as geopolymer and calcium sulphoaluminate cements. The former are a type of alkali activated binder and generally lack common standards. The latter are similar to slag cements in that they are established specialist products with lower CO₂ emissions than OPC.

With concrete when trying to make a low carbon product the first choice is whether to choose a low-carbon cement as the binder or even not to use cement at all in the case of Regen or Cemfree. From here the next step is to simply use less cement in a concrete mixture. There are a number of ways to do this from optimising aggregate gradation, following performance specifications more closely, using strength tests like maturity methods and generally adhering to quality control protocols better to deliver more consistency. Read the Mineral Production Association (MPA) publication Specifying Sustainable Concrete for more detail on this. Using concrete admixtures can also help make concrete more sustainable by improving quality and performance at construction sites through the use of plasticisers and accelerators, by decreasing embodied carbon through the use of water reducers and by improving the whole life performance of concretes. The use of locally-sourced aggregates is also worth noting here since it can reduce associated transport CO₂ emissions.

More novel methods of reducing embodied CO₂ emissions in concrete include the use of geopolymer concrete in the case of Zeobond Group’s E-Crete or adding graphene as Concrene does. Like geopolymer cements, geopolymer concretes are relatively new and lack common standards. Products like Concrene, meanwhile, remain currently at the startup level. Finally, if all else fails, offsetting the CO₂ released by a cement or concrete product is always an option. This is what Cemex has done with its Vertua Ultra Zero product. The first 70% reduction in embodied CO₂ is gained through the use of geopolymer cement. Then the remaining 30% reduction is achieved through a carbon offsetting scheme via a carbon neutral certification verified by the Carbon Trust.

As can be seen, a variety of methods exist for cement and concrete producers to reduce the embodied CO₂ of their products and call them ‘low-carbon.’ For the moment most remain in the ‘novelty section’ but as legislators promote and specifiers look for sustainable construction they continue to become more mainstream. What has been interesting to note from this short study is that some companies are looking at multiple solutions along the production and supply chain whilst others are concentrating on single ones. The companies looking at multiple methods range from the biggest building material producers like LafargeHolcim and HeidelbergCement to smaller newer ones like Solidia and Hoffman Green Technologies. Also of note is that many of these products have existed already in various forms for a long time like SCM cements and concretes or the many ways concretes can be made more sustainable through much simpler ways such as changing aggregate sourcing or working more efficiently. In many cases once markets receive sufficient stimulus it seems likely that low carbon cement and concrete products will proliferate.

Global Cement is researching a market report on low carbon cement and concrete. If readers have any comments to make please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cameroon: Germany-based Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions has won an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract with Netherlands-based Cimpor Global Holdings for the installation of a clay calcination plant at its new integrated Kribi cement plant in the Port of Kribi in South Cameroon. The system calcines clay at just 800°C, which can then replace clinker at a ratio of one to two, lowering the finished cement’s clinker factor by up to 33%.

ThyssenKrupp says that use of the system, the first of its kind in Cameroon and second at a Cimpor Global Holdings cement plant, will help cut CO₂ emissions by 120,000t/yr, corresponding to a reduction of 40%.

Germany: ThyssenKrupp has decided to retain Martina Merz as its chief executive officer (CEO) for a three year term from 1 April 2020. She was originally delegated to the position for a year. As part of the transition she will resign from the supervisory board.

The group has also decided to appoint Klaus Keysberg as its chief financial officer (CFO) following the resignation of Johannes Dietsch. Keysberg, who holds a PhD in business administration, will remain responsible for the materials businesses in addition to his new role as CFO. Plant Technology will in future be the responsibility of Martina Merz.

With these personnel changes the executive board of ThyssenKrupp now consists of only three members. In addition to Martina Merz as CEO and Klaus Keysberg as CFO, Oliver Burkhard will continue in his role as Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Director.

UK: Global not-for-profit organisation CDP has included HeidelbergCement on its Climate Change A-List 2019 for environmental transparency and performance aimed at facilitating a zero-net carbon economy. Only a handful of industrial producers achieved inclusion on the list, including the German steel sector’s Thyssenkrupp and French gypsum wallboard producer Saint-Gobain.

Germany: Martin Stillger has been appointed as the chairman of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp Materials Services. This follows the appointment of Klaus Keysberg, who has moved to the executive board of ThyssenKrupp where he is now responsible for the businesses of Steel Europe and Materials Services.

Stillger has held various leadership and management positions at ThyssenKrupp Materials Services since 2008, most recently as chief executive officer (CEO) of ThyssenKrupp Schulte and the Western Europe and Technical Services operating units. Prior to joining ThyssenKrupp, the qualified mechanical engineer spent 17 years with Barmag, including five years as Chief Sales Officer and five as CEO. He will be succeeded as CEO of ThyssenKrupp Schulte and the Western Europe operating unit by Detlef Schotten, currently CEO of the Eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific operating unit, in January 2020.

In addition, Ilse Henne has also been appointed as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) with immediate effect to drive transformation and growth. Previously she became Chief Operating Officer (COO) in January 2019 and this role will no longer be filled. The finance and human resources directorates on the board of ThyssenKrupp Materials Services will remain unchanged. Daniel Wodera will continue as chief financial officer (CFO) and Markus Bistram as chief human resources officer (CHRO).

Germany: ThyssenKrupp has appointed Martina Merz as its chief executive officer (CEO). The current chairwoman of the supervisory board will be delegated to the group executive board for a maximum period of 12 months after which she will return to the supervisory board. Guido Kerkhoff, the current CEO, has agreed to leave the post by mutual agreement.

In addition, the supervisory board has appointed Klaus Keysberg to the executive board of ThyssenKrupp where he will be responsible for the materials businesses on the group executive board. He has held various positions at ThyssenKrupp since 1996 and has been CEO of the Business Area Materials Services since the beginning of 2019. He will continue to hold this position until a successor is appointed.

Siegfried Russwurm will succeed Martina Merz as the head of the supervisory board. The former Siemens executive board member has been a member of the supervisory board since April 2019.

Germany: Thyssenkrupp’s Materials Services division has launched a platform for digital transformation, enabling machines of different makes to communicate. The system of integrated information exchange, called Toii, has already enabled Thyssenkrupp to improve operating efficiency in-house.

China: Anhui Conch Cement has ordered four new Polab laboratory automation systems from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions. The systems will be installed at some of the world’s largest integrated cement plants at Wuhu and Tongling respectively in Anhui province. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Algeria: Société des Ciments de Sigus, part of Groupe Industriel des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA), has started marketing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) from its 2Mt/yr integrated plant at Sigus, Oum El Bouaghi. The unit started producing cement in the first quarter of 2019, according to the L'Expression newspaper. The project had an investment of around US$427m. Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions was awarded the contract to build the plant in early 2017.