Displaying items by tag: US
Vietnamese cement sales to rise in 2024
02 February 2024Vietnam: Financial management company SSI Securities Corporation says that it expects Vietnam’s cement consumption to ‘bottom out’ in the first quarter of 2024, before recovering ‘gradually’ throughout the rest of the year. Việt Nam News has reported that the anticipated recovery is the outcome of intensified investments in infrastructure by the Vietnamese government, beginning in late 2023. The cement sector also anticipates growing demand from export markets, including Australia, the US, Africa and South and Central America, as it lowers its reliance on exporting to China. Challenges persist in the form of protective measures or stricter standards in other markets, including the Philippines and Europe.
Global Cement and Concrete Association and China Cement Association to collaborate for cement decarbonisation
01 February 2024World: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has signed a new agreement with the China Cement Association (CCA). The agreement constitutes an historic ‘partnership pledge’ to accelerate cement decarbonisation globally in 2024 – 2026. The partners says that their collaboration will contribute to the development and launch of the upcoming China Cement Carbon Neutrality Roadmap. Equipment supplier Sinoma International Engineering and the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA) will also help to develop the roadmap. The GCCA previously launched its own global net zero roadmap in 2021. Together, GCCA and CCA members account for 90% of global cement production in capacity terms.
GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot, said “The world needs leadership and collaboration like never before, especially on addressing the key issue of our time, climate change. This agreement between the China industry and the global industry is a signal to the world that we stand ready to deliver the essential decarbonised building materials that our planet needs. Cement and concrete enable the key infrastructure, thriving and resilient communities, clean water, safe homes and the shift to clean energy that are essential to a future sustainable world.”
CCA Executive president Kong Xiangzhong said “This important agreement marks a win-win cooperation, and shows where we can collaborate effectively to bring insights, technical know-how and greater focus to our shared decarbonisation mission. I am sure this will create a mutually-beneficial and long-term partnership that will be crucial in building a more sustainable world.”
US: US cement plants produced 91Mt of cement in 2023, according to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 2.2% from 93Mt in 2022. The figure places the US in fourth globally in cement production volumes, behind China with 2.1Bnt (in line with 2022 levels), India with 410Mt (up by 7.9% year-on-year) and Vietnam with 110Mt (down by 8.3%).
Portland Cement Association expects US economy to weaken in first half of 2024 before recovery
26 January 2024US: Portland Cement Association (PCA) chief economist and senior vice president of market intelligence Ed Sullivan forecast a recovery of the US economy in the second half of 2024 at the World of Concrete conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Sullivan told attendees that the economy will ‘gradually weaken’ in the first half of the year. The anticipated weakening is compounded by the end of Covid-19 relief programmes, delayed monetary policy effects and credit tightening. Supporting growth throughout the year are some of the US$550bn infrastructure investments under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The US government says that 40,000 new projects under the act are either in progress or completed.
Ed Sullivan said "In terms of the construction outlook, there will be a battle between interest sensitive construction sectors and less interest sensitive construction activity such as infrastructure spending and the construction of large manufacturing plants associated with the CHIPS and Science Act."
US: Eagle Materials recorded sales of US$1.78bn in the first nine months of the 2024 financial year. This corresponds to a rise of 6.2% year-on-year from the corresponding period of the 2023 financial year. The producer’s heavy materials sales rose by 18% to US$889m, and its cement sales volumes rose by 2% to 6Mt. As a result, Eagle Materials raised its net earnings by 11% to US$401m.
Carbon capture for the US cement sector, January 2024
24 January 2024It has been a busy week for carbon capture in the cement sector with Global Cement covering five stories. However, increasingly, the topic has become a regular feature in the press as the industry bends to the demands of the carbon agenda. This week’s selection is notable because three of the stories cover North America.
Holcim US announced that it is working with Ohio State University and GTI Energy to design, build and test engineering-scale membrane carbon capture technology at the Holly Hill cement plant in South Carolina. The information builds on an earlier release from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) in late December 2023 about the project. It has a total budget of US$9m, with US$7m supplied by the DOE. It plans to build a 3t/day CO2 capture unit that uses a method intended to retain 95 - 99% of CO2 from cement kiln gas with a purity exceeding 95%. The new information at this stage is that GTI Energy is involved. Specifically, it will support the development of the pilot skid for site deployment.
The other two stories from North America are worth noting because they both concern commercial equipment or technology suppliers joining up to work together. First, 10 companies - Biomason, Blue Planet Systems, Brimstone, CarbonBuilt, Chement, Fortera, Minus Materials, Queens Carbon, Sublime Systems, and Terra CO2 - announced they were launching the Decarbonized Cement and Concrete Alliance (DC2). The group’s principal aim is to lobby the US government toward using new low-carbon cement and concrete products in public infrastructure. It also intends to look at advocacy and public sector engagement including expanded tax credits, development of standards for novel cements, consistent ecolabeling and accounting, and customer demand support. DC2 was formally launched in January 2024 but it follows previous work by the companies in the area. The other related story was a memorandum of understanding that Aker Carbon Capture and MAN Energy Solutions have also signed this week to jointly pursue opportunities related to carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and CO2 compression in the North American market. These two companies have worked on the full-scale CCUS unit at Norcem’s Brevik cement plant, which is due to be commissioned later in 2024. They are likely intending to capitalise on the publicity that is likely to be generated once it officially starts up.
Back in North America the DC2 Alliance noted in its press release the DOE’s release of its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Low-Carbon Cement report in September 2023. Although it is similar to many other varied sector roadmaps, including the Portland Cement Association’s Road to Net Zero that was released in 2021, this document is well worth reading due to its details and local market context. The headline figure, for example, is that following a set of pathways to fully decarbonise the US cement industry would cost US$60 - 120bn by 2050. Doing so would involve reducing the clinker factor, improving energy efficiency, increased use of alternative fuels, using CCUS, using alternative feedstocks and adopting alternatives to traditional cement production methods.
Graph 1: US active cement kilns by capacity and age. Source: PCA survey data used in Department of Energy Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Low-Carbon Cement report.
One other interesting tidbit to consider from the report is an analysis of the age of the US cement sector’s kilns versus their production capacity as shown in Graph 1 above. The largest 10 kilns in the country account for 22% of the country’s total capacity and these were all built after 2000. Then, the next 44% of the national capacity comes from 38 kilns out of a total of 120 kilns at 98 cement plants. The report itself does not make this assertion but the implication is that retrofitting CCUS units at one third of the country’s clinker lines would capture the CO2 being emitted from two-thirds of the sector’s production capacity. This is not to say that this could actually work technically, logistically or economically. Yet seeing the scale of the challenge presented in this way is fascinating and one starts to have thoughts about how a retrofit roll-out of CCUS units might actually be approached.
Whether the cement sector adopts CCUS at scale remains to be seen but demonstration projects are definitely coming in both Europe and North America. The DOE report from September 2023 suggests that decarbonisation will cost a lot of money. No surprises there and, as ever, there is rather less detail on who will actually pay for this. One thing that might help here, that the DOE report mentions frequently, is the 45Q carbon capture tax credit scheme, which was introduced by the Trump administration in 2020. Regardless of the potential bill for consumers of cement though, the suppliers are clearly taking note of the investment potential as evidenced by all the non-cement plant CCUS news stories this week.
Matthew Sutton appointed head of Charah Solutions
24 January 2024US: Charah Solutions has appointed Matthew Sutton as its chief executive officer (CEO). He will report to the company’s executive chair Curt Morgan.
Sutton holds over 30 years of management experience from various environmental, engineering and consulting companies. He worked as the president of CH2M’s environmental and nuclear management business, the CEO of global environmental services at AECOM and executive vice president of Arcadis Environmental. He also spent time as the Senior Vice President of ehsAI, an environmental, health and safety compliance machine learning start-up and, most recently, as president and CEO of Matrix Solutions, an environmental and engineering consulting company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of New Hampshire.
TopWerk Group endorses Partanna Global's carbon-negative binder
23 January 2024Germany/US: Concrete production equipment supplier TopWerk Group has formally endorsed Partanna Global's carbon-negative binder as a replacement for cement in the production of concrete using its equipment. Partanna plans to install TopWerk equipment at its four upcoming production plants, under an exclusive three-year agreement. The endorsement is intended to help shift TopWerk's global customers from using cement to using Partanna Global’s binder.
Partanna Global CEO Rick Fox said “TopWerk's endorsement of Partanna represents a major vote of confidence in our technology from one of the most respected names in global construction. We’re humbled and proud that one of the world’s leading concrete machinery producers has given us their backing. We hope this signals to the industry that Portland cement is no longer the only solution in town, and that the days of burning rocks are fast coming to an end.”
TopWerk CEO Robert Gruss said "We believe our exclusive partner Partanna has come up with a truly impressive solution that can contribute to putting this polluting practice to an end. The company’s carbon negative binder is one of the most exciting innovations we have witnessed in our industry for decades. It is the most advanced alternative binder solution in the market and the only credibly carbon negative solution that has the potential to scale globally. Over the last two years, we have rigorously tested their formula and have validated its application as a direct replacement solution for Portland cement. In many ways, their binder actually performs better than the legacy solution.”
The endorsement follows Saudi Arabia-based property developer ROSHN's announcement of an upcoming carbon-negative concrete plant that will use Partanna Global's technology earlier in January 2024.
Aker Carbon Capture and MAN Energy Solutions partner for North American CCUS deployment
23 January 2024North America: Aker Carbon Capture and MAN Energy Solutions have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and CO2 compression opportunities in North America. The collaboration will combine Aker Carbon Capture's amine capture technology with MAN Energy Solutions’ compressor technology to provide standardised and modularised solutions, with optimised energy consumption and delivery time. Both parties are currently participating in the Brevik capture and storage project with Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe in Norway. Rystad Energy has forecast potential capture capacity across North American industries of 200Mt/yr by 2030.
Aker Carbon Capture head of North America Jonah Margulis said "This agreement will strengthen our position to remove and reduce carbon emissions from industries and energy solutions, which is supported by strong incentives from the US government."
MAN Energy Solutions head of sales and project management, carbon capture and storage, Marco Ernst said "We are delighted to work with Aker Carbon Capture, which appreciates our comprehensive expertise in compressor solutions in general and in the area of CO2 compression in particular. We feel encouraged by the high level of interest in our technical solution concepts that we are on the right path towards sustainable decarbonisation of the industries that have previously had particularly high emissions."
US: Holcim US, in partnership with The Ohio State University and GTI Energy, will install membrane carbon capture technology at its Holly Hill, South Carolina, cement plant. The project is partly funded by a US$7m the US Department of Energy. The partners aim to capture 99% of the plant’s CO₂ emissions.
GTI Energy vice president of carbon management and conversion Don Stevenson said "This project will showcase the power of collaboration and innovation in tackling the complex challenge of transitioning to cleaner energy systems. The development and implementation of cost-effective carbon capture technologies are key to meeting our decarbonisation goals."