Displaying items by tag: chemicals

Netherlands: Siam Cement Group has acquired new shares in electrochemistry start-up Avantium through its affiliate Senfi Ventures. Reuters has reported that the Thailand-based group now holds a 3% stake in Avantium, through total investments of US$4.82m.

Avantium’s technologies include the Volta system, which produces commercial chemicals using captured CO₂. Avantium previously tested the system at a Titan Cement Group cement plant in Greece.

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ThyssenKrupp Polysius. Under the MoU, the partners will implement carbon capture projects aimed at capturing 100,000t/yr (10%) of Taiwan Cement Corporation’s CO₂ emissions by 2030. This will involve the development of a new generation of pure oxygen carbon capture technology in Line 1 of Taiwan Cement Corporation’s Hualien Heping cement plant. This technology aims to increase the concentration of captured CO₂ to over 90% and reduce the energy consumption of carbon capture. The Hualien Heping plant project will conclude in 2026, with the commercialisation of the technology to follow before 2030. Taiwan Cement Corporation plans to supply its own captured CO₂ to various other industries, including industrial welding, chemicals and food processing.

Taiwan Cement Corporation chair Zhang Anping said "Cement has created the civilised society we live in today, and Taiwan Cement Corporation will continue to participate in energy transformation and support the development of future civilisation. This cooperation with Polysius, a golden brand in the cement industry, is to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, creating the future not only for the cement industry but for the whole world."

India: UltraTech Cement has concluded an agreement to acquire Kesoram Cement from Kesoram Industries for US$912m. The Times of India newspaper has reported that the price includes an equity value of US$646m and debt of US$267m. As part of the deal, Kesoram Industries shareholders will gain single shares in UltraTech Cement for every 52 shares they hold in Kesoram Industries.

Kesoram Cement operates two cement plants – the 10.8Mt/yr Vasavadatta plant in Karnataka and the 660,000t/yr Kesoram cement plant in Telangana – and a packing plant in Maharashtra.

Kesoram Industries says that the sale of Kesoram Cement will help it to focus on its chemicals, rayon and transparent paper businesses.

Thailand: Siam Cement Group (SCG) recorded sales of US$7.22bn in the first half of 2023, down by 17% year-on-year from US$8.69bn. Cement and building materials accounted for US$2.6bn (36%) of sales, behind chemicals at US$2.74bn (38%). The company's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 24% to US$915m from US$1.21bn. Meanwhile, its profit excluding extra items dropped by 49% to US$279m from US$543m. Cement and building materials contributed 78.5m (28%) of group profit, down by 38% from US$126m (23%).

During the first half of 2023, sales of alternative CEM-I and CEM-II cement rose above 50% of SCG's cement sales for the first time, compared to 41% throughout 2022. The group substituted 22% of all cement fuel with alternative fuel (AF) across its operations, and 22% of cement fuel in its Thai domestic business. SCG invested US$91.5m in capital expenditure in its cement and building materials business throughout the first half of 2023.