Displaying items by tag: concrete plant

Italy: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Italcementi’s Chiaravagna concrete plant in Genoa, Liguria has received international sustainability certification from the Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC). The certificate, rating silver, acknowledges responsibly-sourced concrete across five categories: pre-requisites, management, environmental sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. It aims to validate the entire process chain, from transportation to the recycling of raw materials.

The plant uses CEM-III ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) cement from Italcementi’s Novi Ligure grinding plant in Alessandria, made from clinker from the company’s Calusco d’Adda plant in Bergamo. The cement has specific CO₂ emissions of 500kg/t. It is supplying concrete for the reconstruction of the Morandi Bridge that collapsed in 2018.

Italcementi said, “This result adds to those already achieved by Italcementi and Calcestruzzi in terms of sustainability, such as the new range of Eco.build green concretes capable of meeting the requirements of green procurement, and the availability of the environmental product declaration (EPD) for different types of cement and concrete.”

Colombia: Switzerland-based construction materials producer Sika has invested an undisclosed sum in relocating production from a concrete admixture and mortar plant in Colombia to a larger facility in Barranquilla. Sika Americas regional manager Christopher Ganz said, “Our latest investment in Barranquilla will help us capture the potential of the dynamic construction market in the Caribbean region. Our aim is to grow more quickly than the construction market in this region.” The market grew by 15% in 2019.

Sika also manufactures building products for the Colombian market at facilities in Bogotá, Medellín and Duitama.

US: Colombia’s Cementos Argos has sold 28 ready-mix concrete plants. ValorFuturo has reported that Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete (SRM) has acquired the company’s Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia assets. Cementos Argos stated that the reason for the divestments was the failure of the plants to generate operational efficiency due to their small and isolated nature.

In 2018 Cementos Argos produced 5.3Mm3 of concrete at its 236 ready-mix plants in the US region, making it the second biggest domestic producer after Cemex. It ranked fourth for cement production over the period, supplying the US market with 4.7Mt of cement from its four integrated and three grinding plants.

Indonesia: Switzerland-based Sika has begun producing concrete admixtures and mortars at its Bekasi plant on the island of Java. “This new facility in Greater Jakarta will enable us to further expand our strong position relative to the rapidly growing demand for quality building materials in Indonesia,” said Sika Regional Manager Asia/Pacific Mike Campion. He noted a Euro293m infrastructure investment by the government of Indonesia, Asia’s fifth-largest construction market, which he predicted will grow at 7% for the next 10 years.

Bosnia Herzegovina: HeidelbergCement’s Bosnian concrete subsidiary TBG BH has entered into production at its new concrete plant in the southern city of Mostar, bringing its number of plants in active production to seven. Ehlimana Šehmehmedović, TBG BH director, said: “The opening of a concrete production facility in Mostar is part of our strategy to strengthen the supply of quality products to Mostar and Herzegovina.”

The Australian cement supply spat calmed down a little this week with the announcement that Wagners Holdings has agreed to resume the supply of cement products from its Pinkenba grinding plant in Brisbane to Boral. Legal proceedings are still on-going with a trial date set at the Supreme Court of Queensland in late November 2019.

The argument blew up publicly in March 2019, when Wagners said it had suspended its cement supply to Boral for six months. Wagners has a cement supply agreement with Boral whereby it supplies cement on an annual basis for a fixed price. However, Boral informed Wagners that it had found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland. Local press speculated that this ‘long established’ supplier was Cement Australia, the joint venture between LafargeHolcim and HeidelbergCement. Wagners then had the choice to either match the lower price or suspend its supply. The disagreement took the legal route as the parties failed to reach an agreement. Wagner says that its cement supply agreement with Boral ‘remains binding on both parties’ until 2031.

Wagners later reported that it expected the suspension to cost it around US$7m in 2019. The deal with Boral constituted about 40% of its cement sales volumes. Its overall revenue grew year-on-year in its 2019 business year to the end of June 2019 but its cement sales volumes fell. Its earnings also fell. This was blamed on higher activity in lower margin areas such as contract haulage and fixed plant concrete, and delays in major infrastructure project work in South-East Queensland.

Boral, meanwhile, suffered from falling revenue and earnings from its Boral Australia subsidiary in its financial year to June 2019 due to a slowing construction market. Notably, its cement sales revenue rose by 7% due to ‘favourable’ pricing, higher volumes and cost-saving programs. It didn’t say whether the cost cutting included sourcing cement from a different supplier! All of this though was counteracted by lower contributions from its Sunstate joint venture (JV) with Adelaide Brighton and higher fuel and clinker costs.

All of this is fascinating because these kinds of disputes usually remain out of the public eye. The large size of Wagners’ cement supply deal with Boral meant that when it was threatened it likely had to tell its shareholders due to the potential financial impact. Whether Boral can wriggle out of the contract is now a matter for the courts.

The broader picture is that even though Boral Australia’s cement division seemed to be growing in its 2019 financial year it was still trying to reduce its costs in the face of a decelerating construction market. Added to this, the companies hold both a supplier and a competitor relationship. On the production side Boral operates an integrated plant at Berrima in New South Wales (NSW), a grinding plant at Maldon, NSW and another grinding plant in its Sunstate JV at Brisbane, Queensland. Wagners runs its own grinding plant at Pinkenba, Queensland. Both companies operate concrete plants. This is not unusual for a concentrated industrial sector like cement but it creates problems for the regulators. Note that, also this week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was reportedly paying attention to the links between Barro Group and Adelaide Brighton. Barro owns a 43% stake in Adelaide Brighton but the authorities are concerned about a possible overlap in the two companies’ roles as suppliers of cement, concrete and aggregates. Any slowdown in construction in Australia seems likely to heighten these kinds of issues.

US: Thomas, Bennett & Hunter (TBH) has had a site plan to build a new ready-mixed concrete (RMX) plant in Hagerstown, Maryland approved by the Washington County Planning Commission. The concrete producer is moving its operations in the town to a new site, according to the Herald-Mail newspaper. It is hoped that the new RMX plant will be commissioned by the end of 2020.

UK: Hanson has opened a new ready-mixed concrete (RMX) plant in Rochester, Kent, to supply growing demand for construction projects in the South East. The new unit replaces the subsidiary of HeidelbergCement’s former concrete plant in the town. The group says it provides increased capacity, improved productivity, lower power consumption and reduced ongoing maintenance costs.

US: Nine of Cemex USA’s ready-mixed concrete (RMX) plants in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California have earned ISO 14001:2015 certification for their environmental management systems (EMS). The company says these are the first RMX operations in the country to achieve the designation.

The nine plants located in Berkeley, Concord, Oakland, Pleasanton, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Jose, Union City and Santa Clara, California each received certification after Lloyd’s Register, an accredited third-party organisation, audited Cemex USA’s West Region management system at corporate and site level, verifying that it conforms to the standard. In addition to the plants, Cemex USA’s Livermore office also earned the certification.

“Effective environmental management systems are critical in helping our operations meet and exceed our environmental and sustainability goals. By following well-established standards of ISO 14001:2015, our operations can continue to build on their successes while serving as inspiring examples for others to follow across the US,” said Cemex USA president Ignacio Madridejos.

Earlier in 2010 Cemex’s Clinchfield cement plant in Georgia became the first Cemex operation in the US to achieve ISO 14001:2015 certification. The company is currently in the process of achieving the certification at several other of its operations in cement, ready-mix and aggregates across the country.

UK: Cemex has invested around Euro1m on relocating and upgrading its Eversley ready-mixed concrete plant. The new plant will be located at the Bramshill Quarry in Hampshire reducing the need for truck journeys to the fomer site nearby. The unit is being replaced with a Liebherr 2.25 mobile mix plant. The plant will have a storage capacity of 300t of cement, and 240t of aggregates. It will increase production from 80m³/hr to 24m³/hr. The inclusion of a central mixer will also enable special products such as traditional sand cement screed and flowing screeds like Supaflo to be produced, increasing the product range available.