Hillhead 2018 is on this week and where better to capture a feel of the UK’s quarrying and construction industries? For those that don’t know, Hillhead is a biennial show that takes place in a quarry in Derbyshire. The show bills itself as the largest quarrying, construction and recycling event in the world. A large scale UK show gives us the opportunity to look at the local cement industry and we did exactly that in the June 2018 issue of Global Cement Magazine with Edwin Trout’s feature on the UK cement sector in 2017 and 2018. Following on from that article we’ll pick up a few threads.

Graph 1: Domestic cement production in the UK, 1996 - 2016. Source: Mineral Products Association (MPA).

Cement production in the UK fell by 5Mt/yr during the financial crisis of 2007 - 2008. Since then, as Graph 1 shows, production has been growing almost uniformly. However, it may have reached a plateau in 2017, with the major producers complaining about a weakened market due to Brexit uncertainty.

Main points from a news angle are the rise of the Breedon Group with its acquisition of Ireland’s Lagan Cement in April 2018, investments at Hanson’s Padeswood cement plant and Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant and a fairly static market reported by the major producers. Alongside this, Ireland’s Ecocem opened a terminal in Sheerness in June 2017 and, more recently, has just inaugurated its slag grinding plant on the other side of the English Channel at Dunkirk.

The decision by Breedon to straddle an impending UK-European Union (EU) border seems wise with Hanson’s parent company HeidelbergCement actively blaming Brexit for market uncertainty in the UK. The rise of Ecocem, a slag cement grinder and distributor, also seems to suit the atmosphere with its smaller, more nimble operation than a clinker producer. It’s into this situation that Hanson is reusing a mill from Spain for its Padeswood project and Tarmac is buying its mill from Cemengal, a manufacturer known for making modular mills that can be moved after installation if so desired.

Banging on about Brexit, and indeed Brexit uncertainty, can’t last forever and once clarity appears then the building industry can focus on various pressing issues. One is the country’s lack of residential housing supply. One possible solution for this is a new national planning policy. The government finished a consultation period in May 2018 for the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and industry bodies like the Mineral Products Association (MPA) have been making their views known. The MPA worries that that the proposed changes will weaken the mineral planning system and threaten the replenishment of aggregate and other mineral reserves. It argues that to secure the essential minerals required to build all those new houses the government needs an, “...efficient and effective mineral planning system with up to date plans, well-resourced planning departments and good data, which are prerequisites, as is appropriate capacity and capability in the ministry to ensure the system is planned, monitored and managed.” Detractors may point out that once the NPPF gets sorted we can all get on with the job of actually, like, building things but, as ever, the MPA has its part to play in the process.

Another indicator for the resumption of ‘business as normal’ might be the number of exhibitors at a trade show like Hillhead. The oranisers say that the exhibitors have grown by 10% in 2018 from 2016. With a heatwave forecast, the group stages of the football World Cup continuing and live demonstrations ongoing there are worse places to be to ponder the state of the industry. Come and find Global Cement at our stand (PC45) in the main pavillion at Hillhead 2018 and tell us what you think.

Pakistan: Pioneer Cement has appointed Arif Hameed Dar as its chief executive officer (CEO). He replaces Syed Mazher with effect from 1 July 2018. Abdul Wahab has also been appointed as the company secretary in place of Waqar Naeem.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has appointed Ian Jones as the chief executive of its newly created Concrete Division. The new division includes Golden Bay Cement, Winstone Aggregates and Firth. The appointment is a move by the Antipodean building materials company to focus its business on core operations in building products and distribution. The group also plans to sell its Formica and Roof Tile Group businesses.

Canada: Sparta Manufacturing has appointed Rutger Zweers as Vice President of Sales Engineering. Zweers brings 20 years of industry experience and engineering expertise to Sparta. Over the course of his career he has worked on recycling system projects and brings experience in construction and demolition and single stream systems development.

Sparta Manufacturing is an integrated engineering and manufacturing company specialising in recycling system design and development. Sparta has a 35-year track record integrating best-available technologies with their portfolio of machinery. Providing turn-key system development and retrofit expertise, Sparta has an install base across North America that includes construction and demolition systems, single-stream, organics and commercial waste processing.

UK: Global Cement Magazine is exhibiting at the Hillhead 2018 quarrying exhibition from 26 – 28 June 2018 taking place in Derbyshire. Held in a limestone quarry, the organisers say that it is the largest exhibition of its kind anywhere in the world. Global Cement Magazine has exhibition stand PC45 in the main pavillion.

India: LafargeHolcim’s subsidiary ACC is in talks to buy Jaiprakash Associates’ remaining cement business. It plans to buy the production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr for US$763m by mid-2018, according to sources quoted by the Economic Times newspaper. Jaiprakash Associates is selling the last parts of its former cement assets to reduce its debts.

The proposed deal includes plants in central India with clinker production capacity of 4.4Mt/yr and a cement grinding capacity of about 3.3Mt/yr, the company's 74% stake in Bhilai Jaypee Cement, a joint venture with Steel Authority of India, and the Nigrie grinding plant.

Jaiprakash Associates previously agreed to sell three cement plants to Orient Cement in mid-2017 but this deal was cancelled after a delay of one year. Prior to this the company sold six integrated cement plants and five grinding plants to UltraTech Cement for US$2.5bn in 2017. Following the sale of its remaining cement assets, the company will primarily an engineering, procurement and construction contractor in road and hydroelectric power.

Philippines: Japan’s Taiheiyo Cement plans to expand its San Fernando plant in Cebu. The cement producer has allocated US$65m for a new unit and equipment for the site, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. Cement production will be increased to 16,350t/day from 7350t/day at present. In addition, another US$68m has been assigned to upgrade the plant’s dust collectors to filters. The plant could also import cement from Japan and South Korea. The upgrade has been organised to meet the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure development program.

Pakistan: Power Cement plans to take out a Euro30m loan from Germany’s Deutsche Investitions to finance building a 7700t/day new clinker production line. In mid-2017 the cement producer ordered a production line from Denmark’s FLSmidth for a third line at its plant at Nooriabad.

Turkey: Switzerland’s ABB says that Batısöke Çimento is one of the first companies in the world to install its ABB Ability MNS Digital product, a scalable, modular low-voltage (LV) smart switchgear solution to optimise operations at its cement plant near Aydin.

MNS Digital incorporates ‘intelligent’ devices with a data interface to enable remote operation, monitoring and condition-based maintenance. It gives the operator access to real-time data. MNS Digital can connect to the ABB Ability cloud platform, a local SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) or ECMS (electrical control and monitoring system), to extended Automation System 800xA or other types of distributed process control systems (DCSs). ABB is also supplying a medium-voltage switchgear product, UniGear Digital, to the plant.

Germany: IKN has revealed that first clinker was created on schedule at HeidelbergCement’s Burglengenfeld cement plant in April 2018 following an upgrade to one its kiln lines.

IKN was awarded a contract for engineering, supply and installation to upgrade the pyro-processing line to 4000t/day, from raw meal feeding to clinker discharge. The contract included integration engineering, supply and installation of add-on components for the raw meal grinding plant. The new production line comprises a two-string, five-stage preheater tower with inline calciner and Fire Bed Combustor for coarse refuse-derived fuel (RDF). IKN says that its most modern preheater and calciner design ensures minimum pressure drop at maximum performance and high efficiency. The kiln line has been designed for maximum use of a broad range of alternative fuels.