Ireland: CRH says it has reduced its proposed executive salary increases following votes by a significant minority of its shareholders against a remuneration report. The board said that it would take into account the views of 39.7% of its shareholders by providing a lower salary increase to its finance director, although it had offered other benefits to the director instead. It added that the remuneration committee of the company intends to hold a consultation later in 2018.

Sweden: Cementa, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, has handed its environmental roadmap to Minister of Trade and Innovation Mikael Damberg and Deputy Prime Minister and Climate Minister Isabella Lövin. The initiative is part of the Fossil-free Sweden plan to coordinate reduced reliance of industry on fossil fuels and increased competitiveness.

Mexico: Cemex’s first quarter operating earnings have fallen due to poor weather and fewer business days. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 4% year-on-year to US$535m in the first quarter of 2018 from US$557m in the same period in 2016. Its new sales rose by 8% to US$3.38bn from US$3.14bn and its cement sales volumes rose slightly to 16.1Mt from 15.9Mt.

“Our EBITDA generation during the quarter was affected by seasonal effects, including adverse weather in our European and US operations, fewer business days and an inventory costing-variation effect. We expect the impact of the fewer business days and the inventory effect to revert in the upcoming months, while we expect most of the pent-up demand caused by adverse weather to be recovered during the rest of the year,” said chief executive officer Fernando A Gonzalez.

Ireland: CRH’s sales fell by 2% year-on-year for the first quarter of 2018. It failed to provide figures for the decline but blamed it on bad weather and poor timing of holidays. Sales fell by 2% in Europe, 3% in the Americas and by 5% in the Philippines. By region in its Europe Heavyside division CRH reported falling sales in most countries with the exception of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland.

The group reported that it finalised an agreement to merge Suwannee American Cement, acquired in November 2017, with American Cement Company, a 50:50 joint venture based in Florida. CRH now owns 80% of the enlarged business following this non-cash deal. This deal is intended to strengthen Americas Materials’ position in existing markets in Central and Northern Florida, optimise market coverage and achieve operating and vertical integration synergies. It also said that its deal to buy Ash Grove Cement is progressing through regulatory approval in the US and is expected to close in May 2018.

Nigeria: Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer has struck a deal to sell a MVR 6000 R-4 mill for raw material grinding and a MPS 3350 BK mill for processing coal for kiln firing for Dangote Cement’s new plant at Okpella in Edo State. The mill order is the first for Gebr. Pfeiffer from the Nigerian cement producer. The order was placed by the China’s Sinoma International Engineering.

The MVR mill featuring a total drive power of 4000kW will be grinding 550t/hr of cement raw material to a fineness of 10% R 90µm. The MPS 3350 BK with a drive power of 1100kW is designed for a throughput rate of 50 - 70t/hr and will grind Nigerian coal, imported coal and/or pet coke, to a fineness of 12% R 90µm. Gebr. Pfeiffer’s own staff will supervise erection and commissioning.

Morocco: China’s CBMI has signed a contract with LafargeHolcim to build a cement grinding plant near Agadir. The deal for the SSS 13 & 14 Grinding Plant EPC Contract was signed on 21 March 2018 at the LafargeHolcim Technology Centre in Lyon, France. Once operational the plant will be run by LafargeHolcim Maroc.

Denmark: FLSmidth plans to change its internal business structure to focus on two industries: cement and mining. The reorganisation will see it change its focus from four divisions to two industries and from a country setup into a regional structure. Sales and service will be decentralised in seven regions, while ownership for the full life cycle offering will be anchored in the two industries. This is intended to create a productivity-driven organisation with a strong, unified digital approach and strengthen the engineering firm’s local presence.

"With the end markets recovering, our customers accelerate to invest in productivity enhancing and digital solutions. To support our customers' growth, the two industries, Cement and Mining, will deliver integrated productivity offerings through the regions. Our decentralised organisation will give us a strong point of entry to offer our customers key products, shorter delivery times and a strong service setup," said group chief executive officer Thomas Schulz.

Its two industry grouping, Cement and Mining, will develop and drive the life-cycle offering and the product portfolio. The two industries will be supported by seven regions: North America; South America; Europe, Russia & North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa & Middle East; Asia; Subcontinental India; and Australia. The regions will drive customer relations, sales and service for both industries. A central digital organisation will drive an enhanced, unified approach to digitalisation. The realigned organisation will become effective from 1 July 2018.

Lithuania: Claudius Peters has commissioned a turnkey cement silo and discharge equipment for stevedoring company Bega at the Port of Klaipėda. Its scope of supply comprised a rail car unloading system and a storage silo with pneumatic conveying for ship loading to unload three railcars simultaneously up to a capacity of 200t/hr. The storage silo is a Claudius Peters 3300T Conventional Cone cement storage silo 27m high and 12.5m in diameter equipped with a silo bottom fluidisation system.

The pneumatic conveying system utilises a size 350 Claudius Peters X-pump and enables a total conveying distance of 205m. Originally the project was based on a conveying distance of 148m. During the project phase the customer decided to use two different quays with a conveying distance of 148m and 205m. Commissioning was competed at the end of March 2018.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of the 2018 Safety Innovation Awards. The awards recognise creative safety-enhancing projects in the cement industry. Winners were determined by a panel of judges that evaluated submissions from across the country for milling/grinding, distribution, pyroprocessing and general facility.

Cemex USA’s Miami plant Florida won the milling/grinding category with its new process to load ball mills. The site developed a new mill loading process that uses a small hopper for grinding media, and an incline transport system with buckets to convey the grinding media directly to the mill. This new system eliminates the interaction between the employee and the machine, reduces the number of people needed to load the mill from five to two, and eliminates the need for employees to stand on top of the mill. This new system also improves mill loading rates from seven drums/hr to 30 drums/hr.

Cemex USA’s Houston operations in Texas won the pyroprocessing category for it use of drones for hazardous inspections. It has implemented a system for using protected air drones to inspect enclosed and confined spaces. Visual inspections of enclosed areas (preheater towers, tanks, silos, process ducts, etc) normally require intrusive equipment, long delays for system cooling, and placement of employees on scaffolding in confined spaces. These drones utilise an outer protective cage to minimize the risk of breakage due to impact. The drone program has eliminated the risk of putting staff in confined spaces, reduced the cost of scaffolding, and reduced the overall time for inspections.

LafargeHolcim US’ Corporate Program in Chicago won the distribution category for its X-Factor barge cover. It has developed a process for barge cover removal that reduces the risk of falls from employees stepping on to the barge. The X-Factor barge cover, developed over the last three years with a contractor, uses the latest technology and a no-touch design to allow a crane operator to perform all functions associated with barge lid handling without additional human assistance. Barge workers will no longer be required to step onto the barge to remove or replace barge covers, eliminating a potential fall risk.

Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska won the general facility category for its use of magnets as duct hole patches. Ash Grove has developed a hole-patch technique using magnets. Magnetic patches are quick, simple, and effective at preventing or limiting the release of materials from holes created in ducts caused by abrasion, leading to a cleaner plant, reduced slip, trip and fall risks, and fewer related Mine Safety and Health Administration housekeeping citations.

Cemex USA’s Brooksville in Florida also won the general facility category for its filters moved to ground level project. It redesigned the blower housings to move the filter from the top of the blower housings to an easily accessible location at ground level. The redesigned blower housing eliminates the need for employees to climb up and down a ladder, reducing overexertion and fall hazard.

US: CalPortland has been awarded the 2018 Energy Star Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). It received the award for its commitment to high-level leadership in energy management throughout the company.

Key 2017 accomplishments for the award include: reaching a 16% improvement in 2017 from a baseline year of 2003 for cumulative savings of US$109m; promoting energy management across the US cement industry through the chief executive officer’s leadership of the trade association and an offer of the company’s assistance to others in the industry; earning EPA’s Energy Star plant certification for two cement plants where one was recently purchased and required extensive upgrades and energy improvements to qualify in less than two years; expanding energy management into its fleet of ready mix concrete trucks by 118 units that run on compressed natural gas; continuing to invest in operations through new plant hardware such as a high efficiency separator for a mill, efficient new equipment to improve raw feed processing, and computational fluid dynamic software to better manage process air and material flows; developing innovative methods for training employees and motivating them to manage energy in their work; and outreaching to inform employees, over 106,000 community members and schools, competitors, and others on how they can manage energy and use Energy Star to save.

The latest award is the 14th consecutive recognition, from 2005 to 2018, by US EPA Energy Star for CalPortland.