Sweden: Cementa plans to restrict its exports to the Baltic countries and Denmark. Finwire News has reported that the subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement is enacting the measure in order to focus its cement supply on its Swedish customers.

Mexico: Cemex has partnered with Sweden-based Volvo to develop a zero-emissions cement fleet. The implementation will extend to mobile construction equipment, trucks, productivity solutions, and uptime services. A Cemex European site will host trials of the technologies.

Head of global sustainability Vicente Saiso said “Working together with a leading global company in electromobility construction equipment and trucks such as Volvo will strengthen our efforts to address climate change and reduce our carbon footprint to reach net zero by 2050. We are excited to collaborate and develop a roadmap to introduce electric trucks and equipment throughout our operations.”

Germany: The German Cement Works Association (VDZ) has lobbied national and European Union governments for ‘appropriate and reliable’ framework conditions for the industry’s to realise its sustainability objectives. Its Environmental Data of the German Cement Industry 2020 report set out the sector’s agenda under three overlapping headings: climate neutrality by 2050, preservation of primary raw materials and air pollution control. The VDZ said that government support for the necessary ‘unprecedented’ reduction in CO₂ emissions will be especially vital in the area of renewable power and the creation of a functioning CO₂ infrastructure.

VDZ president Christian Knell said “The often bureaucratic and complex processes involved in approval procedures and applications for funds to finance necessary investments are a cause for concern.”

Denmark: Aalborg Portland Cement will begin construction of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at its Rørdal, North Jutland, cement plant. It will collaborate with Project Greensand CCS consortium partners to store the captured CO2 in drained oilfields below the North Sea. The company estimates that the Danish part of the North Sea has 16Gt of CO2 storage capacity, out of 300Gt under all EU waters. The endeavour aims to help Denmark to realise its targeted 70% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030.

Research and development director Jesper Sand-Damtoft said “The establishment of capture facilities, transformation from carbon to gas and transport to the North Sea all require great investments from a business such as ours, and the realisation of the climate potential thus depends greatly on financial support.”

UK: Cemex UK has relaunched its used pallet collection service. The scheme aims to reduce timber waste in its supply chain, according to the company. It forms part of its Future in Action – Committed to Net Zero CO2 climate action strategy. Its partner ELM will collect stockists’ pallets free of charge for refurbishment and return to Cemex UK. It will reuse all repaired pallets and recycle those damaged beyond repair.

Packed cement sales manager Graeme Barton said “We want to make life easier for our merchants to work with us to reduce waste. We’d like to make pallet recovery part of the standard delivery process, as many pallets still end up in landfill. It is increasingly costly to dispose of pallet waste and there is far greater value to be gained by recycling and reuse. Rising timber costs, combined with pallet shortages, means there is a heightened need to conserve and maintain pallets throughout the supply chain. Recovery is considerably more cost effective than buying new replacements.” He added “Pallets are a standard format in transporting building products and contribute a significant financial and environmental cost which needs to be captured by the user. We saw a similar situation with supermarkets and plastic bags, but we’d rather not wait for legislation to enforce this; we’d really like to make a difference now with preventative action. The pallet recovery service is regenerative by design and aims to support the key principals of the circular economy to benefit business, society and the environment. If we all pull together it will have a significant impact across the whole supply chain.”

Pakistan: DG Khan has connected its upgraded Hub cement plant and power infrastructure to the national grid. The Pakistan Observer newspaper has reported that the facilities generate 40MW of power via a 10MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant and 30MW coal-fired power plant. China National Building Material (CNBM) subsidiary Sinoma Energy Conservation provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for both power plants.

Canada: Three people, of whom two are in a serious condition, are in hospital in Toronto following an explosion at Lehigh Cement’s Picton cement plant in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The Kingston Whig Standard newspaper has reported that the individuals are believed to be external contractors who were carrying out repairs at the plant. The explosion occurred in a kiln on the morning of 7 September 2021.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour and fire services continue to investigate the incident.

Cementa’s prospects for continued mining limestone in Sweden beyond the end of October 2021 have been looking dubious recently. The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement wants to carry on mining limestone at its quarries near its integrated Slite plant in Gotland after 31 October 2021 when its current permits expire. However, the Supreme Land and Environmental Court rejected its renewal application in July 2021 on the grounds that the impact of the quarries on groundwater had not been sufficiently investigated. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it had no basis for appeal at the end of August 2021. This leaves the cement producer hanging on for proposed government plans to make legislative changes to keep limestone mining ongoing for another eight months until mid-2022 and then for whatever scheme the legislators cook up next.

In July 2021 construction multinational Skanska publicly said that it was taking the situation ‘seriously’ because its concrete suppliers had warned it of the impending risk that they would potentially be unable to meet demand in the third quarter of 2022. At the same time the Swedish Construction Federation and related bodies noted that up to 175,000 jobs in construction could be adversely affected with a loss of investment of nearly Euro2bn/month due to the predicted cement shortage. In their view, increasing imports in the short term was unrealistic due to capacity constraints at ports and import terminals. Understandably, the Swedish government has been scrambling to keep the quarries open to protect cement supply and has been accused by both the local press and environmental bodies of circumventing legal norms in the process.

This is not a good situation to be in for either Cementa or anyone who might want to use cement locally in the near future. The cement producer operates both of Sweden’s integrated plants, at Slite and Skövde respectively, with Slite holding around 80% of the company’s production capacity. On its own, the Slite plant alone supplies 75% of the country’s cement, with about another 10 – 15% provided by importer Schwenk Zement. As a whole Cembureau data shows that the country’s market was just under 3Mt/yr in 2020 and stable despite the coronavirus pandemic. A small decline in the residential segment was reported, coupled with a ‘flat’ infrastructure segment, although increased demand from wind farm construction was noted. Cementa stopped production at a third local integrated plant, Degerhamn, in mid-2019 due to low profitability at the site and tightening environmental regulations.

Cementa and HeidelbergCement are putting up a fight by publishing lots of information on Cementa’s website about the permit application process and working towards both solutions in the short and longer term. In early September 2021 Nordkalk signed a deal with Cementa to supply it with limestone. However, as Thomas Lind, the head of cement for HeidelbergCement Northern Europe, pointed out in August 2021, the agreement won’t cover the entire shortfall, nor would it be ideal from logistical or environmental angles. On the opposing side, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has joined with the Supreme Land and Environmental Court in opposing the quarry permit renewal along with other environmental groups. Plus the government decision to force through a permit reprieve has also given ammunition to its political rivals.

The argument over Slite’s quarry sums up some of the challenges facing society over continued cement production in a world with ever-tougher environmental legislation. Cement plants are likely to face mounting opposition on environmental grounds but most governments will panic when facing the potential consequences of societies running out of essential building materials. There are many ways to avoid this scenario, such as far greater community and political involvement on the part of cement companies, recognition by governments of the importance of building materials, supporting the development and uptake of concrete made with less Ordinary Portland Cement or switching to higher ratios of other building materials and so on. Yet, without preparation, legislators elsewhere will also find themselves in similar positions to the one the Swedish government is in now.

Slite’s problems have arisen in part over a perceived direct threat to local drinking water, although Cementa says that this is absolutely not the case. Typically, cement plants in similar battles find themselves in opposition to local communities due to the immediate impacts of quarrying or production on water, or due to noise or dust. Yet the hidden consequence of clinker production is significant process CO₂ emissions with resulting global climate change. The particular tragedy in Gotland is that HeidelbergCement is one of the more sustainable-minded cement companies, with investment to match. In June 2021 it announced ambitions to upgrade the Slite plant to become the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant through bio-based fuel substitution and a carbon capture and storage unit by 2030. This may be eight years away but it is one of very few full scale cement plant carbon capture upgrades that have been promised worldwide.

India: Grasim Industries has appointed Hari Krishna Agarwal as its managing director. He will take up the post for a period of two years from 1 December 2021. The appointment is subject to shareholder approval. It follows the early retirement of Dilip Gaur from the subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group.

Agarwal, aged 62 years, has worked for Aditya Birla Group for nearly 40 years. During this period, he has held different roles in cement, chemicals and pulp and fibre businesses before taking on his current role as Business Head for Pulp & Fibre. He is a chartered accountant and an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Sasin School of Management at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

US: Mississippi Lime has appointed Paul Hogan as its president and chief executive officer (CEO). After a transition period he will take up the posts in early 2022 when the current holder, Bill Ayers, retires.

Hogan previously worked as the CEO of the Americas of Italmach Chemicals. In this position, he led their specialty chemical business in the Americas while also serving as the Global Vice President responsible for their oil and gas division. Previously, he held key positions of increasing responsibility with Solvay, Emerald Kalama Chemicals, Dupont Dow Elastomers, Elementis and Dynea. Hogan attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry with Business Studies from the University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Durham Business School in England.