Australia: US-based bauxite, alumina and aluminium producer Alcoa has said that it will not renew its US$48.5m/yr lime supply contract with Adelaide Brighton subsidiary Cockburn Cement following its expiry at the end of June 2020. Business News Western Australia has reported that the end of the 50-year contract puts between 40 and 50 jobs at risk at Cockburn Cement.

Adelaide Brighton chief executive officer (CEO) Nick Miller said, “We are disappointed with Alcoa's decision to displace a locally-manufactured product with imports from multiple sources. We will work quickly to mitigate the impact on local jobs supporting our lime business and we remain committed to supplying our Western Australia resources sector customers.”

India: JSW Group says that it will cease US$400m/yr worth of imports of Chinese equipment and materials due to Chinese military activities on the Sino-Indian border in Kashmir. Managing director Parth Jindal said, “The unprovoked attack by the Chinese on Indian soil, on our brave jawaans has been a huge wakeup call and a clarion call for action.”

India: JK Super Cement has signalled its support for the work of builders with the hash tag “#YehPuccaHai,” meaning, “This is strength.” The hash tag has now gone viral, garnering 25.5m social media shares, while the accompanying video has had 1.5m internet views.

Israel: The Environmental Protection Ministry (EPM) has granted Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises a licence to substitute more refuse-derived fuels (RDF) for petcoke than was previously permitted at its 5Mt/yr integrated Ramle, Central District cement plant. The Times of Israel newspaper has reported that the licence also allows for greater metal emissions. The company said, “As is customary in the global cement industry, the Nesher plant in Ramle uses raw materials and alternative fuels, thus achieving a number of environmental goals, including reducing landfill, minimising the use of natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has reported a profit of US$178m in 2019, up by 4.8% year-on-year from US$170m in 2018. Inflation-adjusted sales rose doubled to US$919m from US$449m. Cement volumes remained level at 323,000t. The company said that it, “recorded its best financial performance in over five years. The construction of a US$2m dry mortar mixing plant was completed and installation of the equipment on site is set to be completed in the second half of 2020.”

Egypt: Suez Cement has recorded a loss of US$18.0m in the first three months of 2020, compared to a profit of US$11.0m in the first three months of 2019. Sales fell by 27% year-on-year to US$80.6m from US$110m in 2019. Domestic demand in relation to Egypt’s production overcapacity fell in March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Daily News Egypt has reported that the second quarter 2020 results will carry greater losses for Suez Cement due to coronavirus lockdown measures and seasonal factors such as Ramadan, with cement volumes down by 27% year-on-year in May 2020.

Saudi Arabia: Najran Cement has announced that it has completed the repayment of a US$12m loan from Banque Saudi Fransi. Mubasher news has reported that the loan had been due for repayment in instalments in the first half of 2020. The cement producer retains US$94.6m in outstanding loans.

Iran: A new cement company has registered with the Tehran stock exchange. Called Tamin Cement Holding, it says that it will invest in cement, other related products and construction, according to the filing.

HeidelbergCement released their sustainability report for 2019 this week. Every large cement producer publishes one but this one is worth checking out because of the company’s ambition to become CO₂ neutral. Other companies are heading the same way but few of them have such developed and public plans.

Sustainability reports are often a hodgepodge of non-financial reporting bringing together environment, health and safety, community and other topics. Multinational companies cover a wide range of jurisdictions and combining reporting in these kinds of fields can be beneficial. Typically they are members of various bodies like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) that give various levels of conformity between reports. Yet, the wider focus of sustainability reports gives companies a chance to promote what they are doing well, away from balance sheets.

One highlight of HeidelbergCement’s report is its progress towards reducing its specific CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement and its recognition by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative towards this goal. So far it has achieved a reduction of around 22% from 1990 levels to 599kg CO₂/t (net) with a target of a 30% reduction or 520kg CO₂/t by 2030. There is a lot more going on in the report but it’s led by the vision, ‘to offer CO₂-neutral concrete by 2050 at the latest.’ It plans to achieve this by increasing the proportion of alternative CO2-neutral raw materials and fuels, developing lower clinker cement types and capturing and utilising CO₂ emissions. A focus on concrete is worth noting given the pivot by building materials manufactures towards concrete in recent years.

Back in the present, HeidelbergCement is roughly in the middle of the pack of major European multinational cement producers with its specific CO₂ emissions for cement in 2019. LafargeHolcim reported 561kg CO₂/t and Cemex reported 622kg CO₂/t. This is a bit of a moving target since corporate acquisitions and divestments can change both the starting point and the apparent current progress. HeidelbergCement’s acquisition of Italcementi in 2017 or CRH’s purchase of Ash Grove did exactly that. The other thing to consider is that these companies manufacture a lot of cement. The actual gross CO₂ emissions from a multinational cement producer are immense. LafargeHolcim, one of the world’s largest multinational producers, emitted 113Mt of CO₂ in 2019 from process and fuel sources whilst making cement. To put that into context, estimates for total global CO₂ emissions range from 33 – 36Gt for 2019. The cement industry’s entire share was estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to be 4.1Gt in 2018.

Where this sustainability report starts to become really interesting is where it talks about CO₂ capture and utilisation. Its plans in this department are more mature than many of its competitors with various initiatives at different levels of development, mostly in Europe. Norcem, its Norwegian subsidiary, recently signed an agreement with Aker Solutions to order a CO₂ capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The deal is dependent on government support but it’s a serious proposal. As reported previously from the Innovation in Industrial Carbon Capture Conference 2020, HeidelbergCement is actively preparing to hook up with CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure. The driver is CO₂ pricing from initiatives like the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). With the EU preparing for the next phase of the ETS and talk of the European Green Deal gathering pace, before the coronavirus outbreak at least, CO₂ prices in Europe look set to rise. HeidelbergCement is positioning itself to benefit from being the first major cement producer to head into CO₂ capture and storage/utilisation with a variety of methods intended for different CO₂ prices and regional requirements.

HeidelbergCement doesn’t mention the coronavirus pandemic in its latest sustainability report. The report covers 2019 after all, before all of this happened. These reports do include health and safety information of employees, so this may be something to look out for next year. However, Cemex did mention the coronavirus in relation to its climate action plans this week. Essentially it wants to maintain its plans as a ‘fundamental component’ of its efforts to recover from the health crisis. This chimes with media talk around so-called ‘green-led’ government-backed relief programmes. Governments are the ones who are likely to be handing out the money, probably in the form of infrastructure projects. So it’s the perfect opportunity for them to encourage change from the companies bidding for this funding. Sustainability reports and the information behind them will be a useful tool in accessing this cash.

Czech Republic: LafargeHolcim has appointed Berthold Kren as the manager of its Central Europe region. He succeeds José Antonio Prima Fernandez.

Kren joined LafargeHolcim in 2005, managing alternative fuel projects, and later became a procurement manager in Austria in 2008. He became a sourcing director for fuels in 2010 and managed the company’s energy portfolio for gas, power, solid and liquid fuels in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2016. In 2017 he took over Geocycle's activities in India and Asia. He is a graduate of the University of Leoben in Austria, where he obtained a master's degree in engineering and environmental management.