UK: Lafarge Cement, part of Aggregate Industries and LafargeHolcim, has appointed John Mulgrew as the new plant manager of its Cookstown integrated cement plant in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He succeeds Russell Larmour who is to retire after 40 years within the company. Mulgrew will report to Barry Hope, Head of Cement on the Executive Committee at Aggregate Industries.

Mulgrew joined the LafargeHolcim Group as a quality co-ordinator in 2001, holding almost 20 years of experience in the cement industry. He became production manager at the Cookstown plant in 2016. The company says that the plant achieved its best results to date in 2019 after being ranked in the top 10 of LafargeHolcim’s European cement plants when evaluated against industrial benchmarks.

Jason Bowman will succeed Mulgrew as the new production manager at the plant. He has been promoted from his current role as manufacturing manager at Cookstown.

Norway: Norcem, a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, has signed an agreement with Aker Solutions to order a CO₂ capture, liquification and intermediate storage plant at its integrated Brevik cement plant. The final decision for the project depends on funding from the Norwegian government, which is expected to approve the unit in its national budget for 2021.

The project will use Aker Solutions’ Advanced Carbon Capture (ACC) technology and its S26 amine solvent. Once complete the unit will capture 0.4Mt/yr of CO₂. This will be transported to the Northern Lights project for permanent storage offshore beneath the North Sea.

US: CalPortland has announced the launch of Advancement, a product line of cements containing sustainable materials and produced using renewable processes. These include the replacement of 15% of the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) clinker with blended limestone. The company currently offers Advancement Light for aesthetic design and Advancement High Sulphate for general use concrete applications and when high sulphate resistance is required, both of which have 10% lower embodied carbon than OPC. More products are planned to follow.

CalPortland president and chief executive officer (CEO) Allen Hamblen said, “Advancement is a line of products that can be combined with other concrete carbon reduction technologies to further enhance performance and increasingly reduce the embodied carbon of concrete.”

Philippines: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Philippines has said that digital innovations enabled it to continue serving its customer base throughout the coronavirus lockdown. The company said that utilisation of its customer service platform grew to 91% year-on-year in May 2020 from 56% in May 2019.

Through its information sharing platform E-Konekta, the company has hosted 40 events covering fields from Holcim Philippines’ corporate vision and health and safety to business networking. Holcim Philippines sales senior vice president William Sumalinog said, “Particularly in times of crisis, a customer’s interaction with a company can trigger an immediate and lingering effect on his or her sense of trust and loyalty. It is vital for us to keep our warm ties with customers so they continue to feel being part of the Holcim family.”

UK/Germany: The World Green Building Council has announced that HeidelbergCement is an official partner of its Europe Regional Network. HeidelbergCement joins 4500 other companies across Europe in supporting the regional network’s work towards networking leaders, raising awareness, proposing policy and providing assessment, certification and information.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominik von Achten said, “Together with the Europe Regional Network of the World Green Building Council, we now want to further intensify the promotion of sustainability and innovation in the construction sector. In this way, we are accelerating the development towards a carbon-neutral construction industry, and ultimately towards a carbon-neutral society in Europe.”

Germany: The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has awarded a placard to Opterra’s 2.3Mt/yr integrated Karsdorf plant, declaring that a multi-purpose facility at the plant in Saxony-Anhalt is a “martin-friendly house.” The company says that the building is the first industrial facility to receive the accreditation, after becoming the home to 60 breeding pairs of house martins. Opterra Karsdorf head of mining Axel Horn said, “For us, active environmental and biodiversity protection means protecting and respecting nature, even during limestone extraction. Animals and plants established here will find ideal living conditions.”

France: Fives’ sales across all business lines rose by 2.5% year-on-year to Euro2bn in 2019, mainly due to positive currency effects. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 28% to Euro120m from Euro94m due to “a strong increase in orders for equipment and small systems in almost all segments except cement.” However, the group reported a loss of Euro22.6m in 2019, up from 19.9m in 2018.

The equipment manufacturer noted two cement industry trends impacting upon its process technologies division. Firstly, European and American players “continue to streamline their portfolios and cut costs.” Secondly, in the rest of the world, “the market still pays little heed to environmental and energy issues,” meaning that decisions are made at prohibitively low price levels.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has dispatched 27,800t of clinker to Senegal from its new Lagos cement terminal in Apapa Port, Lagos State. M2 Presswire News has reported that the terminal will now begin dispatches of 984,000t/yr of clinker to Cameroon. Dangote Cement aims to serve the whole of West Africa with 4Mt/yr of clinker exports from the terminal. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) acting director general Chuma Oruche said, “The export of clinker by Dangote Cement will be beneficial to the Nigerian economy in terms of export earnings, job creation and wealth creation for families connected with these achievements.”

Panama: Grupo Argos subsidiary Cementos Argos has announced the “gradual reactivation” of its operations in Panama. The first stage of the post-coronavirus start of operations consists of “supply to prioritised public infrastructure works and sale to hardware stores,” begun on 9 June 2020. Presently the company is awaiting clearance from the Panamanian government to resume deliveries to “construction customers and other types of projects.”

Guatemala: Colombia-based Cementos Argos has announced that it is “exploring opportunities for importing cement into Guatemala.” Subsidiary Argos Guatemala will be responsible for the import and commercialisation of the cement, which will be produced by Cementos Argos in Panama.