Philippines: Cemex Philippines has broken ground on the new US$235m production line at its Solid Cement plant at Antipolo in Rizal. The new production line will increase the plant’s production capacity to 3.4Mt/yr from 1.9Mt/yr, according to BusinessWorld magazine. The upgrade is intended to support the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build' infrastructure program.

Belarus: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has issued an edict supporting loan deferments for the country’s three major cement producers. The total amount includes loans totalling about US$550m that were provided by China’s Eximbank in 2008 – 2009 for upgrades to the company’s plants, according to the Belapan news agency. The loans were repaid to the Chinese bank by the Belarusian government in the period from 2015 to 2019.

Under the edict, Belarusian Cement Plant should repay its debt to the government in the period from 2029 to 2038, Krasnaselskbudmateryyaly’s debt should be repaid in 2030 - 2037 and Krychawtsementnashyfer’s debt should be repaid in 2038 - 2049. The edict also sets out a repayment schedule for interest on the loans with a total of US$370m to the mid-2020s.

In addition, the energy ministry has been ordered to grant the cement companies a deferment until the end of 2019, followed by a repayment plan to 2023 for late natural gas bills.

Bhutan: Dungsam Cement has reduced its loss in 2018 by increasing its production volumes. It reported a loss of US$0.43m in 2018 from US$10.3m in 2017, according to the Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Its cement production volume more than tripled to 0.63Mt in 2018 from 0.2Mt in 2014.

The plant at Nganglam has commissioned in 2014 and it has reportedly been making a loss since then due to a loan. The cement producer has suffered from a low production capacity utilisation rate, as the plant has a production capacity of 1.3Mt/yr and it has had problems exporting cement to India. However, sales to hydroelectric projects in the country have been increasing.

Senegal: Falling export sales have reduced cement production. Exports dropped by 28% year-on-year to 0.14Mt in March 2019 from 0.2Mt in March 2018, according to the Agence de Presse Africaine. Cement production fell by 10% year-on-year to 0.59Mt in the first quarter of 2019 from 0.66Mt in the same period in 2018. Local sales remained stable in March 2019.

Philippines: Republic Cement has lunched its first Fast Laboratory On Wheels (FLOW), a mobile laboratory dedicated to providing technical support to construction and building industry players. The mini-truck, which has a pull-canopy converted into a laboratory, carries equipment and apparatus that can perform tests on concrete, aggregates and cement.

“The growing demand for quality construction solution is a primary motivation for Republic Cement’s move to establish its first mobile laboratory,” said Republic Cement president and chief executive officer (CEO) Nabil Francis. FLOW is intended to support the country’s rapid infrastructure development, under the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.

The mobile laboratory can be transformed into a demonstration area where technical training may be conducted. It can also be despatched quickly to a specific site to provide analysis within hours. FLOW will be deployed in the greater Metro Manila area and regions in Luzon such as Calabarzon and Central Luzon from June 2019.

Sweden: Cementa has started using a gas-powered truck for bulk cement deliveries. The Volvo FH460 LNG will use the Skövde cement plant as its main base and delvier cement to customers in the west of the country. Typically gas-powered vehicles in Sweden use a mixture of 50% biogas and 50% natural gas, although this may change is greater amounts of biogas become available. The truck is owned and operated by Tommy Bremans Åkeri in Skövde, a supplier to XR Logistik.

Greece: Titan Group’s turnover has benefited from the US market and growth in southeastern Europe. Its turnover grew by 12.5% year-on-year to Euro363m in the first quarter of 2019 from Euro323m in the same period in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 1.9% to Euro44.3m from Euro43.5m. It blamed its limited earnings growth on ‘challenging’ conditions in Turkey and Egypt.

Algeria: Algematco Steel, part of Rahmoune Group, has ordered a modular Ready2Grind MVR vertical roller mill from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. Erection and commissioning of the unit are scheduled for early 2020. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The cement grinding plant includes: a feed module with material dosing and transport; a MVR 2500 C-4 type vertical roller mill with a SLS 2650 BC ctype lassifier and drives; plant filter, fan and hot gas generator; electric switchgear with plant control system; silo plant; packing and palletising plants; and laboratory equipment. The plant is designed to produce different cement types at a production rate of 50 - 70t/hr.

US: Sesco Cement plans to build a new white cement terminal at Gibsonton in Florida. The unit will have a ship and railway links, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal newspaper. The project will have an investment of US$19m. Construction is expected to take 18 months at the site. Based in Texas the company has links to the Royal El Minya white cement plant in Egypt via Sesco Group.

Today is the first day of the Global FutureCem Conference taking place in Brussels, Belgium. The event is looking at how the cement industry can adapt to a low or zero carbon world. Although Global Cement is organising the event, it is clearly topical as two news stories this week demonstrate.

Firstly, the chief executive officers (CEO) from 13 US companies, including LarfargeHolcim, announced that they were lobbying the US government to enact business-led climate change legislation. The initiative, known as the CEO Climate Dialogue, included principles such as ‘significantly’ reducing US greenhouse gas emissions. This is shocking because, at face value, large-scale CO₂ emitters like LafargeHolcim have the most to lose from more rigorous environmental regulations. What do they have to gain from doing this? This is like turkeys voting for Christmas!

Interpretations of why LafargeHolcim and others might want to do this could go in a few directions. Firstly, the intention might be fully plausible. These companies could genuinely want to combat climate change. Secondly, more cynically perhaps, leading demands for legislation puts the lobbyists in the room when change is actually made. Given the integral nature of concrete in modern construction this is not necessarily a bad thing. Environmentalists may want to ban building materials that create CO₂ emissions but, until they can offer an alternative or convince people to accept reduced quality of life, then cement is the material of choice. Thirdly, leading change allows one to stay ahead of it or at least give the sector more time to react to it. The ‘turkeys’ may not want to vote for ‘Christmas,’ but perhaps ‘Christmas’ could be replaced with something else?

This latest initiative by the CEOs in the US has parallels with the creation of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) in 2018. Like the current moves in the US, cement producers led the creation of the GCCA, to promote concrete as the sustainable building material of choice.

Meanwhile, Germany’s HeidelbergCement also announced this week that its CO₂ reduction targets to 2030 have been assessed against the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) criteria. Its SBTi target is to reduce scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 15% per ton of cementitious material by 2030 from a 2016 base year. HeidelbergCement has also committed to reduce scope 2 GHG emissions by 65% per ton of cementitious materials within the same timeframe. The SBTi target follows HeidelbergCement’s previous goal of a 30% reduction in its specific net CO₂ emissions by 2030 compared with 1990. It says it has achieved a reduction of 20% so far.

HeidelbergCement is a sustainability leader in the sector with various projects on the go including the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) consortium direct separation pilot project at the Lixhe cement plant in Belgium. Following SBTi is a continuation of this trend, albeit one that anchors it with a global consensus.

Coincidence perhaps but when the two largest non-Chinese cement producers start announcing sustainability stories like then the picture is changing. The questions at this point is how far will it go.

A full review of the 3rd Global FutureCem Conference will be published after the event. To find it and more information visit: http://www.globalcement.com/conferences/global-future-cement/introduction