Global Cement News

China: China National Building Material Group Corp (CNBM), China's largest building materials manufacturer, invested about USD131m in energy saving and emission reductions in 2010, according to the company's 2010 corporate social responsibility report. The construction industry has long been known for its heavy pollution and high energy use.

The Beijing-based, state-owned company gave top priority to fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR) in terms of energy saving. "The company has dedicated itself to energy conservation by investing in clean technology," said Song Zhiping, chairman of CNBM. According to Liu Baoying, vice-president of CNBM, the cement sector is a major contributor to the company's energy consumption, accounting for more than 90% of the total.

"The company's energy consumption in the cement sector was down by 23% during the period of the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), mainly because of our efforts to eliminate poor production methods and upgrade technology," said Liu. CNBM has disposed of 51 energy-inefficient cement operations with a total capacity of 6.8Mt/yr over the past five years, according to its CSR report.

The country as a whole has also attached great importance to decreasing its carbon footprint with the government targeting reductions in CO₂ emissions for every unit of gross domestic product by between 40-45% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. In addition, CNBM has made substantial efforts in developing new building materials in a bid to reduce energy consumption.

Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co Ltd (BNBM), a subsidiary of CNBM, mainly focused on manufacturing houses made of new building materials that can save electricity, water and materials during construction. They can also reduce by 60-90% the energy used when the buildings are functional, said Cui Lijun, general manager of BNBM.

Poland: On 5 July 2011 Gorazdze launched its newly completed investment, which will enable it to become the 'biggest cement producer in Europe.' The project consumed nearly Euro125m, which makes it the biggest investment in the company's history.

The project was initiated in May 2010, which Gorazdze helmsman Andrzej Balcerek considers to have been the best possible moment. "At that time, the demand for cement was slightly lower, with the whole economy slowing down. At present, it is sky-rocketing; in May 2011 growth was the highest in the last 100 years," he says.

Bernd Scheifele from HeidelbergCement, which is the owner of Gorazdze, sees the investment as a major step forward not only for the Polish firm but for its mother company too and a perfect example of Polish-German economic co-operation. He underlined the fact that over the last 17 years HeidelbergCement has invested around Euro450m in Gorazdze.

US: A Duke University study prepared for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that the cement industry reduced its energy intensity by 13% between 1997 and 2007, averaging improvements of more than 1%/yr. These energy savings equate to a reduction of almost 1.5Mt of energy-related carbon. The study showed the gap between the best-performing cement plants and others narrowed and the performance of the industry as a whole improved.

"The decade studied by Duke was one of unprecedented growth for the cement industry, yet Portland Cement Association (PCA) members demonstrated their commitment to environmental stewardship by building sound strategies for energy management and investing in their facilities with state-of-the-art technologies that significantly improved the industry's energy-efficiency and reduced emissions," said Brian McCarthy, PCA CEO and president. "The US cement industry was among the first major industries to tackle the issue of climate change and this study illustrates that it has remained at the forefront of developing policies and improving the manufacturing process."

The study was commissioned by the EPA to measure the change in the cement industry's energy efficiency curve. The energy management approach promoted by the EPA's 'Energy Star' programme, which benchmarks plant energy performance against peers over time and certifies plants that achieve the best enviornmental performance, was an important factor in enabling the industry to improve its energy performance.

The Energy Performance Indicator (EPI) scores the energy efficiency of a single cement plant and allows the plant to compare its performance to that of the entire industry. The tool is intended to help cement plant operators identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve conventional energy supplies and reduce production costs.

US: Inaction by Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling could result in a second recession, adversely impacting cement consumption, according to a recent report by the Portland Cement Association (PCA).

The report says that inaction on the debt ceiling could cause derailment of the fragile US economic recovery. A federal default would have a severe impact on business, consumer and bank confidence, leading to a rise in interest rates. In addition, forced government austerity spending measures are likely. This could depress highway and other government construction programs at the federal and state level. This possibility could cause a great deal of further pain to the cement industry, because public construction projects account for 50% of total cement consumption in the US.

"In this scenario, cement consumption would record a 5.6% retraction in 2011 followed by a 7.5% drop in 2012," said Ed Sullivan, PCA chief economist. "In fact the debt crisis may already be exerting adverse influence on near-term cement consumption due to suspension of state and local treasury bonds as well as an overall uncertainty that has been injected into the economic landscape."

The PCA estimates that the cyclical downturn caused by the Great Recession has reduced federal revenues by USD1.9tn and raised income security payments like unemployment insurance by USD600bn. Aside from revenue and tax assessments, part of the increase in debt has been recorded due to necessary countercyclical spending such as the stimulus package. Defence spending in the Middle East has also contributed to the recent large deficits. The report says that finally (and perhaps most worryingly) deficits have come from increases in entitlement spending fuelled by demographic changes. The Congressional Budget Office expects entitlement spending on social security and the Medicare and Medicaid schemes will rise from USD1.5tn in 2010 to USD2.6tn in 2020.

The debt accumulation during the past four years actually exceeds the total debt accumulated since the country's inception.

India/Bangladesh: Khaitan & Co has won Supreme Court (SC) approval for French cement company Lafarge to mine limestone in India's north-eastern region in a landmark ruling that will likely set the tone for future reforms in environmental governance. Khaitan & Co litigation partner Sanjeev Kapoor instructed senior advocates for the company, which had commenced mining activity in Meghalaya as a French-Spanish joint venture Lafarge Umiam Mining.

Lafarge successfully defended allegations of fraud and wilful concealment of the facts while contesting the case after 2010's prohibition from mining in the area. The company's project involved sending limestone across the Indo-Bangladesh border on a conveyor belt as raw material for its cement plant in Bangladesh.

"This is a landmark judgement in the context of the environment and mining, especially for projects involving use of forest land for non-forest purposes. The judgement dwells deep into many areas that were until today untouched by any judicial interpretation," said Khaitan & Co. in a statement.

The SC forest bench has upheld the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), which had granted revised environmental clearance, site clearance and stage-1 forest clearance to Lafarge. The bench, comprising chief justice S H Kapadia and justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishnan dismissed the petition of 21 tribal activists under Shella Action Committee opposing Lafarge's mining activity in the forest region. The court took into consideration the principles of economic sustainability and environmental viability while laying down significant guidelines such as appointment of a 'National Regulator' to appraise projects, enforce environmental conditions and to impose penalties on polluters.

The court held that, "The word 'development' is a relative term. One cannot assume that the tribals are not aware of principles of conservation of forest. In the present case we are satisfied that limestone mining has been going on for centuries in the area and that it is an activity that is intertwined with the culture and the unique land holding and tenure system of the Nongtrai Village. On the facts of this case, we are satisfied with due diligence exercise undertaken by MoEF in the matter of forest diversion."