Germany: Austria-based Rohrdorfer has started up an amine-based carbon capture system at its Rohrdorf cement plant in Bavaria. The producer plans to ultimately expand the system up to a capture capacity of 1500t/day. The inauguration follows a successful continuous trial of the technology since August 2022, excluding a regular kiln maintenance period over winter. Austria-based Andritz designed the system specifically for the Rohrdorf cement plant. It yields CO₂ that is suitable for numerous applications, including in food and beverages and in intermediate products in pharmaceuticals production. The Rohrdorf cement plant also hosts a formic acid plant which uses captured CO₂.

Rohrdorfer aims to achieve carbon-neutral cement production by 2038. Alongside production-related optimisations, the producer plans to realise its aim through a future expansion to the Rohrdorfer plant’s carbon capture system and the implementation of a further carbon capture upgrade at a second cement plant in Austria.

Thailand: Switzerland-based Maerz has commissioned a new 150t/day lime kiln at Bangkok CaO’s plant at Saraburi. The kiln is the third Parallel Flow Regenerative (PFR) unit that Maerz has supplied to the site following previous installations in 1996 and 2008. All the kilns at the plant use waste oil as a fuel.

Chile: Melón’s sales rose by 2% year-on-year to US$305m in 2022. The producer recorded a 17% drop in its cement production to 1.13Mt. Operating costs rose by 11%, with rises across raw materials, transport and utilities costs. As such, the producer reported a net loss of US$12m, compared to a net profit of US$15.3m in 2021.

Melón noted a ‘very challenging market’ with ‘active competition’ so far in 2023, including a low capacity utilisation situation in the domestic cement industry.

Russia: Eurocement has changed its name to Cemros. The rebranding exercise followed an internal staff competition to come up with a new name followed by a vote from a shortlist. The new name is intended to invoke the words ‘cement’ and ‘Russia.’ It was suggested by Evgeny Lukanovsky, Alexey Lotarev and Igor Efimov.

Eurocement was acquired by Smikom in 2021 for around US$2.2bn following an auction held by Sberbank.