Global Cement News

Ireland: Irish Cement has been fined Euro225,000 after it pleaded guilty to breaches of local health and safety laws. The legal case related to incident that occurred in April 2018 at the integrated Platin cement plant in Meath. An employee of the subsidiary of CRH was seriously injured when the articulated tractor and trailer unit he was operating toppled over whilst he was tipping a load in the petroleum coke fuel storage yard. An investigation by the Health & Safety Authority concluded that not all appropriate safety measures were in place at the time of the incident.

Mark Cullen, chief inspector with the Health and Safety Authority said, “This is an unfortunate and serious incident that could have been prevented. Employers should ensure that safe access and egress is provided for plant and equipment being used in the workplace to protect employees and others from the hazard and risks arising from vehicles operating in the workplace. It is of the utmost importance that employers should, where risks have been identified, take the appropriate measures and put in place the control measures to eliminate or reduce the risks identified.

UK: Concrete admixture manufacturer Oscrete UK has become standalone company following its departure from Christeyns Group. The move is intended to spark a period of investment and allow for a renewed focus on core markets. Oscrete manufactures and supplies a range of super-plasticising admixtures,waterproofing agents and efflorescence controllers for the precast and ready-mix concrete and the ready-to-use mortar industries. It has operated within Christeyns Group since 1983.

Scott Wilson, director of Oscrete UK, said, “The pandemic brought considerable challenges in the construction sector, quickly followed by substantial growth and we’ve recognised we need a bespoke business model dedicated entirely to our industry to facilitate growth, new product development within our in-house development lab and specialist recruitment.

India: Birla Corporation has started the kiln at its new 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban cement plant at Nagpur in Maharashtra. The project had an investment of around US$370m and the plant will be run by subsidiary RCCPL. Birla Corporation said that the new plant is the group’s fourth integrated plant and the biggest single cement production line in Maharashtra by capacity. It will be powered by two 20MW captive power plants that use air-cooled condenser technology to reduce water consumption by 90%. The plant was partly built using the group’s MP Birla Cement Perfect Plus product, a Portland Pozzolana Cement, composed of 30 - 35% fly ash, itself a by-product of thermal power plants. Use of fly ash and slag will be scaled up at the site as production ramps up.

“It is no mean feat to complete such a large project under such challenging circumstances with major disruptions on account of Covid-19 which led to several logistical challenges, stoppage of work and a flight of labour from the project site on several occasions,” said Harsh V Lodha, the chair of Birla Group. “Moreover, to achieve 10m man hours of construction with zero accidents and completion of the entire project without a single major accident or fatality, I am told, is a unique achievement in the cement industry.”

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) reports that cement consumption rose by 3.6% year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2021. Ed Sullivan, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the PCA, made the announcement at the World of Concrete trade fair in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also forecast that cement consumption would be driven by non-residential and public works in 2023 and 2024 as mortgage rates increased. The country is also set to spend US$1tn on new and rehabilitated infrastructure projects and this would consume 46Mt of cement over a five-year program. Over a quarter of this amount would be used on roads, bridges and resiliency structures.

The PCA’s president and chief executive officer Mike Ireland and Senior Vice President of Sustainability Rick Bohan also spoke at the event to further promote the association’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality.

Saudi Arabia: Cement output rose slightly to 53.7Mt in 2021 from 534Mt in 2021. Clinker output increased by 12% year-on-year to 55.1Mt from 49.2Mt. Cement exports fell by 32% to 1.44Mt from 2.13Mt but clinker exports grew by 50% to 6.73Mt from 4.50Mt. Saudi Cement remained the country’s largest clinker export but exports from Yanbu Cement and Arabian Cement grew sharply.