Global Cement News

Pakistan: Bestway Cement has recorded a loss of US$157,000 in the 2020 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2020, compared to a US$80.3m profit in the 2019 financial year. Its net turnover declined by 31% year-on-year to US$224m form US$324m.

Group chair Sir Mohammed Pervez said, “Despite various challenges, it is a matter of great satisfaction that management’s proactive approach and preparedness meant that the company demonstrated resilience and remains in good financial health.”

Germany: HeidelbergCement has presented a new business strategy, involving an accelerated climate action plan, called Beyond 2020. Under the Strategy, the company will aim to reduce its specific carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 10% to 525kg/t of cement by 2025 from 585kg/t in 2019. Its financial targets over the period are “a significant increase in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin by 300 basis points and return on invested capital (ROIC) to clearly above 8%. The group says that it will target a leverage ratio between 1.5 and 2 times its result from current operations in 2020.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Dominik von Achten said, “We see climate change and digitalisation as the two central challenges of the future for society and for our company. As one of the world's leading building materials producers, we have the ambition and the innovative strength to actively shape this change in a pioneering role. At the same time, we see further optimisation potential in our plants and processes. Ecology and economy are not contradictory. Our new medium-term targets for 2025 illustrate this claim.”

Philippines: Germany-based Hazemag says that it has supplied two HRC 1230 roller crushers to Northern Cement’s 2.0Mt/yr Bulacan, Quezon cement plant. The supplier says that each crusher has a capacity of 800t/hr and will grind pozzolan, shale and silica in the plant’s additive crushing and handling line.

Mexico: Cemex subsidiary Cemex Ventures has signed an agreement with US-based carbon capture and storage (CCS) specialist Carbon Clean for the development of a CCS solution for under US$30/t of carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured. Cemex cement plants will host the products during pilot testing. Cemex Ventures head Gonzalo Galindo said, “The ambitious target of making carbon capture technology accessible and more efficient would be an unprecedented achievement for the cement sector, opening a door of opportunities for further developments.”

US: LafargeHolcim says that Department of Energy institution National Energy Technology Laboratory has awarded US$1.5m of federal funding to the company’s CO₂MENT Colorado project. The project aims to capture 2.0Mt/yr of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the company’s 1.9Mt/yr Portland cement plant in Florence, Colorado for sequestration underground by Occidental.

The group said, “With the successful completion of the initial scoping study in June 2020 and confirmation of Department Of Energy funding, the partnership has committed to the next project phase.”