Global Cement News

Canada: Progressive Planet, a company developing pozzolan-based cementitious products, has appointed Doug Brown as a Scientific Advisor with immediate effect. Brown is a materials scientist who holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Calgary. He has worked with the team that founded Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company that is developing industrial-scale technology to remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere. He has also worked in the private sector in the field of green building technologies and he is a board member of the Alberta Chapter of the Canadian Green Building Council.

US: CalPortland has awarded a supply contract to FLSmidth for a new raw mill at its integrated Mojave plant in California. The scope of supply includes engineering, equipment and installation of a new OK 48-4 Raw Mill with a Condition Monitoring System and an ECS/ProcessExpert system. The mill is scheduled to be in operation in late 2021. No value for the current order has been disclosed.

“The new OK Raw Mill from FLSmidth will increase reliability and efficiency at our Mojave plant," said Bruce E Shafer, Senior Vice President for Cement Operations at CalPortland. It follows the purchase of a FLSmidth OK Cement Mill at the same plant in 2004. FLSmidth added that as both OK mills at the plant will share the same gearbox design, the unit will be able to streamline maintenance and manage inventory costs by sharing the one spare FLSmidth MAAG WPU-200 assembly.

Turkey: HeidelbergCement and Sabancı Holding subsidiary Akçansa has used the coronavirus lockdown period to install a new burner at its Büyükçekmece cement plant in Istanbul, where production has been suspended due to the outbreak. FCT Combustion supplied the burner, which it said will improve ‘combustion, emissions control and clinker quality.’

Akçansa will undertake a burner upgrade on its second kiln during a scheduled stoppage in mid-2020.

US: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has granted permission to Lhoist North America for the installation of a new vertical kiln at its New Braunfels, Texas plant. The company says that the kiln will form the basis for a plant expansion to meet the growing lime demand of the construction and steel sectors.

Lhoist North America chief executive officer (CEO) and president Ron Thompson said, "We are proud that this investment at New Braunfels aligns with our company's commitment to environmentally sustainable growth."

UK: The Construction Products Association (CPA) has predicted a 25% year-on-year decline in total national construction output in 2020. It said that the coronavirus lockdown resulted in the loss of 60% of planned construction output in April 2020, included 85% of homebuilding.

CPA economics director Noble Francis said, “Even under this most optimistic of scenarios, the country’s construction activity would suffer its sharpest fall ever recorded. Returns to site in May 2020 will focus on partially completed developments rather than new starts as house builders are expected to be cautious given uncertainty regarding demand. This uncertainty will also keep the recovery muted in commercial offices, industrial factories and the most severely-affected sub-sector, commercial retail.” He added, “A more positive outlook is expected for infrastructure activity thanks to a greater ability to implement safe distancing for workers on larger sites but also, vitally, thanks to HS2 being given the go ahead to proceed. An increase in activity from the five-year investment programmes within regulated sectors such as water and sewerage, roads and rail also adds to this more positive story.”