Displaying items by tag: Germany
Germany and Chile to launch club to help countries reduce emissions from cement production
27 November 2023Chile/Germany: The governments of Chile and Germany are reportedly preparing to launch a so-called ‘climate club’ to help developing nations invest in technologies to decarbonise sectors such as cement and steel production. The partners will set up a platform to connect countries with funding and technical support from governments and the private sector, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters. The statement is expected to be published at the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) 28 event on 1 December 2023 set to take place in Dubai.
"On hard-to-abate sectors, starting with steel and cement, we will advance conducive policy frameworks for accelerating decarbonisation," the statement said. It added that this will include attempting to coordinate international green industry standards, such as counting the emissions in industrial products.
A website for the club lists 33 members including the US, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, the European Union (EU), Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Ukraine and the UK. It has been viewed, in part, as an attempt to reconcile countries annoyed by the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which started in October 2023. However, neither China nor India appears to have joined the ‘climate club’ so far.
Europe: Mexico-based Cemex says that it will soon have obtained Type III environmental product declaration (EPD) certificates for the cement products it produces across its European network of cement plants. EPDs have been published for selected cements since 2021. Cemex has confirmed the publication of EPDs for all cement types in Poland and the publication of EPDs for its products produced in Croatia and Spain by the end of 2023. Phase Two of the publication process will see EPDs for cements produced in the UK, Germany and Czech Republic in early 2024, which will complete the full roll out in Europe.
Sergio Menéndez, President of Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia, said, "EPD certificates enable our customers to make an informed choice about which materials offer the lowest carbon footprint and reduce the environmental impact of their construction projects. We have therefore made securing these objective and reliable documents, which demonstrate that our products meet the requirements of more sustainable construction, a priority across our whole European operation. I am very pleased with the progress made so far and look forward to celebrating the completion of this process."
Germany: ThyssenKrupp has reorganised its cement engineering subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Polysius from the start of October 2023 as part of its new Decarbon Technologies segment. The new division also includes bearings and drive company Rothe Erde, chemical plant supplier Uhde and electrochemical plant supplier ThyssenKrupp Nucera. In its annual report for 2022 – 2023 the group said it had formed the new segment because “we want to systematically access the enormous potential of the green transformation and translate it into value-creating growth.”
The group’s Multi Tracks segment, which ThyssenKrupp Polysius was part of previously, reported growth of 16% on a comparable basis to Euro3.17bn in the year to the end of September 2023 compared to Euro4.10bn in the same period ending in 2022. However its order intake fell by 16% to Euro3.74bn and it reported a negative adjusted earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) of Euro132m. Overall the group’s order intake, sales and EBIT all fell in the reporting period.
Miguel López, the chief executive officer of ThyssenKrupp said “The figures show that we have made progress with the transformation of ThyssenKrupp, despite the difficult environment, but also that we must continue to work hard at raising the performance of our businesses. We have therefore launched our ‘APEX’ program to speed up improvements to our businesses’ performance. At the same time, we are systematically focusing our businesses on future areas in order to leverage our full potential there, especially in connection with the enormous opportunities that the decarbonisation of industry offers us. We are positioning ThyssenKrupp as an enabler of the green transformation, thereby supporting the transformation of many industries worldwide.”
Loesche acquires technical knowledge from Ruhfus Systemhydraulik
24 November 2023Germany: Loesche says it has acquired the technical knowledge of hydraulic systems supplier Ruhfus Systemhydraulik following the latter company’s insolvency. The acquisition of Ruhfus’ expertise will expand Loesche's capabilities in the field of hydraulic technology and enable the company to offer spare parts and services outside of the cement sector. In addition, a collaboration with former employees of Ruhfus Systemhydraulik will help it to develop new hydraulic solutions.
Ruhfus Systemhydraulik was originally founded as Rheinisches Kleineisenwerk August Ruhfus in 1907. It originally supplied metal parts for the railway sector before moving into hydraulics in the late 1950s. The company is based in Neuss and has over 100 employees.
Menzel cuts ribbon on Hennigsdorf motor plant and headquarters
23 November 2023Germany: Menzel held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Hennigsdorf motor plant in Berlin earlier in November 2023. From the start of operations there on 2 January 2024, the site will consolidate Menzel’s production and administrative operations.
CEO Mathis Menzel said “This move will ring in a new era in the history of our family business. The new plant is tailored to our requirements in every detail: generously proportioned logistics and production areas, continuous crane accessibility with an 80t lifting capacity. That will enable us to achieve streamlined production processes and schedule and complete customer projects even more flexibly and reliably, and will properly set us up for the future as the international headquarters of our group.”
Seven companies in contention to buy Cement Industries of Malaysia
22 November 2023Malaysia: UEM Group, a subsidiary of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund, has revealed that it has shortlisted prospective buyers for Cement Industries of Malaysia (CIMA). The Edge Malaysia newspaper has reported that the list is comprised of four local entities, one entity based in China, one in Germany and one in the Philippines. None of the bidders is reportedly an existing competitor of CIMA in the Malaysian cement sector.
CIMA operates the 1.3Mt/yr Bahau cement plant in Negeri Sembilan. UEM group announced that it was seeking a buyer for the business in February 2023, at which time it was seeking a valuation of US$230m for it.
SigmaRoc buys CRH’s European lime business
22 November 2023Europe: Ireland-based CRH has agreed to sell its European lime business to UK-based SigmaRoc for US$1.1bn. The business controls 16 sites across the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Poland and the UK. CRH says that the first phase of the transaction, which is scheduled for completion in early 2024, will hand over control of the Czech Republic, Germany and Ireland businesses to SigmaRoc, while control of the Poland and UK business will pass over in two subsequent phases.
CRH chief executive officer Albert Manifold said “The decision to divest at an attractive valuation follows a comprehensive review of the Business and demonstrates CRH’s active approach to portfolio management. The proceeds from the divestment will provide us with significant additional capital allocation opportunities to deliver further growth and value creation for our shareholders.”
Building codes and low-embodied carbon building materials
15 November 2023Last week the US General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it was investing US$2bn on over 150 construction projects that use low-embodied carbon (LEC) materials. The funding is intended to support the use of US-manufactured low carbon asphalt, concrete, glass and steel as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. For readers who don’t know, the GSA manages federal government property and provides contracting options for government agencies. As part of this new message, it will spend US$767m on LEC concrete on federal government buildings projects following a pilot that started in May 2023. The full list of the projects can be found here.
This is relevant because the US-based ready-mixed concrete (RMX) market has been valued roughly at around US$60bn/yr. One estimate of how much the US federal government spent on concrete was around US$5bn in 2018. So the government buys a significant minority of RMX in the country, and if it starts specifying LEC products, this will affect the industry. And, at present at least, a key ingredient of all that concrete is cement.
This isn’t the first time that legislators in the US have specified LEC concrete. In 2019 Marin County in California introduced what it said was the world’s first building code that attempted to minimise carbon emissions from concrete production. It did this by setting maximum ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and embodied carbon levels and offering several ways suppliers can achieve this, including increasing the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), using admixtures, optimising concrete mixtures and so on. Unlike the GSA’s approach in November 2023 though, this applies to all plain and reinforced concrete installed in the area, not just a portion of procured concrete via a government agency. Other similar regional schemes in the US include limits on embodied carbon levels in RMX in Denver, Colorado, and a reduction in the cement used in RMX in Berkeley, California. Environmental services company Tangible compiled a wider list of embodied carbon building codes in North America that can be viewed here. This grouping also includes the use of building intensity policies, whole building life cycle assessments (LCA), environmental product declarations (EPD), demolition and deconstruction directives, tax incentives and building reuse plans.
Government-backed procurement codes promoting or requiring the use of LEC building materials for infrastructure projects have been around for a while in various places. The general trend has been to start with measurement via tools such as LCAs and EPDs, move on to government procurement and then start setting embodied carbon limits for buildings. In the US the GSA’s latest pronouncement follows on from the Federal Buy Clean Initiative and from when California introduced its Buy Clean California Act in 2017. Outside of the US similar programmes have been introduced in countries including Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. On the corporate side members of the World Economic Forum’s First Movers’ Coalition have committed to purchasing or specifying volumes of LEC cement and/or concrete by 2030. Examples of whole countries actually setting embodied carbon emissions limits for non-government buildings are rarer, but some are emerging. Both France and Sweden, for example, introduced laws in 2022 that start by analysing life-cycle emissions of buildings and will move on to setting embodied carbon limits in the late 2020s. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are also in the process of introducing similar schemes. The next big move could be in the EU, where legislators are considering embodied carbon limits for building materials as part of its ongoing revisions to its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive or the Construction Products Regulation legislations. Lobbying, debate and arguing remains ongoing at present.
To finish, Ireland-based Ecocem spent a period in the 2010s attempting to build a slag cement grinding plant at Vallejo, Solano County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The project met with considerable local opposition on environmental grounds and was eventually refused planning permission. The irony is that slag cement is one of those SCM-style cements that Marin County, also in the San Francisco Bay Area, started encouraging the use of just a few years later. Ecocem held its inaugural science symposium in Paris this week. A number of scientists who attended the event called for existing low carbon technologies to be adopted by the cement and concrete sectors as fast as possible. One such approach is to lower the clinker factor in cement through the use of products that Ecocem and other companies sell. A point to consider is, if Marin County’s code or the GSA’s recent procurement directive came earlier, then that slag plant in Vallejo might have been built. Encouraging the use of LEC building materials by governments looks set to proliferate but it may not be a straightforward process. Clear and consistent policies will be key.
Germany: Heidelberg Materials raised its sales by 1.8% year-on-year to Euro16.1bn in the first nine months of 2023. Regionally, sales rose by 7.5% to Euro3.69bn in North America, by 2.6% to Euro2.76bn in Asia-Pacific by 3.5% to Euro4.94bn in Western and Southern Europe, by 2.5% to Euro2.74bn in Northern and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but fell by 10% in Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin to Euro1.41bn. Cement volumes fell across all of the group’s business lines, as ‘solid developments’ in infrastructure and industrial commercial construction failed to offset locally ‘massive’ declines in residential construction. Heidelberg Materials raised its 2023 outlook based on anticipated continued moderate revenues growth to a full-year result of Euro2.85 – 3bn, from Euro2.7 – 2.9bn previously.
Chair Dominik von Achten said “We have closed the first three quarters of 2023 with a strong result, despite declining demand for our building materials. On a like-for-like basis, all group areas have contributed to this result. I would like to thank the entire Heidelberg Materials team for their outstanding performance in what continues to be a very challenging business environment.” Von Achten continued “In the third quarter, we were able to further strengthen our pioneering role in the decarbonisation of the building materials sector. Our activities have gained further momentum with the installation of the core equipment of the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) plant in Brevik, Norway, and the start of construction of a CCUS pilot plant in Bulgaria. This brings us much closer to our goal of offering our customers climate-friendly products on a large scale.”
Heidelberg Materials’ third-quarter sales drop in 2023
20 October 2023Germany: Heidelberg Materials preliminary reported a 4% year-on-year decline in its sales during the third quarter of 2023, to Euro 5.6bn. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 17% to Euro1.39bn from Euro1.28bn. The group succeeded in raising its profit in the quarter, by 24% year-on-year to Euro1.08bn.
Heidelberg Materials says that it expects to record a ‘moderate increase’ in its revenues in full-year 2023. The company raised its profit target range for the year to Euro2.85 – 3bn from Euro2.7 – 2.9bn.