Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim
France: Extinction Rebellion activists forced operations to stop temporarily at LafargeHolcim’s Port de Javel ready-mixed concrete plant in Paris on 30 June 2021. Members of the climate activist group trespassed on the site to denounce what they called the company’s firm's environmentally damaging pursuit of profit, according to Reuters. The building materials producer was forced to divert its trucks to another site during the chaos. Earlier in the week protestors from Extinction Rebellion and the non-government organisation Soulevements de la Terre targeted another LafargeHolcim site near Paris.
In late 2020 the council of Paris voted to withdraw permissions for a planned expansion to LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge France’s Bercy concrete plant after protesters captured footage of a slurry spill that the company called ‘exceptional.’
LafargeHolcim currently has a target to reduce its CO2 intensity in cement to 475kg net CO2/t by 2030. The group says it hopes to become ‘net zero’ in the future. It is currently working with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to define a roadmap to 2050 to, “reduce scope one CO2 emissions to a target consistent with a net zero pathway endorsed by SBTi.”
Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Ivory Coast has appointed Rachid Yousry as its chief executive officer. He succeeds Xavier Saint-Martin-Tillet, who has been in the post since November 2020, according to the Financial Afrik newspaper.
Yousry has worked for LafargeHolcim in a number of supply chain and sales roles since 2011. His last posting was as the Country Commercial & Supply Chain Director for LafargeHolcim Jordan. Prior to working for LafargeHolcim, he held roles at Teleinfo 5, Unilever, AMS Baeshen. Yousry holds a bachelors degree in information technology and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the École des Ponts Business School.
Georgia: Georgian Cement Company (GCC) has warned of cement dumping by Iran and Turkey. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim is lobbying the government for protective legislation, according to Prime News. GCC operates a 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Poti. The country consumes 2.5Mt/yr and 1.5Mt/yr of this comprises imports. HeidelbergCement and Eurocement also operate plants locally.
Germany: Two studies looking at how to prepare investments for the conversion to an oxyfuel process have been completed at Hocim’s Germany’s Lägerdorf cement plant. The projects were running with technology partners ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions and Linde. Project Oxyfuel100, part of the Westküste100 initiative, was finalised in mid-April 2021. In addition to the oxyfuel process, the technical and economic feasibility of the downstream CO2 extraction, processing and forwarding was examined. The results of the feasibility study were reported as being “extremely positive.”
India: Ambuja Cements and ACC are planning to participate in parent company LafargeHolcim’s ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ programme. The initiative, which aims to make cement manufacturing more efficient through better plant optimisation, higher plant availability and a safer working environment, is part of LafargeHolcim’s ‘Building for Growth’ strategy, which was launched globally in mid-2019.
The four-year programme implemented by LafargeHolcim aims to create a global network of over 270 integrated cement plants and grinding stations in more than 50 countries by applying automation technologies and robotics, machine learning, predictive maintenance and digital twin technologies to the entire production processes. The ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ initiative is also being implemented in other key markets in Switzerland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, US, Canada and Russia.
“As an industry leader we are looking at 'Plants of Tomorrow’ as a big opportunity and responsibility to place India on the map of global cement manufacturing. This path-breaking project will lead to transformative outcomes not just in terms of operational and financial gains but also make cement manufacturing in the country environmentally sustainable and create a safe work environment for our colleagues across all our plants,” said Neeraj Akhoury, the chief executive officer (CEO) of India Holcim and managing director and CEO of Ambuja Cements.
Switzerland: Holcim has launched its Transport Analytics Center (TAC) software platform across its logistics fleets in 50 countries. The centre optimises route mapping, increasing deliveries’ predictability and safety, according to the company. This enables transport emissions tracking, including those of its third-party suppliers. Holcim says that the platform will cover 1.4bn kilometres of journeys by over 60,000 trucks annually. The producer hopes to use the software to reduce its Scope 3 emissions related to transportation and fuels by 20% in 2030 compared to the 2020 baseline of 29Mt of CO2.
Chief information officer Jochen Werling said, “TAC is a great example of how we are becoming a data-driven organisation. With our extensive industry expertise and advanced technologies we are developing cutting-edge digital solutions that are tailored to our specific business needs. TAC is a breakthrough for us as well as for our broader industry.”
Update on Argentina
23 June 2021Two news stories merit a closer look at Argentina this week. Firstly, Loma Negra fired up the kiln on its new 2.7Mt/yr production line at the L’Amalí cement plant in Olavarría. Work on the US$350m started in 2017 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Notably, engineers from China-based Sinoma International Engineering, who built the plant, caused a stir when they arrived in Argentina in full personal protective equipment in late 2020 to continue work on the project. Full commissioning of the second line at the plant is scheduled for July or August 2021.
Almost at the same time, the Argentine government announced it had persuaded local building materials producers to stick to reference prices for construction materials, including cement, in order to control inflation. Loma Negra, Cemento Avellaneda and Petroquímica Comodoro Rivadavia (PCR) were said to be on board with the ‘voluntary’ plan. Building materials prices generally were reported to have risen 85% year-on-year in May 2021 compared to a national inflation rate of 49%. The new arrangement is planned to last until the end of 2021 with revisions to the reference prices every two months.
Graph 1: Cement sales in Argentina including imports and exports, 2016 – 2021. Note that the 2021 figure is an estimate. Source: Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP).
Data from the Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP) doesn’t show any obvious signs of disruption from inflation so far in 2021. Cement sales grew by 50.5% year-on-year to 4.55Mt in the five months to May 2021 from 3.02Mt in the same period in 2020. The cement market in Argentina didn’t shut down but it hit a low of 0.41Mt in April 2020 before compensating with a strong second half of the year, most likely due to pent-up demand as the economy reopened following local coronavirus-related lockdowns. At the time of writing the AFCP has forecast that cement sales will reach 11.3Mt in 2021, a slight rise over the 11.1Mt reported in 2019, when the market was more stable. However, cumulative sales to May 2021 are slightly behind similar sales in 2019.
Loma Negra’s upgrade at its L’Amalí plant follows Holcim Argentina’s inauguration of a new 0.5Mt/yr clinker production line at its Malagueño cement plant in Cordoba in May 2021. This project also added a 0.63Mt/yr cement grinding unit at the site as well as a new 120,000 bag/day despatch unit. Altogether it had a price of US$120m. This followed the announcement in late April 2021 that the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim was planning to open 1000 new branches of its Disensa retail chain in the country by 2024.
Loma Negra reported a 13% drop in sales to US$436m in 2020 from US$500m in 2019. However, its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 3% to US$139m from US$136m. This was partly aided by the sales of its Paraguayan operations during 2020. At face value, Cemento Avellaneda had a tougher time of its in 2020 with its sales down by 22% to Euro111m and EBITDA down by 9% to Euro37m. However, once adjusted on a like-for-like basis with constant currencies and without a hyperinflation adjustment, its sales and earnings actually rose by 22% and 45% respectively.
Holcim Argentina’s director Christian Dedeu was interviewed by national news agency Télam in May 2021 around the time of the upgrade at the Malagueño cement plant was officially completed. When asked by the company had made the investment he said that the country had potential for both the residential and infrastructure sectors. He also pointed out that the subsidiary of Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim had been forced to import clinker at times of high demand previously. The announcements for both the Loma Negra and Holcim Argentina new lines were made at the end of 2017 when the market hit a high in sales volumes. Since then the country has faced rocketing inflation, further delays to it debt repayment programme to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the coronavirus pandemic. Producing more commodities, such as clinker, domestically certainly seems enticing with high inflation and unfavourable foreign currency exchange rates. So, the new production lines from Loma Negra and Holcim Argentina are well timed in this sense unless they get hit by any mounting input costs, from imported raw materials for example. On the other hand the government’s measures to curb inflation such as reference prices for cement may constrain the cement producers’ flexibility. As the local construction industry slowly recovers after 2020, continued uncertainty lies ahead.
Malawi: Switzerland-based Holcim says that the world’s first 3D printed school has opened in Salima district’s Kalonga village after a build time of just 18 hours. The EcoPact green concrete producer says the building provides a much-needed thirteenth school in Yambe, which still needs three more. Holcim’s green construction subsidiary 14Trees estimates that its 3D printing technology can meet Malawi’s school building needs by 2031, compared to after 2090 by conventional methods. The group said that the school proves that “3D printing can play a key role in bridging our world’s education infrastructure gap” with high-quality, sustainable, affordable and fast-paced construction, at scale.
Europe, Middle East and Africa regional head Miljan Gutovic said, “I am very proud of how our colleagues at 14Trees have deployed cutting-edge 3D printing technology to solve such an essential infrastructure need. Now that we’ve proven the concept in Malawi, we look forward to scaling up this technology across the broader region, with projects already in the pipeline in Kenya and Zimbabwe.”
Ambuja Cement Foundation partners with Talwani Sabo Power Limited for Punjab self-help schemes
23 June 2021India: Ambuja Cement Foundation has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vedanta Limited subsidiary Talwani Sabo Power Limited (TSPL). India Blooms News has reported that the partners plan to promote 200 self-help groups in Mansa district, Punjab. The groups’ focus will be on the empowerment of women. Under the memorandum of understanding, the partnership will establish at least three independent enterprises to address community problems in the district.
Managing director and chief executive officer Pearl Tiwari said, “As our major focus is on women, gender and livelihoods, our new partnership with TSPL will further support us to drive impactful initiatives under the women empowerment programme and enhance our already existing programmes in Punjab.”
Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement reported its best income result ever in 2020. The subsidiary of Switerland-based LafargeHolcim saw its sales rise by around 9% year-on-year to Euro66.7m in 2020 and its pre-tax profit grew by 60% to Euro21.7m, according to the Czech News Agency. The company reported that its operational and staff costs grew due to the coronavirus pandemic but that it made sufficient savings to offset this. Electricity and carbon credit costs grew particular. The building materials producer exported around one third of its output to the German market in 2020.