Displaying items by tag: UK
Australia/UK: InterGroup Mining has secured just under Euro60m from Luxembourg-based investment group GEM Global Yield as part of a share subscription facility. The Australia-based mining company says it will use the funds primarily for the ongoing development and commercialisation of its Brilliant Brumby kaolin and gold project in Queensland. The company hopes to sell the kaolin for use in cement and concrete production or as a feedstock for high purity alumina (HPA). It says it will be able to drawdown the funds over a 36-month term following a public listing of its common stock.
Neil Miller, the chairman of InterGroup said, “The GEM facility provides a major accelerator for InterGroup as we continue to prove up the scale of our Brilliant Brumby project and the optimal development path for the co-mining opportunity of kaolin and gold. It likewise enables us to continue our important research and development work into the new carbon reduction markets of potential scale that our minerals serve and which complement their existing known end markets.” InterGroup is currently working towards a potential stock market flotation in the second half of 2021.
Cemex Ventures invests in Carbon Clean
04 August 2021Mexico/UK: Cemex Ventures has become an investor in Carbon Clean. It joins existing investors Equinor Ventures, ICOS Capital and WAVE Equity Partners. The companies have invested US$8m in Carbon Clean extending its US$22m series B investment round, previously announced in July 2020, to US$30m in total. Cemex’s investment is part of its strategy to achieve its new climate action goals, including being net carbon neutral in concrete by 2050, under its Future in Action programme.
Carbon Clean has developed a modular CO2 capture and separation technology that it calls CycloneCC. As well as reducing the size of installation and construction time, it is aiming to reduce operating expenditures to around US$30/t of CO2 at an industrial scale. In 2020, the subsidiary of Cemex signed an agreement with Carbon Clean, which allowed the companies to outline a roadmap for jointly developing and implementing carbon capture technologies across cement operations.
UK: Breedon Group recorded first-half sales of Euro701m in 2021, up by 79% year-on-year from Euro391 in the first half of 2020. The group’s profit for the period was Euro27.8m, compared to a Euro16.1m loss in the first half of 2020. Its cement sales rose by 47% to Euro140m from Euro95.0m. Cement and ready-mixed concrete sales volumes increased by 50% to 1.2Mt and 70% to 1.7Mm3 respectively.
Chief executive officer Rob Wood said “Breedon delivered a strong trading result in the first half of 2021, building on the recovery in demand which started in the second half of last year. This resilient performance reflects the commitment and efforts of all our colleagues, who have each demonstrated the highest levels of enthusiasm, professionalism and flexibility in working safely across the business despite the challenges of the past fifteen months.” He added “Our first-half performance, current trading conditions and improved visibility for the remainder of the year combine to give us greater confidence in the outlook for 2021 and we now expect underlying earnings before interest and taxation for 2021 to be at the top end of market expectations.”
Cemex UK launches sustainability professional development course for concrete specifiers
22 July 2021UK: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex UK has launched ‘Concrete – Focus on Sustainability,’ a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) accredited continuing professional development (CPD) course for specifiers. The course tackles the key issues for accomplishing building projects’ sustainability goals when using concrete. It covers various industry initiatives and technologies designed to aid these goals.
National product support and CPD coordinator Mat Saunders said “The conversation around sustainability is currently at the forefront of the minds of everyone globally, and as an organisation we have a responsibility to contribute to that discourse in a positive manner. This is why we felt that educating industry professionals on what cement and concrete technology can do to help specifiers, clients and contractors meet their sustainability targets, while still using concrete to build safe, efficient, beautiful structures that we all live and work in, was paramount. Even at this early stage the course has been wildly popular, and we anticipate a significant uptake over the rest of 2021 and beyond.”
Cemex UK to implement MP Connect driver card by 2022
15 July 2021UK: Cemex UK says that use of MP Connect contractor and haulier cards will be mandatory across its operations by the start of 2022. The Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary is presently rolling out the cards in its London and Southern ready-mix locations. It previously launched them at aggregates sites in its Central and Southern business areas. The system is now live at 39 sites and is used over 2000 times weekly, according to the company. It said that the initiative will help to streamline internal processes and enhance management of hauliers and contractors, legislative and site requirements are complied with.
Supply chain director Dave Hart said “Safety is Cemex’s number-one priority and we are always looking for ways to make our processes in this area more streamlined and effective. Implementation of the MP Connect system across our business will ensure that all drivers meet the standards set through checks of qualifications and competencies, while also providing them with more support and making their visits to different sites easier.” Cemex said that this will ‘enable the business to continually raise standards and lead the industry in safety and compliance.’
The MP Connect system was launched by the Mineral Products Qualifications Council (MPQC) in late 2020. It is intended to provide a single unified record of driver and operator working achievements that, when presented on a reader at site, can be viewed by logistics personnel. The information on the card then allows the logistics team to grant access, safe in the knowledge that the correct safety criteria applicable to the site, have been met by the person carrying the card.
John King Chains acquires Precision Chains
13 July 2021UK: John King Chains has agreed to acquire Precision Chains for an undisclosed price. The group said that Precision Chains’ heavy series chains production capabilities made it an attractive acquisition. It said that there is ‘untapped potential’ for heavy series chains production for the cement industry in the companies’ collaboration.
Managing director David Wadsworth said “The acquisition of Precision Chains represents a tremendous opportunity for John King Chains to further enhance its reputation as a leading manufacturer of conveyor chains and sprockets worldwide. We are committed to UK manufacturing and consider the potential for Precision Chains to flourish under the John King Chains umbrella is substantial.” He added that the company will retain the Precision Chains brand name for the ‘foreseeable’ future.
UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched Concrete Action for Climate (CAC) in partnership with the World Economic Forum. The GCCA says that CAC will support industry, civil society, governments and investors to coordinate global climate actions towards 2050 net-zero targets. The initiative represents 40% of the global concrete and cement industry through the GCCA and will bring it together with external expertise and influence. It will achieve its aims by helping to help deliver and coordinate global climate action, stimulating demand for sustainable materials and ensuring appropriate financing and public policy is in place to help the sector reduce its carbon footprint, according to the association.
CAC chair Dominik von Achten said, “Concrete is vital to the development of the modern world, being used to develop key infrastructure like safe homes, bridges and hospitals, as well as supporting the transition to clean energy. Strong action to improve the sustainability of cement and concrete is already underway, but the industry needs to engage and collaborate with others to help drive collective action towards achieving carbon neutral concrete for the world. Today’s launch of the CAC platform is a great example of such collective action. It’s encouraging and exciting to see influential, global organisations from across the world come together to support the cement and concrete industry on its path to carbon neutrality.”
UK: Archaeologists have completed the excavation of a 52-grave cemetery dated to 3rd century Roman Britain at Ireland-based CRH subsidiary Tarmac’s Knobb’s Farm quarry in Cambridgeshire. The company said that the find is remarkable for its high proportion of decapitated bodies (33%), indicating the proximity of an execution site. The graveyard is situated near a settlement on a peninsula in the Fens wetland area. The settlement itself is lost to the quarrying activities of the previous owner.
Fitch Ratings does not expect decarbonisation measures to hit cement company profits in the medium term
01 July 2021UK: Fitch Ratings says it does not expect the financial profiles of cement producers to be changed by decarbonisation efforts in its rating horizon. The credit rating agency expects that regulatory scrutiny, investor pressure and societal awareness are likely to accelerate the building materials sector’s decarbonisation drive. However, it predicts that producers will pass on costs to consumers as there are no substitutes for its products. In addition, demand for building materials will grow, supported by increasing needs for infrastructure to cope with the transition to a low-carbon economy and the physical effects of climate change.
It added that, since there are no low carbon solution readily available, such improvements will require ‘significant’ investment and research. Fitch Ratings expect this to arrive after 2030 to meet the tight 2050 sustainability targets by both governments and companies. The cost of this may be large especially as government incentives to support it are, as yet, uncertain.
Fitch Ratings noted that the industry had made significant progress with an 18% reduction in the global average CO2 intensity of cement production since 1990. However, due to growing demand for cement, the sector’s gross emissions have increased by 50%. It pointed out the large role China and India have to play in emissions reductions as they are the largest concrete producers in the world. However, Europe is seen as the most demanding region for decarbonisation regulations at present.
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.