Displaying items by tag: France
Calderys Group reports successful integration of HWI and Calderys
21 February 2024France: Calderys Group says that it has successfully implemented technology sharing between US-based HWI and Calderys, following their integration in February 2023. In the past 12 months, the group has transferred select Calderys products to HWI in the Americas and introduced HWI products in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific. The refractories supplier says that the collaboration offers customers an enhanced product range.
Calderys Group president and CEO Michel Cornelissen said "The past 12 months have been exciting, demanding and very productive for our newly-formed group. The combination brought together two dynamic businesses with complimentary product ranges and created the opportunity for technology sharing and cooperation for the benefit of the world's high temperature manufacturing sectors. I am delighted that we are already seeing great results. Throughout 2024, we will continue to add to, and update, our product portfolios.”
France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies recorded a turnover of Euro6m in 2023, more than double the figure for 2022. The company sold 21,378t of its clinker-free alternative cement, up by 78% year-on-year, but under its target of 24,000t. It strengthened its order book by 8% to 260,000t.
The company confirmed its existing financial objectives, namely: to achieve positive earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2024; an operating profit in 2025; and a turnover of Euro130m by 2026.
Vicat reports full-year sales growth in 2023
14 February 2024France: Vicat recorded consolidated sales of Euro3.94bn in 2023, up by 8% year-on-year from Euro3.64bn in 2022. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were Euro740m, up by 30% from Euro570m. The producer's energy costs declined by 10% to Euro596m. Vicat noted ‘strong’ growth in sales across all regions except Kazakhstan and India, and in earnings in the US. Its cement volumes rose by 6.3% overall, but contracted in Egypt, France, Senegal and Switzerland.
Eqiom commences Lumbres cement plant decarbonisation upgrade
14 February 2024France: CRH subsidiary Eqiom has commenced the first phase of its K6 decarbonisation project at its Lumbres cement plant in Hauts-de-France. In this phase, the producer will build a new production line that uses alternative fuels. This will reduce the plant’s specific CO2 emissions per tonne of clinker by 20%. Eqiom says that this will pave the way for future carbon capture efforts at the plant, with a view to achieving net zero CO2 clinker production.
Neustark announces upcoming rapid expansion in Europe
19 January 2024Switzerland: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment developer and supplier Neustark says it plans to more than double the number of its CO2 storage sites in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK to 34 from 14. Neustark’s process turns mineralised captured CO2 and existing mineral waste streams into useful limestone. Building materials producers lease Neustark’s storage sites to produce reduced-CO2 alternatives such as recycled concrete. The sites currently have a total storage capacity of 5000t. Existing customers include Holcim.
Neustark CEO Johannes Tiefenthaler said “Neustark is scaling up rapidly, and we’re well on track to achieve our aim of permanently removing 1Mt of CO₂ by 2030. Our global goal is a series of reliable, region-specific CCS facilities that can be replicated anywhere, offering immediate sustainability benefits to local supply chains.”
Holcim announces over 15 upcoming acquisitions in 2024
18 January 2024Switzerland: Holcim says that it aims to conclude 15 - 20 new acquisitions in 2024, and potentially ‘many more.’ The value of individual deals ranges from US$5.78 – 115m, but might possibly exceed US$230m. Holcim says that it is focussing on growing its construction waste recycling business in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK, as well as its aggregates business in Eastern Europe.
As Lafarge Cement Syria's Jalabiyeh cement plant burns again, survivors of ISIS still await justice
17 January 2024This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq. Beginning on the night of 2 - 3 August 2014, ISIS displaced the entire Yazidi population from its homeland, amid a campaign of abductions and killings that claimed 12,000 victims.1 A striking detail of this and other crimes of the self-proclaimed caliphate is the proximity of a Western corporate actor: cement producer Lafarge, whose subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria operated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in neighbouring northern Syria. On-going investigations have since helped uncover what may amount to complicity on the part of Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria in the form of payments dating back to August 2013.2
In a week that began with the abandoned Jalabiyeh cement plant ablaze following a drone strike,3 Lafarge learned that it will face trial in France over its alleged complicity in crimes against humanity committed by ISIS.4 On 16 January 2024, the French Court of Cassation upheld Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syrias' indictments on the charge. Also reportedly indicted are (all former) Lafarge CEOs Bruno Lafont and Eric Olsen, vice president Christian Herrault and security director Jean-Claude Veillard and Lafarge Cement Syria CEOs Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, along with an intermediary and a Jordan-based risk management consultant.5, 6 The collaboration in question includes monthly payments to ISIS and other armed groups worth US$15.5m, a lower French court found in May 2022. It may be more than another 20 months before the thorny mass of issues to be considered by the court resolves itself in convictions, or cleared names.
Another front in Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria's legal battle over what happened in Syria is the US civil court system. Activist and survivor Nadia Murad and 426 other Yazidis have filed an Anti-Terrorism Act claim for damages, based on the companies' previous guilty plea to the US Department of Justice to conspiracy to the tune of US$5.92m in October 2022. Murad and fellow claimants allege ‘far higher’ total payments, pointing to correspondence between Lafarge Cement Syria and its intermediary that references ‘[sic] ten millions that we pay directly to them, i.e. to ISIS.’ The DoJ estimates the total value of the conspiracy for all parties at US$80.5m.
On 6 August 2014 (the fourth day of the Yazidi genocide), Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria signalled their agreement to enter into a new long-term agreement to share their revenues with ISIS. On 15 August 2014, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 2170 condemning 'any engagement in direct or indirect trade' with the organisation.7 Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly concluded the revenue-sharing agreement, under new terms more beneficial to ISIS, on that same day.
Lafarge Cement Syria finally evacuated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in September 2014, whereupon ISIS added it to its own five-plant international cement network, with sales worth US$583m/yr. The US-led Coalition bombed the site in October 2019 and it was subsequently occupied by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces. The strike on 14 January 2024 was part of a drone campaign by Turkish forces against Kurdish positions that the invaders say destroyed 23 targets.
It is conceivable that Turkish armed forces also had personal reasons for destroying this monument to Lafarge’s former presence in the region: on Lafarge’s stipulation, ISIS implemented a duty on Turkish cement entering its area of control, ostensibly charged at US$150/truck. As anyone familiar with the Turkish cement sector knows, one of the major investors in the industry happens to be the country’s military pension fund.
For the 400,000 Yazidis who have survived, the tragedy that began in August 2014 will not end soon. More than half remain in refugee camps. Among the missing are 2000 girls and women who the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism suspect ISIS may have 'further entrenched in human trafficking,' constituing a continuation of the genocide that has outlasted both the self-proclaimed caliphate and the French multinational that may have helped to bankroll it.8 Courts in different countries are helping bring to light a reign of terror that spanned international borders. In the US, some of its victims may find redress, while in France, justice may be closing in on anyone who might prove to have made common cause with the perpetrators.
References
1. RASHID, 'DESTROYING THE SOUL OF THE YAZIDIS,' Augut 2019, https://www.rashid-international.org/downloads/RASHID_Yazidi_Heritage_Destruction_Report_2019.pdf
2. Jenner & Block, 'IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK,' 14 December 2013, www.jenner.com/a/web/fy85Wd97fANx7fwBecn31r/23-9186-as-filed-complaint2.pdf
3. ANHA, 'Turkish occupation army targets former Lafarge site,' 14 January 2024, https://hawarnews.com/en/turkish-occupation-army-targets-former-lafarge-site?__cf_chl_tk=mSB3Ph6iU.3FEJ.Z3ywRvcu2n.tOahhpLnd.Fmqk0SU-1705415232-0-gaNycGzNDHs
4. Reuters, 'Lafarge can be charged with 'complicity in crimes against humanity' over Syria plant, French court says,' 16 January 2024, https://ca.news.yahoo.com/lafarge-charged-complicity-crimes-against-132904436.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANqF5SKpSZ7KB5rT5rjo_vFZ5LGdZ9bVkC5SeNw3iZGneLy5Tir2dsb1O3GQjITBRSF_xEs2GDBcSU94nKOocm-npnTznmbfhKB_FgOsBCg-9lO7ilPP2phHAcGahghG9yjmFoWVd24uU7xEwZ2RZqmmMaE2bSIIcTGRuh4LAlXD
5. Madeline Young, Lafarge's Case Cemented, 2021, https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=eilr-recent-developments
6. Le Télégramme, 'Complicité de crimes contre l’humanité : les poursuites contre Lafarge validées par la Cour de cassation?' 16 January 2023, www.letelegramme.fr/france/complicite-de-crimes-contre-lhumanite-les-poursuites-contre-lafarge-validees-par-la-cour-de-cassation-6505590.php
7. UN Security Council, 'Security Council Adopts Resolution 2170 (2014) Condemning Gross, Widespread Abuse of Human Rights by Extremist Groups in Iraq, Syria,' 15 August 2014, https://press.un.org/en/2014/sc11520.doc.htm#:~:text=Through%20the%20unanimous%20adoption%20of,as%20ISIS)%20and%20Al%2DNusra
8. Al-Dayel et al, ‘ISIS and Their Use of Slavery,’ 27 January 2020, https://www.icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-slavery
France/Middle East: The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, has upheld Lafarge’s indictment on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity, Reuters has reported. A lower court previously concluded that the company had paid US$15.5m to armed groups in the Middle East, including ISIS, via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria. In its latest ruling, the Court of Cassation quashed another charge of endangering the lives of employees, on grounds that Lafarge’s foreign labour relations are not subject to French law. The group had reportedly not appealed a further charge of financing a terrorist enterprise.
Read the latest on Lafarge’s on-going trials in this week’s Global Cement analysis.
Heidelberg Materials sells French cement transport business
11 January 2024France: Heidelberg Materials has completed its divestment of its French cement transport business, Tratel, to multiple local players. Tratel controls 450 trucks and around 770 trailers across France. Groupe Garnier has taken it over in the north western and Île-de-France, e-b-trans in south eastern and south western France, Groupe DESERT in western France and T2GL in eastern France, while Heidelberg Materials France continues to manage order intake, chartering and dispatch activities. Heidelberg Materials says that the move advances its portfolio optimisation strategy, which involves increasing its focus on core businesses.
France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has announced the signing of its latest partnership agreement, with single-family home construction firm Groupe Trecobat. Under the agreement, Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies will supply its clinker-free alternative cement for Groupe Trecobat’s property developments throughout western France. Groupe Trecobat generated Euro203m in sales in 2023.
Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said "We are delighted to be working with a leading player in single-family home construction such as Groupe Trecobat. This local partnership, which will enable us to develop a low-carbon offering for single-family home construction, accelerates our diversification and further strengthens our presence in the eco-responsible construction market."