Displaying items by tag: Cemex
Update on Spain, February 2022
09 February 2022The data on cement consumption for 2021 in Spain is out this week and it looks promising. As the national cement association Oficemen explained, last year was the sector’s best for over a decade, nearly reaching 15Mt consumption and exceeding the figure in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic started. Oficemen also singled out particular strong performance in December 2021. It now expects this growth trend to continue into 2022 with a forecast of 5% to 15.6Mt predicted based on both domestic and infrastructure segments.
Graph 1: Cement consumption in Spain, 2012 – 2021. Source: Oficemen.
The Spanish cement industry reached a peak consumption of over 50Mt in the late 2000s before hitting a near-50 year low in the 2010s in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The market then started to recover in the second half of the 2010s until Covid-19 came along. A report on the Spanish cement market to the start of 2021 that lays out the situation can be found in the February 2021 issue of Global Cement Magazine. The larger news stories since then have been Votorantim Cimentos’ growth in the market through its acquisitions of FYM and Cementos Balboa, and Çimsa Çimento’s final completion of its deal to buy the Buñol white cement plant from Cemex. Each of these stories involve an integrated cement plant changing ownership.
Looking back at Oficemen’s summary describing 2012 depicts a much different dwindling market. However, one commonality it shares with the association’s roundup for 2021 is that it complains about the country’s disadvantage in electricity costs compared to its neighbours. Back in 2012 this was framed as holding back exports. As Oficemen noted at the time it exported 5.9Mt of cement in 2012, less than half the 13Mt it exported in 1983. Jump forward to 2021 and exports are now 6.8Mt. Energy is still a key issue though. Now Oficemen’s president, José Manuel Cascajero Rodríguez, says that the sector’s production costs have increased by 25% since the latest round of electricity price rises began. He then compares the cost of energy intensive industry in Spain unfavourably against France and Germany and calls for a structural change in the Spanish electricity market to make prices more predictable. Cement producers elsewhere in Europe and beyond may share Oficemen’s concerns regard unpredictable energy prices over the last six months but electricity has been a particular issue for Spain for a long time. To take one recent local example, in November 2021 Cementos Cosmos said it was planning to scale down the production of clinker at its Córdoba cement plant as a result of the high cost of electricity.
The other issue that gets raised in Oficemen’s 2021 summary is competition from cement importers outside the European Union (EU) and the necessity of a border carbon adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to take in account carbon taxation for producers within Europe. To jump back a bit, back in May 2021 the EU Emissions trading Scheme (ETS) reached Euro50/t. Then in December 2021 Cembureau, the European cement association, published a calculation predicting that if the EU ETS CO2 cost made it to Euro90/t then this could represent 12 - 15% of the production costs of cement producers. Well, as readers will have guessed, the EU ETS beat Euro90/t on 2 February 2022 and then rose to Euro96.7/t on 7 February 2022. Answers in an email for when readers think the EU ETS price will top Euro100/t.
All of the above feeds neatly into the week’s other big Spanish news story: Cemex and Synhelion have successfully produced clinker from concentrated solar radiation at a pilot unit at the Very High Concentration Solar Tower of IMDEA Energy near Madrid. It’s early days yet as the process needs to be scaled up but, make no mistake, this is a big story. An interview with the team behind Cemex and Synhelion’s solar concentration project can be found in the December 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine for more information. The SOLPART (Solar-Heated Reactors for Industrials Production of Reactive Particulates) project in France did similar research a few years ago but it didn’t reach the 1500°C target required to reach the sintering phase where clumps of clinker form. US-based Heliogen has been trying to industrialise concentrated solar energy but not much has been heard about its cement-industry ambitions since it said it reached temperatures of about 1000°C in 2019.
The relevance of an eventual full-scale concentrated solar unit for the entire production line or just the preheater and/or calciner at a cement plant in Spain makes considerable sense. At a stroke energy costs are reduced, diverted to a renewable source and any desired CO2 capture becomes, in theory, easier and cheaper. Cemex said in the interview with Global Cement Magazine that the tentative next step would be a pilot unit at a cement plant, although, candidate plants could be in the US or Mexico, as well as Spain. Another side of the drive to cut energy and carbon costs can also be seen in a couple of photovoltaic solar projects supplying cement plants that were announced in 2021 for Spanish plants run by Cemex and Cementos Cosmos.
We leave the Spanish cement sector in a growth phase but with plenty of challenges ahead, not least from electricity costs and the mounting cost of carbon. Yet in common with other countries in Europe the industry faces a high-wire balancing act between staying economically viable and inching towards net zero. It’s conceivable that an industrial scale concentrated solar unit at a cement plant in Spain by 2030 might steady the wobbles along the way.
Cemex Colombia sells 500,000m3 of Vertua reduced-CO2 concrete
09 February 2022Colombia: Cemex Colombia has recorded accumulated sales of 500,000m3 of its Vertua reduced-CO2 concrete. It aims to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
President Alejandro Ramírez said “Our Vertua concrete sales volume is excellent news for the country. It demonstrates that a sustainable vision of construction is being consolidated in Colombia, conscious of its decisive contribution to global climate action.”
Cemex and Synhelion produce clinker using solar heat
03 February 2022Spain: Cemex’s Mósteles clinker pilot batch production unit at IMDEA Energy Institute in Madrid Autonomous Community has produced its first batch of solar-heated clinker. The unit uses Switzerland-based Synhelion solar radiation technology. The technology uses a solar receiver and gaseous heat transfer fluid to heat raw materials.
Cemex chief executive officer Fernando Gonzalez said “The production of the first solar clinker is an exciting milestone for this transformational technology. It is proof of our commitment to deliver tangible outcomes through innovation to achieve our goal of delivering only net-zero CO2 concrete by 2050.” He concluded “Cemex is building a better future, and that future must be sustainable.”
Cemex Ventures invests in HiiROC
02 February 2022UK: Cemex’s corporate venture capital unit Cemex Ventures has invested in gas-to-hydrogen plant producer HiiROC. HiiROC’s thermal plasma electrolysis technology can process biomethane, flare gas and natural gas into hydrogen and carbon black without any CO2 emissions.
Cemex Ventures president Gonzalo Galindo said “HiiROC's solution is sustainable, scalable, cost-effective and has strong growth potential inside the hydrogen ecosystem. This investment is yet another important step in our transition from fossil to alternative fuels (AF) and towards achieving our Net Zero goal for 2050. Cemex is the clear industry leader in the use of hydrogen, and this partnership allows us to further expand our hydrogen knowledge in the ultimate quest to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen in our plants." He added "With hydrogen becoming an increasingly attractive element for industrial decarbonisation, we are excited to be one of the top companies in the cement industry that includes a clean hydrogen production startup in its investment portfolio."
Cemex UK launches ReadyBlock Zero zero carbon concrete block
01 February 2022UK: Cemex UK has launched ReadyBlock Zero, a zero carbon concrete block, on the UK market. The product joins the company’s Vertua reduced-CO2 product range. Cemex UK achieved zero carbon production by means of offsetting. It said that ReadyBlock Zero will help builders to meet the UK’s government’s Future Homes Standard, which requires a 75 – 80% CO2 emissions reduction in all newly built homes.
Cemex’s Europe regional urbanisation solutions director of asphalt, paving and building products Carl Platt said “We have developed the UK’s first carbon neutral concrete block to help housebuilders get ahead of the game when it comes to building low carbon homes that meet and exceed government guidelines and changes to building regulations. We want to make life easier for housebuilders to make simple sustainable choices that make large scale impacts on the often complex road to net zero. Concrete blocks are the most common structural component in the construction of UK homes, so by switching to zero carbon blocks, ReadyBlock Zero presents a huge opportunity for housebuilders to make significant carbon reductions.”
Mexican cement prices sky-rocket in January 2022
26 January 2022Mexico: The average price of bagged grey cement has soared by an average of 14.5% so far in January 2022. Bulk cement prices have increased by 20% month-on-month since mid December 2021.
Locally-owned multinational producer Cemex said that, to maintain margins, it increased the price of its bagged cement by 14.4% nationwide and its bulk cement by 17 - 20%. "The increases applied to our products seek to recover part of the inflation that the company has had in its costs," the company explained in a press release.
Javier Fernández, director of the materials distributor Grupo Mecasa, which has a presence in Nuevo León, Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, said that the rest of the country's cement companies also raised prices in a similar proportion to Cemex.
Puerto Rico: Cemex Puerto Rico has extended its contract with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority by 20 years. The subsidiary of Mexico-based Cemex uses Pier 16 of the Port of San Juan. Joel A Pizá Batiz, the executive director of the port authority, said that data from the Development Bank Economic showed that country had a cement demand of 590,000t in 2020. He added that Cemex’s investment in the local economy was over US$400m and it injects US$20m/yr into the local economy. Cemex operates the Ponce plant in Puerto Rico. It switched to grinding cement in 2018.
Cemex Puerto Rico extends San Juan port licence until 2042
21 January 2022Puerto Rico: Cemex Puerto Rico has successfully renewed its licence for use of Pier 16 at the Port of San Juan until 2042. Puerto Rico Ports Authority executive director Joel Pizá Batiz estimated Cemex Puerto Rica’s contribution to the territorial economy to be US$20m in 2020 and its total investments in the island to be US$400m.
The Metro Puerto Rico newspaper has reported that Puerto Rican cement consumption was 590,000t in 2020.
Cemex France supplies white architectural concrete for Vitesco Technologies’ Toulouse campus
21 January 2022France: Cemex France has supplied 900m3 of its white architectural concrete to the site of Vitesco Technologies’ upcoming Toulouse campus in Occitanie Region. The producer also supplied pumping services and managed the project through its Cemex Go digital platform. It said that the campus aims to achieve High Environmental Quality (HQE) certification for its environmental and energy performance, while ensuring acoustic, hygrothermal and visual comfort for occupants.
Cemex harvests olives from rehabilitated Split quarry
19 January 2022Croatia: Volunteers from Cemex collaborated with the Agricultural and Veterans’ Cooperative Lintar and local school pupils to harvest 6.5t of olives from the site of its rehabilitated Split quarry in Split-Dalmatia. The company says that the winter crop produced 900l of olive oil.
Cemex’s Europe, Middle East and Africa corporate affairs, sustainability and environmental resources manangement vice president Andrew Spencer said “We recognise that our industry has consequences for the environment, but Cemex is working hard to actively counteract climate change and this drive is present through all aspects of our business. In our cement and aggregate quarrying operations across Europe, we restore and recultivate our sites to provide optimal conditions that are managed well to deliver for biodiversity.” He added “Our vision is of a successful, sustainable Cemex that makes a positive contribution to people and the environment.”