Displaying items by tag: Energy

France: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Ciments Calcia has announced a planned investment of Euro30m of upgrades in early 2021 to its 1.0Mt/yr integrated Couvrot plant in Marne department. L’Union Ardennes newspaper has reported that the upgrades will be ‘process improvements’ to grinding and energy consumption rather than expansions to the plant’s capacity. HeidelbergCement director Didier Faure said the group wants to turn the Couvrot plant into its ‘leading site in Western Europe.’ Faure also called for improvements to safety procedures after three people were injured on site in 2019 – up by 50% from two in 2018.

Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has signed a 15-year power supply agreement with a Mexico-based solar energy provider. The Awareness Times newspaper has reported that the contract covers the supply of solar power to GCC’s 0.2Mt/yr Juarez cement plant in Chihuahua, as well as its head office and ready mix and aggregates operations, constituting roughly 20% of its electricity consumption. The agreement, which enters force on 1 January 2021, will save GCC US$2.5m/yr and cut 0.3Mt of CO2 emissions throughout its duration.

Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe has complained of implied year-on-year inflation of 350% in September 2019 having possible knock-on effects on its business. Company secretary Flora Chinhaire blamed a 19% year-on-year drop in domestic consumption on ‘declining demand from homeowners due to escalating mortgage financing costs’ and the effects of foreign currency constraints on payments to suppliers for capital expenditure projects. All Africa has reported that power supply issues and unplanned stoppages caused a 1% decline in productivity at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant, where it operates a single wet production line.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted a 5.3% contraction in Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has published its first sustainability report following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Key data from the report include a CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material of 687kg CO₂/t across all operations. Its total CO₂ emissions were 16.4Mt. In 2017 it reported estimated total CO₂ emissions of 8.45Mt from its domestic operations. The cement producer had an energy consumption of 52M GJ 2018. It had a 49% production capacity utilisation rate at its Nigerian plants. The group said that it supported 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Nigeria.

Turkey: Nihat Özdemir, the chair of Limak Holding and president of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB), has reassured the construction industry that the price of cement will not rise too sharply in 2019. He denied that the price would rise by up to 40%, according to the Hürriyet Daily News newspaper. However, he did confirm that prices would increase due to growing input costs and negative foreign currency exchange effects. Özdemir said that electricity costs had risen by 76%, coal by 182% and petroleum coke by 170%.

In late December 2018 the Construction Contractors Confederation (İMKON) complained about an expected 40% price rise in cement products and it called on the government to intervene. The Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD) has also issued a similar warning.

Egypt: Medhat Istvanos, head of the cement division of the Chamber of Building Materials, affiliated to the Federation of Egyptian Industries, says that exports from the country are being made uncompetitive due to the government’s decision to raise energy prices in June 2018. He said that the local exchange rate had aided exports but that “the government’s bureaucracy has eliminated export hopes,” according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The local industry exported cement worth US$57m during the first half of 2018.

Istvanos said that the industry has a production capacity utilization rate of 60% with a production capacity of 84Mt/yr but consumption of only 54Mt/yr. He added that the decision to build the new 12Mt/yr Beni Suef cement plant was “not based on precise information” and that it had harmed local production.

India: UltraTech Cement has announced that it is joining EP100, a global leadership initiative that brings together a growing group of ‘energy-smart companies.’ The company said that becoming a member reaffirms UltraTech's commitment to driving sustainability across its value chain and accelerating business growth. By becoming a member of EP100, UltraTech has committed to double its energy productivity, a critical lever it to reduce the CO2 intensity of its operations. It will provide a strategic boost to UltraTech's low carbon growth target of reducing carbon intensity by 25% by 2021 against its 2005 baseline.

K K Maheshwari, Managing Director of UltraTech Cement said, “UltraTech Cement has always been at the forefront in adopting sustainable processes in its business operations. The company has some of the best performing plants on energy metrics across the world. As a responsible organisation, we realise the need for further substantial improvements in energy productivity. Our membership of EP100, we believe, will play a catalytic role in helping us accelerate towards doubling our energy productivity, which is a key strategic lever to achieve sustainable business growth.”

Helen Clarkson chief executive officer (CEO) of The Climate Group, said, ''It's hugely encouraging to see UltraTech, one of the leading cement producers globally, step up on energy efficiency. This is a win-win for emissions reduction and business growth. We need to see many more cement companies and other large energy users in hard-to-abate sectors follow UltraTech's lead.''

Founded by The Climate Group, EP100 constitutes companies that commit to using energy more productively. Energy productivity is a way of measuring energy efficiency that aligns directly with business growth and sustainable development goals.

Chile: Cementos Bicentenario (BSA) has signed a deal with energy company Engie to supply its Quilicura grinding plant near Santiago with renewable energy. All of the energy supplied to the plant will come from renewable sources including solar and hydroelectric. The contract, equivalent to 35GWh, will see the plant achieve the I-REC certification.