Displaying items by tag: India

India: UltraTech Cement has entered a collaboration agreement with the Institute for Carbon Management (ICM) at the University of California (UCLA) to develop new technology that aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cement production. The partnership will see the construction of a demonstration plant at one of UltraTech's integrated cement plants. Further details on the technology are available in Global Cement’s news story from 15 October 2024.

India: Adani Group subsidiary Ambuja Cements has entered talks for the acquisition of Orient Cement (OCL) at a value of US$451m. Ambuja Cements will acquire 47% of OCL's shares from its current promoters and certain public shareholders, fully funded through internal accruals. Orient Cement has two cement plants in the south and one in western India, according to Reuters.

Director of Ambuja Cements, Karan Adani, said "This timed acquisition marks another significant step forward in Ambuja Cements' accelerated growth journey, increasing cement capacity by 30Mt/yr within two years of Ambuja's acquisition. By acquiring OCL, Ambuja is poised to reach 100Mt/yr cement capacity in the financial year 2025. The acquisition will help to expand Adani Cement's presence in core markets and improve its pan-India market share by 2%. OCL's assets are highly efficient, equipped with railway sidings and well supported by captive power plants, renewable energy, waste heat recovery systems, and alternative fuel and raw material facilities. OCL's strategic locations, high-quality limestone reserves and requisite statutory approvals present an opportunity to increase cement capacity in the near term to 16.6Mt/yr."

India: Jindal Panther Cement (JPC), part of the Jindal Group, has commissioned its first cement grinding unit with a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr at Angul, Odisha. The unit will use about 1Mt/yr of blast furnace slag from Jindal subsidiary Jindal Steel & Power’s (JSPL) nearby integrated steel plant, operating with the industry's lowest clinker factor as part of its decarbonisation strategy. The Angul grinding unit will produce low-carbon Portland slag and composite cement for central and eastern India, repurposing waste from JSPL's operations and aligning with the group's decarbonisation goals. In the future, JPC plans to increase production capacity at both of its facilities, Angul and Raigarh, to 7Mt/yr, with an investment of US$257m.

CEO of JPC, Rohit Vohra, said "The commissioning of our Angul grinding unit marks a significant step in our journey towards a sustainable future. Our low-carbon cement and innovative distribution model position us uniquely to support eastern India's infrastructure growth while contributing to a greener planet."

India: UltraTech Cement has published its financial results for the second quarter ending 30 September 2024. For the second quarter, the company reported sales of US$1.86bn, down by 2.1% from US$1.90bn in the same period of 2023. Revenue for the second quarter of 2024 was US$1.89bn, marking a year-on-year decrease of 2% from US$1.92bn in 2023. Net income fell to US$97.5m, down by 36% from US$152m in 2023, with net profit after tax dropping to US$202m, a 52% decrease from US$240m recorded in the preceding June quarter. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the September 2024 quarter stood at US$239.94m, a decrease of 18% year-on-year.

India: Dalmia Bharat has reported a 60.5% decline in net profit to US$5.83m for the second quarter ending 30 September 2024, down from US$14.8m in the same period in 2023. Revenue from operations slightly decreased by 2% to US$36.7m, compared to US$37.5m in 2023. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also fell by 27% to US$5.16m. However, the company recorded an 8.4% year-on-year increase in cement volumes to 6.7Mt.

Managing director and CEO Puneet Dalmia said "I believe that as India grows, the cement sector will continue to flourish. We are actively working to announce our Phase II expansions within the next nine months and achieve our interim milestone of 75Mt/yr by the 2028 financial year."

India: Shree Cement's Ras quality control laboratory in Rajasthan has been recognised by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), affirming its compliance with the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standards. Managing Director Neeraj Akhoury said that the accreditation acknowledges the company's commitment to providing premium, sustainable building materials. The laboratory's role in ensuring standardisation across all product testing is important for maintaining production quality at the plant.

India: The environmental public hearing for Meghatop Cement's proposed integrated cement plant in Wahiajer village, Elaka Narpuh, was conducted on 18 October 2024, according to The Shillong Times. The plant is planned to have a 3.3Mt/yr clinker capacity and 16MW waste heat recovery system, and has faced a mixed reaction from several community members. Franky Laloo from the Meghalaya Pollution Control Board led the hearing, attended by district officials, villagers and company representatives. Supporters emphasised the potential community benefits of the plant, but the Jaintia Women Council expressed some concerns, saying that “We intended to voice our opposition at the hearing, but were prevented by village volunteers and police. A hearing that only accommodates supporters is unacceptable.”

India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned an additional 1.2Mt/yr of grinding capacity at its Arakkonam unit in Tamil Nadu. This expansion is part of a broader 22.6Mt/yr capacity increase announced back in June 2022. With this latest addition, UltraTech Cement's total cement capacity now stands at 156Mt/yr.

India: Fornnax has introduced the SR-MAX2500 shredder, designed for municipal solid waste (MSW). The machine features hydraulic motors and a unique cutter design, aiming to serve large-scale recyclers and cement plants.

Jignesh Kundaria, CEO and director of Fornnax, said "With the SR-MAX2500, we're poised to transform the waste management landscape in India and beyond. Our goal is to line up MSW recycling industries with a robust, efficient and sustainable solution.”

The SR-MAX2500 is engineered for India, accommodating the specific challenges of highly contaminated local waste. The company says that the shredder will enhance efficiency, reduce operational costs and minimise downtime.

One unusual thing about coverage of cement in the media is the way that discussions often centre precisely on its absence – that is, on alternatives to cement. These alternatives boast unique chemistries and performance characteristics, but are all produced without Portland cement clinker. They are generally called ‘alternative cements,’ perhaps because ‘cement-free cement’ does not have such a commercially viable ring to it. This contradictory tendency reached a new high in the past week, with developments in alternative cement across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. Together, they hint at a more diverse future for the ‘cement’ industry than the one we know today.

Asia

In Indonesia, Suvo Strategic Minerals has concluded tests with Makassar State University of a novel nickel-slag-based cement. Huadi Nickel-Alloy Indonesia supplied raw materials, and tests showed a seven-day compressive strength of 37.5MPa. Suvo Strategic Minerals says that a partnership with Huadi Nickel-Alloy Indonesia for commercial production is a likely next step.

Europe

Cement producer Mannok and minerals company Boliden partnered with the South Eastern Applied Materials (SEAM) research centre in Ireland to launch a project to develop supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) from shale on 7 October 2024. The project will additionally investigate CO₂-curing of cement paste backfill for use in mines. Irish state-owned global commerce agency Enterprise Ireland has contributed €700,000 in funding.

UK-based SCM developer Karbonite expects to launch trial production of its olivine-based SCM with a concrete company in 2025. The start-up launched Karbonite Group Holding BV, with offices in the Netherlands, to facilitate this new phase. Karbonite’s SCM is activated at 750 – 850°C and sequesters CO₂ in the activation process, resulting in over 56% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Managing director Rajeev Sood told Global Cement that talks are already underway for subsequent expansions into the UAE and India.

Back in the UK, contractor John Sisk & Son has received €597,000 from national innovation agency Innovate UK. John Sisk & Son is testing fellow Ireland-based company Ecocem’s <25% clinker cement technology in concrete for use in its on-going construction of the Wembley Park mixed development in London.

At the same time, Innovate UK granted a further €3.23m to other companies for concrete decarbonisation. Recipients included a calcined clay being developed by Cemcor, an SCM being developed from electric arc furnace byproducts by Cocoon, a geopolymer cement technology being developed by EFC Green Concrete Technology UK and an initiative to develop alternative cement from recycled concrete fines at the Materials Processing Institute in Middlesbrough. Also included was the Skanska Costain Strabag joint venture, which is working on the London stretch of the upcoming HS2 railway. The joint venture, along with partners including cement producer Tarmac and construction chemicals company Sika UK, will test low-kaolinite London clay as a raw material with which to produce calcined clay as a cement substitute in concrete structures in HS2’s rail tunnels.

Middle East

Talks are underway between UK-based calcined clay producer Next Generation SCM and City Cement subsidiary Nizak Mining Company over the possible launch of a joint venture in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The joint venture would build a 350,000t/yr reduced-CO₂ concrete plant, which would use alternative cement based on Next Generation SCM’s calcined clay.

North America

Texas-based SCM developer Solidia Technologies recently patented its carbonatable calcium silicate-based alternative cement, which sequesters CO₂ as it cures.

Meanwhile, C-Crete Technologies made its first commercial pour of its granite-based cement-free concrete in New York, US. C-Crete Technologies says that the product offers cost and performance parity with conventional cement, with net zero CO₂ emissions. Its raw material is globally more abundant than the limestone used as a raw material for clinker. Other abundantly available feedstocks successfully deployed within C-Crete Technologies’ repertoire include basalt and zeolite.

Across New York State, in Binghamton, KLAW Industries has succeeded in replacing 20% of concrete’s cement content with its powdered glass-based SCM, Pantheon. KLAW Industries has delivered samples to local municipalities and the New York State Department of Transportation. Its success expands the discussion of possible circular cement ingredients from the industrial sphere into post-consumer resources.

In Calgary, Canada, a novel SCM has drawn attention from one of the major cement incumbents: Germany-based Heidelberg Materials. It invested in local construction and demolition materials (CDM)-based SCM developer EnviCore on 9 October 2024. The companies plan to build a pilot plant at an existing Heidelberg Materials CDM recycling centre.

Conclusion

Alternative cement developers are still finding the words to talk about their products. They may be more than ‘supplementary’ up to the point of entirely supplanting 100% of clinker. Product webpages offer ‘hydraulic binder,’ ‘pozzolan’ and even ‘cement.’ As alternative ‘cements’ are developed, they build on the work of pioneers like Joseph Aspdin and Louis Vicat. Start-ups and their backers are now reaching commercial offerings, on a similar-but-different footing to cement itself. None of these novel materials positions itself as the sole, last-minute ‘super sub’ in the construction sector’s confrontation with climate change. Rather, they are a package of solutions which can combine into a net zero-emissions heavy building materials offering, hopefully before 2050.

Related to this is the need for ‘technology neutral’ standards, as championed this week by the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete (ALCCC), along with 23 other European industry associations, civil society organisations and think tanks. The term may sound new, but the concept is critical to the eventual uptake of alternative cements: standards, the ALCCC says, should be purely performance-based. They ought not attempt to define what technology, for example cement clinker, makes a suitable building material. According to the ALCCC, Europe’s building materials standards are not technology neutral, but instead ‘gatekeep’ market access, to the benefit of conventional cement and the exclusion of ‘proven and scalable low-carbon products.’

At the same time, cement itself is changing. Market research from USD Analytics showed an anticipated 5% composite annual growth rate in blended cement sales between 2024 and 2032, more than doubling throughout the period from US$253bn to US$369bn. If you can’t beat it, blend with it!

For a further discussion of alternative cement and binders in Europe, see Global Cement’s interview with ALCCC co-ordinator Joren Verschaeve in the forthcoming November issue of Global Cement Magazine on 17 October 2024.