Displaying items by tag: Saudi Arabia

Middle East/North Africa: The World Cement Association (WCA) has called on its members in the Middle East and North African cement sectors to take new actions towards industry decarbonisation. UAE-based consultant and WCA member A3 & Co has said that companies in the region have the potential to cut their carbon footprints by up to 30% with no new capital expenditure required. The Middle East and North Africa accounted for 15% of global cement production in 2021. In the region, only the UAE and Saudi Arabia have committed to national net zero carbon targets, for 2050 and 2060 respectively.

WCA CEO Ian Riley said “There has been a lot of discussion in Europe and North America about decarbonisation roadmaps for the cement industry and good work has been done to start on this journey. However, 90% of the world’s cement is produced and used in developing countries; to impact overall industry emissions we must include these stakeholders. Cement companies in the Middle East have some low hanging fruit to take advantage of, which will lower costs at the same time as reducing CO2 emissions. At WCA we have a number of programmes that can help them realise this opportunity."

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has signed a US$443m financing agreement with Saudi National Bank (SNB). The company plans to invest the funds in its relocation of a 10,000t/day kiln line to its Northern Halal, Al Kharj, plant from the site of its former plant in Riyadh. This will help towards its aim of increasing the Northern Halal plant’s capacity to 30,000t/day by 2025. The loan consists of US$213m in long-term financing for a period of eight years, US$150m in refinancing of the long-term funding for a duration of four years and US$80m in short-term financing for one year.

Saudi Arabia: Eastern Province Cement recorded a 2% year-on-year sales drop in 2021. Its net profit was US$54m, down by 7% year-on-year. Arab News has reported that the company recorded a lower income from investments and higher losses from asset write-offs compared to 2020 levels.

Saudi Arabia: Al Kifah Ready-Mix & Blocks (KRB) has announced the upcoming launch of its ConGreen reduced-CO₂ concrete products range at the Big 5 Saudi construction summit on 28 – 31 March 2022. ConGreen concretes replace clinker with lower-carbon materials such as pozzolan and use Canada-based Carbon Cure Technologies’ embedded recycled CO₂ technology to reduce its carbon footprint by up to 30% compared to conventional ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concretes. In addition to this, KRB says that ConGreen concretes also provide improved workability and pumpability properties, as well as being highly durable, with high passing and finishability. They have very low rapid chloride permeability (RCP), water absorption and water permeability properties and low heat of hydration.

General Manager Nigel Harries said “We are committed to driving energy efficiency and addressing the global emission challenges. We aim to help build a better community and environment-friendly facilities by producing high-quality concrete, such as ConGreen, that has a reduced environmental impact and is characterised by its high performance, durability and sustainability, with a low carbon footprint as compared with standard concrete.”

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement’s sales recorded a 0.6% year-on-year decline to US$251m in 2021 from US$249m in 2020. Arab News has reported that the company’s net profit fell by 43% compared to 2021 levels.

Saudi Arabia: Qanbar Ready Mix has run its first trial mix of concrete using Canada-based CarbonCure’s CO2 utilisation technology. The Eastern Province-based ready-mixed concrete producer conducted a full-scale plant trial in late December 2021 in Ras Al Khair Industrial City, according to Gulf Construction. Employees, customers from Saudi Aramco and engineers were present at the event. Concrete supplied from Qanbar Ready Mix’s batching plants will be used to supply projects at the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services.

Saudi Arabia: Cement output rose slightly to 53.7Mt in 2021 from 534Mt in 2021. Clinker output increased by 12% year-on-year to 55.1Mt from 49.2Mt. Cement exports fell by 32% to 1.44Mt from 2.13Mt but clinker exports grew by 50% to 6.73Mt from 4.50Mt. Saudi Cement remained the country’s largest clinker export but exports from Yanbu Cement and Arabian Cement grew sharply.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement has appointed Khalid Abdulrahman Al-Rajhi as the chair of its board of directors. The term started at the beginning of January 2022 and has a duration of three years to the end of 2024. Other appointments include Mohammed Abdulkarim Al-Khereiji as vice-chairman and Mohammed Ali Al-Garni as secretary of the board of directors.

Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement has entered into a preliminary agreement with China-based Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI) for the engineering, supply and construction of a cement mill at its integrated Buraydah plant. The new mill will have a production capacity of 300t/hr. The project is budgeted at around US$40m and it has an implementation period of 15 months. More binding detailed contracts are expected to be signed by mid-January 2022.

The cement company also plans to appoint a consultant to define the scope of work and identify contractors to build a 30MW solar unit near the Buraydah plant. It said that the company would not incur any capital or operational expenditure as the payment would be based on actual consumption. The solar unit project is part of the country’s Saudi Vision 2030 strategic framework to reduce dependence on oil.

Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement has signed a cooperation agreement with the National Center for the Development of Vegetation Cover and Combating Desertification to rehabilitate vegetation cover. The arrangement is intended to reduce desertification and restore biodiversity in natural environments in line with the country’s 2030 vision. Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Sultan, Governor of the Northern Borders Region A attended the signing ceremony.