The Republic of Austria, situated in central Europe, is a federal republic with 8.46m inhabitants in 2012.1 Spanning 83,855 square km, 68% of Austria is more than 500m above sea level. Austria is characterised by an extremely low poverty level, high living standards and a GDP/capita of US$43,100 in 2012, rendering it one of the richest countries in the world. To coincide with the Global CemFuels Conference on 24 - 25 February 2014 in Vienna, Global Cement Magazine has produced an overview of the Austrian cement industry, with particular focus upon new technologies and recent developments.
The central European Republic of Austria is bordered by Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. A highly mountainous region, Austria is famous for the Alps, coffee, pastries (Apfelstrudel in particular) and Swarovski crystal, among other things.
The European country comprises nine federal states that are ruled by a semi-presidential, parliamentary representative democracy from its captial, Vienna. The offical language of Austria is German, although Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian and Slovene are counted among local official languages. It is also the homeland of notable scientists Christian Doppler, Erwin Schrodinger, Sigmund Freud and Wolfgang Pauli, in addition to musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The German name for Austria, 'Österreich,' translates to 'Eastern Kingdom' and is derived from 'Ostarrîchi,' which first appears in the Ostarrîchi document of 996.2
History
The history of Austria is as eventful as any of the world's countries, rife with monumental events that had far-reaching consequences. It was occupied by a variety of Celtic tribes until the start of 'Austria Romana' in 15BC when it was claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province. 500 years later the Romans fell and the province was ruled by various dynastic houses until Rudolf I of the Habsburg family claimed the country following the defeat of the former ruler, Ottokar II of Bohemia, in 1278.
The Habsburg family ruled the country as Dukes, Emperors and Empresses throughout the 13-15th centuries. This era was as an intensely violent period in which the state borders were redivided on multiple occasions and wars and uprisings were commonplace. Notable events included the first claim, by Rudolf IV, to the title of Archduke in 1359 through the Privilegium Maius, a forged series of documents that were not recognised outside of Austria until 1453. The subsequent period of history, which spanned 1453-1914, was characterised by successive political and religious reformations and a variety of ruling families.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist group was the partial trigger of the First World War in 1914. Austria's involvement in the war ended in 1918 when the Armistice of Villa Giusti was signed by the defeated Austrian army. The first Austrian parliament of the new Republic of German Austria was installed in February 1919. The country's borders were redefined and its population was reduced by more than 43.5 million to 6.5 million by the loss of territory. The signing of the Treaty of Saint Germain in October 1919 saw the birth of the modern Republic of Austria, which was followed by the election of The National Council of Austria on 1 October 1920. In the post-war era Austria was troubled by large-scale political conflict and hyperinflation that caused economic disruption.
Austria's first stable democracy was installed in 1945 when statesman Karl Renner set up a new government that included socialists, conservatives and communists. The country gained complete independence by the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in May 1955, at which time it became the 70th member of the United Nations.3 Austria joined the European Union (EU) in 1995.4
Economy
The Austrian economy is closely linked to that of other European countries, especially Germany's. With a GDP of US$399bn and a GDP/capita of US$43,100 in 2012,1 it is one of the richest countries in the world. In contrast with much of Europe, Austria experienced only a brief but sharp recession, as shown in Table 1. Recovery in 2010 and 2011 was intially strong, with GDP growth rates of 1.8% and 2.8% respectively, although this has since levelled out, as shown in Figure 3.
Region | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Austria | 3.7 | 1.4 | -3.8 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 |
Europe | 3.0 | 0.4 | -4.4 | 2.0 | 1.5 | -0.6 | -0.4 |
Above - Table 1: GDP growth rate of Austria and Europe (%). Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database October 2013.
The weak growth rates in 2012 and 2013 coincide with a steady rise in unemployment levels, however, unemployment is still a significantly smaller problem for Austria than many other European nations. This is partly attributed to a government subsidisation scheme that enabled companies to reduce working hours and retain employees. Austrian banks also received government aid to ensure stability during the financial crisis, in some cases through nationalisation. However, the Austrian banking system remains at risk from external sources.
The rate of inflation peaked at 3.6% in 2007, almost immediately after the onset of the recession. It has since fallen and risen again repeatedly,5 with the 2013 rate of inflation reported as 2.0%.
In 2012 the majority of the 3.74m Austrian labour force worked in the service industry, showing little change from 2010, when only 26% and 5.5% of the work force were employed in industry and agriculture respectively. The industrial production growth rate of 2.0% is impressive in the current global market, although the comparably low population growth rate of 0.02% in 2013 brings sustainment of the labour force into question. A low birth rate of 8.73/1000 in 2013, combined with a death rate of 10.3/1000, means that Austria's population growth is derived from immigration, which was 1.78/1000 in 2013. Life expectancy in Austria is high, averaging 80.0 years in 2013, while the population living below the poverty line in 2012 was estimated at just 6.2%.
Region | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Austria | 4.4 | 3.7 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 4.8 |
Europe | 7.1 | 7.3 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 9.9 | 10.7 | 10.9 |
Above - Table 2: Rate of unemployment in October of each year (%). Source: Eurostat website.
Cement industry overview
The Austrian cement industry remains fairly small, with nine integrated cement plants and two grinding mills, one of which has been de-commissioned, spread across the country. The industry is overseen by the Association of the Austrian Cement Industry (VÖZ - Vereinigung der Österreichischen Zementindustrie), founded in 1984 to promote all interests of the cement industry, including:6
- Environmental standards and protection,
- Quality control,
- Politics,
- Industry,
- Economy.
VÖZ considers itself a partner of the building trade and construction industry, government agencies and building owners. Notably, every cement producing company in Austria is a registered member of the association. The association has a strong focus on research based at its research institute, VÖZfi, with projects in cement, concrete, recycling, new technologies and special solutions.
Austrian cement plants
Company | Plant | State | Capacity (Mt/yr) |
Gmundner Zement | Hatschek | Upper Austria | 0.8 |
Kirchdorfer Group | Kirchdorf | Upper Austria | 0.5 |
Lafarge | Mannersdorf | Lower Austria | 1.1 |
Lafarge | Retznei | Styria | 0.5 |
Schretter & Cie | Vils | Tyrol | 0.3 |
Wietersdorfer & Peggauer | Wietersdorf | Carinthia | 0.75 |
Wietersdorfer & Peggauer | Peggau | Styria | 0.4 |
Wopfinger | Wopfing | Lower Austria | 0.3 |
Leube | Gartenau | Salzburg | 0.77 |
Above - Table 3: Cement producing companies, plant locations and capacities in Austria.
The majority of the Austrian cement plants are privately or family-owned. The only large multinational corporations present today are French-based Lafarge and Germany-based Rohrdorfer Group, both of which acquired pre-existing cement plants in a bid to expand business.
Gmundner Zement's Hatschek plant has a production capacity of 0.8Mt/yr and was also purchased by Rohrdorfer Group in 2004. Located in Gmunden, Upper Austria, the plant has been operational since 1907 and has been subject to multiple upgrades in recent years. Installation of state-of-the-art Systimax brand UTP copper cabling technology7 and Scheuch Impuls compact air filter units have improved efficiency and reduced dust emissions.8
Privately-owned Kirchdorfer Group, founded in 1888 and based in Upper Austria, owns one cement plant with a capacity of 0.50Mt/yr. The company also supplies raw materials, finished parts and pre-fabricated homes to over 15 countries around the world.
Lafarge did not enter the Austrian cement market until 1993. Today it has a joint venture with Strabag that operates two integrated cement plants, Mannersdorf and Retznei, of which Lafarge owns a 70% stake. The Mannersdorf plant of Lower Austria has a capacity of 1.1Mt/yr, while the Retznei plant, located in the state of Styria, has a production capacity of 0.5Mt/yr. With a combined capacity of 1.6Mt/yr, the French-owned company is Austria's largest cement producer.9 Mannersdorf has been producing cement since 1894, while Retznei has been operational since 1908. Between the two sites and its headquarters in Vienna, Lafarge employs 250 staff.
Leube Baustoffe is an Austrian-based producer of cement, lime, sand, gravel and ready-mix concrete. The company operates a 0.77Mt/yr cement plant in Salzburg, from which it produced 515,000t of cement and binder in 2011 and 520,000t in 2012. Business is promising for the family-run firm, with a year-on-year turnover of Euro82m in 2012, up from Euro69m in 2011. Leube's cement plant is continuing to expand, with employee numbers swelling from 230 in 2011 to 253 in 2012. Notably, the company is one of very few global producers of white cement and also runs lime plants and quarries throughout the country.
Schretter & Cie, founded in 1899, owns one integrated cement plant and one grinding mill in the state of Tyrol, the Vils and Kirchbichl plants respectively.10 Schretter & Cie is a medium-sized privately-owned mineral company that produces cement, gypsum, special binders and lime. The company produces 'SupraCem 45,' a fast-setting Portland cement that possesses both high early and final strength, low shrinkage and good flowability. Schretter & Cie provided the cement for construction of the highest building in Austria in November 2012, Café 3440, which is situated on the Pitztal Glacier of Tyrol, 3340m above sea level.
Family-owned Wietersdorfer & Peggauer Zement, part of Wietersdorfer (formerly known as the Wietersdorfer Group), owns two cement plants in Austria. The plant at Wietersdorf, Carinthia, has a cement production capacity of 0.75Mt/yr, while the Peggau plant, Styria, has a capacity of 0.4Mt/yr. As such, Wietersdorfer & Peggauer is the second-largest cement producing company in the country.11 The company also owns an additional cement plant in San Vito, Italy, concrete plants in Austria and two Austrian resource companies. The Wietersdorf plant was commissioned in 1893 by Philipp Knoch, Karl Knoch and Gottlieb Knoch. The Peggau plant was commissioned in 1949, much delayed by the Second World War. Interestingly, Wietersdorfer & Peggauer produces white cement in addition to a large variety of special cements and binders.
Wopfinger Baustoffindustrie's cement plant, situated in Wopfing, Lower Austria, is one of the country's smallest, with an installed capacity of 0.3Mt/yr.12 Wopfinger is a family-owned subsidiary of Schmid Industrie Holding, which employs more than 500 staff in Austria. In addition to cement, Wopfinger also produces lime, dry plasters, screeds and façade plasters at the same location. While the Wopfinger site has been in existence since 1911, commissioning of the cement plant did not occur until 1988, eight years after construction began in secret. With a turnover of Euro150m in 2011, the Wopfinger plant boasts that it is the 'cleanest plant in the world,' achieved by the investment of more than Euro50m in environmental technologies in recent years.
SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg, a cement grinding plant only, was commissioned in Tyrol in 1865. The cement industry is still the primary industry in the state, providing employment for many local residents. The Eiberg plant was acquired by Rohrdorfer Group in 1995 and today produces both cement and concrete additives.13
An additional Austrian grinding plant, situated in Lorüns, Vorarlberg, was owned by Holcim and was closed in the summer of 2011 due to rising production costs.14 Holcim stated at the time that increasing financial pressures, which showed no sign of abatement, rendered the cost of maintaining the transportation network to the plant commercially unviable, resulting in decommissioning.
Environmental policies
As a full member of the European Cement Association (Cembureau)15 and the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI),16 Austrian cement producers take environmental responsibilities very seriously. With the aid of Allplan, an international consulting firm in the fields of building services, energy and environmental management, VÖZ produced an environmental plan for the Austrian cement industry in 2008.17 The plan has since been updated and key points now include:18
- Continued investment in plant energy efficiency,
- Reduced emissions of dust, CO2 and NOx,
- Prevention of accident-related emissions,
- Replacement of clinker with slag and other suitable minerals,
- Development of low-carbon, low-emission and energy-efficicent materials,
- Replacement of fossil fuels with alternative fuels, including tyres and biogenics like sunflower husk, paper sludge and animal meal,
- Recycling of calcium, silicon, aluminium and iron oxide for clinker production.
VÖZ also highlighted the potential drawbacks of blindly replacing all fossil fuels with alternative fuels. Biomass is noted to produce a slight increase in specific energy consumption due to its lower energy density when compared to fossil fuels.
Given that the worldwide cement industry contributes approximately 5% of global CO2 emissions, it is an important sector to target for CO2 emissions reductions strategies. Figure 8 shows that CO2 emissions produced during the manufacture of cement in Austria rose from 0.62Mt in 2005 to a peak of 0.72Mt in 2008 and dropped to 0.58Mt by 2010. In contrast, per capita CO2 emissions in Austria fell from 2.46t in 2005 to 2.03t in 2009, before rising again in 2010 to 2.17t. It remains to be seen whether Austria's per capita CO2 emissions will continue to rise, or whether 2010 was merely a blip, although given the extensive CO2 emissions reductions strategies in place in the region, the latter seems more likely.
In 2012 a voluntary commitment to reduce NOx emissions to 395mg/Nm3, significantly lower than the statutory level of 500mg/Nm3, was announced.19 This followed analysis of the results of long-term research projects at the Wopfing and Kirchdorf cement plants, where NOx emissions were reduced to 389mg/Nm3 through the use of pilot Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR). A larger scale SCR project was later installed at the Mannersdorf cement plant. The increase in resource efficiency and other environmental protection measures afforded emissions reductions of 24.8% of dust, 2.9% of CO2, 2.3% of NOx and 22.2% of SO2 in 2010.
Most of the Austrian cement companies also adhere to their own environmental plans. Schretter & Cie uses digital terrain models in order to extract minerals while causing the least environmental damage, in addition to investing in pollutant-reducing alternative fuels wherever possible.
Kirchdorfer Group uses a waste heat recovery (WHR) system to supply the local district with additional heating, while the use of its kiln control system allows combustion that reduces unavoidable NOx emissions. Through sustainable raw material quarrying and alternative fuels, supplied by subsidiary Alfuma, Kirchdorfer Group has produced a new eco-friendly cement 'ÖKO Universalzement' that produces 20% less CO2 emissions than OPC.
Lafarge Austria first began to use alternative fuels at the Mannersdorf plant in 1996. In 2000 the company began to collaborate with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which ultimately led to the conversion of a reclaimed quarry into Lake Neusiedl National Park in 2007. The installation of NOx emissions reductions facility in 2003 was followed in 2012 by installation of an SCR. Similar initiatives were put into place at the Retznei plant, including the opening of the ThermoTeam treatment plant for alternative fuels in 2003, installation of a solvent system that enabled the burning of biogenics to reduce CO2 emissions in 2007 and a collaboration with local heating suppliers to divert 5000MWh waste heat from the cement plant to the local heat supply network, which has reduced CO2 emissions by an estimated 480,000kg/yr.20 "We can now provide year-round cover for space and hot water in the cement plant with organic heat, even if production is at a standstill. We therefore substitute our previous consumption of heating oil. This alone saves 160,000kg/yr of CO2," said Peter Fürhapter, plant manager at Lafarge Retznei. The project cost a total of Euro1.1m. Globally, Lafarge also pledges to invest 1% of its annual turnover, approximately Euro170m from its worldwide operations, to research and development of energy efficient technologies.
Wopfinger is more self-sufficient than most cement plants, in that it sources much of its raw materials for cement production from its on-site lime plant and plasterworks. This reduces landfill waste, transport costs and saves energy. Waste heat from the cement plant is recycled to provide heat to other parts of the site. A selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) system was installed in 2006 to reduce NOx emissions, a 30% more energy efficient mill for low CO2-producing Ökozement was commissioned in 2009 and a new fabric filter was installed in 2011. Most notable was the 2011 installation of the world's first regenerative thermal oxidiser in the cement sector in partnership with CTP, an Austrian environmental technology company. The oxidiser purifies the exhaust gas of the cement plant through an entirely new process that eliminates all pollutants.
Wietersdorfer & Peggauer invests in plastics recycling, energy efficiency upgrades and research projects that provide further energy savings and emissions reductions. The company's most recent advance came in 2006, when it concluded a four-year upgrade that included installation of a new heat exchanger tower and alternative fuel processing plant at the Wietersdorfer plant. The company pledges continued investment in air, soil and water emissions reductions, in addition to an increase in the rate of alternative fuels used, including biological sludge, sewage sludge, sawdust and fibre residues.
Social responsibility
As for envionmental concerns, many of the Austrian cement manufacturers provide a high level of input in line with social responsibility initiatives. Notable examples include those of Leube, Wopfinger and Lafarge.
Leube makes several annual donations and is heavily involved in social altruism, including the preservation and protection of vulnerable buildings in the state of Salzburg. It also invests in educational initiatives, such as the House of Nature Salzburg and the open-air museum Großgmain, in addition to sponsoring school events and local sports teams.
Wopfinger makes similar local contributions, including sponsoring the construction of museums such as the Zoom Children's Museum in Vienna and the Wopfing town square, designed as 'a meeting place for all generations'. The company was awarded with the National Award 'Fit for Future' in 2013 for being the best training company in Austria and also endorses employee health intiatives with its 'Month of the apple' scheme, which provides all employees with free apples for a month.
Lafarge takes a different approach to its social responsibilities, focusing instead on its 'Building Better Cities' plan, which consists of the development of compact, sustainable, better networked and beautiful cities that benefit local residents. One particularly ambitious project is the construction of a rail tunnel through the Koralpe mountains that will cut transport times between Graz and Klagenfurt by two thirds. The new line is due for commissioning in 2022 and will be constructed with a specially designed cement with a chemical composition that was tailored to the geology of the project. It is anticipated to improve rail freight and passenger transport and provide a boost to the local economy.
Recent events
In spite of the turbulent economic climate throughout Europe, Austria remains at the head of the pack in terms of economy stability and resilient construction and service sectors. As such, the events of recent years do not characterise a struggling country, but instead comprise company expansions and ground-breaking investment projects.
Industry trends
In May 2012, VÖZ reported on the progress of the cement industry in 2011.19 Cement production increased to 4.43Mt, a rise of 4.11% when compared to 2010 and cement sales reached Euro394m. Cement production and sales volumes both remained below 2009 levels. The Austrian construction industry was predicted to grow by 0.7% over 2012, despite a further contraction of 0.3% predicted for Europe in the same period.
In a June 2013 mid-year review Rudolf Zrost, chairman of the management of VÖZ, anounced that price pressure was becoming an increasing problem for the industry in Austria.21 Cement sales in 2012 remained almost unchanged from 2011 at 4.46Mt, but revenues slumped by 4.7% to Euro375m. This was blamed on increased competition from cement imports from Turkey and Germany and the adverse effect of the reduction of CO2 emissions certificates.22
The construction industry grew by 6.0% in 2012, supported by slightly positive developments in building construction and renovation projects. Predictions of 0.6% growth within the Austrian construction industry prompted Zrost to announce "We are cautiously optimistic because housing needs to be further boosted to avoid a housing shortage, especially in the cities." The construction of 40,000 new homes in 2013 was predicted, although more than 50,000 would be required to prevent a housing shortage. Despite this, many industry professionals had experienced a trend of declining sales and said that they expect to witness the bankruptcies of small businesses in the near future. In response to the mixed results the Austrian government approved a stimulus package to the industry which included Euro276m to be invested in housing by the end of 2014.
Zrost also addressed the unique conditions and challenges currently faced by the Austrian cement industry. He stated that in 2012 alone cement producers had to pay Euro2.4m to the Remedian Act, Euro2.5m to green electricity costs and Euro1.1m in other energy taxes. "The cost burden for the cement industry is currently already more than 5% of net production value," said Zrost. In comparison, costs in the German cement industry were less than 2.5%.
Notable installations
The Donau City (DC) Towers of Vienna have been under construction at Danube Island, Europe's largest urban recreational area,23 since June 2010, having suffered delays due to the global financial crisis. The towers were designed for mixed use, namely hotels, offices, apartments and commercial properties. Tower 1 was completed in September 2013 and the first tennant, pharmaceutical company Baxter, moved in on 1 October 2013. Measuring 220m high, the tower is the tallest building in Austria and is one of the first Austrian tower blocks to qualify as one of the EU Commission's 'Green Buildings.' Construction of Tower 2, which is to be 168m tall, is due shortly.
The Wopfinger 'Concrete Monster,' installed at Freudenauer Harbor street in Vienna at the end of 2013, was the result of a design competition 'Graphical Federal Training and Research Institute.'24 The competition required that the site, which was already considered Wopfinger's technical jewel by directors Wolfgang Moser and Franz Denk, be decorated as 'part of the optical implementations of the core brand of the company.' The 'Concrete Monster' is apparently now considered a landmark of the Freudenauer port.
Companies and people
A long-running dispute with the European Commission, which began in November 2008, still blights Lafarge Austria. The commission officially alleged anti-competitive practices in seven of Lafarge's countries of operation, including Austria, in November 2010. The investigation is ongoing and no date has been announced for expected completion.
VÖZ was awarded first prize in the category of public companies at the Austrian Sustainability Reporting Awards (ASRA) in 2012. This marked VÖZ's third ASRA award for sustainability in the cement industry.
During 2013 cement producer Leube celebrated 175 years in the cement industry. The company is the oldest cement company in the world that is still run by the founding family.25 The Austrian company was founded in 1838 by Gustav Ernst Leube and was shortly followed by the purchase of the cement plant in Gartenau.
In November 2013 Leube made its annual Christmas donation to Salzburg Life Coaching Active president Michael Russ at the opening of the St. Leonhard Advent market. "Even in tough economic times, it is important for us to fulfil our social responsibility to the most vulnerable in our society. We are very pleased to present the Salzburg Life Coaching Active with our donation of Euro7000 to help with the care of people with intellectual and multiple disabilities in 2014," said Susanne Czepl-Zrost of Leube.
Austria's Kirchdorfer Group was awarded with two Innovation Award of Lower Austria prizes in November 2012, for the new anchorage system Deltabloc Absorption Link in the category of best new developments and a new ecologically sustainable noise protection system Phonobloc in the category of recognition.26
Kirchdorfer celebrated 125 years in the construction materials industry in 2013. Founded in 1888 by Emil Dierzer Knights and the Linz Mühlenund Nährmittelfabriksmitbesitzer Adolf Hofmann on the construction of a single railroad 'Krems Valley Railway,' the company has expanded ever since. In 2010 the group acquired Katzenberger Beton and Fertigteilwerke to complement its prefabricated housing division, while on 23 May 2012 the company opened its new administrative headquarters in Wöllersdorf. In January 2013 Kirchdorfer Group acquired two new quarries in the Czech Republic, which it then spent several months integrating. Completion was announced in April 2013, affording the company a total of nine quarries in the country. In August 2013, the company purchased a majority share of WIBAU Holding, which unites several subsidiaries in the fields of ready-mixed concrete, raw materials, disposal, recycling and scaffolding.
In June 2013 Vienna played host to the general members meeting that is held by Cembureau every two years.27 During the event the new Cembureau board of directors was selected, which included Peter Hoddinott, manager of Lafarge, as president and Daniel Gauthier, operating committee member of HeidelbergCement, as vice president.
August 2013 saw the installation of John Horvath, formerly the CEO of BPV, an accredited testing and inspection body, as Lafarge Austria's new construction system manager. "We at Lafarge see it as our duty to continue to prepare the current and future concrete market and to position our building materials sustainably. This requires experts with a passion for concrete, as we have in John Horvath," said Gernot Tritthart, director of marketing and innovation at Lafarge.
Outlook
The IMF predicts that despite a turbulent few years, the Austrian economy will see significant improvement in 2014, with a predicted GDP growth rate of 1.6%. This is somewhat higher than the predicted 1.0% GDP growth rate for Europe, consistent with Austria's comparably healthy economy.
Multiple organisations, including VÖZ and the Federal Environmental Agency, now recognise that the demand for cooling energy and its management will place a large burden on the environment, complicating emissions reductions.28 The demand for cooling is expected to rise massively within the next 20 years, prompting projects that incorporate the intrinsic storage capacity of concrete. Notable examples have included the Graz branch of Roche Diagnostics, the caverns at the Salzburg mountain and Energie AG's Power Tower in Linz, Upper Austria (Figure 17). Such projects are anticipated to continue with increasing intensity in the near future.18
Many of the Austrian cement companies are optimistic for the future. Kirchdorfer Group in particular has a long-term plan for its precast concrete components sector that it projects will further improve the profitability of business.
References
1. The World Bank, 'Austria,' http://data.worldbank.org/country/austria.
2. Pohl, H., D, 'Ostarrîchi 996-1996,' University of Klagenfurt, http://wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/spw/oenf/name2.htm.
3. Embassy of Austria, 'Austria and the United Nations,' http://www.austria.org/austria-and-the-united-nations.
4. The Austrian Foreign Ministry, 'Austria in the EU,' http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/foreign-ministry/foreign-policy/europe/european-union/austria-in-the-eu.html.
5. Worldwide inflation data, 'Historic inflation Austria - CPI inflation,' http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/austria/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-austria.aspx.
6. Association of the Austrian Cement Industry (VÖZ - Vereinigung der Österreichischen Zementindustrie), http://www.zement.at/.
7. http://www.commscope.com/docs/successstory/gmundner_zement_produktions_gmbh_cu.pdf.
8. http://www.scheuch.com/assets/case_studies/Kompaktfilter%20fuer%20Mischanlage_engl.pdf.
9. Lafarge Austria website, http://www.lafarge.at/.
10. Schretter & Cie website, http://www.schretter-vils.co.at/.
11. Wietersdorfer & Peggauer website, http://www.zement.wup.at/index.php?id=909.
12. Wopfinger website, http://www.wopfingerbaustoffe.at/front_content.php.
13. Rohrdorfer Gruppe website, http://www.rohrdorfer.eu/das-unternehmen-42.html.
14. Holcim Vorarlberg website, http://www.holcim.co.at/medien/medienmitteilungen/medienmitteilung/article/mahlwerk-loruens-stellt-produktion-ein.html.
16. http://www.wbcsdcement.org/index.php/key-issues/climate-protection/gnr-database.
18. VÖZ website, 'Resources and environmental protection,' http://www.zement.at/zement/zement/ressourcen-und-umweltschutz.
19. VÖZ website, 'VÖZ annual balance sheet in 2011 and 2012 assessment,' http://www.zement.at/services/presse/33-2012/161-jahresbilanz-2011-und-einschaetzung-2012.
20. VÖZ's website, 'From the industry,' http://www.zement.at/ueber-uns/aus-der-branche.
21. http://www.zement.at/ueber-uns/voez/zahlen-daten-fakten.
22. Aggregrates business, 'Austrian cement industry sees stable sales, yet turnover falls 2012,' http://www.aggbusiness.com/sections/general/news/austrian-cement-industry-sees-stable-sales-yet-turnover-falls-2012/.
23. http://www.dctowers.at/news.php?lang=en.
24. http://www.wopfinger.com/news/betonwerk-wird-kunstwerk.html?seite=hart.
25. IKP News, 'LEUBE celebrating 175 years of company foundation and opened an extraordinary sculpture ,' http://www.ikp.at/news-media/e-komtrast-der-ikp-e-newsletter/e-komtrast-20130626/e-komtrast-20130626-detailansicht/artikel/content-is-king.html.
26. Kirchdorfer Group website, http://www.kirchdorfer.at/en.
27. VÖZ website, 'New board of directors duo for European Cement Association,' http://www.zement.at/services/presse/40-2013/238-neues-vorstandsduo-fuer-europaeische-zementvereinigung.
28. Umwelt Bundesamt, 'Climate change by reducing the energy demand for cooling buildings,' http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/klimaschutz-durch-reduzierung-des-energiebedarfs.