- Written by Robert McCaffrey, Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
It has been said that supply creates its own demand, and if you were to build a cement plant in the middle of nowhere, as sometimes happens, then the locals would start to use more cement. On the other hand, demand creates its own supply, in the capitalist system at least. Profit-seekers will always provide a good or service if a profit can be made.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
My parents told me many times while I was growing up that ‘pride comes before a fall.’ I am very often reminded of the truth of this aphorism in my later life. Whenever I think that I am getting the hang of ice-skating backwards, for example, I will almost inevitably promptly fall over. Exploring some tombs near the pyramids at Giza after the latest AUCBM conference in Cairo, I fancied myself as a modern-day Indiana Jones, striding over the dunes and uncovering lost treasures. Until, that is, I forgot to duck low enough going through an ancient doorway and struck my head on a 5000-year-old door lintel - which was inscribed with hieroglyphs which I now imagine spelled out ‘Mind Your Head.’ Being momentarily poleaxed, I fell down and badly twisted my knee. Pride, once again, came before a literal fall.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I’m writing this at a height of 8km, flying somewhere over the beautiful north of Italy, on my way back from Thessaloniki in Greece, where I attended the EuroSlag Conference. Two startling ideas came out of the meeting; the possibility that CO2 might come to be treated on the same basis as waste in the waste hierarchy (avoidance being preferred to disposal/sequestration, for example); and the possibility of a net-zero CO2 iron and steel industry by 2050. It was a useful trip, with good food and a little bit of running and bird-watching as well (each to their own), but I can’t help but feel a little bit guilty.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
As my wife shopped in a branch of Hobby Lobby, a giant American craft shop, I picked up a copy of the founder’s autobiography which was languishing near the tills. David Green’s book, ‘Giving It All Away... and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously,’ recounts how he started his company by making picture frames in his garage in 1970. His firm now has over 700 stores and he is worth around US$7.9Bn. He seems to be a humble man, despite his vast wealth, and is seeking to give away much of his money – and not necessarily to the people who might expect to receive it. He says that it is never too early to consider what your legacy may be. He considers that one of his own legacies (apart from a precedent-setting US Supreme Court case), are the values that he has instilled in his own family.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
There were interesting discussions at two of the cement industry conferences that I’ve recently attended, the Global FutureCem Conference on CO2 reduction strategies for the cement and concrete industries, and the Intercem event in Istanbul, its 100th edition. Industry experts were asked at both events if there was any prospect of there being a global emissions trading scheme (a ‘GETS’). One expert said “It’s a fairy tale - it will never happen.” Another said, “Yes, it’s inevitable. It will happen within five years.” The likely outcome probably lies somewhere between the two. But why might it come into being and what would such a scheme look like?
