- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
A lost decade sounds like a throwback to the drug-addled 1970s, when rockers lost their minds and their memories through over-indulgence in drugs, booze and hookers. Some say that if you can remember the 1960s, then you weren't really there. However, the proverbial 'lost decade' of this month's Last Word is less about LSD and 'free love,' and is more about the less sexy concepts of deflation, productivity gaps and economics.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
Have you been to America? Maybe you live there. It's an amazing place. I have plenty of family there - in Washington DC, Marcellus (NY), Houston, St Louis, San Antonio, Quantico and Los Angeles and have also visited the IEEE cement industry conference in many places too (Rapid City, South Dakota, was one of my favourites). I've also travelled all the way down the East Coast, and from LA to Winnipeg in Canada, visiting National Parks along the way. It's a big place - like 50 countries - whose size was brought home to me when my identical twin brother and I took the 36-hour Greyhound bus trip from Houston to LA and it took 19 hours to cross from one side of Texas to the other.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
My younger daughter Jemima (a teenager at last) has recently completed a homework assignment on hydroelectric power in Brazil (as you do). It's actually on YouTube.1 I was able to supply her with a snippet of information that I had recently gleaned, that parts of Brazil are suffering from severe drought, with some reservoirs at only 5% of their capacity. In fact, the drought has been so bad that some of the Carnival parades that take place in Brazil at this time of year have been scaled back (such as the most famous, in Rio de Janeiro) or cancelled altogether, with towns saying that they couldn't spare the water to clean the streets after the parades.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
Our popular Global Cement LinkedIn group (now with more than 7777 members) is a great place to get a 'reality check' on the cement industry. A few months ago I posted a simple question, 'What is in the future for alternative fuels (AF) for cement?' and we have had a lot of thoughtful comment back since then.*
Pavel Cech, the VP of industrial ecology for SW& E Asia at Lafarge started off by commenting, "In many plants it is already the case that fossil fuels are just used as a sweetener. The fuel mix will always depend on the market conditions and incentives and on process mastery. If a plant struggles to make good clinker with a conventional fuel mix, then good luck with the complexity brought by the real AF stuff!"
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
Be careful for what you wish for - that's what they say. You may have filled-up your car with petrol ('gas' in the US) and wished that the cash numbers on the pump didn't whizz around quite so quickly. Depending on the level of petroleum taxation that you are subject to, you may be paying a lot more for your distilled petroleum products than you might pay for a barrel of Brent Crude or West Texas Intermediate.
