China: China Resources Cement’s turnover rose by 3% year-on-year to US$5.16bn in 2020 from US$5.02bn in 2019. Its profit attributable to shareholders was US$1.15bn, up by 4% year-on-year. Sales volumes of cement grew by 6% to 87.3Mt from 82.5Mt. Volumes increased in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou but decreased in Fujian, Hainan and Shanxi.
In February 2020 the cement producer completed the construction of one 1.4Mt/yr clinker production line and two cement grinding lines with a combined cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr in Anshun City, Guizhou. Also in 2020 the group commissioned one new concrete batching plant and shut down two others.
During the reporting year the Group co-processed 183,100t of municipal solid waste, 52,800t of urban sludge with an 80% moisture content and 6100t of hazardous industrial waste. It operates seven co-processing projects with four more either under trial operation or under construction. It also said that it had been following policies for carbon emissions with trial activities conducted in preparation for a future unification of national carbon market. Eight company plants in Guangdong and five in Fujian were reported as having settled their carbon credit quota for 2019.
Other operations of note include the start of Phase 1 of the group’s intelligent manufacturing pilot project at a unit in Tianyang in conjunction with Siemens. The group has also commenced trial operation of its in-house developed intelligent manufacturing system at a cement plant in Pingnan, Guangxi. The project interacts with system quality management systems and advanced kiln controls. The next step will be to use the quality management system at cement plants in Shangsi and Guigang, Guangxi. A so-called ‘lighthouse plant’ is also planned to work with environment, health and safety, operation, production, equipment, quality, mines and logistics at a cement plant in Fengkai County, Guangdong. The group’s platform for sharing auxiliary materials and spare parts was launched in Fujian in April 2020 and has since been rolled out to sites in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. Finally, the company’s ‘Smart Card’ logistics system has put into operation at cement plants in Fengkai, Huizhou, Luoding and Dongguan, Guangdong and has been operating at 25 cement production plants by the end of 2020.
