18 November 2020

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) says it plans to develop a roadmap by the end of 2021 to help its member companies achieve carbon neutrality across the concrete value chain by 2050. It maintains that ‘concrete is critical to building a sustainable future’ and reinforced the benefits of concrete such as energy efficiency, lower life-cycle costs, durability and resilience. The roadmap is intended to solve problems facing the industry such as developing new technologies to reduce energy consumption and to develop and adopt related regulations.

“As the second most used material on earth and a cornerstone of our economy, we understand the critical role cement and concrete play in our nation’s future, and we are committed to an industry-wide effort that achieves carbon neutrality,” said Tom Beck, chairman of the PCA and president of Continental Cement. Rick Bohan, Vice President, Sustainability for the PCA added, “Developing a roadmap to carbon neutrality by 2050 further demonstrates our industry’s commitment to be a part of the solution and tackle this global issue.”

The PCA says that the industry has reduced energy consumption by 35%, emissions intensity by 11% and since 1990 has increased its use of alternative fuels.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has launched a Euro850m sustainability-linked bond with a coupon of 0.5% maturing in 2031. It says it is the first bond of its kind in the building materials industry and that it is part of its commitment to reach its 2030 CO₂ reduction target.

“We are proud to be the first in our industry to launch a sustainability-linked bond. The order book of Euro2.6bn demonstrates the confidence of investors in the company’s financial strength, strategy and ability to deliver on its sustainability targets,” said Géraldine Picaud, Chief Financial Officer of LafargeHolcim.

Bond investors will be entitled to a higher coupon should the company not meet its objective, incentivising LafargeHolcim to reach its target of 475kg net CO₂ per tonne of cementitious material by 2030.

India: UltraTech Cement says it has beaten its goal of doubling its energy productivity ahead of its deadline. It joined the EP100 initiative in 2018 and agreed to double its energy productivity from the base year of 2010 with the target year of 2035. It has achieved this by investing in energy efficiency measures such as upgrading clinker coolers, implementing variable frequency drives to manage electricity flow, and introducing new waste heat recovery systems. The company says it is focusing on new technologies, changes in product and energy mix, digitisation and carbon pricing. It foresees the digitisation of its energy performance as a key enabler for identifying the best opportunities to save energy.

"UltraTech firmly believes that companies in the building material sector can come together to step up climate action for meeting the global 1.5-degree ambition. Joining like-minded companies in EP100 gave us an opportunity to accelerate and scale-up levers to double energy productivity and also drive the decarbonisation agenda,” said Kailash Jhanwar, the managing director of UltraTech Cement.

EP100 is a global business initiative consisting of a group of companies committed to improving their energy productivity. EP100 is led by the Climate Group, an international non-profit organisation, in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy.

Iran: Cement production rose by 14.4% year-on-year to 35.6Mt in the first half of the local calendar year that started in March 2020 from 31.1Mt in the same period in the previous year. The sector exported 5.8Mt of cement with a value of US$128m to 28 countries according to the Mehr News Agency. India, Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Qatar, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China and Oman were among the export destinations of cement.

Bolivia/Paraguay: The Bolivian-Paraguayan Binational Chamber of Commerce & Industry is working with Bolivia-based Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) to export cement to Paraguay via the Parana – Paraguay Rivers Inland Waterway. The organisation is also trying to promote exports from the new Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia’s (ECEBOL) integrated cement plant at Caracollo in Oruro, according to the Agencia Boliviana de Información. Local Bolivian cement producers faced production stoppages from March to May 2020 due to coronavirus-related restrictions.

Germany: Dyckerhoff has reopened a railway siding at its integrated Amöneburg cement plant. The additional transport link joins road and water connections at the site. The company said that reusing the railway siding made sense given low water levels in the River Rhine, that made parts of the waterway unnavigable in 2018, as well as adding a sustainable transport route. The railway tracks at the site have not been used actively since the mid-2000s. The cement producer has repaired the tracks on its site and a related signalling system.

Belgium: Magotteaux has launched Expand, a vertical roller mill (WRM) wear parts product line for the cement industry. The equipment supplier says that the range offers high resistance, consistent production, energy efficiency and lower maintenance and replacement frequency. It also uses a scrap buy-back program to consider product lifecycle concerns. The wear parts line comes in two variants: Expand One, the standard metal matrix composite (MMC) product; and the higher performance Expand+.