03 May 2023

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s sales totalled US$1.2bn during the first nine months of the 2023 financial year, a rise of 28% year-on-year from US$941m during the corresponding period in the 2022 financial year. The Balochistan Times newspaper has reported that Lucky Cement attributed the growth to the commencement of operations of its new subsidiary, utilities provider Lucky Electric Power. The company increased its profit after tax by 83%, to US$172m.

Lucky Cement commissioned its Pezu cement plant’s new Line 2 at the end of the second quarter of the 2023 financial year. This increased the company’s installed production capacity by 26% to 15.3Mt/yr. The producer also inaugurated a new 34MW solar power plant, and completed negotiations for another, 25MW, solar power plant at its Karachi cement plant. The latest solar power plant is scheduled for commissioning later in 2023.

India: Ambuja Cement’s sales rose by 8.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, to US$520m, from US$483m in the first quarter of 2022. The company’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined marginally to US$96.4m. Costs rose by 12% to US$453m from US$404m.

During the quarter under review, Ambuja Cement made a milestone payment on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract under its planned capacity expansion strategy. It subsequently foreclosed the contract, recovering its US$222m advance, ‘in cognisance’ of on-going investigations into its parent company Adani Group.

Ambuja Cement’s chief executive officer Ajay Kapur said "We are pleased to report another strong performance of Ambuja Cement, which has been driven by our strategic initiatives on business excellence, operational efficiencies and synergies. Our focus on operational excellence and cost optimisation measures has yielded improved profitability. We have been able to maintain our growth trajectory and further strengthen our position in the market. With the rise in construction activities across our markets, we see the continuation of the elevated demand and strong volumes in the coming quarters as well.”

India: The state government of Assam has issued Purbanchal Cement with a notice to vacate illegally occupied land in Saraturi. The Sentinel newspaper has reported that the cement producer reportedly used a ‘duplicate registration paper’ to occupy 100 hectares of land in the South Kamrup Tribal Belt.

The All Assam Tribal Sangha (AATS) welcomed the authorities’ action, and called for the closure of Purbanchal Cement’s ‘main plant,’ in order to ‘free’ the tribal belt.

India: Ramco Cements will despatch 300t of its cement from Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata, Bengal, on 4 May 2023. The shipment is destined for the Northeast Indian state of Mizoram. Press Trust of India News has reported that the delivery will dock at Sittwe Port, Myanmar, before re-entering India by road at the Zorinpui border crossing.

The shipment is a trial of a new route to connect the main part of India to Northeast India.

Afghanistan: State-owned Jabal al-Saraj Cement has served eviction notices to 40 families living in company accommodation. Hasht e Subh News has reported that the occupants are the families of former Jabal al-Saraj Cement employees who worked at the company’s cement plant for a minimum of 30 years, as per a pre-existing agreement between the cement producer and employees.

Cement production at the Jabal al-Saraj cement plant has been suspended since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-2021.

Belgium: France-based Air Liquide has signed a memorandum of understanding with Holcim to supply and operate a Cryocap Oxy carbon capture unit for the forthcoming upgrade to the Obourg cement plant. The intention is that 95% of the CO₂ generated from the new production line will be captured and then transported via the Antwerp@C export terminal for under-sea sequestration. Air Liquide and Holcim have co-applied for the European Innovation Fund to support the project.

Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President at Air Liquide Group, said “The decarbonisation of the industry is at the heart of our Advance strategy. We are committed to accompany our customers through providing a wide range of innovative solutions. As an example, Air Liquide's proprietary Cryocap technology is particularly well suited to decarbonise the cement industry.”

US: Hollingshead Cement, the cement division of SRM Concrete, has opened a new terminal in Nashville, Tennessee. The dome-style terminal is capable of storing over 45,000t of cement. It is situated on the Cumberland River to allow for transport by river barge.

Jeff Hollingshead, the chief executive officer of SRM Concrete, said “We are thrilled to announce the opening of this new state-of-the-art terminal here in Nashville, and we are looking forward to servicing our own cement needs and those of our customers. Over the course of the last few years, cement supplies have been disrupted many times. Our new terminal will allow us to ensure constant cement supply to our Middle Tennessee concrete plants.”

Hollingshead Cement currently provides bulk cement distribution services in Nashville, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Southwest Ohio.

UK: Riku Kytömäki, the chief executive officer of Betolar, has called for a global performance-based standard to replace the current building requirements that restrict the use of new low-carbon materials to replace cement in concrete production. He made the comments at the London Concrete Expo. Kytömäki argued that current standards state that concrete manufacturers must use a certain percentage of cement to strengthen the finished product. Betolar’s product Geoprime is an additive designed for use in cement-free concrete production with ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). However, “ageing” standards rule out the use of these kinds of products such as this despite their sustainability advantages.

Kytömäki said “It is time for global concrete industry to step up their sustainability efforts. New material innovation is available. It is cost-effective and helps to meet stricter durability requirements. However, the current regulations across the markets are restricting the use of circular materials allowed in concrete buildings.” He added that his company’s product Geoprime, “does not require large investments, but there is regulation to be developed quickly so that new solutions and materials can be used."

Betolar says it has analysed over 200 side-streams other than slag and fly ash, providing flexibility to process locally available side-streams. It added that there are also significant CO₂ savings to be found in logistics when manufacturing processes take place near the source of the industrial side-streams.

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC), with its members and partners in the concrete sector, has released Concrete Zero, an action plan to help the local cement and concrete sector reach net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. The five priority areas it is focusing on include: eliminating the use of coal and petroleum coke as fuel sources for clinker production; reducing the volume of clinker used to produce cement; increasing the use of supplementary cementitious materials; working towards building carbon capture, utilisation and storage capacity; and advocating for performance-based codes, standards and specifications, procurement policies and increased material efficiency in construction. Targets include reaching a 100% fuel mix from non-fossil-based sources by 2050. The latest plant follows the goal of achieving a 40% emissions reduction by 2030 as part of its Roadmap to Net-Zero Carbon Concrete by 2050.

Adam Auer, the president and chief executive officer of CAC, said “Our net-zero action plan is ambitious and cannot be achieved by industry action alone. Working with government, industry, and partners in the design, architecture, and construction industry will be essential for success. Canada’s cement and concrete industry are committed to doing our part to help Canada build a better, cleaner future. Working together, we can deliver Concrete Zero.”

US: ASTM International’s concrete and concrete aggregates committee (C09) is developing a proposed standard specification for a broad range of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM). Larry Sutter, an ASTM International member and the principal engineer at Sutter Engineering, commented that this performance specification (WK70466) will ease the adoption of new materials used for SCMs as established sources become less available.

Sutter said “For a variety of reasons, historic sources of SCMs, like coal fly ash from electric power generation, are in short supply and new materials are emerging.” He added, “These new materials do not fall under existing specifications, leading to the need for new specifications. Rather than writing a new specification for every emerging material, we are writing a performance specification that can be used to cover the full range of them.”

Sutter noted that concrete made with SCMs can be less costly, more durable and more sustainable than ordinary Portland cement. New specifications will allow these new materials into more construction projects. This effort relates to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #7 on clean and affordable energy.