Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: Boral plans to run a pilot scale carbon capture and storage unit at its integrated Berrima Cement plant in New South Wales. The project follows an allocation of a US$1.7m grant from the Australian Government’s carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS) Development Fund in June 2021. The pilot intends to develop and test a re-carbonation strategy for CO₂ storage. Captured CO₂ will be stored in recycled concrete, masonry and steel slag aggregates. In its 2021 sustainability report, the buildings materials company said that, “The relatively low capital and operation costs, abundance of selected waste materials and the financial return potential due to the increased value of processed aggregates are key drivers for adoption of this technology.”

Australia: AdBri and Barro Group have signed an agreement to acquire Metro Quarry Group’s sand operations. The business consists oftwo quarries, the Lang Lang quarry and the Nyora quarry, in Victoria. The quarries command a total of 50Mt of sand reserves. AdBri will pay US$21.6m to the companies’ joint venture for the purpose of the acquisition and to supplement the business’ working capital. The partners expect to conclude the deal in November 2021.

Australia: Boral has sold its roofing and masonry business to private equity firm Lutum. Quarry Magazine has reported that Boral will retain ownership of its Emu Plains, New South Wales, concrete roofing plant and other ‘relevant infrastructure’ to support its on-going building materials operations.

Australia: Researchers from Murdoch University in Western Australia have developed a cement-free concrete called Colliecrete. ABC News has reported that the concrete comprises of 80 – 90% fly ash. Other ingredients are bauxite residue and recycled aggregates. Developer Ramon Skane said that customers can make Colliecrete ‘anywhere, at room temperature.’

Australia: US-based Carbon Direct has bought a 7% stake in Calix. Reuters News has reported the value of the stake as US$17.7m. Reuters News has reported that Calix plans to use the proceeds to scale up its carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, as demonstrated at the LEILAC and LEILAC 2 installations at Lixhe, Belgium, and Hanover, Germany.

Calix chief executive officer Phil Hodgson said "As the world puts emissions trading schemes in place, CCS does start to look like a multibillion dollar addressable market.”

Australia: Boral has agreed to sell its roof tiles business to private equity company Lutum and other investors. The Australian newspaper has reported that the deal is part of Boral’s exit out of building materials markets in Australia.

Australia: A South Australian court has found former Adbri (formerly called Adelaide Brighton) accounts manager Glenda Burgess guilty of nine counts of deception and nine counts of dishonest dealing between 2009 and 2017. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Burgess increased AdBri’s customer Concrete Supply’s credit limits, concealed its debts and created ‘large’ manual entries in her employer’s accounts to benefit it. The company only paid around US$14.5m for cement worth US$23m during the period under investigation. However, the prosecution said that Concrete Supply was not complicit in the alleged crime. Sentencing for the case is due to take place later in 2021.

Australia: Adbri’s first-half sales in 2021 were US$545m, up by 7% year-on-year from US$508m in the first half of 2020. The group’s cement and clinker volumes increased by 11%. It said that this was due to a rise in demand in the eastern states of Australia and the recommencement of regular supply to a customer in South Australia. The group increased its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to US$64.0m, up by 81% from US$35.3m. Its net profit increased by 95% to US$41.1m from US$21.1m.

CEO Nick Miller said “Adbri delivered a robust first half financial performance for 2021 recording solid growth in revenue and profits with improving margins as demand for construction materials rebounded, supported by increased residential housing activity and infrastructure spending.” He added that full-year 2021 earnings would increase less sharply year-on-year than first-half earnings have, due partly to the anticipated impacts of the opening of a rival cement terminal in New South Wales in the second half of the year.

Australia: James Hardie has raised its full-year earnings forecast for the 2022 financial year to US$550-590m from US$520-570m. The decision follows a year-on-year increase in consolidated sales of 35%, to US$843m from US$624m.

Australia: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has started operating a cement terminal at Port Kembla in New South Wales. The Japan-based cement producer owns a 30% share in the company running the unit, which operates as Falcon CP. The terminal has a silo capacity of 36,000t. Sumitomo Osaka Cement says it plans to use the terminal as a means to increase its activity in the local market. It runs its regional headquarters in Sydney trading as SOC Oceania.