Displaying items by tag: Australia

Austria/Australia: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita and Calix say they have started a memorandum of understanding to develop a flash calciner for use in the production of refractory materials, to enable CO₂ separation for either utilisation or storage. The companies have agreed to run studies up to and including basic front-end engineering and design for a commercial-scale demonstration facility at an RHI Magnesita site.

RHI Magnesita and Calix started discussing a collaboration in early 2019. The application of Calix's technology to refractory products has been the subject of pilot scale test work during 2020, with larger scale test work currently underway.

Luis Bittencourt, chief technology officer of RHI Magnesita said, "We are pleased to be working with Calix on this project, which is a key part of the research and development programme on CO₂ emissions reduction that we are carrying out over the next five years. Together with our partners at Calix, we are seeking to develop new technologies for the capture, storage and utilisation of CO₂ that would otherwise be emitted during the refractory production process." Phil Hodgson, the managing director of Calix added that the company was also looking at strategic opportunities in its magnesium oxide businesses.

Australia: Calix has joined as a partner of the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre (HILT CRC). The initiative brings together heavy industry players, government and research and aims to boost the capability of Australian companies to remain globally competitive by capitalising on existing mineral and renewable energy resources to become international producers and exporters of low-carbon products. HILT CRC has secured US$29m from the government. This joins funding of US$158m in direct and in-kind contributions from its partners over the last decade.

“It is a chance for us to demonstrate the technology developed for CO₂ mitigation in the production of cement and lime through our European LEILAC-1 and 2 projects in an Australian setting, as well as explore other more sustainable applications for our technology in heavy industry, backed by this impressive team of researchers and industrial participants," said Calix’s managing director Phil Hodgson.

As part of the HILT CRC, Calix will continue to develop its technology for the reduction of carbon emissions from lime and cement production, and also use its Calix Flash Calciner (CFC) technology to develop other more processing applications such as for bauxite processing for the aluminium industry and production of calcined clay from kaolinite for use in new lower carbon cements.

HILT CRC’s core industrial partners include Adbri, Alcoa, Boral, Fortescue, Grange Resources, Liberty, Roy Hill and South32. The initiative has its headquarters in Adelaide and it plans to establish hubs in heavy industry regions of Gladstone, the Pilbara, Northern Tasmania, South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf, Western Australia's Kwinana and South West regions, the Southern Highlands of Nnew South Wales and Portland in Victoria.

Australia: FCT Group has appointed Adriano Greco as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Constantine Manias in the role, who will retain the post of executive chairman.

Greco has served the company as American regional CEO since 2015 and implemented its Brazilian business. He brings over 20 years of pyro-processing experience from management roles in the Americas, China and Europe while working for Greco Combustion Systems and Gebr. Pfeiffer.

Australia: Adbri says it wants to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as part of its commitment to a low carbon future. The board and management team are assessing medium and long term emissions reduction options and are intend to release a roadmap by the 2022 annual general meeting. Adbri set its current emissions reduction target in 2019, to deliver a 7% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2024 against 2019 baselines. In 2020 it achieved 2.3% reduction.

“We recognise that process emissions from the production of cement and lime are not easy to abate. Adbri is committed to maintaining its sector leadership position in sustainability by continuing to increase its use of renewable energy, alternative fuels and supplementary cementitious materials. Developments in technology and partnership with industry, government and research institutions will be critical as we deepen our understanding of long term emission reduction options. This will form part of our roadmap toward net zero by 2050,” said Adbri’s chief executive officer Nick Miller.

Australia: James Hardie’s consolidated net sales increased by 12% year-on-year in the 2021 financial year to US$2.91bn from US$2.61bn in the 2020 financial year. Its adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and taxation (EBIT) rose by 29% US$629m from US$487m. The producer recorded increased fibre cement sales in North America, by 12% to US$2.04bn from US$1.82bn, and in Asia Pacific, by 3% to US$496m from US$479m. The group’s Europe building products division’s sales rose by 5% to US$273m from US$261m.

Chief executive Jack Truong said, “I am proud of our globally integrated team’s ability to close out the fiscal year with a fourth quarter of exceptionally strong results. We have now delivered eight consecutive quarters of consistent profitable growth, including record financial results each of the past three quarters. Our performance in fiscal year 2021 marked a significant step change across multiple facets of our global company that allowed us to deliver this consistent profitable growth on an expanding global scale. Over the past 12 months, we were able to accelerate our strategy: firstly to unlock capacity and increase efficiency in our global manufacturing network through LEAN initiatives, and secondly to better integrate our supply chain with our customers, which collectively drove consistent market share gains in all three regions.”

Australia: Adbri says that it expects growth in domestic cement demand to continue beyond a present residential construction boom. The Australian Financial Review newspaper has reported that Adbri chief executive Nick Miller believes that house building has undergone a nationwide ‘pull-forward’ in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The producer says that the government’s planned US$116bn infrastructure spend would insure a medium-term increase in cement demand. It gave as an example the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, which will require 500,000m³ of concrete. The company currently derives 45% of sales from non-residential construction.

Australia: FCT Combustion has appointed Andy Bailes as its new chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific.

Bailes joins FCT after working for almost 30 years at Metso in Australia, having spent 10 years as General Manager – Engineered Product Services, where he was responsible for managing a large team covering proposals, sales, technical, commercial and contractual obligation of the EP Products (Grinding, Pyro, Process & BMH) Group within the Australia and New Zealand region. He is a previous winner of the NEI International Combustion Scholarship for Chemical Engineering and holds additional qualifications in Business Administration and Management.

US: Australia-based Boral Limited says that as part of the review of its North American Fly Ash business, it is considering options such as a potential joint venture, a strategic alliance, divestment to a third-party or continued ownership. Boral has appointed advisors to support an assessment and intends to release an update by August 2021 or earlier if appropriate.

“We have conducted a detailed study of the US fly ash industry and remain confident in the long term demand dynamics for the industry, including significant incremental demand growth potential from the US Government’s proposed new infrastructure program,” said Boral’s chief executive officer and managing director Zlatko Todorcevski. “New opportunities for supply exist from harvesting landfills, imports and natural pozzolans, which we expect will more than offset the decline in fresh fly ash supply as the US transitions away from coal fired power generation.”

A great question was asked at yesterday’s Virtual Global CemTrans Seminar: what impact did the recent blockage of the Suez Canal cause to the cement industry? Luckily, Rahul Sharan from Drewry was on hand discussing freight costs following the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

As most readers will know, the Suez Canal was blocked in late March 2021 when the 200,000dwt Ever Given ran aground, at around six nautical miles from the southern entry of the canal. The ultra large container vessel was subsequently refloated and towed away just under a week later. While this was happening the fate of the ship became a global news story with business analysts totting up the cost of the obstruction. 40 bulk carriers were reported as waiting to transit the waterway the day after the blockage started and some of these were carrying cement. Reporting by the BBC noted that 369 ships were stuck waiting on either side of the blockage on the day before the ship was finally freed. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) estimated their loss of revenue from the incident at US$14 – 15m/day. Analysts like Allianz placed the cost to the global economy at US$6 - 10bn/day.

In Sharan’s view the blockage of the Suez Canal happened at a potentially risky moment for cement and clinker shipping because there was already congestion in shipping lanes built up on the east coast of South America and around Australia. However, a delay of a week around the canal, followed by the resulting congestion dispersing quickly over the following days, does not seem to have had any major impact so far.

Sharan’s presentation at Global CemTrans also included a summary of cement shipping. The key takeaways were that clinker shipping overtook cement shipping in 2019 with a connected increase in fleets investing in handymax-sized vessels. He also pointed out the key cement and clinker importing countries in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started causing market disruption. For cement: the US, the Philippines and Singapore. For clinker: China, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Turkey and Vietnam were the biggest exporters for both in that year.

The Ever Given incident has highlighted the continued importance of the Suez Canal for global trade for commodities. Goods still need to be physically moved around, however much stuff we digitise. It also contrasts with the issues that the Egyptian cement sector has faced in recent years such as production overcapacity. While domestic cement plants have struggled to maintain their profits, plenty of cement carriers have been transiting through the Isthmus of Suez. Local producers may well have gazed at them and wondered where they were going.

One of them, Al-Arish Cement Company, took action in this direction this week with its first export shipment of clinker. The Clipper Isadora ship disembarked East Port Said port for Ivory Coast. Future shipments are planned for West Africa, Canada, the US and Europe. Ship tracking reveals that the Clipper Isadora has not taken the Suez Canal on this occasion.

The proceedings pack for the Virtual CemTrans Seminar 2 2021 is available to buy now

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has detailed its plans for future exports of cement to North America. The Investor Daily newspaper has reported that the producer and subsidiary Solusi Bangun Indonesia will target 0.5 – 1Mt of cement exports to North America in 2021, according to president director Hendi Santoso. The export plans will be carried out in partnership with Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement, which already has a US market presence and owns a 15% stake in Solusi Bangun Indonesia. Hendi said that the move aims to ‘cushion’ the decline in domestic cement sales, down by 28% bulk and 13% bagged year-on-year in 2020. The company successfully exported cement to Australia, Bangladesh, China, Fiji and Sri Lanka in 2020.

President commissioner Rudi Antara said, "The Covid-19 outbreak still colours our lives. There is no other choice but to increase business efficiency and the top line outside of our main markets."