Displaying items by tag: Belgium

Germany/Italy: HeidelbergCement has released details on how it will integrate Italcementi into its business. Key details of the plan include the sale of Italcementi’s Belgium operations, the retention of the Italcementi brand and headquarters and the Italian cement producer’s i.Lab centre will assume research and development responsibilities for the entire group. However the acquisition is expected to result in up to 260 job losses at Italcementi’s base in Bergamo. The full integration plan is expected to be complete by 2020.

“Following our motto ‘all business is local’, it is important for us to preserve Italcementi's strengths and professional expertise, which have ensured its success in Italy and abroad. I am convinced that we will be able to achieve the planned Euro400m in synergies and bring Italcementi back to profits by operational improvements, streamlining the administration and leveraging the increased size of our combined business,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

The acquisition still depends on approval from the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. On 1 April 2016, HeidelbergCement formally submitted the merger plan to the European Commission.

To this end, HeidelbergCement has decided to sell Italcementi’s entire Belgian operations, primarily consisting of Italcementi’s Belgian subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges. The proposed divestment would remove all overlaps between the activities of HeidelbergCement and Italcementi in Belgium and the Netherlands. Preparations forthe divestment have already started and ‘significant’ interest has been noted. BNP Paribas will support the process.

The plan presented in Bergamo by Scheifele says it intends to keep the industrial network and plants in Italy as well as the Italcementi brand. In addition, HeidelbergCement builds on Italian management heading the Group's operations in Italy. i.Lab, based in Bergamo, where Italcementi will keep the headquarter of Italian country organisation, will become the home of the product research and development division of the whole group.

In order to streamline the overall group organisation some staff and administrative functions will be centralised in Heidelberg. According to the integration plan around 170 people will receive relocation offers to other offices within the group. Any redundancies in Bergamo, which could potentially affect between 230 and 260 people, will be handled using Italy's temporary layoff scheme. In addition, severence packages will be negotiated with the unions. At the end of the transition period in 2020, about 210 to 250 professionals will remain in Bergamo.

HeidelbergCement expects the closing of the acquisition of the 45% stake to be finalised in early July 2016 depending on the decision of the cartel authorities in Europe and the USA. Implementation of the integration plan will start after the closing. 

Belgium: Cembureau has taken exception with a report published by Sandbag on the emissions trading scheme and European cement sector entitled ’ Cement - The Final Carbon Fatcat - How Europe’s cement sector benefits and the climate suffers from emissions trading flaws.’ The European Cement Association alleged that the report contains factual and numerical errors. It also criticised the conclusion that the European Union (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) has incentivised overproduction.

“The allegations that the ETS has incentivised overproduction are based on thin air and do not acknowledge the strides the cement sector has made through investments in the reduction of its CO2 emissions. The ever-recurring mantra on over-allocation ignores that the cement industry has always called for an allocation closer to production and will continue to do so,” said Cembureau in a statement. It pointed out efforts by the cement industry to reduce the clinker content of cement and the presence of cement at the start of the building supply chain.

Cembureau also disagreed with the concept of a tiered approach as suggested by Sandbag. It has lobbied for a revision of the auctioning/free allowance of shares so as to allow the best performers to receive full free allocation, in line with the European Council Conclusions of 23 October 2014. It pointed out risks of a tiered approach to include unclear and unverifiable criteria to distinguish between sectors that could be discriminatory and open to legal challenge.

Despite its complaints Cemburea did partly agree with Sandbag’s views on the need for innovation funding to stimulate breakthrough technologies, a closer alignment between allocation and production in the form of a dynamic allocation and a stronger recognition of the role of alternative fuel and raw material use in emission reductions, with the inclusion of a landfill ban on recoverable and recyclable raw materials.

In its report Sandbag suggested that the EU ETS may have caused emissions in the cement sector to have risen beyond ‘business as usual.’ It estimated that emissions may have risen by more than 15Mt due to the scheme. It also flagged up five ‘Carbon Fatcat Companies’ from the cement sector who have collectively received nearly Euro1bn worth of spare EU allowances for free between 2008 and 2014. The cement producers cited by Sandbag were LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement and Italcementi, CRH, Cemex and Buzzi Unicem.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European cement association, believes that the European Commission's proposed headline resource efficiency target fails to capture real resource efficiency improvements by adopting the weight-based Raw Material Consumption (RMC) as a proxy.

While the cement industry is raw-material intensive by mass, it is also one of the biggest contributors to the circular economy. Cembureau believes that in order to enhance resource efficiency in the cement industry, the following factors should be ensured:

• When applying the waste hierarchy (prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery, disposal), options that deliver the best overall environmental, social and economic outcomes should be encouraged and assessed at the local level;
• Efficient use of resources throughout the value chain spanning from extraction, manufacturing, construction, use, to end-of-life stages;
• Use of resources in such a way that has the lowest environmental, social and economic burdens over the long term;
• Use of resources appropriate to the reserves available, i.e. scarcity/abundance are critical factors, which mean sustainability needs to be approached in different ways for different resources.

Belgium: Holcim Belgium has announced plans to cut 48 out of 200 jobs at its cement plant in Obourg to restore profitability. By enhancing efficiency the management hopes to attract important investments.

Although cement demand in Belgium has remained stable in France and the Netherlands, which are supplied by the factory in Obourg, demand fell by 30%. In addition the plant at Obourg faces high fixed costs from taxes and an old production fleet.

The management believes the factory in Obourg may continue operating with 152 workers by improving flexibility and simplifying the organisation. Talks with trade unions will be started as soon as possible, the company added.

Belgium: CBR, part of HeidelbergCement Group, has announced that it plans to close its Harmignies white cement plant in Belgium.

Reasons for the potential closure include structural difficulties, high logistics and production costs, an unfavourable geographical location and a decline in the market for white cement. Although a number of restructuring measures were implemented in 2007 and 2013, in addition to investments aimed at lowering production costs, these were not enough to offset the challenges facing the plant.

If the closure goes ahead, 97 jobs could be affected. CBR management and staff representatives will enter into a period of consultation regarding the procedure.

Belgium: The European Commission said on 6 January 2014 that it has rejected Berlin's request to refer to the German competition authority regarding a proposed takeover by Holcim of some of Cemex's European assets. Holcim intends to acquire part of Cemex's activities in cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in western Germany and a small number of plants and sites in France and the Netherlands.

The German competition authority had asked to review the proposed deal itself, arguing that it threatened to significantly affect competition in the cement markets of northern and western Germany. However, the Commission, which acts as the competition authority in Europe, said that the deal would affect cement markets outside of Germany such as parts of Belgium, the Netherlands and the northeast of France. "The Commission concluded that the geographic scope of the affected cement markets is wider than national and that therefore the Commission cannot refer the assessment of the transaction to Germany."

The Commission announced in October 2013 that it was opening an in-depth investigation into the proposed takeover. It has until 31 March 2014 to make a final decision.

Belgium: Cembureau has issued a joint statement with other members of the Industrial Emissions Alliance declaring its concern for aspects of the upcoming European Commission proposals regarding the Air Policy Review. In particular the European Cement Association (Cembureau) singled out emissions reduction targets and the target year of 2025.

The statement calls for 50% 'gap closure' for emission reductions as it views a proposed rate of 75% as 'unobtainable' due to issues with how emissions reductions will be delivered by current legislation, the costs of going beyond current legislation and the environmental benefits of further measures. It added that the high rate would damage European Union (EU) industrial competiveness and EU jobs. The statement also calls for the target year to be extended to 2030 to align it with the Framework for Climate and Energy Policies dates.

Belgium: Loesche has developed a dry refining process for stainless steel slag (EDS), with CALA Aufbereitungstechnik GmbH & Co. KG, to obtain a high-purity metallic portion and a valuable, metal and mineral-free filler material at the same time. Belgian company RECOVAL assigned Loesche with the engineering and delivery of a turnkey processing plant primarily for stainless steel slag.

In the recovery process, and purely by the addition of CO₂ to the EDS, finished components with structural properties like those of concrete are produced without the use of conventional cement. A Loesche Vertical Mill type LM 15.2M will be at the centre of a newly-built processing plant for the manufacture of such components in the district of Charleroi, Belgium. Around 20t/hr of stainless steel slag will be processed in this specially designed mill.

Belgium: CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, has published a roadmap, the role of cement in the 2050 low carbon economy, detailing how the cement industry could achieve lower carbon emissions.

The project presents five parallel routes that can each contribute to lowering emissions related to cement production, as well as concrete production. These include methods such as resource efficiency, energy efficiency and carbon sequestration and reuse. These methods have been quantified in the roadmap because they are under the cement sector's control. The other two routes, product efficiency and downstream, look at how cement and concrete can contribute to a low carbon society.

"The cement roadmap is a view into the future. It shows us what is possible and where we find limitations. It is a good basis for future work, a good starting point. We need cooperation, not confrontation, but we also need to push each other to find new ideas, new pathways, towards a more sustainable future," said MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz at the launch event on 25 September 2013.

Belgium: The Belgian Competition Council has fined three cement producers and two related organisations Euro14.7m for restricting competition in the Belgian cement market. In a statement, the Belgian Competition Council accused HeidelbergCement subsidiary CBR, Italcementi subsidiary CCB, Holcim Belgium, FEBELCEM and the national centre for technical and scientific research for the cement industry (CRIC/OCCN) of concerted behaviour.

According to the council, the accused parties acted in a coordinated manner between May 2000 and October 2003 to delay the adoption of a licence and of standards allowing ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) to be used as a component for ready-mix concrete. The cement producers and FEBELCEM sought to protect their own interests in selling cement for ready-mix concrete and CRIC/OCCN aided them in doing this.

The council noted that Irish GGBS producer Orcem had its import of GGBS to Belgium delayed due to the anticompetitive practices.