Displaying items by tag: Cementa

Sweden: Cementa says that the decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court to reject its renewal application to continue mining limestone at its quarries in Gotland will create a ‘crisis’ for consumers in the autumn of 2021. The quarries supply its integrated Slite cement plant. The producer said that the ‘majority’ of Swedish cement production could cease in November 2021 following the expiry of the current licence in October 2021.

“We are seriously concerned but also surprised by the court's ruling today,” said Magnus Ohlsson, the chief executive officer of Cementa. “Limestone has been mined in Slite for over 100 years, which has built up a huge knowledge bank about how the business affects the surrounding environment. Our application is solid and clearly shows that it is possible to conduct a continued sustainable limestone mining in the area. We must go through the decision carefully and then set up the strategy for how we will handle the situation,” He added, “For Sweden, our customers and for us and our employees, it is important that political decision-makers and authorities quickly draw up new guidelines for how the supply of critical building materials such as cement and concrete should work.”

The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidebergCement originally received clearance in 2020 to renew its mining operations at the site until 2041. However, this was subsequently challenged. The current decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court was reached as they said they had insufficient evidence to assess the environmental impact of the application.

Sweden: Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Cementa plans to upgrade its Slite unit in Gotland to become the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant. This will be achieved through modification of the plant’s fuel system to ‘significantly raise’ biobased fuel substitution, as well as 100% carbon capture and storage (CCS) via a 1.8Mt/yr CCS installation. Full-scale capturing of the plant’s CO₂ emissions is scheduled by 2030.

Chair Dominik von Achten said, “HeidelbergCement will be the leader in the global cement industry on its transformation path towards climate neutrality. The key for decarbonising our industry is to find, apply and scale technical solutions for carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCU/S). After having gained valuable experience with CCU/S technologies in Norway and other countries, we are now excited to make the next step with a completely carbon-neutral cement plant in Sweden.”

Sweden: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Cementa has appointed Matilda Hoffstedt as the manager of its integrated Slite plant. She will succeed the current plant manager, Fred Grönwall, in June 2021. Grönwall has been in post since 2018 and will leave the company.

Hoffstedt holds a master's degree in science from Uppsala University and started working for HeidelbergCement in 1998. She worked as a supervisor and project manager at Slite until 2010. Later she ran operations at the Skövde plant for 10 years until 2020 and is currently working as Manager Technical Support for HeidelbergCement Northern Europe.

Sweden: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Cementa has appointed Jörgen Staflund as the plant manager of its integrated Skövde cement plant with effect from the start of 2021. He succeeds Matilda Hoffstedt, who has been in the post since 2010. She has been appointed to the role of Technical Support Manager within HeidelbergCement Group.

Staflund started his career working for Volvo in Skövde before becoming the maintenance manager for Cementa at the Skövde plant. He later worked as the Senior Technical Advisor Cement Operations Northern Europe before becoming the plant manager of Cementa’s Degerhamn plant in 2018 and 2019. He was recently been working on setting up a new concrete plant in Norway.

Sweden: Cementa says that it has added a second biogas-powered Volvo FH460 LGB truck to its logistics fleet. Based at the 0.6Mt/yr Skövde cement plant in Västergötland, the company says that the truck will supply customers in western Sweden with cement. Finland-based Gasum will fuel the trucks with biogas, which it says emits 90% less nitrous oxides (NOx) than diesel.

Sweden: The Swedish Transport Association (ST) has arranged with Cementa for the supply of ‘climate-enhanced’ cement for the completion of an expansion of the Malmö – Lund Southern Main Line between Arlöv and Lund, including an underground section and three new stations. The company first concluded the contract with ST in 2017 and has since supplied normal Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to the major infrastructure project. It has now agreed with the client to switch to ‘climate-enhanced’ OPC produced at its 2.5Mt/yr integrated Slite cement plant, which burns over 60% alternative fuels in its kiln lines, for production of the remaining 65,000m³ of concrete required for the project. Cementa southern district manager Jenny Larsson said, “This project is in line with Cementa’s climate-enhanced vision for infrastructure.”

Sweden: The Land and Environmental Court has ruled in favour of Cementa for the renewal of its extraction licence for its quarry near the 2.5Mt/yr integrated Slite plant in Gotland. The company says that the decision ensures the continued operation of the cement plant. “We see this as confirmation that it is possible to continue limestone extraction without jeopardising water security or harming protected areas or species,” said Cementas CEO Magnus Ohlsson. “This gives us peace of mind and the chance to focus on future work in order to further develop sustainable cement production in Slite.”

Sweden: A failure on a conveyor belt between the kiln and a mill at the end of October 2019 has caused a ‘significant’ loss of production at Cementa’s Slite plant. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement says that a temporary solution is in place but that the unit’s capacity has been reduced. Repair work is expected to continue until the end of November 2019. The cement producer said that deliveries of its Basement product would be reduced while it looks for an external supplier to bolster supply.

Sweden: The Land and Environment Court will hear the dispute over Cementa’s licence to work a limestone quarry near its Slite plant in Gotland on 30 September 2019. The company has stated the supply of stone from the quarry is essential to the existence of the 2.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant. It is seeking to extend the permit, which expires in 2021, to 2041.

Sweden: Cementa has started using a gas-powered truck for bulk cement deliveries. The Volvo FH460 LNG will use the Skövde cement plant as its main base and delvier cement to customers in the west of the country. Typically gas-powered vehicles in Sweden use a mixture of 50% biogas and 50% natural gas, although this may change is greater amounts of biogas become available. The truck is owned and operated by Tommy Bremans Åkeri in Skövde, a supplier to XR Logistik.