Displaying items by tag: Cementos Argos
Argos installs solar power plant at Comayagua plant
13 March 2020Honduras: Colombia-based Grupo Argos energy subsidiary Celsia has announced that it has installed a 10.6MW solar power plant at Cementos Argos’ 1.0Mt/yr integrated Piedras Azules cement plant in Comayagua. Renewables Now News has reported that the 32,000-panel plant on the roof of the Piedras Azules plant will generate 20% of its operating power needs. Celsia says that the solar plant, its first in Honduras, will reduce Cementos Argos’ annual CO2 emissions by 10,000t/yr.
Cementos Argos enjoys sales and EBITDA boom in 2019
25 February 2020Colombia: In 2019 Grupo Argos subsidiary Cementos Argos’ sales rose by 11% year-on-year to US$2.8bn from US$2.5bn in 2018 and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 14% year-on-year to US$0.5bn from US$0.4bn in 2018. Cement dispatches rose by 0.6% to 16Mt. In the US, its main market, the company sold 6.3Mt of cement, up by 9.5% from 5.8Mt in 2018.
Argos CEO Juan Estaban Calle praised the company’s successes in 2019, such as the completion of its Thermally Activated Clays (TAC) project at its 1.4Mt/yr integrated Cementos Rioclaro plant in Colombia. “This allows for production and distribution of green cement with a greatly reduced clinker factor, 38% lower CO2 emissions and 30% of the energy consumption of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) production,” he said.
Ternary cements – The future is now!
19 February 2020There was fantastic news for fans of novel cements this week, when Cementos Argos announced the completion of work on a new 0.45Mt/yr calcined clay production line at its Rio Claro plant in Colombia. This artificial pozzolanic material, developed and promoted by the Swiss-led LC3 consortium in recent years, can dramatically lower cement CO2 emissions by replacing slag and/or fly ash in cement mixes. The Rio Claro plant is the first major cement plant to install such a line following smaller trials in Switzerland, India and Cuba.
Suitable clays are more widely available than slag and fly ash, alleviating some of the difficulty and cost of obtaining supplementary cementitious materials. They also need to be calcined at just 800°C, offering massive savings in terms of fuel costs, CO2 emissions and embodied energy compared to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) production. Karen Scrivener from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the leading academic party in the LC3 consortium, explained that calcined clays are at their best when in ternary (three-way) blends alongside clinker and limestone in the September 2019 issue of Global Cement Magazine. “It has long been known that calcined clays can be pozzolanic,” she explained. “When used alone, the maximum substitution level is around 30%, which gives a moderate saving in CO2 emissions. However, if we substitute a further 15% of the clinker with limestone, we get a significant reduction in CO2 emissions, with a product that has almost identical properties to the blend that contains just the calcined clay.”
While the exact composition of Rio Claro’s new products is unclear, it will enable Cementos Argos to produce ternary cement blends with CO2 emissions 38% lower than OPC. Energy consumption is also cut by 30%, which provides secondary benefits in terms of reduced off-site CO2 emissions. At the plant’s launch, Cementos Argos’ President Juan Esteban Calle clearly stated that calcined clays were the way forward, announcing, “With this project we are sowing the seeds of the Argos of the future. It starts today with a new production line at Rio Claro. In our commitment to climate change, this project makes us very proud.”
The response from Argos’ consumers will be keenly watched, especially in Europe. Just this week LafargeHolcim and Vicat, along with France’s Technical Association of the Hydraulic Binders Industry (ATILH), called on the European Commission and European Committee for Standardisation to hurry up and publish ternary cement standards across the European Union (EU). At the moment these producers are primarily concerned with CEMII / C-M and CEM VI cements. These classes of cement comprise a range of ternary blends that contain clinker and limestone, plus a third component, be it slag, fly ash, natural pozzolans or calcined clay. They claim that placing low-clinker cements on the market could reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by 127kg/t, around 20% of the 656kg/t average in Europe at present.
Frustrated with the delays at Commission level, cement producers have now taken things into their own hands. The plan is to establish the same standard within each EU Member State at the national level, rather than waiting in vain for standards from ‘on high.’ One pressing driver for this behaviour is the rapid approach of the Phase 4 of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in January 2021. In Phase 4 it is likely that EU cement producers will be allocated only 80% of the free allowances they have become accustomed to. They will have to buy the remainder at market prices, currently Euro25.1/t of CO2 (17 February 2020). This will represent a massive new expense for some producers. The opportunity to sell cement that emits only 58% of the CO2 of OPC is clearly exceedingly attractive as a way to reduce outgoings. CO2 emissions will be reduced, of course but, as usual, the way to make companies do things is to hit them in the wallet.
Indeed, on this point, Vicat seemed to almost goad or ‘troll’ its competitors in Europe this week by announcing that it has never sold any EU ETS allowances and is sitting atop a 5Mt CO2 reserve worth Euro120m. This is sufficient to last it until 2030 at current prices. The key part of that last sentence is ‘current prices,’ which are subject to change. In its press release, Vicat was keen to point out that it is not resting on its laurels, highlighted by its advocacy for ternary blends and continued development of alternative fuels. This may be wise, considering that EU ETS allowances will likely cost more once Phase 4 kicks in.
With clinker factors of just 50 - 65% for CEMII / C-M, and 35 - 50% for CEM VI, Edelio Bermejo, director of research and development (R&D) at LafargeHolcim insists, "These cements are no longer at the research and development stage. They have been widely validated and we are ready to produce them, especially as their manufacture does not require modification of our facilities." The establishment of Cementos Argos’ Rio Claro calcined clay plant proves his point. We can expect to hear a lot more about these blends in the coming months. In the words of Bermejo, “The future is here!”
Rio Claro plant starts making calcined clay cement
17 February 2020Colombia: Cementos Argos’ Rio Claro cement plant has completed construction of a new 0.45Mt/yr production line for calcined clays, an artificial pozzolan. This innovation makes the cement less environmentally damaging, as the production process’ CO2 emissions are 38% lower, with energy consumption 30% lower than ordinary Portland cement.
“With this project we are leading the industry and sowing the seeds of the Argos of the future, which today starts a new production line at Rio Claro,” said Juan Esteban Calle, President of Cementos Argos. “It has gigantic growth potential in all geographies, not only from the point of view of the product, but because it is a concrete action for the sustainability of our industry. In our commitment to climate change, this project clearly makes us very proud.”
Cementos Argos saves waste with recycled bags
10 February 2020Colombia: Cementos Argos has announced that its Green Bags initiative has seen the production of over 5 million bags from recycled paper, of which 808t was saved from going to waste. Cementos Argos supply chain manager David Restrepo that the initiative provides an alternative to ‘the felling of over 8000 trees and use of 64,000m3 of water, the equivalent of 26 Olympic swimming pools.’
Cementos Argos Newberry plant and Atlanta grinding plant win WHC Conservation Certificates
15 January 2020US: The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) has awarded Conservation Certificates to Cementos Argos’ 1.5Mt/yr integrated Newberry plant in Florida and 0.6Mt/yr Atlanta grinding plant in Georgia. Cementos Argos has installed a bat roost at the Newberry plant and planted bee and butterfly gardens with bird boxes for year-round resident bluebirds. The company said that the certification signals its ‘long-term commitment to managing quality habitats for wildlife.’
Cementos Argos sells 28 US ready-mix concrete plants
10 December 2019US: Colombia’s Cementos Argos has sold 28 ready-mix concrete plants. ValorFuturo has reported that Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete (SRM) has acquired the company’s Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia assets. Cementos Argos stated that the reason for the divestments was the failure of the plants to generate operational efficiency due to their small and isolated nature.
In 2018 Cementos Argos produced 5.3Mm3 of concrete at its 236 ready-mix plants in the US region, making it the second biggest domestic producer after Cemex. It ranked fourth for cement production over the period, supplying the US market with 4.7Mt of cement from its four integrated and three grinding plants.
Cementos Argos shares results
14 November 2019Colombia: Cementos Argos’ revenue in the three months to 30 September rose by 44% year-on-year to US$1.52bn for US$1.06bn. Lower sales across its cement and concrete sections caused the company’s three-month profit to drop by 65% year-on-year to US$10.3m over the period from US$29.6m. Higher costs also offset the income from the sale of the group’s Barranquilla natural gas power station to Glenfarne Group for US$420m in the quarter.
Global Cement and Concrete Association launches research network
10 October 2019UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched ‘Innovandi,’ a research network between industry and scientific institutions. The network intends to research the areas of process technology, including the impact of co-processing, efficiency of clinker production and implementation of CCUS/ technologies, and products. This will include the impact of clinker substitutes and alternative binders in concrete, low carbon concrete technology and improve the understanding of CO2 reduction through re-carbonation.
“Our industry is fully committed to taking action to reduce CO2 emissions. As such, Innovandi is an industry led initiative and will bring together the best minds from all corners of the cement and concrete world, academia and business. Together we will truly collaborate on a global scale and use our expertise to find new ways of working and developing effective innovations,” said Benjamin Sporton, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the GCCA.
24 companies from the cement and concrete industry, including cement and concrete manufacturers, admixture specialists and equipment suppliers, have committed to the initiative, with scientific institutions and additional companies set to join as its work begins work. These include Buzzi Unicem, Cementir Holding, Cementos Argos, Cementos Molins, Cementos Pacasmayo, Cemento Progresso, Cemex, CNBM, Chryso, CRH, Dalmia Cement, FLSmidth, Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC), GCP Applied Technologies, Mapei, HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, Nesher Israel Enterprises, SCG Cement, Titan Cement, Refratechnik Cement, Sika Technology, Subote New Materials and Votorantim.
As part of the new initiative, the GCCA also intends to establish an annual Innovandi global conference to promote collaboration on innovation and research in the sector.
US court rules in favour of Cementos Argos in pricing dispute
16 September 2019US: Cementos Argos has won its case before the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Spartan Construction accused it of unlawfully selling cement at a lower price to a competing buyer in the US Virgin Islands. Mondaq reports that Argos traded with both Spartan and Heavy Materials on St. Thomas between 2010 and 2013, when Spartan withdrew its ready-mix concrete business from the island. Only the latter received a 10% volume discount. The court found Argos not in violation of competition law due to lack of proof of harm attributable to discriminatory prices.