Displaying items by tag: Cemex
Spain: Cemex España will install a carbon capture system at its Alicante cement plant in Valencia, as part of its efforts to make the unit a 'benchmark pioneer low-CO2' cement plant. The producer holds a contract with ET Fuels for the supply of 45,000t/yr of CO2 captured at the facility for methanol production.
Chief executive officer Fernando González said “Our goal of reaching net-zero CO2 emissions is achievable and will be driven by collaboration and innovation. Our decarbonisation roadmap includes reducing emissions to the lowest possible level through proven levers such as clinker substitution and alternative fuels. New levers, such as rapidly developing CCUS initiatives, must effectively tackle the remaining CO2 emissions to hit our ambitious 2050 objectives.”
Cemex's European CO2 emissions decline by 41% between 1990 and 2022
24 February 2023Europe: Cemex’s annual CO2 emissions from its European operations fell by 41% in 2022 compared to 1990. It added that it had cut its emissions in the region by 12% between 2020 and 2022. The group attributed the decline to the success of its climate action strategy to date, including a large investment in a new alternative fuels facility in the UK, investments in solar power plants in Germany and Poland and the roll-out of its Vertua reduced-CO2 products across the region.
Regional president Sergio Menendez said "As we begin to implement the next stages in our climate action strategy, we now expect to exceed our 2030 aspiration of hitting a 55% CO2 reduction in our European operations. While we are progressing important carbon capture projects and policy advocacy for our ultimate net zero target, these 2030 interim aspirations are not reliant on this technology.” he continued, “This is certainly a challenging target, but I am confident that with innovative thinking, close collaboration between our different business areas and further development of our regulatory framework, it is both feasible and profitable. This sustained effort is vital if we are to meet our global, primary objective of becoming a net-zero CO2 company by 2050. We will continue to provide regular updates on our progress.”
DOE provides funding to Solar MEAD project
17 February 2023US: The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded US$3.2m to Solar MEAD, a project that aims to replace fossil fuels with concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy in clinker production. Solar MEAD is jointly led by Cemex, Swiss solar fuels innovator Synhelion and Sandia National Laboratories, a research and development laboratory run by the DOE.
Synhelion’s CST technology generates hot gas at 1500°C, high enough to produce clinker without any thermal fuels. Cemex and Synhelion produced a batch of clinker with CST in a research setting in Spain in 2022. In the Solar MEAD project, Sandia National Laboratories will contribute its research facilities in New Mexico and subject expertise to help accelerate the adaptation of the technology for use in cement manufacturing. The projects aims are to increase the efficiency of CST technology by improving heat transfer from the hot gas to the cement raw mix and further reduce the CO2 emissions of the process.
Former Cemex UK Technical Director Neville Roberts dies
15 February 2023UK: Neville Roberts, a former Technical Director of Cemex UK, has died on 10 February 2023, at the age of 66. He was a notable figure in the alternative fuels sector for the cement industry.
Neville attended Holyhead County School 1969 - 1975, taking Maths, Physics and Chemistry 'A' Levels, as well as representing the school in rugby, football and athletics. Roberts trained as a chemical engineer at Loughborough University and had worked in the cement industry for over 35 years. During his career he started as a process engineer, became a plant manager at a number of cement plants around the world including Chelm, Poland, and was appointed to five director roles for three cement companies. The companies he worked for included Rugby Cement, Castle Cement, RMC, Cemex and Saudi Cement Company. His later roles for Cemex included UK Technical Director (2004 - 12) and Energy Business Development Director (2012 - 13). He worked in the UK, Poland and Saudi Arabia. After leaving Cemex, Roberts set up his own consultancy and later became the managing director for the UK of Netherlands-based N+P Alternative Fuels.
He was a passionate supporter of all things Welsh, especially rugby, and was awarded the Global CemFuels ‘Personality of the Year’ award in 2013. Neville was husband to Patricia, father to Katie and Holly and grandad to Martha, Edie and Albee. He was known to his grandkids as 'Wowo.' Neville Roberts was great company, mentored and influenced many colleagues around the world and will be sorely missed.
Cemex grows sales in 2022 but reports loss in fourth quarter
14 February 2023Mexico: Cemex’s net sales grew by 8% year-on-year to US$15.6bn in 2022 from US$14.4bn in 2021. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 6% to US$2.68bn from US$2.84bn. Cement sales volumes decreased by 5% to 63.4Mt and ready-mix concrete sales rose by 2% to 50.1Mm3. However, the building materials producer reported a loss of US$99m in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to a profit of US$195m in the same period in 2021. It attributed this to an impairment for goodwill and fixed assets.
Fernando A González, the chief executive officer of Cemex, said “2022 was a year of unique challenges as inflation spiked to 40-year highs, but I am pleased by how we responded and expect to continue to see the benefits of our strategy play out in 2023.” He added, “Importantly, after several quarters in which we have been able to offset inflation in dollar terms, I am seeing growing evidence that actual margin recovery is underway.”
By region, net sales increased in Mexico but operating EBITDA fell. In the US sales grew but earnings were flat. In Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia sales rose and earnings increased on a like-for-like basis. In South, Central American and the Caribbean sales grew but earnings fell.
Colombia: Spain-based Cemex España is offering to acquire non-Cemex-owned shares in Cemex Latam Holdings. Sentido Común News has reported that the move prefigures Cemex Latam Holdings' planned delisting from the Colombian stock exchange to become an independent company. Mexico-based Cemex will consider its divestment under the group's asset optimisation strategy. The company said that the current offer gives investors the chance to exit. It expects to conclude all transactions by 1 May 2023.
Cemex Philippines secures biosolids supply
10 February 2023Philippines: Cemex Philippines has secured a contract with Manila Water Company for the supply of biosolids from sewage processing for use as alternative fuel (AF). Cemex Philippines has already taken receipt of 10t of biosolids at its Antipolo cement plant in Luzon's Calabarzon Region.
Cemex Philippines’ sustainability and public affairs director Christer Gaudiano said “As pioneers of the use of biosolids as AF in the country, we have just signed what will now create the series of significant steps towards making circular economy a reality."
Sustainability initiatives form one arm of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum's Golden Arrow award for good management, which Cemex Philippines won for the second time on 9 February 2023.
Update on construction and demolition waste, February 2023
01 February 2023Cemex launched a new waste management division called Regenera this week. Cemex describes Regenera as a “business that provides circularity solutions, including reception, management, recycling, and coprocessing of waste.” The Mexico-based company has a long and leading history with sourcing and using alternative fuels in the cement sector and the new organisation looks set to utilise this experience. What is notable though is how the business is targeting three waste streams: municipal and industrial; industrial by-products; and construction, demolition and excavation waste (CDEW). Bringing the three waste streams together in this way appears to be novel for the heavy building materials sector, particularly the inclusion of CDEW, which we will explore further here.
CDEW is split into fractions, just like the municipal and solid waste streams that end up as alternative fuels at cement plants, but the biggest fractions are generally concrete, followed by bricks. The recycled concrete is then typically used as an aggregate, either in new concrete production or in areas like road construction and earthworks. The use of recycled aggregates (RA) made from CDEW goes back to at least the 1930s in its current form although ‘reusing’ materials from structures such as castles and churches goes back far further. Recycling and reusing CDEW gained a boost in 2020 when the European Union (EU) set a 70% recovery target. However, within the EU the CDEW recycling rates vary considerably and that 2020 target includes the use of CDEW in backfill applications.
In its launch statement for Regenera, Cemex noted that it operates a dock in Paris, where it receives a variety of materials, including construction debris, excavated material and inert soil. These materials are sorted, processed and then transformed into recycled aggregates or organic material used to restore quarries. Cemex then promptly followed up the official launch of Regenera on 30 January 2023 with the acquisition of a majority stake in Shtang Recycle, an Israel-based CDEW recycling company. It added that Shtang Recycle is preparing to build a recycling plant with a production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr of CDEW waste materials. The output from the plant will be used as raw materials for aggregate production.
The focus on CDEW recycling was flagged up at Cemex’s investor event in November 2022. It said that it was targeting a recycling rate of 14Mt/yr of construction and demolition waste by 2030. Other managed waste stream goals included doubling the amount of municipal and industrial waste it manages, to achieve a 50% to fossil fuel substitution rate, and increasing its usage of alternative raw materials and by-products by 30%, thereby eliminating 13Mt/yr of extracted materials.
Cemex is not alone in targeting the CDEW waste sector. Holcim’s recent work in the area goes back to at least 2016 when a recycling unit near its Retznei cement plant in Austria started processing 130,000t/yr of CDEW. It announced in December 2022 that it was setting up a similar recycling centre, also in Austria, at its Mannersdorf cement plant. In October 2022 Holcim acquired Wiltshire Heavy Building Materials in the UK. This company recycles 150,000t/yr of construction and demolition waste into aggregates and concrete. Holcim linked the acquisition to its Strategy 25 target of recycling 10Mt/yr of construction and demolition waste by 2025.
Activity by other cement companies includes the commissioning of a construction waste recycling plant at Gennevilliers in France by CRH-subsidiary Eqiom in April 2022. It was aiming for a target of 50,000t in 2022. In November 2022 Heidelberg Materials agreed to acquire RWG Holding based in Berlin, Germany. Then, in December 2022, it announced a deal to buy Mick George Group in the UK. Both proposed acquisitions are subject to competition authority approval. Heidelberg Materials’ current target is to offer circular alternatives for half of its concrete products by 2030.
The moves by the bigger cement companies into the CDEW sector follow sustainable thinking and the waste hierarchy. Yet the big prize here is to gain a route to dispose of some of their CO2 emissions through recarbonation and this has been flagged up in several net-zero roadmaps for the cement sector such as those by Cembureau and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). Holcim has been involved in the FastCarb project in France, running a pilot at its Val d’Azergues cement plant in 2021. Heidelberg Materials has been testing its own process with so-called recycled concrete paste. The development now appears to be that utilising CDEW has entered the sustainability strategies for some of the big cement-concrete-aggregate producers, targets have been set and acquisitions are happening.
For more information on Heidelberg Materials research into concrete recycling read the January 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine
Cemex orders ship unloader from Bruks Siwertell
01 February 2023US: Cemex has ordered a type 10 000 S mobile ship unloader from Sweden-based Bruks Siwertell for use at Belle Chasse in Louisiana. The ship unloader was delivered towards the end of 2022, has a continuous rated cement handling capacity of 300t/hr and can discharge vessels up to 10,000dwt.
Philippines: Cemex has launched an offer to acquire 12% of outstanding shares in Cemex Philippines, giving it a 90% stake in the company, for US$38m. Axis Negocios News has reported that the group is seeking to increase and consolidate its interests in Cemex Philippines in order to assess a potential divestment from its position.
In December 2020, Cemex increased its stake in its subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings by 20% to 93%. It subsequently divested part of that business in 2022.