Displaying items by tag: Colombia

There 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!”

Colombia: 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.”

Mexico: Cemex’s operating earnings have fallen in Mexico and the US. Its net sales fell by 3% year-on-year to US$13.1bn in 2019 from US$13.5m in 2018. Its cement sales volumes dropped by 7% to 62.8Mt from 67.2Mt. Its operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 11% to US$2.38bn from US$2.69bn.

“In a very challenging year with weaker macroeconomic and market conditions prevailing in several of our operations, we were able to limit the downside to our EBITDA and free-cash-flow generation through the decisive and proactive initiatives under our ‘A Stronger Cemex’ program,” said Fernando A Gonzalez, chief executive officer of Cemex. He added that the group was ‘cautiously optimistic’ about its outlook for 2020, with market improvements expected in Mexico and the US.

By region, sales and earnings fell in Mexico due to decline in public and private investment. In the US sales grew, but earnings fell, in a market beset by bad weather, weak residential performance and competition in Florida. Sales and earnings grew in Europe on a like-for-like basis driven by infrastructure demand. Elsewhere sales and earnings fell, although a stronger market was noted in Colombia.

Colombia: Finland’s Wärtsilä has signed a further four-year extension to its operation and maintenance (O&M) agreement with Cemex Colombia. The original agreement was started in 1998 and it has now been extended to the end of 2023. Cemex’s integrated Caracolito cement plant uses a 26MW power plant operating on five Wärtsilä 18-cylinder 34SG engines in V-configuration running on natural gas. Wärtsilä employs 15 personnel in the running of the power plant, all of whom were hired locally.

Colombia: Switzerland-based construction materials producer Sika has invested an undisclosed sum in relocating production from a concrete admixture and mortar plant in Colombia to a larger facility in Barranquilla. Sika Americas regional manager Christopher Ganz said, “Our latest investment in Barranquilla will help us capture the potential of the dynamic construction market in the Caribbean region. Our aim is to grow more quickly than the construction market in this region.” The market grew by 15% in 2019.

Sika also manufactures building products for the Colombian market at facilities in Bogotá, Medellín and Duitama.

US: 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.’

Colombia: 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.

Colombia: Empresa Colombiana de Cementos (EcoCementos), a 50-50 joint venture between Colombian multinational Organizacion Corona and Spanish-based Cementos Molins, has announced the start of production at its new 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Sonson, Antioquia province. The plant, which was constructed with an investment of US$380m, mines limestone from its own quarry and will produce Alion brand cement for the Colombian market. The unit is increases Cementos Molins’ first in Columbia. It already produces and trades cement via its subsidiaries in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay.

Guatemala: Colombia’s Ultracem has invested US$1.2m in a facility for packing cement in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, generating 16 jobs. The company has revealed that its next project in the country, where it currently sells 0.12Mt/yr of cement, will be production facilities. Prensa Libre has reported that Ultracem’s three-step entry into Guatemala, beginning in April 2019 with the import and distribution of packed cement, has entered its second stage. This consists of packing its Colombian cement, imported via Honduras, in Guatemala.

Ultracem hopes to have entered production in the country to compete with Cementos Progreso, whose three plants’ 5.3Mt/yr total output constitutes the entirety of domestic production, by September 2020. Ultracem’s administrative director Estuardo Solís has stated that ‘an aggressive marketing plan for expansion into Guatemala, Central America’s largest market’ is in place. Over four months the company has sold 40,000t of cement in the country, all of it in the east, centre and north-east.

Ultracem began its Central American expansion in 2018 with cement distribution to Panama, followed closely by Honduras, where it established a US$2m grinding plant in May 2019.

Colombia: The Regional Autonomous Corporation of Antioquia has reissued Cemex’s environmental clearance for its 1Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Macao. The certification marks the conclusion of a dispute over mining right in the course of which Cemex fired multiple executives for payment of US$25m to a private third party. La Republica reports that Cemex is now in a position to advance several licensing processes and to begin construction of connecting roads for the plant.