Displaying items by tag: Europe

France: Hoffmann Green has reported a revenue of €13.2m in 2024, doubling its revenue from 2023. The sale of cements contributed €2.8m, while entry fees from licensing agreements contributed €10.5m. The producer sold 16,269t of cement in 2024, despite the deterioration of the local market. It signed licensing agreements in the US, UK and Ireland, and expects to reach its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) break-even point in 2024.

Co-founders of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, said "Despite a stagnant national construction market, Hoffmann Green has achieved a historic 2024 financial year, doubling its revenue, reaching an estimated EBITDA break-even for the first time since the company was founded, and the signing of numerous partnerships, particularly as part of our international development."

Europe: Titan Cement has invested in AI solutions provider Optimitive, to reinforce the use of AI for the optimisation of its plants. The producer aims to continue to improve its productivity and efficiency through this investment. The investment follows Titan Cement's implementation of Optimitive's Optibat software at its plants in order to improve their operational performance, reduce energy consumption and curb CO₂ emissions.

Fernando de la Prida, CEO of Optimitive, said "For Optimitive, the investment by Titan, one of the main players in the cement market, demonstrates the strength of the company, the cutting-edge technology built inside our product and the high level of satisfaction of our customers."

Italy: Buzzi has released its preliminary financial results for the 2024 financial year. It recorded cement sales of 26.3Mt in 2024, in line with 2023’s figures. Consolidated net sales also remained stable at €4.31bn. Recurring earnings by interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to rise to €1.27bn.

The company reports that growth remained steady in the US and China, while in Europe, the economy continued to weaken, hampered by ‘sluggish’ domestic consumption and demand. It stated that it remains ‘highly exposed’ to risks associated with escalating geopolitical tensions and potential tightening of US trade policies.

In its home country of Italy, economic activity was reported to have remained weak in the fourth quarter of 2024 after stagnating during the summer months, due to the subdued performance of the manufacturing sector and a slowdown in services.

As for the company’s outlook, it stated ‘Despite an improving trend in the latter part of the year, 2024 showed some weakness in demand across most of the countries where we operate, except for Poland and the Czech Republic, although offset by a favourable development of selling prices. The low production levels negatively impacted operating leverage in Central Europe. The exit from Ukraine and the consolidation of Brazil led to a net positive impact on consolidated results. Therefore, based on preliminary available data, we anticipate that operating results will remain broadly in line with the previous year.”

Italy: Alpacem Group has completed the acquisition of the Fanna cement plant in Pordenone and several concrete plants in the region, following regulatory approval on 1 February 2025. Over 80 employees will join the company’s workforce and Fanna will become the group’s third fully-integrated plant alongside its plants in Wietersdorf, Austria and Anhovo, Slovenia.

The Fanna plant has a clinker capacity of 0.66Mt/yr and sources raw materials from three nearby quarries.

Bernhard Auer, Alpacem’s managing director, said “The integration of the Fanna cement plant and the concrete mixing plants strengthens our presence in Italy and in the entire Alpe-Adria region, and enables us to expand our business activities in the market and grow as the Alpacem Group.”

Italy: Federbeton, the Italian cement association, has expressed alarm that the high price of gas is adding €80m/yr to the cost of cement production. Nicola Zampella, the general manager of Federbeton, called for an ‘urgent’ change to the national energy system to make it more equitable, sustainable and competitive, according to Adnkronos. He recommended energy diversification, further encouraging the use of alternative fuels, simplifying regulations, making investing and supporting sustainable technologies easier and adding incentives to use carbon capture and storage.

UK: The Materials Processing Institute (MPI) is preparing to open its Sustainable Cement and Concrete Centre (SCCC) later in February 2025. The centre will focus on research and material development, including novel formulations for low-carbon cement and concrete and the use of electric arc furnace (EAF) slags in aggregates and clinker production. It will also provide consultancy services to further support clients to accelerate innovation, offering expertise and project management from concept through to pilot stage production.

The SCCC is a part of the EconoMISER programme, led by the Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium (FISC), which aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK’s so-called foundation industries. These include the cement, metal, glass, ceramic, paper, polymer and chemical sectors. The MPI is based in Middlesborough.

UK: Material Evolution has announced a partnership with ARC Marine for the use of its low-carbon cement in ARC Marine’s products. The companies intend to use Material Evolution’s MevoCem product across ARC Marine’s aquaculture, coastal defence and offshore energy portfolio. ARC Marine have accepted delivery of the first shipment of product to undergo testing in a marine environment. The partners will develop and test bespoke products tailored for subtidal and intertidal construction with the aim of scaling up production to include a wide-scale collaboration throughout in 2025 and beyond.

ARC Marine builds products that support artificial reefs and protect infrastructure like submerged cables and breakwaters. It has deployed over 2000 reef cubes into seven different countries. It says its reef cubes have provided a habitat for over 190 unique species.

UK: Material Evolution has appointed Nigel Shewring as its Director of Research and Development (R&D).

Shewring holds over 25 years of R&D experience in a global industrial coatings environment. He worked for AkzoNobel Powder Coatings from 2006 and then became the Group Director for R&D at Hempel in 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Durham and a PhD in material science from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

Material Evolution produces an 'ultra-low carbon' cement product called MevoCem. It commissioned its Mevo A1 Production Facility in Wrexham in 2024.

Germany: The German Cement Works Association (VDZ) has launched its new Cement Carbon Class (CCC) labelling system for cement. CCC labels inform customers of the embodied CO₂ emissions of cement, with Classes A to D signifying 100 – 500kg CO₂/t. Meanwhile, those below 100kg CO₂/t will class as CCC Near Zero. The labels are currently available for cement producers to adopt on a voluntary basis.

Greece: Titan Cement Group says that it has accelerated its innovation strategy with new investments in cement-aligned start-ups. The producer has invested in AI-based industrial process optimiser developer Optimitive, in concrete design systems developer Concrete.ai, in demolition materials-based concrete developer C2CA Technology and in property technology investor Fifth Wall.