Displaying items by tag: France

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has appointed François de Gliniasty as Technical and Commercial Promoter for the Ile-de-France region. The 45-year old holds over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and logistics. He began his career at Lapeyre, part of Saint-Gobain Group, in sales and was then Logistics Manager from 2000 to 2005. He was then appointed as the Lapeyre Group’s Organizations Manager for the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions of southeast France. Since 2008, he has been in charge of sales development for the Paris region at WEDI France.

France: Vicat has reported first-quarter sales of Euro615m in 2020, up by 7% year-on-year from Euro600m in the first quarter of 2019. Cement sales grew by 5.5% to Euro319m (52% of total sales), up by 5.5% year-on-year from Euro302m.

Vicat chair and CEO Guy Sidos said, “The Group's performance over the first quarter of 2020 was solid despite a sharp slowdown at the end of the period in France, India and Italy.” In spite of the coronavirus crisis, “Industrial and commercial activity was maintained on almost all sites, in line with market evolutions.” Sidos says that the group expects ‘a significant impact on first-half results’ in 2020.

France: Cem’In’Eu has announced plans to establish a Euro23.0m grinding plant at Portes-lès-Valence in Drôme department. The La Tribune newspaper has reported that the plant will receive imported clinker produced at Adana Çimento’s 5.2Mt/yr integrated Adana plant in Turkey by river and rail from the port of Sète. Cem’In’Eu president and Vincent Lefebvre said that the location “allows us to be in the middle of a Lyon-Marseille-Montpellier triangle but also to be connected to the Alpine valleys.”

The grinding plant is due for commissioning in mid-July 2021, however the coronavirus has delayed the start of construction.

Ireland: CRH has said that it had a ‘positive start to the year’ in the first three months of 2020. Total sales over the period rose by 3% year-on-year. In the Americas region, cement volumes rose by 4% and prices by 6%. European cement sales were ‘broadly in line with the same period of 2019’ due to general volume and price increases offset by a fall in volumes in Western Europe.

Government-implemented covid-19 restrictions on construction towards the end of the period impacted sales in Canada, the UK and France. The likely effects on 2020 profit ‘cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.’ CRH chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Manifold said, “With the financial strength of CRH and the experience of our leadership teams, we will endure through these unprecedented and uncertain times.”

Europe: Australia-based Calix has announced that construction will begin on its second low emissions intensity lime and cement (Leilac) carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation at a ‘European cement plant’ on 7 April 2020. ASX ComNews has reported that collaborators on the project, which has received Euro16m under the EU’s Horizon 2020 grant scheme, are Portugal-based Cimpor, Germany-based HeidelbergCement, Germany and France-based energy companies Ingenieurbüro-Kühlerbau-Neustadt (IKN) and Engie and Belgium-based minerals and lime company Lhoist. Calix has said that the 100,000t/yr process emissions capture facility will be operational in late 2024.
The company has appointed Emma Bowring Leilac-2 project leader.

The first Leilac installation was completed at HeidelbergCement’s 1.5Mt/yr integrated Lixhe plant in Belgium’s Limburg province in mid-2019.

France: Hoffman Green Cement Technologies, a pioneer in low-carbon cement production, has announced the publication of its Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) in the INIES database, France’s national reference database for environmental and health performance in the construction sector.

The LCI published by Hoffmann Green summarises all incoming and outgoing flows of raw materials and energy resources used to manufacture its H-UKR and H-EVA cements to allow an assessment of the environmental impacts. They will serve as input data for the software that carries out the life cycle analysis of a construction product, often comprising several materials.

H-UKR is a binder that is based on alkali-activated blast furnace slag, which is sold into the precast concrete, ready-mix concrete and bagged cement markets. H-EVA is a high ettringite binder that is used in the mortar, coatings, road binder and ready-mixed concrete markets.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, the company’s founder’s stated, "The publication of the LCI of our cements is a first in France and is part of our determined ambition to decarbonise the construction sector and be fully transparent vis-à-vis all our stakeholders. It also illustrates our commitment in the face of the climate change emergency and the need to reconcile cement and the environment.”

France: Cem’In’Eu, the France-based operator of modular grinding plants, has appointed Magali Laurenço as director of its Rhône Ciments subsidiary. She has been in post since January 2020.

Magali Laurenço spent the first years of her professional career at Ciments Calcia, where she held the positions of manufacturing engineer (2006 - 2008), manager of the mechanical maintenance sector (2008 - 2014), then manager of the maintenance and new works (2015 - 2020) and production and maintenance service manager (2018-2020).

France: French press has reported that Vicat, the last remaining cement producer in French hands, has accumulated a large stockpile of EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) credits, sufficient to last it until 2030. It says that this makes it unique among cement producers covered by the scheme. It has never sold any of the credits that it was over-allocated in the first three stages of the ETS. It is thought that this will put it at a competitive advantage from the start of stage 4 in January 2021, when free allowances for the sector will become significantly scarcer.

Vicat has a stock of credits that represent 5Mt of CO₂, valued at Euro120m at the current market price. "It covers our activity in France and Switzerland and we will still be in a surplus position in 2030. We are entering the next European regulatory phase in a good condition," said CEO Guy Sidos.

Vicat is keen to point out that this does not mean it is complacent or will pollute at all costs. "At the end of 2019, we reduced our CO₂ emissions by 15% compared to 1990. The objective is a further decrease of 13% between today and 2030," explained Sidos.

France: Vicat’s sales were reduced in 2019 by poor markets in Turkey and, to a lesser extent, Switzerland and Egypt. Its sales fell by 1% year-on-year to Euro2.74bn in 2019 from Euro2.58bn at constant scope and exchange rates. Its cement sales volumes dropped by 2% to 22.4Mt from 22.8Mt but its concrete volumes grew by 1.1% to 9.1Mm³ from 9.0Mm³. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased slightly to Euro156m.

“Strong growth in France, the US, Africa and Kazakhstan helped offset difficult market conditions in Turkey and Egypt. Furthermore, in line with our strategy of targeted acquisitions, the purchase of Ciplan in Brazil, in January 2019, allowed the group to continue its international growth in a region offering strong potential by integrating teams and assets of the highest quality,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Guy Sidos.

The group performed well in France, the US and Italy, especially due to the acquisition of Ciplan in Brazil. Sales in Turkey suffered from a generally poor economic situation. Competition in Egypt and a downturn in the precast concrete market in Switzerland caused problems in these countries respectively.

France: Following a successful trial that began in December 2019, LafargeHolcim has inaugurated a FastCarb CO₂ absorption accelerator into concrete production at its Val d'Azergues cement and concrete plant (integrated capacity 0.4Mt/yr) in Lozanne. The technology involves the capture of CO₂ from the plant’s cement kiln for reinjection into concrete produced with recycled aggregates. François Petry, LafargeHolcim France managing director, said the installation ‘fits perfectly into our Lafarge 360 approach for more responsible construction.’ The five-pillar approach consists of alternative fuel substitution and development, power consumption reduction, formulation of new cements, cooperation with Airium insulation solutions and assistance with low-carbon building design.