Displaying items by tag: France

Switzerland/France: Holcim is collaborating with Engie and and the French National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) Lyon to develop a cement-based energy storage technology to serve as an alternative to batteries. The solution will use cement hydration to store heat as energy and release it when needed in an infinitely repeatable cycle. The partners say that it will make energy storage local, safe, affordable and recyclable.

Holcim’s head of global innovation Edelio Bermejo said "The world needs innovative solutions to accelerate our shift towards renewable energy generation, distribution and storage – all areas in which Holcim can play a big part. With this collaboration, we are moving energy storage forward, opening up a new range of solutions based on materials that are local and recyclable."

UK: Ecocem has appointed Olivier Guise appointed as its Executive Director for Strategy, Technology and New Business. The newly created role will see him join the Ecocem executive team to develop and operate the company’s strategy and to accelerate progress in bringing products to the global cement and concrete market.

Guise holds over 17 years of experience working in the construction materials industry, having been General Manager of Cement and ExCo at LafargeHolcim France until 2021. Prior to this, he held various roles at LafargeHolcim across both its French and Algerian markets, including General Manager of the Aggregates Business in the South of France, Innovation and Route to Market Director and Cement Capacity Development Director.

France: Cemex France has supplied 900m³ of its white architectural concrete to the site of Vitesco Technologies’ upcoming Toulouse campus in Occitanie Region. The producer also supplied pumping services and managed the project through its Cemex Go digital platform. It said that the campus aims to achieve High Environmental Quality (HQE) certification for its environmental and energy performance, while ensuring acoustic, hygrothermal and visual comfort for occupants.

Senegal: France-based Fives has detailed the equipment that it will supply for its construction of a new 6500t/day kiln line at SOCOCIM Industries’ Rufisque cement plant in Dakar Region. The company says that it will supply a preheater, in-line Preca calciner, kiln, TGT filter and Pillard Novaflam burner.

SOCOCIM Industries’ parent company Vicat’s chair and chief executive officer Guy Sidos said “Vicat Group renews its partnership with Fives Group through this major project of building a new line with a strong local dimension, employing local workers and contractors.” He added “This plant will eventually eliminate the use of fossil fuels, reduce our energy consumption and support Senegalese local development, making a higher quality product while doubling our production capacity.”

France: Lafarge France has commissioned its Martres cement plant’s new kiln line. China-based Sinoma Construction carried out the work on the plant in Occitanie Region. The supplier said that the new kiln will use 85% alternative fuel (AF), which will cut 163,000t/yr (28%) of its CO₂ emissions. This will reduce its clinker’s carbon footprint by 240kg/t.

There have been a couple of acquisitions of note this week in the north-western US and Holcim has picked up another building solutions company. To find out how the latter relates to former photography products producer Kodak, read on.

Starting with the north-western US, HeildelbergCement announced that it finalised the acquisition of Corliss Resources, a large family-owned aggregates and ready-mixed concrete company, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase includes major aggregate operations with sales volumes of about 2Mt/yr and reserves and resources of about 170Mt and four ready-mixed concrete (RMX) plants selling about 0.3Mm³/yr in the Greater Seattle area.

Global Cement normally sticks to cement but Holcim did something similar last week. It completed the acquisition of Cowden, another ready-mixed concrete and aggregate producer based in Bellingham in Washington state. This sale includes two RMX plants, eight aggregate facilities and a hauling fleet. Again, there was no word of the price.

Both the HeildelbergCement and Holcim purchases in the north-western US fit the selective bolt-on approach both companies have favoured in recent years. Looking specifically at the US, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that estimated production for consumption of construction sand and gravel grew by 7% year-on-year to 753Mt in the first nine months of 2021. Estimated total construction aggregate production rose by 5% to 1.9Gt. Within the country, Washington’s sales of construction aggregates increased by 16% to 33Mt, the third largest rate by state nationally. Meanwhile, cement shipments for the country grew by 4% to 79.9Mt although they actually fell by 3% in Washington. This compares to annual growth of 2.8% in cement consumption in 2021 that the Portland Cement Association (PCA) was forecasting for the Pacific region of the US in the middle of 2021.

Holcim has been snapping up aggregates or RMX assets in established markets throughout 2021. These include US-based Marshall Concrete Products in December 2021, US-based Utelite Corporation in September 2021, Germany-based Heinrich Teufel in July 2021, the aggregates business and two RMX plants from Greece-based Halyps in May 2021 and Edile Commerciale and Cemex Rhone Alpes in Italy and France in February 2021. At the same time HeidelbergCement was mainly divesting itself of aggregates and RMX assets. It sold Halyps to Holcim and later in the same month agreed to sell its US West region to Martin Marietta Materials for US$2.3bn. The deal included cement, aggregates, RMX and asphalt businesses in California, Arizona, Oregon and Nevada. This covered two of its cement plants, with the exception of the 1.5Mt/yr Permanente cement plant in California, related distribution terminals, 17 active aggregates sites and several downstream operations. This makes the acquisition of new aggregate and RMX assets in Washington by HeildelbergCement interesting as we can see the company adjusting to its new market position. Although subsidiary Lehigh Hanson does not have a cement plant in the state it does operate a terminal in Seattle as well as other aggregate and RMX operations. North across the border in Canada though it still runs the integrated Delta Cement plant and terminal near Vancouver.

Returning to Holcim’s other acquisition this week brings us to Holcim’s target to expand the net sales of its Solutions & Products division to 30% of the group total by 2025 as part of its plans to decarbonise. This week it took one more step towards this goal with an agreement to buy France-based PRB Group, a manufacturer of coatings, insulations, adhesives and flooring systems. Global Cement Weekly has covered this topic a few times but, to recap, it started in January 2021 when Holcim announced it was buying roofing and building envelope producer Firestone Building Products for US$3.4bn. Various other related acquisitions have followed including an agreement to buy US-based Malarkey Roofing Products in December 2021.

How any of this relates to Kodak is as follows. Holcim’s predecessor Lafarge previously owned a major business away from cement, concrete and aggregates, namely gypsum. The gypsum wallboard business, like roofing, emits far less carbon than clinker production. In 2010 Lafarge’s gypsum business constituted nearly 9% of group revenue and it described itself as the third largest company in the sector worldwide. This was divested in the early 2010s in response to debts accrued by Lafarge’s acquisition of Orascom Cement in 2008. A decade later this decision appears to be the opposite of Holcim’s current strategy and indeed much of the cement sector’s current attempts to lower its carbon risk.

Kodak infamously filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after failing to move from analogue photography products to the digital market. The question cement company strategists should be asking themselves is whether their sector faces the same kind of disruption from the government and investment response to climate change. Lafarge apparently didn’t think so 10 years ago. Its successor Holcim does.

France: Holcim has entered into an agreement to acquire speciality building products supplier PRB Group. PRB Group produces coatings, insulations, adhesives and flooring systems. Holcim says that the company’s product range compliments its own and expands its reach in the high-growth repair and refurbishment market. PRB Group employs 700 people its five plants, 26 warehouses and its research and development centre. Its estimated net sales in 2022 are Euro340m.

Holcim chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said “We are off to a strong start to the new year, on our way to welcoming the PRB Group into the Holcim family. This is another exciting step in the expansion of solutions and products, advancing our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth. I am highly impressed by the outstanding achievements of the Laurent family as well as by the expertise and passion of the entire PRB team. I look forward to warmly welcoming all employees into Holcim and to invest in our next era of growth together, with a continued focus on innovation, sustainability and branding.”

Spain: Cementos Molins has acquired a 100% stake in precast concrete supplier Pretersa Prenavisa for an undisclosed sum. Molins, through its subsidiary Precon, made the purchase from the European investment group Kartesia. It says the transaction will boost its presence and product mix in the precast concrete market in Spain, Portugal, and France.

Pretersa Prenavisa supplies the engineering, design, manufacture, and assembly of precast concrete structures. Its headquarters is based at Teruel and it operates three production plants at Teruel, Jaen and Segovia. It has around 770 employees and reported a turnover of Euro56m in 2020.

Cementos Molins operates in the precast business in Spain through its subsidiary Precon. It operates ten production plants located throughout Spain. The acquisition of Pretersa Prenavisa is Molins’ fifth in 2021. It follows the takeover of Escofet, a concrete design specialist, the acquisition of a white cement plant in Spain from Çimsa group, the acquisition of Calucem, a calcium aluminate cement producer, and the acquisition of the aggregates and ready-mix concrete businesses of HeildelbergCement in Catalonia.

Saint-Gobain has headed back to the attention of the cement sector this week with a deal to buy GCP Applied Technologies and a joint-venture with Cementos Argos in Colombia.

The first development carries on the French conglomerate’s move into the construction chemicals market. In October 2021 it acquired Chryso for Euro1.02bn. Other recent deals include agreements to buy Romania-based construction chemicals company Duraziv in May 2021 and Mexico-based IMPAC in October 2021. The GCP Applied Technologies deal is valued at Euro2.3bn with closure planned by the end of 2022. As Saint-Gobain put it, “The combined platform of Weber, Chryso and GCP offers customers a highly comprehensive portfolio of construction chemicals solutions with strong complementary geographic footprints.” It says that it sees the planned acquisition as the “logical next step” to expand its market share in admixtures and additives. It also reckons that Chryso and GCP Applied Technologies are complimentary geographically with Chryso positions mostly in Europe, Middle East and Africa and with GCP’s positions in North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Once the deal goes through, Saint-Gobain will operate 75 production sites in the sector in 38 countries. The specialty building materials part of GCP will then be integrated into the CertainTeed subsidiary in North America.

The arrangement in Colombia concerns a joint-venture intended to focus on lightweight and sustainable building materials. Detail is scarce beyond an announcement by Cementos Argos on its website but the focus appears to be on bringing in Saint-Gobain’s mortar products and/or technology into the local market.

This move towards the lightweight building materials market may sound familiar. That’s because it is similar to what Holcim has also been doing recently, notably with its acquisition of Firestone Building Products earlier this year. It is interesting though to see both companies targeting the lightweight sector from different places. Both have also framed their intentions in terms of sustainability goals. Notably, Saint-Gobain has far lower carbon emissions than many cement producers. For example, Holcim reported sales of around Euro22bn in 2020 with absolute gross Scope 1 CO₂ emissions of 110Mt. Saint-Gobain reported sales of around Euro38bn with total Scope 1 CO₂ emissions of 7.9Mt.

At an investors event in October 2021 Saint-Gobain’s chief executive officer Benoit Bazin said that the group’s ambition was to become the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction. Saint-Gobain’s business portfolio was diverse already before the GCP announcement, with its construction products focused on ‘lighter’ materials such as gypsum wallboard, insulation and glass. Its expansion into the construction chemicals market is of relevance to the cement industry directly through the supply of admixtures for cement and concrete. It’s also of interest to wider trends in construction because the acquisitions show another company chasing the lightweight building materials market. One expectation, as countries and companies have signed up to net zero carbon commitments, is that the demand for lightweight materials in the building envelope will grow and companies are reacting accordingly. The question at this stage is whether there is space in their growing market for all of them.

US: France-based Saint-Gobain has entered into a deal to buy GCP Applied Technologies for around US$2.3bn. It said the move was a ‘decisive’ step in helping it to become a leader in construction chemicals with total sales of over Euro4bn. It is also expected to promote the group’s strategy as leader in light and sustainable construction. Saint-Gobain expects to conclude the deal by 2023 and will finance the acquisition through cash on its balance sheet.

Benoit Bazin, the chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain, said, “The acquisition of GCP is an excellent and significant step for Saint-Gobain to further reinforce its worldwide leadership in construction chemicals and strengthen its geographic presence in North America and emerging markets, both objectives being at the core of our ‘Grow & Impact’ strategic plan.” The proposed purchase follows Saint-Gobain’s acquisition of Chryso, another constructions chemicals company, for Euro1.02bn in October 2021.

GCP Applied Technologies is a global producer of specialty construction chemicals with approximate revenues of US$1.0bn/yr, 50 manufacturing plants in 38 countries and it employs around 1800 employees. It manufactures cement additives, concrete admixtures and products for infrastructure and commercial and residential waterproofing.