Displaying items by tag: GCW462

India: Mahendra Singhi, the president of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), says that the cement sector can grow its exports with support from the government. He made his comments at the 16th Green Cementech 2020, a virtual conference organised by the CMA and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), according to the Hindu newspaper. Singhi said, “The cement industry in India is already aligned with the new vision of self reliance (atmanirbharta) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the right policies in place and support from the government, the Indian cement industry can even increase its production capacity and contribute significantly to India’s global trade and exports.”

Mexico: Cemex says that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will not delay its ‘Climate Action Strategy’ that was previously announced in February 2020. The building materials producer has developed a CO₂ reduction roadmap to help guide it towards a towards a targeted 35% reduction in net specific CO₂ emissions between 1990 and 2030.

The roadmap consists of: reduction of CO₂ emissions of clinker through “the production of novel clinkers with lower heat consumption”; use of “alternative decarbonated raw materials”; increased alternative fuel substitution; and increased substitution of clinker with “alternative cementitious materials, using admixtures to enhance strength, and adopting new grinding technologies to improve performance”; in addition to the increased use of renewable energy.

Cemex chief executive officer (CEO) Fernando Gonzalez said, “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we believe that we can continue to address it as a fundamental component of our efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Germany: HeidelbergCement has published its sustainability report for 2019. The building materials producer says it decreased its specific gross CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 0.9% year-on-year to 622kg/t in 2019 from 628kg/t in 2018. Absolute net CO₂ emissions also fell, by 4.6% to 68.4Mt from 71.7Mt. Indirect CO₂ emission grew by 4.8% to 4.4Mt from 4.2Mt, though energy consumption in cement production fell by 3.5% to 364,000TJ from 377,000TJ.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominic von Achten said, “We have declared our express commitment to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, we will continue to intensify our commitment to tackling climate change in the coming years.”

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Research Network (Innovandi) has launched a week of online workshops dedicated to lowering cement and concrete’s carbon footprint through research and development, with the participation of 30 companies and 40 scientific institutions.

Global Cement and Concrete Association cement director Claude Loréa said, “Cement is fundamentally important to our world today and will play a crucial role in building the sustainable world of tomorrow. It is therefore critical to support and accelerate the breakthrough processes and products that will improve sustainability and decrease carbon emissions. The Innovandi Kick-off Week offers a platform for leaders from across the world of cement and concrete to collaborate with academic institutions and define the cutting-edge research that will address these challenges and help us create a better future.”

Canada/US: Lehigh Cement says that it has adopted the latest North American Product Category Rules (PCR) across its entire product range.

Lehigh Hanson Canada regional cement sales and logistics vice president Shawn McMillan said, “We have made it one of our top priorities to benchmark and lower our CO₂ emissions with ambitious targets. Much like food nutrition labels highlight calorific values, our plant and product-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) communicate the environmental impact through global warming potential (GWP) for cement in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. We intend to use the added product transparency to more effectively gain adoption for our lower carbon products. We have several research projects and studies on-going to continue to optimise the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”

US: Cemex has announced that its De Zavala and Tyler cement terminals, both in Texas, have received the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star certification for energy efficiency. The De Zavala terminal reduced its energy intensity by 53% between June 2015 and June 2020, while the Tyler terminal reduced its intensity by 39% over the same period, both exceeding their five-year targets of a 10% reduction.

France: LafargeHolcim France has said that all bagged cement will now bear a 360Score CO₂ emissions reduction rating, “to allow traders, artisans and homebuilders to know the precise carbon impact of their cement.” The rating, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). ’A’ Class cement produces 75% – 100% less CO₂, while ’D’ class cement produces 0% – 25% less.

LafargeHolcim France chief executive officer (CEO) François Petry said, “By applying the 360Score rating scale to our bags of cements, we are continuing to implement our Lafarge 360 approach, which consists in supporting all builders to build in a more responsible manner.”

China: Huaxin Cement has announced that it burned 2.7t of seized opiates in its fuel mix at its Diwei cement plant in Chongqing. Representatives of the Chongqing Anti-Drug Committee, Public Service Bureau, Eco-Environmental Bureau and Procuratorate were in attendance. Huaxin Cement reports that the dangerous substances have been “safely disposed of.” The producer said that this is the largest single volume of drugs to have been combusted in a cement kiln. The plant previously burnt 1.22Mt of illicit substances in 2018.

Germany: Haver & Boecker and BillerudKorsnäs have published ten Sack Packaging Norms to provide a “common language” to correct “repeated, unnecessary errors which to lead to waste and loss of product performance.” BillerudKorsnäs Technical Service Director Mikael Peterson said, “If producers and users of paper bag packaging follow the recommendations and guidelines, and implement these norms in their supply chain - efficient and effective packaging manufacturing, filling, handling, storage and transport of the finished goods will be secured. As an industry we will reduce waste significantly, making a major contribution to saving our planet.”

Colombia: Cementos Argos Colombia has reported on its situation and shared its business outlook as it returns to full operations post-coronavirus lockdown. The company says that 1700 people are currently active in operations, with 910 working from home and 660 on furlough. In May 2020 it served 5300 customers, down by 74% year-on-year from 7210 in May 2019. Cement volumes fell by 41% and concrete volumes by 43%. 44 of Cementos Argos Colombia’s 58 concrete plants were operational, and 73 of its 92 work centres.

During the lockdown period the company completed over 100 new infrastructure project supply contracts. Cementos Argos Colombia regional vice president Tomás Restrepo said, “We are confident in a positive future, in our resilience, in the ability to face challenges and that we have extraordinary talent who are aware of the importance of self-care and who work every day on good ideas to continue to be the best allies of our client.”