Displaying items by tag: Germany
Beumer Group acquires FAM Group
13 June 2022Germany: Beumer Group has completed its acquisition of conveyor systems and loading technology supplier FAM Group.
Beumer Group says that the acquisition expands its portfolio and complements its competence in the project planning of plants with FAM Group’s know-how and global positioning throughout the entire value chain, including aftersales service.
Germany: Hengst Filtration has appointed Norbert Gregor as the group director of Hengst Group and the managing director of Industrial Air Filtration. He assumes his duties in a dual leadership role with Merete Gotfredsen, who leads the Process Air Filtration segment as its managing director. Both report directly to Peter Wink, Group Vice President for Industrial Air Filtration.
Gregor is a business economist who holds more than 25 years of management experience with a specialism in marketing and sales. From 2014, he was Vice President for DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Eastern Europe at the Sweden-based filter specialist Camfil. In 2019, he moved to the Helsa Group as its chief executive officer, for which he was the managing director and realigned the two business units for molecular filtration (Helsatech) and elastomer technology (Helsacomp), which he sold to Mann+Hummel after a reorganisation. There, as Global Vice President, he was responsible for the post-merger integration of Helsa for two years, creating the new molecular filtration segment for the Life Science division for Mann+Hummel.
Germany: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions’ Polysius division says that it has been commissioned by Buzzi Unicem, HeidelbergCement, Schwenk Zement and Vicat to build a pure oxyfuel kiln system at the Mergelstetten cement plant as part of the Cement Innovation for Climate (CI4C) project. No dates of the start of construction or final project commissioning of the industrial trial have been disclosed. CI4C was originally formed in 2019.
The Polysius pure oxyfuel process is a new type of clinker production process in which the otherwise normal ambient air is replaced by pure oxygen in the kiln combustion process. One advantage of the technology is that atmospheric nitrogen is eliminated from the clinker burning process leading to much higher concentrations of CO2 in the exhaust gas compared to a conventional kiln. As such the process aims to concentrate, capture and reuse almost 100% of the CO2 produced in a cost-effective manner. The medium-term goal is to further process the captured CO2 with the help of renewable energy into products such as kerosene for air traffic.
Germany: Fuchs Lubritech has merged into Fuchs Schmierstoffe. Following the merger, the latter also rebranded as Fuchs Lubricants Germany on 3 June 2022. Fuchs Lubricants Germany will assume all contractual responsibilities of Fuchs Lubritech.
Rudolf Hausladen appointed as head of Beumer Group
01 June 2022Germany: Beumer Group has appointed Rudolf Hausladen as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Christoph Beumer, who has been in post since 2000. Beumer will remain a member of the management board until the end of 2022 and then move to the advisory board.
Hausladen, aged 52 years, holds a university degree in mechanical engineering as well as a master’s in business administration (MBA). Previously he worked in management positions for logistics companies including Swisslog and Gebhardt Logistic Solutions. His most recent position outside of Beumer was as the group CEO of electronic company ERNI.
Zimbabwe: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer says that a new MVR 3070 C-4 mill for cement grinding is due to be commissioned at Holcim Zimbabwe’s integrated plant at Manresa near Harare. The order was handled by the Chinese contractor CBMI.
The roof at the plant collapsed over a cement mill in October 2021 leading to a reduction in production volumes at the plant. The mills were restarted in February 2022 but one of the one of the existing cement ball mills was decommissioned. This mill is being replaced by the new vertical roller mill supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer. It is expected to double the plant’s cement production capacity after it is commissioned in the second quarter of 2022.
Germany: Cemex has inaugurated the Carbon Neutral Alliance at its integrated Rüdersdorf cement plant. The initiative is intended to accelerate the development of the site into the world’s first carbon-neutral cement facility by 2030. Jörg Steinbach, Brandenburg’s Minister of the Economy, Fernando A Gonzalez, the chief executive officer of Cemex, the Mexican ambassador to Germany and representatives from Sasol attended the event.
The Carbon Neutral Alliance comprises a network of over 20 private and public organisations, dedicated to industrial decarbonisation. Among the technologies being introduced at Rüdersdorf include a waste heat recovery project scheduled for the summer of 2022, the development of renewable energy generation and a scheme to produce aviation fuel onsite in coordination with Sasol and Enertrag.
In 2020 Cemex announced its decarbonisation target of reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. This target is expected to be achieved in Europe in 2022. By 2030, Cemex intends to reduce emissions at its European sites by 55%, in line with European Union's new strategy to reduce CO2 emissions. Cemex has also announced its goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in concrete by 2050.
Germany: HeidelbergCement has replaced its existing revolving credit line with a new syndicated credit line based on the Loan Market Association’s sustainability-linked loan principles (SLLP). HeidelbergCement says that key performance indicators of its progress towards sustainability objectives will determine the credit line’s credit margin, adjusted according to its CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious material and alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate. HeidelbergCement says that its ‘solid financial base’ enabled it to reduce the syndicated credit line to US$2bn from US$3bn, and to avoid financial covenants.
Chief financial officer René Aldach said “With the conclusion of the new syndicated credit line, we have taken the first step towards sustainable financing. In addition, we were able to improve the terms and conditions compared with the previous credit line.”
Admixture markets in the US
25 May 2022More mergers and acquisition news emerged this week in the shape of potential buyers for Sika’s US admixtures business. Reporting from Bloomberg revealed that Holcim, HeidelbergCement and Turkey-based Sabancı Holding had all made it, amongst other unnamed companies, to a second round of bidding for the assets. Sika then confirmed this to the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper and added that the sale would also relate to Canadian assets as well. The intention here is to bypass the risk of a lengthy competition investigation in the US.
Switzerland-based Sika announced in November 2021 that it had signed a deal to buy MBCC Group from Lone Star Funds, a global private equity firm, for Euro5.2bn. At the time of the announcement Sika said that the transaction was subject to regulatory approval but it added that it was ‘confident’ that all required clearances would be obtained with closure planned for the second half of 2022. Known competition probes are now pending in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. A previous piece from Bloomberg suggested that internal analysis by Sika found that the company might need to divest operations with annual sales of around US$160m with a value of US$400m. However, the latest update suggests a value of up to US$1bn. The US represented US$1.71bn or 18% of Sika’s total group sales in 2021. Sika’s information to shareholders to let them know about the MBCC acquisition in November 2021, showed that MBCC had sales of around US$966m in the Americas in 2021 with 36 production plants. Overall, not just in the US, the deal is expected to change Sika’s technology mix from 40% concrete and cement systems to 49%, with most of the additions coming from concrete applications.
Divestments were always likely in an acquisition this large between competitors with shared geographies. What is interesting here to the cement sector is that the three named interested parties are all cement producers. Holcim is perhaps the least surprising given its size, pivot towards light building materials and the fact that its current head, Jan Jenisch, used to run Sika. If anyone knows how much an admixture company is worth, it’s the guy who ran one five years ago! HeidelbergCement does not have such a large light building materials business footprint but it is demonstrably interested in making heavy building material production more sustainable. Also, as the world’s second largest western multinational cement producer it is likely to be interested in an input market for some of its end products. Sabancı Holding is the outlier in this grouping with a more regional grey cement business based in Turkey, an international white cement business and a diverse set of business interests including finance and energy. Although, even as the smallest of the bunch, it still reported sales revenue of over US$9bn in 2021. One notable absence from the potential contenders list for Sika USA is Cemex. Its Urbanisation Solutions division, which produces admixtures among other products, reported sales of US$1.9bn in 2021 or 13% of the group’s total revenue. US$558m of this was made in the US.
The wider context in the North American admixture market is that the announcement of Sika’s deal with MBCC in November 2021 was followed about a month later when Saint-Gobain said it had entered into a deal to buy GCP Applied Technologies. This followed Saint-Gobain’s acquisition of Chryso in October 2021. However, Saint-Gobain said that the GCP deal would strengthen its position more in North America. Readers can find out more about Saint-Gobain’s ambitions here.
The final word at this stage should go on Lone Star Funds, the current owner of MBCC. Lone Star Funds bought the construction chemicals business from BASF for Euro3.17bn in September 2020. At the time the acquisition closed Saori Dubourg, a member of the board of executive directors of BASF, said “Lone Star has been a professional partner in this transaction and is committed to the future success of the business.” If the reporting is correct, Lone Star Funds is now selling the same business for over Euro5bn. There are two takeaways to consider at this point. One is that the perceived value of products that make cement and concrete more sustainable are growing. The other is that Lone Star Funds timed its acquisition of MBCC from BASF very well.
Germany: HeidelbergCement has accelerated its specific CO2 emissions reduction target to 2030 to 400kg CO2/t CEM compared with 1990 levels. This represents a 30% cut compared to 2021 levels and a 47% cut compared to 1990 levels. The previous target was 33% compared to 1990 levels. The company said that in the next eight years to 2030 its CO2 emissions are set to decrease more strongly in percentage terms than in the last three decades.
The building materials producer made the announcement as part of a new set of medium-term sustainability and financial targets entitled ‘Concrete Promises’ that were presented at its Capital Markets Day event in late May 2022. The group plans to generate half of its revenue from sustainable products by 2030. Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) projects that have already been launched are expected to achieve a cumulative reduction of 10Mt CO2 by 2030. By 2025, more than 70% of its debt will be covered by sustainable financial instruments. Among other things, the group plans to use a bond programme that it says is the first in the industry to be aligned with the climate goals of the European Union taxonomy.
Dominik von Achten, chair of the managing board of HeidelbergCement, said “We have the ambition, speed, knowledge, technologies and partners to lead the necessary change process in our sector. Our focus is on expanding our portfolio of sustainable products, reducing our CO2 emissions quickly and significantly, proving that CO2-free products are possible on a large scale, and creating a circular economy by consistently applying the principles of circularity. Our new sustainability targets for 2030 illustrate this ambition.”