Displaying items by tag: Germany
Cembureau announces European green deal webinar
09 September 2020Europe: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has announced that its ‘Cementing Europe’s Future: Building the Green Deal’ webinar will take place on 13 October 2020. The programme includes keynote speeches from association president Raoul de Parisot and German Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Jochen Flasbarth. Additionally, members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission, LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement and several other companies involved in the European cement industry will speak.
Czech Republic achieves record cement production in 2019
03 September 2020Czech Republic: Domestic cement production was 4.57Mt in 2019, up by 3.2% year-on-year from 4.43Mt in 2018. CTK Business News has reported a corresponding increase in domestic sales, up by 1.5% to 3.84Mt from 3.78Mt, and exports, up by 1.9% to 761,000t from 747,000t. Slovakia received 380,000t (50%), Germany received 221,000t (29%), Austria received 114,000t (15%) and Poland received 68,500t (9%). Imports fell by 15% to 490,000t, of which Slovakia supplied 245,000t (50%), Poland supplied 122,000t (25%), Germany supplied 98,000t (20%) and Austria supplied 39,200t (8%).
Schenck Process launches CONiQ Control
03 September 2020Germany: Schenck Process has launched CONiQ Control, a control and automation system “with many options for use in industrial measuring, weighing and automation technology in the cement industry,” according to the company. It says that the product “standardises the use of a common controller platform for a wide variety of processes” through a Reddot Intuitive Design Award 2019-winning web-based interface.
CRH publishes first half 2020 results
20 August 2020Ireland: CRH recorded a profit of US$406m in the first half of 2020, down from US$602m in the first half of 2019. Sales fell by 4.9% year-on-year to US$12.2bn from US$12.8bn. Price rises in many markets offset the general reduction in cement volumes caused by coronavirus lockdown, while volumes grew in Germany, the Benelux countries, Brazil and the US.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Manifold said, “We took swift and comprehensive action in response to the Covid-19 crisis, and our ability to flex our cost base and deliver improved profitability, margins and cash generation in a rapidly evolving environment demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business. The outlook for the rest of the year and into 2021 remains uncertain and is dependent on an improving health situation across our markets.” Though the group provided no full-year guidance for 2020, it said, “The longer-term prospects for CRH remain positive, benefiting from significant financial strength and resilience together with a portfolio of high-quality assets in attractive markets.”
ThyssenKrupp launches new HPGR Pro grinding roll
17 August 2020Germany: ThyssenKrupp has announced the launch of the HPGR Pro, a high-pressure grinding roll for raw materials processing that it says “offers up to 20% more throughput, 15% lower energy consumption and 30% longer-lasting rollers” than previous models. HPGR global product manager Frank Schroers said, “We used our experience and what we learned from conversations with customers to introduce improvements that are unique in this market and make grinding much easier.” Laser monitoring keeps users constantly informed about the roller surface and helps predict the best possible time for roller replacement. “Our customers need no longer stop the machine as a precautionary measure, saving them valuable time. What’s more, as our specialists collect and process machine data, our customers can continually improve their HPGR’s operation and optimise throughput, energy consumption or machine availability in line with their specific targets,” added Schroers.
Turkey: Germany-based Körfez Engineering’s Körfez foundry in Dilovasi, Kocaeli Province, has announced that it is now exporting its cast steel products, including cement kilns, preheaters, clinker coolers and mills, to 70 countries spanning five continents. Exports account for 85% of sales. Foundry general manager Çağdaş Alan said, “We are proud to export to different geographies and to increase the number of countries we export to during this difficult period the world is going through. We hope to overcome this difficult period with the least loss for our business and the country.” He added, “We continue to invest in information technologies, develop our facilities in line with industry 4.0, and create a dynamic business environment with innovative trainings for continuous development of our expert staff.”
Update on Germany
12 August 2020There has been good news from the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) this week. Following a strong start to the year, the association expects cement consumption in 2020 to remain similar to the level, 28.7Mt, reported in 2019. VDZ president Christian Knell acknowledged the difficulty in making forecasts, this year of all years, but said that the association remained positive since demand had held up so well. He noted the continued operation of construction sites, despite the local coronavirus-related lockdown from March 2020, and the ‘quick action’ of politicians.
Graph 1: German cement deliveries, 2015 – 2019: Source: German Cement Works Association (VDZ).
The year certainly started well, with a 33% year-on-year increase in domestic cement deliveries to 1.43Mt in January 2020 from 1.07Mt in January 2019. This was due in part to good weather, although it also looks good because 2019 started badly compared to 2018. Yet, the VDZ’s assessment has been supported by the results of the main producers operating in the country. HeidelbergCement reported that Germany bucked the trend of its Western and Southern Europe Group area in the first half of 2020 with a ‘positive market development’ whereas deliveries declined significantly everywhere else. Similarly, LafargeHolcim noted a ‘resilient’ performance in Germany. Buzzi Unicem released a more detailed assessment, with shipments of hydraulic binders down in April and May 2020 but then back up with a recovery in June 2020. Overall its cement plants reported a slight decline in sales for the first half of the year. Concrete production grew however, by 6% year-on-year, possibly aided by the plants that the group purchased in 2019.
Germany’s success appears to be down to two factors. The first, as Knell mentioned above, is that it was able to keep much of its construction industry open through its lockdown. Dieter Babiel, the head of Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie – the main German construction industry association - reckoned that the industry was operating at about 80% capacity in May 2020 compared to the situation in other large European countries like France, the UK, Spain and Italy where building sites totally closed at the height of local lockdowns before gradual reopening. Bauindustrie has since reported falling monthly order intake as coronavirus-effects on the general economy filter through to construction. The other reason is that the country has managed to control its outbreak better compared to other European countries. It has reported the third most cases in Europe but its fatality rate is only 4% compared to 14% in the UK, Italy and France. This has been attributed to strong public health measures and high levels of testing, particularly with respect to elderly residential care.
It’s not all plain sailing though since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a 7.8% decline in Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. Likewise, the VDZ is predicting weakening construction markets and cement demand in the fourth quarter of 2020. It cited falling orders and requests for building permits as mounting evidence for this trend. From here a gloomier outlook is foreseen for 2021 as construction budgets for commercial and government projects are cut. At the same time uncertainty in the labour market is expected to drag down the residential market. With this in mind the VDZ is predicting cement demand to drop by 3 – 5% in 2021.
To end on an upbeat note, if the VDZ’s forecasts are accurate, then the German cement sector looks like it might weather the coronavirus-downturn better than other industries. It knows a downturn in construction is coming and it can prepare for it.
VDZ forecasts level cement demand in 2020
12 August 2020Germany: The Verein Deutscher Zementwerke (VDZ) has forecast domestic cement consumption of 28.7Mt in 2020, consistent with the 2019 level. The impacts of the coronavirus lockdown were offset by “a good start to the year, not least due to the weather conditions” and “the continued operation of construction sites in March thanks to the quick actions of politicians.”
The organisation said that the situation was unprecedentedly unpredictable with orders and building permits currently in decline. It expects demand to partly tail off in the fourth quarter of 2020, falling by between 3 - 5%, as companies postpone or discard planned developments in the face of restricted budgets. It said, “Nonetheless, the government’s economic stimulus pacts will undoubtedly provide a positive impetus through such initiatives as public infrastructure and multi-family housing projects.
Germany: The Westküste100 green hydrogen project has received funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs. The plan is backed by an investment of Euro89m, with Euro30m of this total approved for the project’s launch in August 2020. The initiative intends to produce green hydrogen, transport it in the gas network, use it in industrial processes and to interlink different material cycles within the existing infrastructure. The consortium brings together ten partners: EDF Deutschland, Holcim Deutschland, OGE, Ørsted Deutschland, Raffinerie Heide, Heide’s municipal utility, Thüga and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, along with the Region Heide development agency and the Westküste University of Applied Sciences.
“An electrolysis plant with a capacity of 700MW - this is our vision and the next milestone in implementing the development targets laid down in the national hydrogen strategy by 2030,” said Jürgen Wollschläger, managing director of Raffinerie Heide and coordinator of the Westküste100 project.
The funding approval enables work to begin on the first phase of the project, which is set to run for five years. A newly formed joint venture, H2 Westküste, comprising EDF Deutschland, Ørsted and Raffinerie Heide, is to build a 30MW electrolyser which will produce green hydrogen from offshore wind energy and provide information on the operation, maintenance, control and grid compatibility of the equipment.
In a later stage of the project hydrogen from both electrolysis and CO2 from a cement plant in Schleswig-Holstein will be used in the process. During the initial phase of the Westküste100 project preparations will be made for converting the Lägerdorf cement plant to an oxyfuel combustion process.
Thorsten Hahn, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Holcim (Deutschland) said, “For us, as a manufacturer of building materials, the funding approval is a key milestone on the way to decarbonising cement production. Now all of us involved in Westküste100 must move forward quickly, decisively and dynamically in order to achieve our ultimate goal of cross-sectoral coupling on a large industrial scale in the coming years.”
Germany/UK: Langley Holdings says that the order intake for its subsidiary Claudius Peters was behind target for the first half of 2020 and expected to remain so for the rest of the year due to the associated lead time. Due to market disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic the group has implemented short-time working and agreed “tariff reductions with the workforce” to reduce costs.
Overall, the group’s revenue rose by 3.4% year-on-year to Euro411m in the first half of 2020 from Euro397m in the same period in 2019. However, this was attributed to its acquisition of Marelli Motori in mid-2019. Its operating profit dropped by 81% to Euro3.84m from Euro20.5m.
“Although the 2020 result is not yet secure at this point, we do have reasonable visibility on the second half and my principal concern now is for 2021, although the extent to which Coronavirus impacts our businesses next year will not start to become apparent until the autumn. Currently all divisions are reporting delays to capital equipment order placements and I expect these delays to continue into next year. I hope to be proven wrong but any notion of a rapid recovery from the economic fallout from Coronavirus would in my view, be wishful thinking,” said Anthony J Langley, the chairman of Langley Holdings.