Displaying items by tag: Germany
Germany: HeidelbergCement has highlighted occupational safety and research into CO2 reduction as priorities in its sustainability report for 2017. It reduced its accident frequency rate for employees with at least one lost working day per 1,000,000 hours across cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates to 1.8 in 2017 from 2.2 in 2016.
“This represents a significant improvement. A large number of locations have now been accident-free for several years, while others have seen drastically reduced accident rates. Nevertheless, serious accidents still occurred in 2017. We will therefore further intensify our efforts to prevent accidents on a permanent basis,” said Bernd Scheifele, the chairman of HeidelbergCement.
The building materials producer has also singled out its commitment to reduce its specific CO2 emissions by 30% in 2030 compared with 1990. It plans to support this by continually increasing the proportion of alternative raw materials and fuels and, wherever possible, to make its production processes more efficient. In addition, HeidelbergCement has invested in research programmes on carbon capture and its utilisation as a raw material. In 2017, it spent Euro141m on research and technology, an increase of around Euro24m from 2016.
Following HeidelbergCement’s acquisition of Italcementi in 2016 its CO2 emissions have increased. Its specific net CO2 emissions (per tonne of cementitious material) rose by 1.9% year-on-year to 609kg Co2/t in 2017 from 598 kg Co2/t in 2016. Its overall proportion of alternative fuels has also decreased slightly dropping to 20.8% from 21.4%. However, its specific energy consumption for cement and clinker continued to fall in 2017.
Germany: IKN has revealed that first clinker was created on schedule at HeidelbergCement’s Burglengenfeld cement plant in April 2018 following an upgrade to one its kiln lines.
IKN was awarded a contract for engineering, supply and installation to upgrade the pyro-processing line to 4000t/day, from raw meal feeding to clinker discharge. The contract included integration engineering, supply and installation of add-on components for the raw meal grinding plant. The new production line comprises a two-string, five-stage preheater tower with inline calciner and Fire Bed Combustor for coarse refuse-derived fuel (RDF). IKN says that its most modern preheater and calciner design ensures minimum pressure drop at maximum performance and high efficiency. The kiln line has been designed for maximum use of a broad range of alternative fuels.
RKW joins CEFLEX
26 June 2018Germany: RKW has joined CEFLEX, a European consortium of companies promoting the recyclability of flexible packaging and the increased use of recycled plastic. It intends to become active in enhancing the sustainability of packaging and developing new industry standards.
CEFLEX is the collaborative initiative of a European consortium of companies that promotes the recycling of flexible packaging. The CEFLEX consortium includes more than 70 member companies that cover the entire value chain of flexible packaging, from raw material producers and flexible packaging manufacturers, to fast moving consumer goods manufacturers and recycling companies. CEFLEX aims to increase the contribution of flexible packaging to the circular economy by refining suitable system design solutions.
The RKW Group is a family-owned company headquartered in Frankenthal, Germany and a manufacturer of film solutions for hygiene, agricultural and beverage sectors. It also produces packaging for powdery goods. In addition, the company makes films and nonwovens for medical applications, for the chemical and converting industries as well as for the construction sector.
Beumer opens new sales office in Ruhr area
19 June 2018Germany: Beumer has opened a new sales office in the Ruhr area. The new ‘West’ office will enable Beumer Customer Support to handle worldwide retrofitting and modernisation projects including, for example, currently operating conveying systems like bucket elevators and clinker conveyors, and those from other suppliers. The engineering company says that its goal is to cooperate closely with its headquarters in Beckum and provide everything from one source, from receiving a query, to technical dimensioning and on-site installation.
Cemex’s digital platform hits over 10,000 customers
15 June 2018Mexico: Cemex says that its digital platform, Cemex Go, has reached over 10,000 customers or a quarter of its worldwide customer base. Cemex Go is currently available in Mexico, the US, Colombia, the UK, and Germany and is expected to be deployed in half of the company’s markets in the coming weeks. By the end of 2018, it is expected to be available in all of Cemex’s key locations, serving approximately 45,000 customers.
The system allows the company and its customers to will be used in real time to manage order placement, live tracking of shipments and invoices and payments for the company’s main products, including bagged and bulk cement. Cemex Go was introduced in Mexico and the US in late 2017.
Pakistan: Germany’s Aumund Fördertechnik is supplying equipment for a new 8000t/day production line that Flying Cement is building at its Mangowal plant in Punjab Province. Aumund is providing bucket elevators, pan conveyors and silo discharge gates for the project.
One belt bucket elevator will feed raw meal to the silo. It is designed with a centre distance of 87.6m and will reach a capacity of around 650t/hr. The other belt bucket elevator will also have a capacity of 650t/hr. Its centre distance is 115m and it will take raw meal to the heat exchanger. Flying Cement will use an Aumund KZB 1200/400 pan conveyor to transport clinker to the main silo. This conveyor will be approximately 115m long, with a lift of 43.5m, and a capacity of up to 580t/hr. The off-spec silo will be served by an Aumund KZB 1200/400 pan conveyor which is 42m long and has a capacity of 580t/hr. The order also includes 13 silo discharge gates.
The bucket elevators will be dispatched to Pakistan at the beginning of August 2018 and the pan conveyors will be supplied in a second consignment at the end the year.
Germany/Pakistan: Germany’s Loesche says it has sold over 400 vertical roller mills for cement and ground granulated blast furnace slag, following a sale to Kohat Cement. Two LM 53.3+3 CS type mills has been sold to the Pakistani cement producer. The plant will produce 210t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement at a fineness of 9% R 45 μm. No value for the deal has been disclosed.
The first Loesche LM type mill was put into operation at Fos sur Mer in France in 1994. Sales of the mill type for cement and slag markets have accelerated since 2006. The engineering company sold 50 LM mills in the 10 years to 2004. It then sold another 50 mills to 2006. However, from 2006 to 2014 it sold 200 mills. It then sold a further 100 mills after 2014.
Siemens signs agreement with China Resources Cement
07 June 2018Germany/China: Siemens has signed 10 agreements with Chinese companies, including China Resources Cement, to support the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Other companies it has struck deals with include China Gezhouba Group Corporation International Engineering, Guangdong Yuedian Group, China National Chemical Engineering Group, China Railway Construction and China Civil Engineering Construction.
"As a long-term and well-established partner of China and its industries, we support the call of the Belt and Road Initiative and take another solid step forward on a larger scale and a wider scope", said Joe Kaeser, President and chief executive officer (CEO) of Siemens, witnessing the signing taking place during the BRI Summit in Beijing. He added that the BRI was a ‘wise and powerful’ for force for accelerating infrastructure development already in participating countries.
Bestway Cement orders four mills from Loesche
29 May 2018Pakistan: Germany’s Loesche has sold four vertical roller mills (VRM) to Bestway Cement through China’s Sinoma International Engineering. The mills will be used to upgrade Bestway Cement’s Farooqia plant in the Punjab province. No expected date of commissioning or value for the order has been disclosed.
The order consists of one raw mill, one coal mill and two clinker mills. One four-roller mill VRM with a capacity of 450t/hr will be used to grind cement raw material to a fineness of 12% with sieving residue of R 90μm. Two further mills with a throughput of 170t/hr will serve for the subsequent grinding of cement clinker to a fineness of 3200 Blaine. One large modular VRM with a capacity of 40t/hr will be used in the grinding of coal to a fineness of 10% and R 90μm sieving residue.
Germany: HeidelbergCement has increased its sales volumes of cement in the first quarter of 2018 despite facing poor weather and coping with reduced working days. Sales volumes of cement rose by 2% year-on-year to 28.2Mt from 27.5Mt in the same period in 2017. Falling sales volumes in Europe and North America were offset by growth in Asia-Pacific and Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin. In Asia, Indonesia and India contributed strongly to its growth, the cement producer said. In Africa, increases in sales volumes were recorded in Egypt, Ghana and Tanzania. Its sales revenue increased on a like-for-like basis by 2% to Euro3.78bn.
“HeidelbergCement generated a profit in the seasonally weak first quarter and despite difficult weather conditions,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “Our successful management of the portfolio and financial result more than compensated for the weather-related decline in operating result.”
The group completed its acquisition of Cementir Italia in Italy and the Alex Fraser Group in Australia in the reporting period. It also finished the sale of the sand-lime brick operating line in Germany and its white cement business in the US.