Displaying items by tag: Gorazdze Cement

Heidelberg Materials inaugurated a plant near Katowice in Poland this week for separating and sorting demolition concrete. This gives us the chance to catch up with the state of construction and demolition waste (CDW) for the cement and concrete sectors and consider the differences between the strategies of the multinational heavy building materials companies in Europe and the US.

The new CDW recycling unit has a capacity of up to 100t/hr. Heidelberg Materials says that it is the “first company in the industry to introduce high-quality, selective concrete separation at this scale.” The company is using its proprietary ReConcrete process to sort out fractions from the CDW including sand, gravel and, finest of all, recycled concrete paste (RCP). That last one is particularly valuable because it can either be used as an alternative raw material for clinker production by replacing limestone or as a secondary cementitious material. Heidelberg Materials is also promoting the potential use of RCP as a carbon sink over the lifetime of a concrete structure via ‘enforced carbonation.’ The RCP is exposed to raw exhaust gases from cement production allowing it to both mineralise CO₂ and act as a clinker substitute. To further explore this option Heidelberg Materials is building an industrial pilot at its Górażdże plant to test the concept with construction expected by the end of 2024.

Both Holcim and Heidelberg Materials have been visibly busy buying up more aggregate recycling companies over the last nine months since Global Cement Weekly last reported on CDW. Holcim acquired Germany-based Mendiger Basalt in January 2024, Switzerland-based Cand-Landi Group and UK-based Land Recovery in June 2024, and Belgium-based Mark Desmedt in July 2024. It also said at the start of the year that it aimed to conclude 15 - 20 new acquisitions in 2024 with a focus on CDW companies in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. Heidelberg Materials bought UK-based B&A Group in May 2024 and US-based Highway Materials and Aaron Materials in July 2024. Holcim has set itself a target of recycling 12Mt/yr of CDW by 2030 by using its ECOCycle technology. It reported 8.4Mt/yr in 2023 and hopes to reach 10Mt/yr in 2024.

Some of the recycling companies mentioned above are based in the US but the pace of CDW acquisitions have generally been faster in Europe. In the US, meanwhile, the heavy building materials producers have tended to buy more general aggregates companies. Heidelberg Materials announced on 30 July 2024 that it was buying Albany-based Carver Sand & Gravel. This followed the companies mentioned above and Texas-based Victory Rock, also in July 2024. Holcim said in its first half-year results for 2024 that it had ‘executed’ a bolt-on acquisition in the US that would strengthen its aggregate and ready-mixed concrete business. Cemex also revealed a joint-venture agreement with sand and gravel supplier Couch Aggregates and marine bulk product distributor Premier Holdings in July 2024. It said that the move was part of its “ongoing strategy to accelerate growth in the US and expand its aggregates business.” A big recent deal in the sector was the merger of the US-based operations of Summit Materials and Cementos Argos that completed in January 2024. Although at the time we concentrated on the cement-side of the transaction, it also gave the organisation just under 5Bnt of aggregate reserves.

It may be a stretch to call what’s going on here a trend. Yet the large heavy building materials companies do appear to be acting differently in the US and Europe with regards to aggregate companies and CDW recyclers. The main drivers here are the strength of the US market and the stricter environmental legislation in Europe. Higher population density in Europe compared to the US may also be playing a part in the differences in speed of adoption between the two markets. The ongoing Holcim spinoff demonstrates the differences between the two market regions in bold terms. In short, the company has decided to split itself in two in order to meet the different needs of each market. As for CDW, the trickle of acquisitions keep coming and momentum is steadily building.

Poland: Heidelberg Materials Polska has appointed Piotr Misz as a Regional Director.

Misz has worked for Heidelberg Materials Group in Poland since 2015. He became the subsidiary’s Head of Regional Sales in 2019. Prior to this he held positions with JD Group and RMC Beton Śląsk managing ready-mix concrete plants. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Opole.

Poland: Górażdże Cement has announced an investment of Euro261m in planned sustainability upgrades to its Górażdże cement plant in Opole Voivodeship, the Polish News Bulletin newspaper has reported. The Heidelberg Materials subsidiary plans to build a carbon capture installation, a green energy source and a facility to recycle construction and demolition waste for use in its cement production.

Poland: HeildelbergCement subsidiary Górażdże Group plans to vaccinate 700 of its employees against Covid-19. A first dose will be administered in mid-May 2021 followed by a second in June 2021. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be used and administered on company sites. The corporate health campaign will be conducted as part of the country’s National Immunisation Program.

Poland: HeildelbergCement subsidiary Górażdże Group has signed a 10-year corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with BayRa to buy electricity from the forthcoming Witnica solar power plant. The project is the first subsidy-free PPA-backed large-scale solar park in Poland. Due for completion in the first half of 2021, the solar park will be the largest in Poland, with a capacity of 64.6MWp.

“Here is the ultimate proof that photovoltaic power can – without any subsidies - be competitive to conventional energies, even in a European country further north, which still generates 80% of its electricity from coal,” said Benedikt Ortmann, Global Director of Solar Projects at BayWa. Andrea Grotzke, Global Director of Energy Solutions at BayWa added, “This PPA serves as an economic structure for a fixed price hedge against rising electricity costs. Securing energy from solar not only reduces a company’s CO₂ footprint. We are convinced that it also results in significant savings on the corporate energy bill.” BayWa has set the goal of constructing solar and wind projects in Poland with a total installed capacity of more than 1GW by the mid-2020s.

Poland: Przemysław Malinowski has been appointed as the managing director of Górażdże Beton from the start of August 2019. He succeeds Wojciech Hałat, who will take the role of general director of HeidelbergCement Kazakhstan. Malinowski will report to Andrzej Reclik, the General Director of Górażdże Cement.

Malinowski is a graduate of the University of Economics in Katowice and MBA Studies at the University of Economics in Wroclaw. Before joining the Górażdże Group in 2017, he worked for EDF Group.

The European Union’s (EU) verified CO₂ emissions figures were released earlier this week on 1 April 2019. The good news is that no cement plant is within the top 100 largest emitters. All the top spots are held by power plants, iron and steel producers and the odd airline. Indeed, out of all of the verified emissions, cement clinker or lime production only represents 7% of the total emissions. Of course this is too much if the region wants to meet its climate change commitments but it is worth remembering that other industries have a long way to go as well and they don’t necessarily face the intrinsic process challenges that clinker production has. If the general public or governments are serious about cutting CO₂ emissions then they might consider, for example, taking fewer flights with airlines before picking on the cement industry.

The EU emitted 117Mt of CO₂ from its clinker and lime producers in 2018, a 2.7% year-on-year decrease compared to 120Mt in 2017. This compares to 158Mt in 2008, giving a 26% drop in emissions over the decade to 2018. However, there are two warnings attached to this data. First, there are plants on this list that have closed between 2008 and 2018. Second, there are plants that provided no data in 2018, for example, all the plants in Bulgaria. Climate change think tank Sandbag helpfully pointed out in its analysis of the EU emissions data that industrial emissions have barely decreased since 2012. The implication here being that the drop from 2008 to 2012 was mainly due to the economic recession. Sandbag also made the assertion that 96% of the cement industry’s emissions were covered by free allocations in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) thereby de-incentivising sector willingness to decarbonise.

By country the emissions in 2018 from cement and lime roughly correspond with production capacity, although this comes with the caveat that emissions link to actual production not potential capacity. So, Germany leads followed by Spain, Italy, Poland and France. Of these Poland is a slight outlier, as will be seen below.

Table 1: Top 10 CO₂ emitting plants in the European Union in 2018. Source: European Commission.

Poland leads the count in the top 10 EU CO₂ emitting cement plants in 2018 with five plants. Greece follows with two plants. This list is deceptive as all of these plants are large ones with production capacities of 2Mt/yr and above. As it contains many of the largest plants in the EU no wonder the emissions are the highest. It is also worth considering that there are far larger plants outside of the EU.

In summary, as most readers will already know, the cement industry is a significant minority CO₂ emitter in the EU. Countries with larger cement sectors emit more CO₂ as do larger plants. So far, so obvious. Emissions are down since 2008 but this mostly seems to have stalled since 2012, bar a blip in 2017. The change though has been the rising carbon price in the EU ETS in 2018. Coincidentally the carbon price has been fairly low and stable since 2012. If the mechanism is working properly then changes should start to appear in 2019. Already in 2018 a few European cement producers announced plant closures and blamed the carbon price. Watch this space.

The Global Future Cement Conference & Exhibition on low and zero CO2 cement production will take place in Brussels, Belgium on 22 - 23 May 2019

Poland: Andrzej Reclik has been appointed as the president of Górażdże Cement. The former member of the management board and chief financial officer (CFO) will take up the new role on 1 July 2019. He will succeed Ernest Jelito, who will become a member of the HeidelbergCement’s management board.

Reclik, a graduate of the Wrocław University of Economics, has worked for Górażdże Group since 1994. From 2007 to 2010 he was the managing director for aggregates and ready-mix concrete. He then became a member of the management board and CFO in 2010.

The Górażdże Group operates the Górażdże integrated cement plant, the Ekocem cement grinding plant at Dąbrowa Górnicza, 17 aggregate quarries and 60 ready-mix concrete plants. It employs over 1200 people. It is a subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement.

Poland: The court of appeal has supported a decision by the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) in 2009 to fine six cement producers for cartel-like behaviour. However, the total fine has been reduced by one third to Euro67m from Euro98.3m, according to the Polish News Bulletin.

Grupa Ozarow is to pay Euro22.1m, Cemex Polska Euro16.6m, Gorazdze Cement Euro12.3m, Dyckerhoff Polska Euro7.51m, Cementownia Warta Euro5.55m and Cementownia Odra Euro2.87m. Some companies had their fines reduced by the court of appeal. Dyckerhoff will pay Euro7.5m instead of Euro13m and Cemex Polska will pay Euro5.88 less than the original fine. Some of the companies involved are considering appealing to the Supreme Court.

Poland: Gorazdze Cement intends to cut costs partly by increasing its usage of alternative fuels, according to its CEO Ernest Jelito. As the Polish cement producer is currently operating at a 60 – 70% capacity utilisation rate it has no plans to increase its capacity. Gorazdze Cement has a thermal substitution rate of around 50% at present and it intends to raise this to 70 – 80%.