Displaying items by tag: Hillhead

The Hillhead Quarrying, Construction and Recycling Show is in full flow this week, taking place near Buxton in Derbyshire. As one delegate marvelled on the panoramic minibus journey down to the quarry, “It’s like a music festival without the music and… other stuff.” Indeed. Of course what one doesn’t find at Glastonbury and the like is a near comprehensive range of suppliers, over 600 of them, to the industry all in one place… in a quarry! Where else can one get up close and see the new hydrogen-powered generators and excavating vehicles that are being piloted? The official attendance figures don’t get released until after the event but on the ground it looks as busy as ever. It’s truly the place to be this week.

The show gives us a reason to take a look at the UK cement sector. Like many other countries around the world it is an election year in the UK, with a General Election scheduled for 4 July 2024. The result of this should determine the next Prime Minister and the ruling party. So, naturally, the MPA, the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and industrial sand industries, is taking the opportunity to remind the political parties what its priorities are. The quick version is: support for decarbonisation; a streamlined planning system; and better delivery of projects. This sounds familiar to priorities in other countries but one British spin on this includes the UK’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

Graph 1: Domestic cement sales and imports in the UK, 2017 – 2022. Source: MPA.

Edwin Trout’s feature on the UK cement sector in the June 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine presents a good overview of the last 12 months. The general UK economy has faced shocks in recent years such as Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. However, this has been further compounded by a downturn and high interest rates since late 2022 when the then Prime Minister Liz Truss caused market turbulence in the wake of a badly received government financial statement. As Trout relates, sales of heavy building materials have been in relative decline since mid-2022 with more of the same expected in 2024. Production of cement in 2023 is currently uncertain given the reporting time lag from the MPA but up until 2022 domestic cement sales fell somewhat but imports grew. This has created a situation where overall cement sales in 2022 were 12Mt, not far behind the annual level in the early 2000s. However, the share of imports has nearly doubled since then. More recent MPA data on mortar and ready-mixed concrete sales throughout the first nine months of 2023 suggest that market activity has decreased and poor weather at the start of 2024 looks set to have made this worse.

Despite the apparent slowdown in building materials sales the cement companies have been conducting smaller-scale maintenance and upgrade projects at their facilities and supply chain schemes such as the cement storage unit for deep sea shipping lines that Aggregate Industries said in February 2024 it was going to build at the Port of Southampton. The news the cement companies want to show off has been a steady stream of information about ongoing decarbonisation projects in the cement sector. C-Capture started a carbon capture trial at Heidelberg Materials’ Ketton cement works in Rutland in May 2024, Capsol Technologies said in March 2024 that it had been selected to conduct a study on its carbon capture technology at Aggregate Industries Cauldon cement plant in Staffordshire, Heidelberg Materials' Ribblesdale cement plant in Lancashire announced in March 2024 that it was taking part in a study to assess the use of ammonia as a hydrogen source for fuelling cement kilns and Heidelberg Materials awarded Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) a front end engineering design contract for a carbon capture installation at its Padeswood cement plant in Flintshire in February 2024. Finally, on the divestment front, CRH completed the sale of its UK-based lime business to SigmaRoc for €155m in March 2024. The business operates from sites in Tunstead and Hindlow with five permitted lime kilns.

That’s it for this short recap on the UK for now. For a longer look at the UK cement sector read Edwin Trout’s feature in June 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Hillhead 2024 runs until 27 June 2024

UK: Global Cement Magazine is ready for the Hillhead 2022 quarrying, construction and recycling show that takes place on 21 – 23 June 2022 taking place in Derbyshire. You can find Global Cement Magazine at stand PB14 in the Main Pavilion. The event was originally planned to take place in June 2021 but was postponed for one year following the UK coronavirus-related lockdowns. Held in a limestone quarry, the organisers say that it is the largest exhibition of its kind anywhere in the world.

UK: QMJ Group has decided to postpone its Hillhead quarrying and recycling show until 21 – 23 June 2022. It follows review of its plans for 2021 with consideration given to the government’s post-Covid pandemic reopening roadmap. The event was originally planned to take place in June 2021.

Event director Richard Bradbury said, “Under these guidelines, it is clear that the show will not be able to operate legally in June this year. Our priority is to provide the Hillhead experience that our exhibitors and visitors have come to expect but, with the continuing uncertainty around travel restrictions and social distancing measures, this is not achievable in 2021.” He added, “By delaying the show until June 2022, the full benefits of a completed vaccination programme will have filtered through, allowing us to deliver a safe and vibrant event. The team looks forward to welcoming you back to Hillhead Quarry, Buxton, from 21 - 23 June 2022.”

UK: QMJ Group has announced 9 – 10 March 2020 as the dates for Hillhead Digital, a “multi-stream conference with an innovative exhibition platform that will allow the industry to connect and engage like never before.” Under the heading “New Horizons – Building the Recovery,” the event will feature 40 seminars and panel sessions, providing insights into “themes that will shape and transform the extractives and construction industry over the next decade,” namely digitisation, decarbonisation and infrastructure, as well as 500 virtual booths. Delegates will also be able to arrange live chats and meetings with other attendees.

QMJ Group managing director Richard Bradbury said, “With exhibitors unable to showcase their products and services at physical exhibitions over the last year, Hillhead Digital will provide a safe and dynamic platform for the community to reconnect and share all of the positive developments that will help shape the construction recovery. Our digital-format event will extend Hillhead’s international reach and increase its coverage of the technology sector and younger demographic groups. It will celebrate the enormous contribution the sector makes to the UK and provide an exciting prelude to the physical event we look forward to delivering on 22 – 24 June 2021.”

UK: Global Cement Magazine is exhibiting at the Hillhead 2018 quarrying exhibition from 26 – 28 June 2018 taking place in Derbyshire. Held in a limestone quarry, the organisers say that it is the largest exhibition of its kind anywhere in the world. Global Cement Magazine has exhibition stand PC45 in the main pavillion.