Displaying items by tag: Holcim

South Africa: Mining and materials company Afrimat says that further regulatory conditions as part of its ongoing acquisition of Lafarge South Africa have been met. The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy of South Africa has consented in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank has approved the acquisition in terms of the Exchange Control Regulations and the respective Competition Authorities in Botswana and eSwatini have approved the implementation of the acquisition. Approval by the Competition Commission is still outstanding but it recommended the transaction to the Competition Tribunal in November 2023. However, the Competition Commission highlighted ‘horizontal overlaps’ in the aggregates and ready-mix concrete sectors and recommended that the parties be required to divest assets across the affected sectors.

Afrimat first announced in June 2023 that it had agreed a share purchase agreement with a Holcim Group subsidiary, Caricement, to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Lafarge South Africa. The proposed acquisition will become unconditional and be implemented once approval by the Competition Tribunal has been obtained.

US: Holcim US, in partnership with The Ohio State University and GTI Energy, will install membrane carbon capture technology at its Holly Hill, South Carolina, cement plant. The project is partly funded by a US$7m the US Department of Energy. The partners aim to capture 99% of the plant’s CO₂ emissions.

GTI Energy vice president of carbon management and conversion Don Stevenson said "This project will showcase the power of collaboration and innovation in tackling the complex challenge of transitioning to cleaner energy systems. The development and implementation of cost-effective carbon capture technologies are key to meeting our decarbonisation goals."

US: Holcim US has entered a partnership with climate tech start-up incubator Greentown Labs to accelerate decarbonisation in the built environment, using the latter’s Somerville, Massachusetts, and Houston, Texas, incubators. Holcim said that the collaboration will increase its access to start-ups in the field of sustainable building solutions. The producer has additionally joined Greentown Labs’ Industry Leadership Council for strategic guidance. Greentown Labs supports over 200 start-ups and has assisted more than 525 since its inception. It offers lab space, office space, machine shops, electronics labs, tool shops, software, business resources and a network of stakeholders to climate tech start-ups.

Holcim chief sustainability officer Nollaig Forrest said “With our open innovation ecosystem, we partner with hundreds of start-ups worldwide to accelerate the shift to sustainable building. By partnering with Greentown Labs, we aim to empower the best and brightest start-ups active in the built environment to scale up their impact. The combination of Holcim MAQER Ventures, our venture capital programme, with Greentown’s stellar roster of successful climate tech start-ups will serve as a catalyst to reinvent how the world builds for a regenerative future.”

Greentown Labs CEO Kevin Knobloch said "Greentown Labs is thrilled to be partnering with Holcim, a global leader in sustainable building solutions to decarbonise the built environment to bolster cutting-edge climate tech innovations in this critical sector. We look forward to seeing Holcim engage with our building tech start-ups, sharing its unmatched expertise in low-carbon building innovations and helping advance our entrepreneurs' solutions."

Switzerland: Holcim says that it aims to conclude 15 - 20 new acquisitions in 2024, and potentially ‘many more.’ The value of individual deals ranges from US$5.78 – 115m, but might possibly exceed US$230m. Holcim says that it is focussing on growing its construction waste recycling business in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK, as well as its aggregates business in Eastern Europe.

Switzerland: McKinsey & Company and the World Economic Forum have recognised Holcim’s ECOCycle recycling technology for construction-demolition material (CDM) as a "Circularity Lighthouse in the Built Environment." ECOCycle technology can process 100% of CDM input into new building materials with 75% lower CO₂ emissions than traditional alternatives.

Chief sustainability officer Nollaig Forrest said “Circularity is a game changer to decarbonise buildings at scale. At Holcim we are operating over 100 ECOCycle recycling centres globally to drive circular construction. With our advanced recycling of CDM, we can already reduce the CO₂ footprint of cement by up to 40%. This is just the beginning; as we innovate and partner across the value chain to evolve building norms, we aim to accelerate the shift to circular construction in all metropolitan areas where we operate.”

Germany: Holcim Deutschland has announced for the ‘most extensive’ modernisation of its Beckum cement plant to date. Local press has reported that the modernisation will commence with the installation of a Euro20m pendulum cooler to replace the plant’s existing tube cooler. The new cooler will reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions and make separated CO₂ better suited for capture, according to the producer. The Beckum cement plant is the site of an on-going carbon capture trial.

General manager Jan Kristof Peters said “We want to implement all construction work as quickly as possible and with as little noise pollution as possible for the neighbourhood. As in previous years, we ask for our neighbourhood’s understanding.”

Germany: Switzerland-based CO₂ mineralisation technology developer Neustark says that it sees major potential for recycling concrete from construction and demolition waste (CDW) to produce carbon-negative products using its process in Germany. Neustark inaugurated its first German plant, and 12th overall, at Marzahn in Berlin in late 2023. Capital Online News has reported that the start-up estimates that Germany generates 60Mt/yr of CDW concrete, but only recycles 600,000t/yr (1%). This contrasts with international CDW concrete recycling rates as high as 15% in Switzerland and the US.

The start-up, founded at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in 2019, currently absorbs 10kg/t of CO₂ in its recycled materials, but aims to reach 60kg/t. Its investors include Holcim.

Thailand: Siam City Cement has appointed Ranjan Sachdeva as its Acting Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from the start of January 2024. He succeeds the former Group CEO Aidan Lynam in the position. Lynam had been in post since 2019.

Sachdeva has worked for Siam City Cement since 2017, first as the Group Head Internal Audit and Compliance and then as the Group Chief Financial Officer, from April 2023. Prior to this he worked in procurement and audit roles for Holcim in India. He has also worked for Vedanta and Nestle during his career. He holds a bachelor of engineering from the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the University of Leicester, among other qualifications.

Argentina: Throughout the second half of 2023, Holcim Argentina estimates that it will use 75% renewable energy. The milestone is the outcome of an agreement signed with 360 Energy in April 2023, under which the renewable power provider contributes to the energy mix at all of Holcim Argentina’s cement production facilities. Holcim Argentina says that the deal will help to eliminate 68,600t/yr of CO₂ from its operations. The producer said that it also invested in upgrades to help reduce its water consumption by 6% throughout 2023.

Holcim Argentina has invested US$1m in on-going and planned upgrades to its facilities, and plans to invest a further US$4.9m.

US: The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded US$45.6m-worth of federal funding to carbon capture projects across US industries. Among the nine projects that received grants are Argos USA’s engineering-scale carbon capture project at its Harleyville, South Carolina, cement plant and Holcim US’ engineering-scale carbon capture project at its Holly Hill, South Carolina, cement plant. The National Energy Technology Laboratory has reported that projects will focus on technologies for CO₂ capture and multi-modal transport via hubs.

DOE Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Assistant Secretary Brad Crabtree said “DOE is mobilising historic levels of private sector investment in the US to capture, transport and safely and permanently store hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO₂ per year from our industrial and power sectors. These demonstration and pilot projects bring us one step closer to effective and responsible deployment of the carbon management infrastructure necessary to achieve our climate goals, while also providing good paying and jobs and health benefits to communities in every corner of the nation.”