Displaying items by tag: Holcim

Spain: Switzerland-based Holcim has concluded a deal to acquire Élite Cementos from Grupo Simetría and other shareholders. Élite Cementos operates a grinding plant at the Port of Castellón in Castellón de la Plana, Valencia. Holcim said that its acquisition of the business will unite the latter’s local brand recognition with its own experience and vision of sustainable growth.

The group said “With this agreement, Holcim expands its geographical presence, responding to the increasingly demanding and specialised needs of the sector. The Élite Cementos team joins the Holcim family to continue together an era of growth and transformation of the construction sector.”

Cementos Molins has been celebrating the first anniversary this week of its alternative raw materials unit at its Sant Vicenç dels Horts plant near Barcelona. It has processed 75,000t of waste since September 2022 when the site started up. More is yet to come as the unit has a production capacity of up to 200,000t/yr. The facility receives waste in coarse, granular, powder and sludge formats. Waste from concrete plants is crushed and screened to produce recycled aggregate. Industrial and construction waste is dosed and homogenised to produce alternative raw materials for cement production.

Global Cement Weekly has covered construction and demolition waste (CDW) a couple of times already so far in 2023. A number of cement producers are investing in the sector - including Holcim, Heidelberg Materials, CRH, Cemex – by developing technology, buying up other companies, setting up internal CDW divisions and so on. Holcim and Heidelberg Materials have been the more obviously active participants over the past six months based on media coverage. In September 2023 Holcim France commissioned the Saint-Laurent-de-Mûre alternative raw materials plant and Holcim Group invested in Neustark, a company promoting technology to sequester CO₂ in CDW. In August 2023 Lafarge Canada also completed the first stage of a pilot project to use CDW in cement production at its St. Constant plant in Quebec. Heidelberg Materials meanwhile announced in October 2023 that a forthcoming upgrade to its Górażdże cement plant in Poland would include a new CDW recycling unit and in September 2023 it launched a CDW division for its subsidiary Hanson UK.

Previously we have described how the European Union (EU) has set recovery targets for CDW. However, McKinsey & Company published research in March 2023 setting out the economic case for cement and concrete companies looking at CDW. It estimated that “an increased adoption of circular technologies could be linked to the emergence of new financial net-value pools worth up to roughly Euro110bn by 2050.” It is not a certainty and there is risk involved, but adopting circular practices is one way to reduce this risk. It then went on to predict that recirculating materials and minerals could generate nearly Euro80bn/yr in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the cement and concrete sectors by 2050. The biggest portion of this could come from using CDW in various ways such as a clinker replacement or as an aggregate in concrete production, or the use of unhydrated cement ‘fines.’ Capturing and using CO₂ and increasing alternative fuels (AF) substitution rates would have a financial impact but not to the same scale.

Graph 1: CO₂ abatement cost via circular technologies for cement and concrete sectors. Source: McKinsey & Company.

Graph 1 above puts all of the McKinsey circular technology suggestions in one place with the prediction that all of these methods could reduce CO₂ emissions from cement and concrete production by 80% in 2050 based on an estimated demand of 4Bnt/yr. The first main point they made was that technologies using CO₂, such as curing ready-mix or precast concrete, can create positive economic value at carbon prices of approximately Euro80/t of CO₂. Readers should note that the EU emissions Trading Scheme CO₂ price has generally been above Euro80t/yr since the start of 2022. The second point to note is that using CDW could potentially save money by offering CO₂ abatement at a negative cost through avoiding landfill gate fees and reducing the amount of raw materials required. This is dependent though on government regulation on CO₂ prices, landfill costs and so on.

Cement producers have been clearly aware of the potential of CDW for a while now, based on the actions described above and elsewhere, and they are jockeying for advantage. These companies are familiar with the economic rationale for AF and secondary cementitious materials (SCM) in different countries and locations. CDW usage is similar but with, in McKinsey’s view, existing CO₂ prices, landfill costs, and regulatory frameworks all playing a part in the calculations. Graph 1 is a prediction but it is also another way of showing the path of least resistance to decarbonisation. It is cheaper to start with AF, SCMs and CDW rather than barrelling straight into carbon capture. The beauty here is that cement and concrete sold, say, 50 years ago is now heading back to the producers in the form of CDW and it still has value.

France: Holcim France has commissioned its new Saint-Laurent-de-Mûre alternative raw materials plant in Rhône Department. The unit produces cementitious paste from construction and demolition waste using Holcim’s ECOCycle upcycling process. It will source construction and demolition waste from the Lyon Metropolitan Area.

Holcim’s global head of circular construction Vincent Teissier said “Advancing such circular technologies is one of the main pillars of our sustainability strategy. This new advanced crushing unit in Saint-Laurent-de-Mûre is a major step toward using construction and demolition materials to their full value.”

Romania: Holcim Romania has successfully upgraded pyroprocessing and cement grinding equipment at its Câmpulung cement plant in Argeș County. Germany-based KHD Humboldt Wedag supplied equipment for the upgrade. For the plant’s pyroprocessing line, this included a downcomer duct, water injection system and induced draught fan, as well as an upgrade to the clinker cooler. Meanwhile, the grinding line has received a new SKS Z 2500 dynamic separator, cyclones, process ducts and separator fan. The supplier says that the upgrade has increased the Câmpulung plant’s clinker capacity and the efficiency of its operations. The work took 14 months to complete from the signing of the contract in mid-2023.

Spain: Holcim España invested Euro4m in an upgrade to its 1.5Mt/yr Carboneras cement plant in Almería. Alimarket-Construction News has reported that the upgrade will raise the plant’s alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate to 70% and enable it to dispose of 50,000t/yr of waste through co-processing it as AF. Holcim España expects this to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 22,000t/yr.

Azerbaijan: Norm has appointed Ülkü Özcan and Stephan Sollberger to its board of directors, according to the Trend News Agency.

Ülkü Özcan holds over 20 years of experience in the cement industry. She has held various positions in Cimsa and held the position of its chief executive officer from 2018 to 2020. Since then she has been working in the energy & telecommunication cable business in Türkiye. Additionally, she has held various roles at Afyon Cement, including a member of the board of directors, a representative for the Global Cement and Concrete Association and a member in the Audit Committee of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Türkiye. She has also worked for Lafarge Turkey previously. Özcan is a business graduate from Marmara University and has completed the Advanced Industrial Marketing and Strategy Program at INSEAD Business School in Paris.

Stephan Sollberger holds over 30 years of experience in cement and concrete manufacturing companies. From 1992 to 2001, he occupied various positions at Holderbank Cement und Beton. Until 2006, he worked as the manager of the technical centre of Holcim Switzerland and later as a plant director, also in Switzerland. He also holds managerial experience at Jura Group. Since 2020, he has held the role of Chief Operations Director at Landqart. Sollberger is a graduate from the University of Applied Sciences Zurich and the University of Applied Sciences Bern.

El Salvador: Holcim El Salvador says that its first electric cement truck will enter operation at its El Ronco cement plant later in 2023. Local press has reported that this will reduce the plant’s carbon footprint by 560t/yr. The El Ronco plant is the subject of an investment in renewable energy infrastructure to cover 21% of its electricity consumption. The company is also investing in circular economic practices with a view to achieving net zero CO₂ emissions.

Holcim El Salvador chief executive officer Rodrigo Gallardo said "We are building more with less, incorporating recycled materials into our production processes, giving them a second life in order to use only what is necessary and thus contribute to preserving our planet." He added “We are building progress for people and the planet, with the vision of making sustainable construction affordable for everyone. The future of construction in El Salvador is being transformed, and we are proud to be leading the way, as we have done for the past 74 years."

France: Lafarge France has hired Leclanché to upgrade its pusher tugboat Marsouin to a diesel and electric hybrid propulsion system. The supplier will install a 766kWh 65 Ah Navius MRS-3 battery system in the vessel, which operates mostly on the River Seine.

Lafarge France river operations manager Kevin Audegond said "The retrofit of our Marsouin pusher is the first stage in an ambitious programme to modernise our entire fleet by 2030, which will make it possible to transport our materials more ecologically and reduce our environmental impact in the long term.”

Australia: Cement Australia has signed a new three-year rail haulage agreement with Pacific National to transport shipping containers of cement, sand, fly ash, slag and lime. This will also includes the interstate and inter-city transport of cement and supplementary cementitious materials between large cities and throughout North Queensland. Cement Australia and Pacific National have a partnership that dates back over five years.

Pacific National is Australia’s largest private rail freight operator.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has engaged Canadian Utilities on a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) basis to supply solar energy for its Exshaw cement plant in Alberta. Under the agreement, the Exshaw cement plant will receive 100% of energy generated at the 38.5MW Empress solar power plant in Cypress County. The VPPA lasts until 2036, and covers 34% of the Exshaw plant’s energy consumption up to that time.

Lafarge Canada (West) president and CEO Brad Kohl said "We're continually assessing ways we can reduce our environmental impact while actively pursuing sustainable solutions within our operations." He concluded "Our collaboration with Atco underscores our commitment to adopting renewable energy at our plants and sites, which is key to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels."