Displaying items by tag: Infrastructure

US: President Donald Trump has signed an executive order making it the policy of the federal government to buy goods locally, including cement, for infrastructure projects. The directive aims to strengthen the ‘Buy American and Hire American’ executive order issues in 2017 by giving a preference for raw materials manufactured in the US for use in government-backed projects.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has praised President Donald Trump’s call to rebuild the country’s infrastructure in his State of the Union address. Trump said that he wanted both political parties to work together to pass an infrastructure bill.

“The Portland Cement Association applauds President Trump for emphasising the political imperative of addressing America’s long-neglected infrastructure needs in his State of the Union address. America’s cement manufacturers are ready and willing to work with Congress and the Trump Administration to find a legislative solution that shores up our transportation and waterways in a fiscally responsible manner,” said PCA president and chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Ireland.

Peru: Research from Scotiabank forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 6.5% in 2019 due to construction sector growth. The market will be supported by both private and public investment, according to the Gestión newspaper. Private investment will be supported by the mining industry. Infrastructure projects including Line 2 of the Lima Metro, the expansion of the Jorge Chávez Airport, the Port of San Martín, the Port of Salaverry and others are expected to support public investment. Local consumption of cement grew by 3.7% year-on-year in 2018, the highest rate of growth since 2013.

Sweden: Conveyor belts supplied by Germany’s Continental are being used in the Förbifart Stockholm road infrastructure project. HeidelbergCement’s aggregate company Jehander is using Continental steel cord conveyor belts at its Löten quarry near Stockholm to allow rubble from tunnelling to be reused for road construction. In addition, drilling machines from Epiroc are using Continental DrillMaster tyres to provide high cut resistance, good traction and stability.

Overall, around 5.5Mt of rock will be extracted to build the tunnels required for the new bypass. A series of conveyor belt systems are being used to transport the extracted rock to three temporary ports that have been set up for the project. The rubble is taken across the waterways by inland vessels from the construction site in Stockholm to Löten. The rubble is then reused as concrete, mostly for road construction, or it used for local construction.

Philippines: A shortage of cement is causing delays to infrastructure projects in parts of Pangasinan province. Department of Public Works and Highways Pangasinan 3 District Engineer Gerardo de Guzman said that the region's cement manufacturer Northern Cement was not producing enough cement to support the region, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. Cement is being rationed as a result.

Netherlands: LafargeHolcim has been awarded a contract for the renovation of the Afsluitdijk, a sea defence infrastructure projects. The building materials company will use its Holcim Basalton Quattroblock concrete product to cover around 700,000m² of the 32km long dam. In addition, LafargeHolcim has developed a logistics plan where materials are delivered by sea to avoid additional traffic on the dam. The total construction costs for the project is around Euro550m.

To support the project, LafargeHolcim is also investing in the expansion of its Dutch concrete products plant that is part of its Solutions & Products segment. When completed later in 2019, the expanded plant will be able to produce 1000t/day of concrete Quattroblocks for customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The Afsluitdijk upgrade is intended to enable the dyke to withstand a one in 10,000 year storm as well as provide protection against rising sea water levels. The project is led by the Levvel consortium comprising BAM, Van Oord and Rebel. Construction started at the end of 2018 and it is scheduled for completion in 2023.

US: Aggregate Industries, a US subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has secured the contract to provide concrete for the US$2bn Minneapolis-area Southwest Light Rail Transit (LRT) extension of the Metro Green Line. The new line will run 14.5 miles from downtown Minneapolis to the suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and require construction of 16 new stations, plus the rail infrastructure itself. The project will require an estimated 0.30Mm³ of ready-mix concrete. It includes the construction of 44 structures, 29 new bridges, two cut and cover tunnels, six pedestrian tunnels, 15 at-grade crossings, 110 retaining walls and over 45,000m of track.

Spain: Jesús Ortiz, the president of Oficemen the Spanish cement association, forecasts that exports of cement will drop by 20% year-on-year in 2019. He has blamed the situation on high electricity prices, according to the El Economista newspaper. He predicts that the local industry will have a capacity utilisation rate of 53% in 2019. He added that residential house construction was growing, but that the share of non-residential building had fallen.

Honduras: President Juan Orlando Hernández has asked local cement producers to offer cement at a discount for use in government projects. The government and the two main producers have formed a commission to determine how to implement the request, according to La Tribuna newspaper. However, Juan Carlos Sikaffy, the head of the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise (COHEP), descirbed the issue as ‘delicate’ given the taxes the cement companies pay and the jobs they create.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines is promoting the use of its blended cement products by local contractors for use in road building on environmental and performance grounds. The initiative follows the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure program. In July 2018 the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported that 3945km of roads had been built by the current administration, with more projects underway until 2022.

Holcim Philippines Senior Vice President for Sales William Sumalinog said that DPWH has allowed the use of blended cement for roads since mid-2016 through Department Order 133, which amends building standards for concrete pavements that previously specified Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). OPC has a higher clinker factor and so releases more CO₂ during production. He added that blended cement could perform better in some cases compared to OPC as it can be customised to address the specific durability challenges present in sites where structures will be built.

Sumalinog said that, since the issuance of the directive, the company has been working with its business partners and regional DPWH offices to highlight the benefits of blended cement over OPC through its engagement programs such as Holcim Building Bridges.