Displaying items by tag: Investment

Spain: Construction company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) plans to turn the site of Cementos Portland Valderrivas' Vallcarca cement plant and workers' colony into a new technology ‘city.’ Local press has reported that FCC's owners have committed an initial investment of US$300m towards the project. Possible activities in the technological city include film sets, production companies, an auditorium, training and research spaces and housing, catering and leisure facilities for technology developers.

Greece/US: Titan Cement Group has made new venture capital investments in two US-based disruptive technology suppliers. The cement producer enlarged its investment in energy storage specialist Rondo Energy, which has developed the Heat Battery. The technology enables cement plants and other industrial operations to access a constant supply of electricity using captive renewable energy sources. It also invested in venture capital firm Zacua Ventures, which handles a portfolio of companies involved in developing optimisation, automation and Construction 4.0 technology, including products relevant to the cement industry.

Titan Group Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said “We are committed to embracing innovation and fresh perspectives. By engaging with advanced construction and green technology startups through direct and indirect investments, as well as collaborations, we intend to forge more partnerships in the sector.”

Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Côte d'Ivoire has invested a total US$677,000 in sustainability-enhancing upgrades to its 2Mt/yr Abidjan grinding plant since 2020. Agence Ivoirienne de Presse has reported that the producer has now implemented 80% of recommendations made by sustainability auditor Centre Ivoirien Antipollution (CIAPOL). Recommendations included the installation of dust capture systems.

General manager Rachis Yousry said "In 2022, LafargeHolcim received zero complaints from local residents for environmental degradation.” He added the producer was on track to realise net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Europe: Holcim has secured funding for three separate carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects at its cement plants in Europe. The recipient projects are the Go4Zero project at Holcim Belgium's Obourg cement plant in Belgium, the KOdeCO project at Holcim Croatia's Koromačno cement plant in Croatia and the eM-Rhône project at Lafarge Ciments' Le Teil cement plant in France. The Le Teil plant's system will be used to produce e-methanol, while the investment at the Koromačno plant will be part of a package of upgrades to turn the plant carbon neutral.

Alongside on-going projects in Germany and Poland, this will bring Holcim's total number of EU-funded CCUS projects to five. Holcim is committed to US$2.33bn-worth of investments of its own in over 50 carbon capture projects worldwide before 2030.

Holcim's Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said “It’s exciting to be at the forefront of decarbonising the building sector in Europe. The support we are receiving from the EU Innovation Fund for five of our CCUS projects is a great testament to the strength of our engineering teams, the maturity of our technologies and our advanced partnerships across the value chain. Our robust pipeline of projects positions us as the partner of choice to scale up carbon capture technologies in Europe.”

Peru: Cementos Inka has announced the successful commissioning of its new 800,000t/yr Pisco grinding plant. The new plant is equipped with Christian Pfeiffer grinding and separation equipment. El Comercio News has reported that the producer invested US$55m in the plant. This exceeded previous budgets by 15 - 22%, due to coronavirus-related costs rises. This latest commissioning triples Cementos Inka's installed capacity to 1.2Mt/yr. General manager Carlos Choy estimated that the producer's market share has risen to 10% from 3.9%.

Choy said that the producer's next project will be the construction of a 1 - 1.5Mt/yr kiln line to produce clinker at the site.

Spain: Cementos El Molino plans to invest Euro3.7m in an upgrade to energy infrastructure at its 450,000t Santa Eulalia grinding plant in Aragon. Alimarket Construction News has reported that the upgrade consists of a 12MW substation and a 2.4MW solar power plant. Euro2m-worth (54%) of investments will go towards construction of the subsystem and Euro1.7m (46%) towards the solar power plant. Cementos El Molino expects to carry out the investments before the end of 2023.

Pakistan: Dandot Cement says that its on-going upgrade to its Lahore cement plant reached 60% completion during the fourth quarter of the 2023 financial year, which ended on 30 June 2023. The project remains scheduled for completion in July 2023. Pakistan Company News has reported that the producer has taken delivery of new equipment, completed civil construction work, handed over the site to its engineering contractor, completed 75% of mechanical erection and conducted some tests. The producer awarded a new contract for installation of remaining portions of its control systems to an Uzbekistan-based contractor. Complete sections of the project include the plant's captive solar power plant.

Dandot Cement has made total investments worth US$12.3m in the project.

Spain: Cementos Tudela Veguín plans to spend more than Euro62.5m on sustainability-enhancing upgrades to its three cement plants in Asturias and one in León. The plans consist of upgrades to fuelling systems that will enable the plants to use biofuels and hydrogen, as well as efficiency upgrades. The La Nueva España newspaper has reported that the producer is seeking to secure European Union (EU) funding for the project. The region of Asturias is eligible for Euro263m-worth of regional decarbonisation funding under the EU's Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation.

A planned second phase of upgrades will consist of the installation of carbon capture systems at the plants. They emitted 1.67Mt CO₂ in 2022. 1.12Mt (67%) arose from the decarbonisation of limestone and 0.55Mt (33%) came from the combustion of fuel.

Oman: Huaxin Cement informed the Muscat Stock Exchange of its intent to buy a further 5.1% stake in Oman Cement on 3 July 2023. Zawya News has reported that this would increase the China-based group's stake in Oman Cement to 64.7%. It acquired its existing 59.6% in the producer for US$193m earlier in 2023, but subsequently revised the price to US$200m.

France: Lafarge France has signed a memorandum of understanding with green hydrocarbons specialist Axens, utilities provider EDF and research firm IFP Energies Nouvelles for a synthetic fuel production trial. The partners will build a plant to produce kerosene using captured CO₂ from a carbon capture installation at Lafarge France's Saint-Pierre-La-Cour cement plant. The project, called Take Kair, aims to produce fuel for use by aviation companies, including Air France-KLM Group.

Holcim France president François Petry said "The decarbonisation of our processes and products is at the heart of our strategic commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050. Beyond the modernisation of our production tools, we work on all industrial and technological levers to reduce our emissions, and thus decarbonise our industry. With the Take Kair project, we are taking a decisive step in the capture and management of our residual CO₂ emissions and participate with our partners in the emergence of an innovative and sustainable sector serving the country's mobility needs."

Lafarge France, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim, announced a Euro40m investment in the 1.6Mt/yr Saint-Pierre-La-Cour cement plant to achieve carbon neutral cement production there in March 2022.