Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has appointed Philip Mathew as its deputy group managing director and chief executive officer with effect from 15 September 2021.

Following his training at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, Matthew has worked for cement companies since the mid-1980s when he started out as a process engineer for ACC. He later worked for Lafarge in a number of roles and countries, eventually becoming its Director - Performance and Progress for Asia based in Kuala Lumpur in the early 2010s. He held the post of Chief Manufacturing Officer for ACC in India from 2016 to 2019 before becoming LafargeHolcim’s Head of Cement Excellence Manufacturing for the Asia-Pacific region subsequently.

US: Fortera has appointed Eric Olsen to its board of directors. Olsen is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim.

He started his career in the field of mergers and acquisitions at Deloitte & Touche, Banque Paribas and was one of the managing partners of Trinity Associates for six years. He studied business at the University of Colorado and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from HEC international business school in Paris. He joined Lafarge Group in 1999 and was a member of its executive committee from 2007 until its merger with Holcim in 2015 to form LafargeHolcim. He then worked as the CEO of LafargeHolcim until April 2017 when he resigned following a review into a conduct of a cement plant in Syria. Legal charges of financing a terrorist organisation were dropped by French authorities in 2019.

Fortera is a materials technology company that has developed a recarbonation process that uses captured CO2 and mineralises it into a secondary cementitious material. In March 2021 it signed a collaboration agreement with Lehigh Hanson to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system at the producer’s 0.8Mt/yr integrated Redding Cement plant in California.

France/Syria: The Court of Cassation, a court of last resort, has delayed its ruling on the conduct of Lafarge in Syria between 2011 and 2014 until September 2021. It was due to make a decision on a number of appeals related to the case including whether charges of charge of crimes against humanity should be upheld, according to the Agence France Presse. Other indictments include those of financing terrorism, endangering life and violating an embargo. Lafarge has been accused of financing terrorism through indirect payments to extremist groups to keep its Jalabiya cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria.

Lafarge Cement Syria was a subsidiary of Lafarge in the early 2010s. Lafarge and Holcim merged in 2015 becoming LafargeHolcim. LafargeHolcim’s shareholders later voted to change the company’s name to Holcim in May 2021.

LafargeHolcim became Holcim this week with the launch of its new group identity. It also released a manifesto. Corporate names and logos come and go in the swirl of capital but straight up declarations of intent are rarer. Companies in the normally conservative building materials sector don’t tend to do this. This is more the terrain of political movements. So what’s going on?

Figure 1: From a merger of equals to building progress for people and the planet, the LafargeHolcim and Holcim logos.

Looking at the new logo gives us a few clues. The light grey-brown Tetris-style ‘L’ and ‘H’ letters symbolising the ‘merger of equals’ have gone. In its place come two circular symbols that look like they might connect. Together they give the impression of a slanted figure of eight or a lemniscate (infinity symbol). All of this is set to a few shades of blue and green. Could these two symbols be suggesting recycling or the circular economy? Who knows, but hopefully the advertising agency that came up with it was well remunerated. Luckily for us Holcim’s chief executive officer, Jan Jenisch, explained it, “Today marks a milestone for our company in our transformation to become the global leader in innovative and sustainable solutions.”

The manifesto is clearer. Entitled ‘Building progress for people and the planet’ it lays out some of the problems facing the world, such as population growth, urbanisation and climate change mitigation. It then addresses how Holcim is already tackling these issues and how it wants to go further in becoming part of the answer. This is the big vision so it doesn’t trouble itself with the detail on how, for example, the company is going to eliminate process emissions from clinker production on its journey to net zero. This is after all the big pitch to hearts and minds. It also doesn’t stain its fingers with anything suggesting who is going to pay for this grand noble ambition. We’ll have to wait for the next investor’s event to discover how much of this dream washes over into the private equity and pension fund crowd.

In Holcim’s defence, as one of the world’s largest building materials producers, it needs to carve itself a grand vision to occupy within a future preoccupied with climate change. Pretty much everyone in the developed world uses products manufactured by Holcim and its competitors even if they don’t realise it. Yet they are increasingly becoming more aware of the negative issues raised by environmental campaigners. Over in the developing world, adequate housing and infrastructure provision are live political issues for many as economies grow. Threading the needle to tie these trends together is quite the challenge for Holcim and the others. As a public company it serves its shareholders, but, as a multinational wedged in the middle of the climate change debate cascading into global politics, it ultimately answers to everyone. Hence a mission statement or a manifesto makes sense.

Meanwhile, for a glimpse on the Chinese approach to these kinds of problems, China National Building Materials (CNBM) subsidiary China Building Materials Academy (CBMA) signed a knowledge sharing agreement this week with the Canada-based International CCS Knowledge Centre to collaborate on carbon capture technology. The project plans to start with a 155kg CO2/day pilot on an active cement plant kiln. If successful, the study could lead to CNBM rolling it out across its entire cement operations. This would be hugely significant globally and given the scale of the Chinese industrial sector there’s also a reasonable chance it could happen at speed. If this occurred CNBM could leave the politics to its owner, the Chinese government.

Switzerland: Holcim has unveiled its new corporate brand identity as part of the change in group name from LafargeHolcim. The new group logo consists of a white letter H, for Holcim, on a two-tone green and blue backdrop. The group says that the new identity unites its market brands behind its purpose of ‘building progress.’ The change is intended to mark its transformation into a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions and signify its focus on developing green cities, smart infrastructure and improved standards of living globally.

Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said, “Our world is changing in many ways, with population growth, urbanisation and the climate challenge. We are determined to play our part to accelerate low-carbon and circular construction so that we build a net-zero future and raise living standards for everyone. Our new group identity sends a signal to the world that we are fully committed to building progress for people and the planet.”

Lafarge and Holcim merged in 2015 becoming LafargeHolcim. LafargeHolcim’s shareholders later voted to change the company’s name to Holcim in May 2021.

Germany: Switzerland-based Holcim has agreed to acquire ready-mix concrete and aggregates producer Heinrich Teufel. The Strassburg, Baden-Württemberg-based company employs 160 people across its operations in southern Germany. No value for the purchase has been disclosed and the transaction will be subject to regulatory approval.

Europe, Middle East and Africa regional head Miljan Gutovic said "The acquisition of Heinrich Teufel will strengthen our footprint in southern Germany in aggregates and ready-mixed concrete. We were especially impressed by their shared commitment to advancing the circular economy. We look forward to warmly welcoming the Heinrich Teufel colleagues joining our team.”

Canada: Lafarge Canada has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with carbon utilisation company, Carbon Upcycling Technologies. The agreement allows for the potential integration of Carbon Upcycling’s CO₂-embedded concrete additive into Lafarge operations and will explore opportunities to expand Carbon Upcycling’s operating capacity by developing larger processing facilities.

Carbon Upcycling produces an additive that makes concrete both stronger and more sustainable with the ability to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete by up to 25% on a lifecycle basis. Carbon Upcycling’s involvement into construction materials began in 2018 through its participation in the LafargeHolcim Accelerator program, which aimed to accelerate the growth of innovations in the building materials industry.

The deal aligns with Lafarge's Net-Zero 2030 pledge to accelerate green construction and combat the climate change crisis with low carbon concrete and circular economy solutions, and Carbon Upcycling goal to reduce overall CO₂ emissions by 600Mt by 2030.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos is preparing to bid for some of LafargeHolcim’s assets in Brazil. However, the company is limited by local competition rules so it is unable to try and buy all of LafargeHolcim’s assets, according the Valor Economico newspaper. In a statement to Reuters, Votorantim said that it had not made a bid yet but that it was always open to new opportunities. LafargeHolcim was reported by local press in April 2021 as wanting to sell its assets in the country.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines says it is focusing on sustainability and invocation to its customers. At a virtual conference held in mid-June 2021, the building materials producer said that it is using more alternative low-carbon fuels and developing new products that contain less clinker. It added that builders could improve their carbon footprint by ensuring that structures are made with the right materials to meet strength and durability requirements without being overdesigned and that hardware stores could play a role in guiding customers to the correct building materials for their projects. The company is also working on its digital platforms to make customer transactions smoother.

“With our commitment to sustainability and innovation, we will develop the next generation of building materials that will help the country build better for the future. We want to continue to strengthen our collaboration with our customers to raise consumer awareness that these products support their aspirations for a greener and healthier Philippines," said Horia Adrian, Holcim Philippines’ president and chief executive officer.

Cameroon: Luc Magloire, the Minister of Commerce, has written to Cimenteries du Cameroun (CIMENCAM) threatening to close its production facilities if it raises its prices without approval. In the letter the minister accused the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim of increasing its wholesale prices and of preparing to do so again without consent, according to the Ecofin Agency. Prices have reportedly risen by up to 8% in some places.

Friction occurred between the government and CIMENCAM in 2020 when LafargeHolcim renewed the term of Benoît Galichet as the chief executive officer of its local subsidiary. The government, a large minority shareholder of the company, opposed the decision. The government and the cement producer have also disagreed previously over the price of cement.