Displaying items by tag: Plant

US: Vineyard Offshore has agreed to buy 2000t of cement from Sublime Systems, a Massachusetts startup planning a US$150m ‘carbon-free’ cement plant in the city. The cement will be used for turbine platforms and onshore civil works within the Vineyard Wind 2 project, aiming to reduce its carbon footprint. This agreement is contingent on the project's selection in upcoming solicitations.

Both Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura revealed plans to work with hydrogen this week. Additionally, Lhyfe and Fives signed a deal to sell decarbonised products and services to industries, including cement, covering hydrogen production to combustion.

Türkiye-based Limak Çimento said that it had successfully conducted a hydrogen-enhanced alternative fuel test at its integrated Anka plant near Ankara. As part of the project it blended hydrogen with an alternative carbon-neutral fuel and then operated the plant’s kiln at a 50% substitution rate. The cement company says that the trial achieved a world first by feeding the hydrogen-enhanced fuel directly into the calciner instead of the main burner in the rotary kiln. According to local press, Air Liquide supplied grey hydrogen for the test, although this could be switched to green hydrogen in the future. As a reminder, ‘green’ hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources. ‘Grey’ hydrogen is made from steam reforming using fossil fuels.

Limak’s wider ambition is to use hydrogen-blended alternative fuels at all of its cement plants by 2030. By doing so it aspires to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 700,000t/yr. Its CEO Erkam Kocakerim remarked in mid-2023 that focusing on the carbon risks that energy-intensive industries might face exporting to the European Union (EU) paled in comparison to the potential payback from the green energy transition. At a climate change summit in mid-2023 organised by the United Nations and the Turkish government, he called for the Turkish Emission Trading System to be put into action as soon as possible, the creation of an updated renewable energy roadmap with renewable hydrogen, CCUS and renewable fuels, and the publication of a hydrogen and CO₂ country atlas. At the same time, he stated that the local cement sector could meet the EU’s 2030 emissions targets through the increased uptake of alternative fuels and blended cements.

Meanwhile in Peru this week Juan Carlos Burga, the general manager of Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cemento Yura, told the Gestión newspaper that its cement plant near Arequipa is preparing to start a green hydrogen trial in 2025. The catalyst for this is a solar power unit at the site that is currently scheduled for commissioning in early 2025. Once it is ready then the plant’s hydrogen project can use the renewable energy source to manufacture hydrogen and inject small quantities of it to stabilise the burning process and reduce the amount of coal used.

By contrast the memorandum of understanding that Lhyfe and Fives announced this week looks like the pair are marking their territory in the hydrogen supply and equipment chain for heavy industry. As part of the agreement the companies are targeting the metals, glass and cement industries and some other selected industrial heating processes and applications in Europe and North America. France-based Lhyfe develops, builds and runs green hydrogen production plants both for external clients and itself. It operates one plant at Bouin in France and is building other plants in France and Germany. However, the output of these sites is low. In spite of this, it says it is set to become the largest producer of renewable hydrogen in France in 2024. Fives, well known as a cement equipment supplier, says it has been a “technological leader in hydrogen for over 50 years” and that it sells “the widest range of hydrogen-proven burners available on the market to serve all industries.” The Lhyfe-Fives agreement follows a similar deal between Air Products and ThyssenKrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers in 2020.

Projects in West Asia and South America such as those discussed by Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura are not necessarily where one might expect them to be. Typically all the sustainability news in the cement sector tends to be dominated by companies in Europe and North America. This is reflected in the continents that Lhyfe and Fives have targeted this week. Yet, the focus by Limak and Yura on hydrogen suggests that these companies are hunting for decarbonisation options that are cost effective ahead of potential legislative enforcement. Both appear to be using hydrogen as a fuel enhancer or additive rather than on its own.

We have reported upon a steady stream of hydrogen projects for the cement sector in the last year. These include Heidelberg Materials' study looking at using ammonia as a hydrogen source for fuelling cement kilns at its Ribblesdale cement plant in the UK, Fives work with Holcim at the La Malle plant in France and much work by Cemex such as the increase of its stake in green hydrogen production technology developer HiiROC in late 2023. As with Global Cement Weekly’s previous reporting on hydrogen, the jury is still out on whether it is a ‘goer’ for heavy industry at scale. An executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told a conference in March 2024 that the infrastructure investment to support the use of hydrogen would cost over US$1Tn in the US and Europe alone. The head of Saudi Aramco then pointed out at the same event that oil and gas, for now at least, cost far less than hydrogen. Despite this, the projects keep coming.

India: Beumer will establish a production site in Reliance MET City, Jhajjar, with an investment of more than US$24m. The site covers over four hectares and represents a strategic expansion for Beumer's subsidiary, Beumer India. Construction is set to begin in mid 2024 with the plant's inauguration scheduled for September 2025.

The Hillhead Quarrying, Construction and Recycling Show is in full flow this week, taking place near Buxton in Derbyshire. As one delegate marvelled on the panoramic minibus journey down to the quarry, “It’s like a music festival without the music and… other stuff.” Indeed. Of course what one doesn’t find at Glastonbury and the like is a near comprehensive range of suppliers, over 600 of them, to the industry all in one place… in a quarry! Where else can one get up close and see the new hydrogen-powered generators and excavating vehicles that are being piloted? The official attendance figures don’t get released until after the event but on the ground it looks as busy as ever. It’s truly the place to be this week.

The show gives us a reason to take a look at the UK cement sector. Like many other countries around the world it is an election year in the UK, with a General Election scheduled for 4 July 2024. The result of this should determine the next Prime Minister and the ruling party. So, naturally, the MPA, the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and industrial sand industries, is taking the opportunity to remind the political parties what its priorities are. The quick version is: support for decarbonisation; a streamlined planning system; and better delivery of projects. This sounds familiar to priorities in other countries but one British spin on this includes the UK’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

Graph 1: Domestic cement sales and imports in the UK, 2017 – 2022. Source: MPA.

Edwin Trout’s feature on the UK cement sector in the June 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine presents a good overview of the last 12 months. The general UK economy has faced shocks in recent years such as Brexit, Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. However, this has been further compounded by a downturn and high interest rates since late 2022 when the then Prime Minister Liz Truss caused market turbulence in the wake of a badly received government financial statement. As Trout relates, sales of heavy building materials have been in relative decline since mid-2022 with more of the same expected in 2024. Production of cement in 2023 is currently uncertain given the reporting time lag from the MPA but up until 2022 domestic cement sales fell somewhat but imports grew. This has created a situation where overall cement sales in 2022 were 12Mt, not far behind the annual level in the early 2000s. However, the share of imports has nearly doubled since then. More recent MPA data on mortar and ready-mixed concrete sales throughout the first nine months of 2023 suggest that market activity has decreased and poor weather at the start of 2024 looks set to have made this worse.

Despite the apparent slowdown in building materials sales the cement companies have been conducting smaller-scale maintenance and upgrade projects at their facilities and supply chain schemes such as the cement storage unit for deep sea shipping lines that Aggregate Industries said in February 2024 it was going to build at the Port of Southampton. The news the cement companies want to show off has been a steady stream of information about ongoing decarbonisation projects in the cement sector. C-Capture started a carbon capture trial at Heidelberg Materials’ Ketton cement works in Rutland in May 2024, Capsol Technologies said in March 2024 that it had been selected to conduct a study on its carbon capture technology at Aggregate Industries Cauldon cement plant in Staffordshire, Heidelberg Materials' Ribblesdale cement plant in Lancashire announced in March 2024 that it was taking part in a study to assess the use of ammonia as a hydrogen source for fuelling cement kilns and Heidelberg Materials awarded Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) a front end engineering design contract for a carbon capture installation at its Padeswood cement plant in Flintshire in February 2024. Finally, on the divestment front, CRH completed the sale of its UK-based lime business to SigmaRoc for €155m in March 2024. The business operates from sites in Tunstead and Hindlow with five permitted lime kilns.

That’s it for this short recap on the UK for now. For a longer look at the UK cement sector read Edwin Trout’s feature in June 2024 issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Hillhead 2024 runs until 27 June 2024

Madagascar: Atlantic Group has begun construction of a new cement plant in Tamatava, which will have a capacity of 500,000t/yr and create over 1000 jobs. The plant will span nine hectares, employing primarily local residents, and use ‘advanced’ technology to minimise CO₂ emissions, according to Fraternité Matin newspaper. Supported by the Malagasy authorities and president, the Madagascan Cement Company will commence operations in the second quarter of 2025.

Adani Group’s subsidiary Ambuja Cements signed a deal this week to buy Penna Cement for US$1.25bn. The agreement adds 14Mt/yr of cement production capacity to the group with a focus in the south of India. The acquisition is a big step towards the group’s target of reaching a capacity of 140Mt/yr by 2028. Ajay Kapur, the head of Ambuja Cements, also singled out the advantage the company hopes to gain from taking control of Penna Cement’s terminals saying that they would “prove to be a gamechanger by giving access to the eastern and southern parts of peninsular India.” The move is expected to increase the group’s market share in India by 2%, and by 8% in South India.

Penna Cement operates four integrated plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with a capacity of 7Mt/yr. Two of these units also include waste heat recovery installations and one has a captive power plant. It runs two grinding plants in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra with a capacity of 3Mt/yr. Another integrated plant is being built at Jodhpur in Rajasthan and a grinding plant at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Finally, the company owns four bulk cement terminals at Kolkata, Gopalpur, Karaikal and Kochi in India, one at Colombo in Sri Lanka and it also owns a 25,000t cement carrier.

Adani Group’s march towards that target of 140Mt/yr by 2028 started off in mid-2022 when it purchased Ambuja Cements and ACC from Holcim. This gave it a starting capacity of 68Mt/yr in the cement sector. Various smaller additions followed including new plants at Ametha and Dahej and the acquisitions of Asian Cement and Concrete, MyHome Industries and Sanghi Industries. The latter company was the biggest of these purchases. Once the in-progress projects from Penna Cement are built, Adani Group should have a capacity of 93Mt/yr. Another 20Mt/yr is reportedly at various stages of execution. The remaining 27Mt/yr is described as being ‘blueprint ready.’

Generally, the local financial press has been in favour of the transaction agreeing with the geographic advantages of Adani Group increasing its presence in the southern states. The benefits of the high number of railway sidings at Penna Cement’s plants were also commented upon as a means for Ambuja Cements to reduce its costs per tonne of cement. The logistics benefit from the port terminals is also expected by Adani Group’s chief financial officer to reduce the group’s logistics costs with an impact expected within the next year. However, it has been reported that Penna Cement’s operating performance had been weaker in the last financial year due to low sales volumes, poor operational efficiency and high coal costs. A takeover by Adani Group could certainly fix the latter two issues. Yet, it has also been reported that competition in the cement markets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is up, due to a mismatch between supply and demand. So, improving Penna Cement’s capacity utilisation in these regions might be harder to solve than simply being absorbed into Adani Group.

India’s two largest cement producers both have plans in motion to mount up production capacity by the end of the decade in what has been dubbed ‘the battle of the billionaires.’ The market leader is UltraTech Cement and it has shown reluctance to cede ground to the cement newcomer Adani Group. The former company’s current target is to make it to just under 190Mt/yr by 2027. It said it had a capacity of 152Mt/yr in May 2024. It is ahead of Adani Group by this measure but there is still plenty of scope for surprises. Given the rivalry between the companies there is a regular stream of speculation about which of the smaller cement producers they might be about to buy at any given time. For example, in October 2023 HeidelbergCement India was rumoured to be courting offers from UltraTech Cement, Adani Group and JSW Cement. Last week, Adani Group was reportedly interested in buying either Saurashtra Cement, the cement business of Jaiprakash Associates, Vadraj Cement or… Penna Cement. Occasionally the rumours are true after all. UltraTech Cement remains in first place for now but the situation may change.

Spain: Heidelberg Materials, the owner of Cementos Rezola, has announced a restructuring plan that will affect 56 employees, roughly half of the workforce at the Añorga plant in Donostia. This decision comes as part of an employment regulation filing (ERE) linked to the cessation of clinker production in a move towards decarbonising cement manufacturing.

The company has proposed 15 early retirements, 30 internal relocations (to other plants within the group) and 11 external relocations. Unions have clarified that of the internal transfers, 15 positions are offered at the Arrigorriaga plant in Bizkaia. Management stated that those not interested in relocation options within the group will be offered external relocation solutions and can avail of measures the company will implement to assist in finding new employment in the labour market.

The company said “The ERE targets positions that are no longer required as a result of the cessation of clinker production, necessary to meet decarbonisation obligations.”
Despite the significant impact of the ERE, the company highlighted that this represents a proportion ‘substantially lower than the decrease in activity volume’ at the Añorga plant. It also confirmed plans to continue cement production in Añorga using clinker produced at the ‘more efficient plant in Arrigorriaga’.

This transition will support a €32m investment from 2024 to 2026 aimed at decarbonising both plants. Half of this investment will be allocated to the Añorga plant to transform it into a facility specialising in ‘sustainable’ cement.

Germany: Rohrdorfer has started operation of a new photovoltaic (PV) unit at its Rohrdorf cement plant near Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria. The rooftop PV installation comprises 1000 modules, covers around 2000m2 and has a peak output of 400kW. The construction time of the solar panels took five weeks. Modules supplied by Hecker Solar were installed by Elektro Ecker.

The cement plant has produced around one third of its electricity requirements via a waste heat recovery unit since 2011. Rohrdorf Group aims to generate 30% of its electricity from renewable sources as a whole by 2033.

Afghanistan: The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has awarded three new contracts for the construction of cement plants in Herat, Kandahar and Parwan. Xinhua News Agency has reported the total value of the contracts as US$500m.

The government aims to achieve national self-sufficiency in cement production by rebuilding destroyed cement plants and building new ones. Plans are in motion to grant further contracts for the construction of cement plants in Jawzjan, Logar and Samangan.

India: A worker has died after being caught in a belt at Ultratech Cement’s Manawar cement plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar District on the morning of 17 June 2024. Local press reported that 30-year-old Tikam Singh succumbed to his injuries after becoming trapped in the equipment. The police have launched an investigation into the incident.