Displaying items by tag: Report

Switzerland: Holcim recorded net sales of US$6.75bn in the first quarter of 2022, up by 20% year-on-year from US$5.62bn in the first quarter of 2021. The group’s recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBIT) rose by 16% to US$643m from US$553m. The company has upgraded its outlook 2022 to a forecast of full-year net sales growth of at least 10%.

CEO Jan Jenisch said “I am very encouraged by the record start of the year, setting a solid foundation to our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth.”

The first quarter of 2022 brought four new bolt-on acquisitions in addition to the group’s conclusion of its US$1.35bn Malarkey Roofing Products acquisition. The company says that it remains actively engaged in supporting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Holcim has also published its industry-first Climate Report 2022. The report details the company’s progress towards achieving its sustainability targets under the four pillars of its Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth. Under the Accelerating Growth pillar, Holcim reached a total of 15 markets with its ECOPlanet reduced-CO₂ cement range. Under Expanding Solutions & Products, it reduced the proportion of cement sales in its consolidated sales to 57% in 2021 from 60% in 2020. Its other pillars are Leading in Innovation and Sustainability and Delivering Superior Performance. In 2021, the company used 6.6Mt of recycled construction and demolition waste in its products, against a 2050 target of 10Mt.

Chief sustainability and innovation officer Magali Anderson said “On our net-zero journey, we are walking the talk at Holcim, taking clear science-driven action to win the race for climate.”

Switzerland: The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has informed policymakers that the best current route to reduce carbon emissions from cement production is through the increased use secondary cementitious materials and by encouraging the development and uptake of carbon capture. Alternatively, the development of new chemistries for building materials could help the situation but this is not expected in the short to medium term.

The report noted that 12Gt of CO₂ equivalent was released directly and indirectly in 2019 from buildings and emissions from cement and steel use for building construction and renovation. These emissions included indirect emissions from offsite generation of electricity and heat, direct emissions produced onsite and emissions from cement and steel used for building construction and renovation. In sections of the IPCC report yet to be finally approved the authors said, “Cement and concrete are currently overused because they are inexpensive, durable, and ubiquitous, and consumption decisions typically do not give weight to their production emissions.”

Overall, the report concluded that average annual global greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to 2019 were at their highest levels in human history but the rate of growth had slowed. The IPCC has called on “immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors” for any chance for society to limit global warming to 1.5°C. To do this global greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030. However, even if this did occur, it would take until the end of the 21st century for the temperature threshold to be stabilised.

Europe: A forthcoming report by consultancy CemBR has forecast that the European cement industry could potentially face carbon related costs of over Euro1.5bn in 2022 if production continues at 2020 levels or earlier. It looks at the performance of the European cement sector and the impact of the Phase IV of the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme ( ETS), which started in January 2021. Other key findings include that the sector reduced its carbon emissions per tonne of clinker by a 0.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to the end of Phase III of the scheme.

The commercial market report has analysed the performance of each individual clinker producing plant in the scheme (including the UK) and has compared the end of Phase III with the beginning of Phase IV. It has also detailed the level of free allowances for part one of Phase IV and undertaken several analytical scenarios. Part one, running from 2021 to 2025, of Phase IV allowances for the whole scheme are around 16% lower than the 2020 level. Allowances have remained unchanged for this period but further ‘significant’ reductions are expected for part two of Phase IV. CemBR also reports that not all member countries are in the same position with regard to Phase IV with some countries exposed to more risk. In addition, there is a wide range of vulnerability with regards to carbon among the 201 operational clinker producing plants even within the same market.

The ‘EU ETS & Cement - Enter the Phase IV’ report is due to be published in February 2022.

Zimbabwe: Lafarge Zimbabwe has concluded its assessment of the collapse of its Manresa grinding plant’s roof, which occured in October 2021. The company warned investors that continued disruptions to cement production and the cost of repairs will have a negative impact on its 2022 first-quarter results. It added that normal operations would resume ‘as soon as possible.’

Germany: Holcim Germany has published environmental reports for 2020 focused on each of its cement plants. The subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim has decided to target its reports on local issues by issuing separate reports for each of its four integrated plants in the country, at Beckum, Höver, Lägerdorf and Dotternhausen respectively. Each report covers national developments for the sector and the company. Local data is then included as well as data on connected cement grinding and concrete plants. The reports can be downloaded from Holcim Germany’s website.

Colombia: Dow Jones has named Grupo Argos in its Sustainability Index 2021, the company’s ninth time appearing in the ranking. It achieved its highest ratings in materiality, risk management, environmental reporting, climate change strategy, social reporting and human rights. The group said that the listing constitutes its recognition as the most sustainable cement company in the world. Its sustainable initiatives include offering collection of its used cement bags, supplying all the electricity for its Colombian operations from renewable sources and currently having three credit facilities linked to environmental, social and governance indicators.

Legal and sustainability vice-president Maria Isabel Echeverri said “At Argos, we are greatly satisfied with this result which places us as a world benchmark in sustainability and reassures our commitment to closing gaps and implementing best practices in social, environmental, financial and corporate governance matters. This drives us to continue moving forward in creating social value to build the dreams of housing and infrastructure for millions of people.”

World: A Systems Change Lab report on the state of climate change action has warned that the global cement industry is making insufficient progress towards its 2030 climate change targets and that a step-change in action is required. It recorded the carbon intensity of global cement production at 635kgCO₂/t in 2018 with the 2030 target of no more than 370kgCO₂/t. The rate of change over the previous five years was reported as being 2.9% but an annual rate of change of 22.5% would now be required to meet the 2030 target.

It also noted that emissions intensity from the cement industry had actually increased slightly in recent years. It reached this conclusion by using a different methodology from the Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) project. Instead it estimated the global emissions intensity by using global data on process emissions and energy data from the International Energy Agency and the GNR.

The report said that the cement sector would need to go beyond traditional mitigation options such as improving energy efficiency and switching fuels to meet its climate commitments. However, carbon capture utilisation and/or storage (CCUS) and novel cements were described as costly and immature. In its view, “Decarbonisation in the long term thus will depend on significant investments in research, development, and demonstration, alongside efforts to create a demand for low-carbon cements and policies to support investment in decarbonisation technologies.” It described both strategies as, “not yet fully mature in terms of technology development, costs and scaling.” The ‘critical enablers’ it identified to help the cement sector meet its target included stricter regulations, increased demand for low-carbon cement and investment in pilot and industrial scale projects looking at novel cements.

Overall, the report said that change towards averting climate change across 40 key areas in power generation, buildings, industry, transport, land use, coastal zone management and agriculture was not happening fast enough and that none were on track to meet their respective 2030 targets. Change was happening but not at the required pace. Systems Change Lab is a collaboration between the High-Level Climate Champions, Climate Action Tracker, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund and World Resources Institute.

Kenya: A report by the National Independent Clinker Verification Committee has found that the country has a clinker shortage of up to 3.3Mt/yr. It added that 59% of the imported clinker to compensate for this originates from Egypt without any tariffs, according to the East African newspaper. The committee was originally set up by the government in response to lobbying from industry to increase the duty on imported clinker to 25% from 10% at present. However, the committee also reported that Egypt has benefited from a free trade agreement. Local producers are divided against the proposal to raise tariffs on clinker as some of them reply on imports.

The report found that 3.8Mt of clinker was produced locally in 2020 against a demand of 5.3Mt. Local producers were reported to have been operating at a 65% capacity utilisation rate. Egypt and the UAE accounted for 92% of all clinker imports with a further 7% supplied by Saudi Arabia.

UK/Ireland: Mannok has launched a comprehensive biodiversity report, the Natural Assets Action Plan, in partnership with the conservationist group Ulster Wildlife. The report examines the entirety of the company’s landholdings, which span 800ha on both sides of the EU/UK border. Habitats include grasslands, wetlands, woodlands, ponds and quarries. The report will provide a roadmap for the conservation, restoration and enhancement of each area of land to help Mannok to meet its sustainability targets. Key aims include increasing biodiversity awareness among Mannok staff, customers and local communities, improving biodiversity monitoring, maximising carbon absorption in soil and vegetation, rewilding the natural landscape and ensuring resilience to predicted climate change effects.

Chief executive officer Liam McCaffrey said “This report informs our understanding of the value of natural assets to the business and wider community and will help guide our long-term planning and strategic investment decisions in a way which aims to maintain and enhance those assets. Already it has started to change our perspectives of what was previously considered wasteland. Now, we can see opportunities for careful and considered restoration into valuable natural assets for the future. Additionally, the work involved in creating the plan has allowed us to focus on the whole area of carbon mitigation in ways which we would not have considered before. The way in which we are looking at carbon reduction through careful management of our land is a relatively novel concept in industry, but we now recognise it as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.”

He added “The report is full of very valuable recommendations on what we can practically do over the next three - five years and beyond to continue enhancing and restoring our land assets, and we are very much committed to delivering on this. We will commit resources, time, people and finances to develop the recommendations.”

Germany: Data from HeidelbergCement’s Sustainability Report 2020 reveals that it reduced its specific net CO₂ emissions by 2% year-on-year to 576kg/t of cementious material in 2020 from 589 kg/t in 2019. This represents a 23% reduction since 1990. The company has a target of 30% by 2025. It has a number of carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCU/S) projects in various stages of development to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Other data shows that its alternative fuels substitution rate rose to 25.7% from 24% and its clinker ratio fell slightly to 74.3%.

During the reporting year, the group joined the climate lobbying group Foundation 2° and achieving a CDP climate protection rating of A. For water security it secured the second-highest rating of A-. The group’s specific water consumption for cement rose by 5% in 2020 to 271.9l/t of cement from 260l/t in 2019. However the company says it is continuing to improve water consumption reporting at its sites until 2025.