Displaying items by tag: Report

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.

Spain: The total CO₂ emissions of cement and clinker production in Spain fell by 14% year-on-year in 2020. The El Economista newspaper has reported that a report by the Sustainability Observatory recorded that 10 Spanish companies were responsible for emitting 51Mt of CO₂ in 2020 or 56% of the national total.

Nepal: A report by the Nepal Rastra Bank has estimated that Nepal will require 26Mt/yr of cement by the 2024 – 25 financial year due to large-scale infrastructure projects. However, current production before the coronavirus pandemic was around 7.5Mt/yr despite the country’s production capacity of 15Mt/yr, according to the Kathmandu Post newspaper. Domestic consumption is 9Mt with around 1.5Mt of demand supplied from imports, mainly from India. The report added that most of the large projects in Nepal used cement imported from India due to issues with certification, consistent quality and the inability of local producers to offer bulk supply. In 2019 the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies forecast that the country’s cement production capacity could increase to 20Mt/yr by the end of the 2023 – 24 year.

Dhruba Raj Thapa, president of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Nepal, said that the data in the report by the bank contained errors. He pointed out that the country has a cement production capacity of 22Mt/yr and that it is already self-sufficient in the commodity. He also refuted the claims that infrastructure projects prefer imported cement.

US: Coherent Market Insights (CMI) has forecast in a recent market report that the global cement grinding aids market will grow by 55% to US$5.02bn in 2027 from US$3.23bn in 2019. Factors driving market growth include increased cement industry concerns about energy consumption reduction and product fineness. A major driver is the Asia Pacific market, which accounted for 34% of value in 2019. In North America, US residential construction is forecast to continue its five-year increase. CMI predicted that projects in Saudi Arabia will also drive Middle Eastern market growth. It added that the Covid-19 outbreak has caused a drastic short-term decrease in demand.

Switzerland: The Federal Council has noted a report stating that, without extensions to raw material extraction licences, domestic cement production is set to decline by 36% from 2024. The Agence Télégraphique Suisse has reported that local producers are already restricted by limited legally available limestone and marl reserves. At present the local cement sector provides 86% of Switzerland’s 5Mt/yr domestic cement demand. The report by the Swiss Geological Survey states that acceptance of all proposed mining expansion projects in 2023 would delay the projected decline until the end of 2030.

Italy: The Italian cement and concrete association Federbeton says that investments in sustainable technologies in domestic cement production totalled Euro110m between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019. This reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 311,000t in 2019 alone, up by 12% year-on-year from the reduction in 2018. An increased alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate of 6.7% in 2019 contributed to the reduction, up by 0.7% from 6.6%. Producers’ full-year AF consumption was 1.6Mt.

UK: An independent report by Mott Macdonald has found that Breedon Group’s Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire contributes Euro67m/yr to the local economy, up by 15% from Euro58m/yr at the time of the previous report in July 2017. The 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant employs 270 people, 202 of them directly, corresponding to 1.8% of total employment in the national park in which it is situated. Its economic contribution to the park’s total economic output of Euro956m is 7%.

Breedon Group said that the 90-year-old plant “Has a long tradition of actively engaging with the local community through its many social and communal activities. These include access for local residents to the Hope Works estate and the Earles Sports and Social Club as well as on-site open days and tours and a range of local business and community partnerships.” Manager Ed Hope said, “It is gratifying to see the healthy increase in our contribution to the local economy over the past few years. We’re very proud of the part we play in the lives and employment of people in the Peak District National Park.”

Germany: HeidelbergCement has published its sustainability report for 2019. The building materials producer says it decreased its specific gross CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 0.9% year-on-year to 622kg/t in 2019 from 628kg/t in 2018. Absolute net CO₂ emissions also fell, by 4.6% to 68.4Mt from 71.7Mt. Indirect CO₂ emission grew by 4.8% to 4.4Mt from 4.2Mt, though energy consumption in cement production fell by 3.5% to 364,000TJ from 377,000TJ.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominic von Achten said, “We have declared our express commitment to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, we will continue to intensify our commitment to tackling climate change in the coming years.”