Displaying items by tag: Report

Philippines: Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez has welcomed a Tariff Commission (TC) report that has increased the safeguard duty on imported cement, but noted that his department was still reviewing the evaluations made.

Speaking on 14 August 2019, Lopez said, "We just got the full report on cement from the TC and will study the evaluations made. We welcome the finding that there was injury to the industry and that the safeguard duty should be US$5.65/t or US$0.23/bag (40kg)." The TC report said the US$0.23/bag safeguard duty was the difference between the weighted average landed cost of imported cement and the average domestic ex-plant selling price of the local cement industry for 2018.

Lopez earlier claimed that imports of cement increased from only 3558t in 2013 to more than 3Mt in 2017. The share of imports increased from only 0.02% to 15% during the same period.

Sri Lanka: INSEE Cement has launched its first Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) based and externally assured sustainability report. The report was officially made public at an event in Colombo featuring a panel discussion on sustainability.

Germany: HeidelbergCement’s specific CO₂ net emissions per tonne of cementitious material fell by 1.4% year-on-year to 599kg CO2/t in 2018 from 608kg CO₂/t in 2017. Despite this its absolute gross CO₂ emissions increased by 3% to 76.7Mt from 74.2Mt as clinker, cement, aggregate and concrete sales volumes all grew in 2018. The group has published the data in its Sustainability Report for the 2018 financial year.

“Cutting our CO₂ emissions and handling natural resources considerately are priorities for all our business lines,” says Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. "We focus primarily on the development of sustainable products and the implementation of concrete measures at plant level in order to achieve our sustainability goals.” The company has set itself the target of a 30% reduction in its specific net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 2030, compared with 1990. HeidelbergCement says it intends to realise its vision of CO₂-neutral concrete by 2050 at the latest.

Other figures of note in the report include an alternative fuels substitution rate of 21.7% in 2018 compared in 20.8% in 2017. NO_x, SO_x and particulate matter emissions all fell. However, total water withdrawal rose by 8% to 65.4Mm³ from 60.4Mm³ although water consumption fell.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has published its first sustainability report following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. Key data from the report include a CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material of 687kg CO₂/t across all operations. Its total CO₂ emissions were 16.4Mt. In 2017 it reported estimated total CO₂ emissions of 8.45Mt from its domestic operations. The cement producer had an energy consumption of 52M GJ 2018. It had a 49% production capacity utilisation rate at its Nigerian plants. The group said that it supported 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Nigeria.

Bolivia: SEDEM, the government’s business development agency, has refuted accusations that a new cement plant being built in Caracollo, Oruro does not have enough water or raw materials. Patricia Ballivián, the general manager of SEDEM, presented reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers and C & C Ingeniería y Procesos defending the supplies to the unit. The reports were released in response to accusations by a local politician that the project had been poorly planned.

The reports revealed that the Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia’s (ECEBOL) plant will recycle the industrial portion of its water supply. It will have a supply of 4l/s and a 3.5Ml reservoir. It also has limestone, gypsum and clay reserves sufficient for the production of 100Mt of cement. These are expected to last the plant 60 years.

There was lots to mull over in the latest Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) Annual Economic Report. The headlines were that the construction industry market peaked in 2017 and that the mining industry was still recovering, but maybe slowing, in 2018.

For the construction industry the CECE reported that a growth period from 2008 to 2018 reached a high level of growth of 4.1% in 2017. This fell to 2.8% growth in 2018 and is forecast to drop to 2% growth in 2019. It put this in terms of the sector having a cyclical nature, normally of around eight years. This means it believes a downturn is overdue. Slowing gross domestic product (GDP) growth and tighter financial and monetary conditions are expected to drag on the residential sector. The non-residential side is growing by more than 1.5% in Europe but it has started to following the residential sector. It also noted the ‘very poor’ performance of the infrastructure sector due to government under-investment.

Graph 1: GDP vs Construction Output, year-on-year change (%). Source: Euroconstruct & CECE.

The construction equipment sector saw sales rise by 11% in 2018, bringing it to only 10% below the high recorded in 2007. The CECE reported that the rate of growth for concrete equipment was becoming ‘less dynamic’ after four years of growth. Sales in Europe grew by 17% in 2018 but there was a wide difference between northern and southern countries. France and Germany had 9% and 14% growth respectively but Italy and Spain had 23% and 60% growth respectively. Looking at product groups, truck mixer sales and batching plant sales were particularly strong, with growth rates over 10%. Overall, most countries experienced growth, with the exception of Turkey.

Graph 2: Growth rates in construction equipment sales by product groups in Europe, year-on-year change (%). Source: CECE.

Looking globally, the CECE said that Europe ‘slightly underperformed’ in 2018 as worldwide equipment sales grew by a fifth. It attributed this to the return of emerging markets, led by China and India. Sales in Latin America recovered with a rise of 15% but Brazil, notably, was not part of this trend. North America and Oceania had growth rates of around 20% but the Middle East and Africa saw declining sales. The CECE forecasts global equipment sales growth of 5 – 10% in 2019 subject to there being no trade wars.

Tying into this, the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) said today that Sebastian Popp, its Deputy Managing Director, described cement plant equipment manufacturers as a ‘drag’ on the rest of the building materials plant sector. His words were from an event that took place earlier in March 2019. Overall incoming order and turnover fell in 2018. He blamed this on a cement market characterised by overcapacity. However, if cement plant engineering was removed from the calculations then the incoming orders of German building material plant manufacturers would have risen by 17% year-on-year and turnover by 16%.

None of this is encouraging for the European cement equipment manufacturers. However, as we said in February 2019 (GCW 390), the market is changing and so too are the suppliers. A period of transition is to be expected. Recent good news from Denmark’s FLSmidth include an order for a new plant in Paraguay and sales figures for its vertical roller mills in 2018. Russia’s Eurocement ordered three mills from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer just last week.

India: Government data places the country’s cement production capacity utilisation rate at 59%. The local cement sector had a production capacity of 509Mt/yr and it produced 298Mt in 2018 from 143 integrated plants, 102 grinding plants, five standalone clinker plants and 62 mini plants. India has a cement consumption of 235kg/capita compared to the global average of 520kg/capita. The National Council for Cement and Building Materials with the cement section of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released the information as part of the publication of ‘The Cement Industry – India 2018.’

UK: The British Lime Association (BLA) has published its 2018 Sustainable Development Report. The UK lime sector has responded to improved conditions in the domestic market, and the increased demand from the iron and steel sector in 2017. Exports of lime by BLA Members have increased by 30% since 2006 and made up 26% of sales in 2017. Following the launch of the MPA Charter in 2017, the BLA Sustainable Development Report is now set out to align with the seven MPA strategic priorities.

UK: The MPA has released its Sustainable Development Report 2018 covering the performance of the local cement industry to 2017. Key indicators include a alternative fuels co-processing rate of 43.8% in 2017 compared to 39.2% in 2016. This is the second highest rate since 2010, just below 44% in 2013. It reported CO₂ emissions from calcination (process emissions) of 465kgCO₂/tPCe, a slight increase from 2016. Emissions of NO_x, SO₂ and particulate matter all fell or remained stable. Cement production from MPA members remained stable at 9.4Mt in 2017.

India: A report by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) shows that the local cement sector is on track to meet its 2030 targets from the low carbon technology roadmap (LCTR). Direct CO₂ emission intensity fell by 5% in 2017 in the Indian cement sector compared to the 2010 baseline. CO₂ emission intensity, including onsite or captive power plant (CPP) power generation, was reduced by 6.8% compared to the 2010 baseline. The alternative fuels thermal substitution rate (TSR) increased by 5 times from 2010 to 2017. The sector consumed more than 1.2Mt of alternative fuels in 2017.

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. In our globalised and interconnected world, no one can solve alone the challenges ahead of us and the only opportunity to succeed is through collaborative partnerships, where the common interests of all are considered as more important than the sum of individual interests. This is exactly the spirit that has animated the CSI’s low carbon journey since 1999. This flagship project - with its members - has developed, implemented and shared collective solutions for measuring, reporting and improving its greenhouse gas reduction performance, year after year,” said Philippe Fonta, managing director CSI.

The CSI and the International Energy Agency (IEA) worked with nine local CSI member companies - ACC, Ambuja Cements, CRH, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), HeidelbergCement, Orient Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech and Votorantim Cimentos - to carry out the status review on the sector’s performance trends, continuous implementation measures and notable achievements based on the milestones set in the 2013 LCTR. The Status Review Report was developed in consultation with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with support from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

The findings of the report show that the direct CO₂ emission intensity was reduced by 32kgCO₂/t cement to 588kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 mainly due to an increased use of alternative fuel and blended cement production, coupled with a reduction in clinker replacement factor. However, the study also shows that significant efforts will be needed to meet the 2050 objectives of 40% reduction. The CO₂ emission intensity (including onsite or CPP power generation) has reduced by 49kgCO₂/t cement to 670kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 compared to the baseline year. The report has highlighted the adoption of waste heat recovery (WHR) systems by local cement plants.

The alternative fuels TSR increased to 3% in 2017 from 0.6% in 2010. More than 60 cement plants in India have reported continual usage of alternative fuels, with 24% of the total alternative fuels consumed as biomass. The share of blended cements used in the total quantity of cement manufactured increased to 73% in 2017 from 68% in 2010, largely due to the market’s growing acceptance of blended cement, emerging awareness of sustainability concepts, the availability of fly ash from thermal power plants and the use of advanced technology. The production of Pozzolana Portland Cement grew to 65% in 2017 from 61% in 2010. The share of Portland Slag Cement in cement production remained flat, at less than 10%, over the same period. The clinker factor reduced to 0.71 in 2017 from 0.74 in 2010.

In August 2018 the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) said it was taking over the work previously done by the CSI from 1 January 2019.