Displaying items by tag: Romania

Romania: Holcim is mulling its options after the European Union's (EU) top court dismissed its lawsuit against the European Commission (EC) over the theft of 1.6 million emissions allowances in 2010.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on 18 Sept 2014 rejected Holcim's arguments that the EC should compensate it for Euro17.6m for damages suffered when the online carbon trading account of its Romanian subsidiary was hacked. In its judgment, the court ruled that Holcim must bear the losses resulting from the thefts and pay the EC's legal costs in the case, which were not disclosed.

"Holcim has taken note of the General Court's judgement," said a Holcim sposewoman. "We are currently analysing the decision in more detail and cannot comment any further."

In November 2010 cyber criminals hacked into Holcim's account at the Romanian emissions trading registry - previously one of around 30 online trading hubs in the EU carbon market - and transferred 1.6 million s-called EU allowances to two accounts at the Italian and Liechtenstein registries. According to EU records, the allowances then passed through registry accounts in the UK, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic within hours, before eventually being sold on emissions exchanges in Paris and Amsterdam.

Around 695,000 allowances were later returned to Holcim by various European authorities, but the company's spokeswoman said that the remaining units have still not been recovered.
Holcim sued the EC, which administers the bloc's electronic emissions trading network, in 2012 for failing to freeze the accounts containing the stolen units, for not returning them and for allowing other companies to turn them in for compliance under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The EC refused to reveal the location of the allowances, saying that under EU law the details were confidential and could only be passed to European authorities.

Several European companies including International Power and ScottishPower have since surrendered some of the units to comply with the ETS, but claimed that they bought them in good faith, without knowing that they had been reported stolen.

Holcim had claimed that the EU should pay it the value of any allowances still missing, based on the market price on 16 November 2010 (the day of the theft) plus annual interest of 8%. That amounts to more than Euro17.6m, based on a spot allowance price of Euro14.60/unit.
Holcim has also sued Romania's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) over similar claims.

"The court case against NEPA has been suspended by the civil court until the Romanian law enforcement agency (DIICOT) finalises the criminal investigation, but as of now we have no indication as to when this might happen," said Holcim.

Romania: Holcim has completed the extension of its waste co-processing platform in Campulung, Arges County, following a Euro6m investment that was co-funded by the European Union (EU).
The project was implemented throughout 20 months via ecovalor, a Holcim division that specialises in waste management. Of the total Euro6m investment, Euro1.6m came from EU funds under the economic competitiveness programme. Holcim Romania introduced waste co-processing in its cement plants in 2003 and has invested Euro32m in waste processing.

Industrial energy consumers in Romania have succeeded in extracting concessions from the government's green certificates scheme this week. Cement producers, including Lafarge, Holcim and local HeidelbergCement subsidiary CarpatCement Holding, will benefit now from a 10-year facility to acquire the certificates and they will be allowed to buy up to 85% fewer certificates than at present.

The Romanian government reckons the change will save industry Euro750m. It will be good news for the cement producers and aluminium producer Alro Slatina, one of the chief lobbyists for the change which paid Euro39m for the certificates in 2013, reported losses of Euro17m and threatened production closures.

The debacle strikes a chord with other government-led attempts to nudge society towards lower-carbon emitting energy sources. First a national or international scheme offers economic incentives toward some sort of carbon reduction. Then major industrial users either complain that the system 'unfairly' penalises them or they find a way to play the system. The latest example of the adjustments in Romania is an example of the former, as is the current Australian government's intention to remove its carbon tax. Multinational companies surrendering carbon offsets into the European Union's (EU) emissions trading scheme (ETS) is an example of the latter.

In defence of government-industry negotiation, the EU ETS is now in its third phase of trying to make the scheme work as the EU tries to reach its target of a 20% cut in emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2020. In late 2013 environmental group Sandbag accused the target of containing a loophole that allows for a much smaller cut in emissions due to a slack in carbon budgets, of potentially 2% of 1990 levels. However, the EU confirmed in early June 2014 that it is on track to beat its target and cut down total emissions by 24.5% by 2020.

Alongside all of this arguing, overall energy costs have steadily risen over the last decade, as have the rates of co-processing at European cement plants. As a secondary major fuels consumer, behind energy generation and transportation, the cement industry is particularly susceptible to energy prices being jolted around behind various market trends, such as increases in natural gas supply in the US market. In effect the cement industry hops between different 'next best' options, after the leading energy consumers have taken the premium fuels. The interplay between legislators and heavy industry over carbon taxes prompts the following question: what encourages cement producers more to move to reduce their carbon emissions – legislation or fuel prices?

In other news this week, the chief executive of African producer Bamburi Cement, Hussein Mansi, has announced his plans to move on to Lafarge Egypt. In his memo to staff he mentioned, '...five very interesting years leading the Kenya – Uganda business.' Telling words perhaps given the Kenyan government's attention on Bamburi Cement and the East Africa Portland Cement Company, a producer minority-owned by Lafarge. Of course Mansi may discover that 'interesting' is relative in Egypt, a country on the other side of the energy subsidy spectrum to Europe and its carbon taxes.

Romania: Industrial energy consumers in Romania will gain a 10-year facility for green certificate acquisition, which will save them approximately Euro750m, the government has decided. About 300 large industrial companies in Romania, including Lafarge, Holcim and CarpatCement Holding, that will benefit from this measure, as they will be allowed to buy up to 85% less green certificates than they currently have to buy. The ratios are established on the rate of energy costs in their total production costs.

However, the adjustment to the green certificate scheme will add 1% to the energy costs for other consumers, who will have to buy more green certificates to support the existing subsidy scheme for green energy producers. The general population and smaller Romanian firms will see increases in electricity bills.

The support scheme will be applied from 1 August 2014 and it will also be notified to the European Commission.

Romania: The Romanian unit of Swiss cement producer Holcim has announced that Francois Petry will be appointed as its director general as of 1 February 2014. Currently the general manager for aggregates at Holcim France, he joined the Swiss firm in 2008. He will replace Daniel Bach.

Bach has recently been appointed Area Manager for South East Asia and will be in charge of the Holcim subsidiaries from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, according to a statement from Holcim Romania.

"Romania is one of the most important markets of Holcim Group in Europe, with significant growth potential," said Petry. "It's not going to be an easy job, as the economy is still recovering from the global crisis, but I know that we have here all that is needed to continue on the same successful path: talented and devoted people as well as modern and efficient production facilities."

Holcim Romania operates two integrated cement plants.

Romania: Romania's Carpatcement Holding, a HeidelbergCement subsidiary, said that it plans to invest Euro15m in 2014 in increasing energy efficiency, in environmental projects and personnel development.

In 2013 the company's sales fell by 14% due to a national decline in infrastructure projects, domestic spending and in foreign direct investments.

HeidelbergCement has invested more than Euro450m in Romania since 1998. Between 2008 - 2009 it invested Euro100m in raising its cement production capacity to nearly 7.15Mt/yr. In Romania the Germany-based company produces cement, concrete and aggregates in its three units, Carpatcement Holding, Carpat Beton and Carpat Agregate.

Romaina: Holcim Romania has announced the addition of three members to its management team. Anca Alexandru is the new Ready-mixed Concrete and Aggregates Director of Holcim Romania, Mădălina Craciunescu has been appointed as Human Resources Director and Ioana Borangic is the new Communication Manager.

"We take pride in the fact that Holcim Romania, a company from the building materials industry, where most employees are men, now has an executive team formed of 50% ladies", said Daniel Bach, General Director of Holcim Romania.

Alexandru, aged 46, joined Holcim in 2002 and has held various managerial positions in the RMX segment. She succeeds Bogdan Dobre who has become the Marketing and Sales Director for Holcim Romania. She has been in post since 1 September 2013.

Craciunescu, aged 32, has held various positions with Holcim Romania since January 2005. She replaces Nicoleta Sălăjan, who has become the HR Director of Holcim Group for the Africa and Middle East Region

Borangic, aged 30, joined Holcim in 2010 as Internal Communication Specialist. Before joining Holcim Ioana gained over 10 years of experience in corporate communications in several multinational companies. Borangic succeeds Andreea Nicolae who have become the Marketing Manager for Holcim Romania.

Holcim Romania runs two cement plants, one grinding plant, 13 eco-friendly concrete stations, three aggregates stations, two special binders stations and one cement terminal.

Romania: The Romanian unit of Lafarge has appointed Sonia Artinian as its new country CEO. She is in charge of the French group's cement, aggregates and concrete business in Romania. Artinian replaces Philippe Questiaux, who had managed Lafarge's cement activity in Romania since 2002.

Russia: Vladimir Petrov has been appointed as General Director of Pikalevskiy Cement, a part of Russia's Eurocement Group.

Ukraine: The Balakleya-based Eurocement-Ukraine company dismissed its director general Demis Halchev on 31 January 2011 after a tenure of around three years in the post. According to a report, the position is now vacant.

Romania: Cement production in Romania were up by 8.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to 3.18Mt. Domestic cement sales increased by 2.4% to 2.95Mt according to data released by the Romanian Association of Cement Producers (CIROM). Romania's cement market is dominated by the local units of Lafarge, Holcim and HeidelbergCement.