Displaying items by tag: Spain

Spain: Votorantim Cimentos Spain has appointed Carmen Boulet as Director of Sustainability, Strategy and New Businesses. She previously worked for McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager before working for Google in Spain as Strategic Partner Manager Lead and later becoming the Strategy Director for Clarity AI. Boulet holds a master of engineering degree from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and a master of business administration qualification from the Columbia Business School.

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.

Spain: Cement consumption in Spain grew by 0.3% in May 2024 to 1.36Mt, an increase of nearly 3600t compared to May 2023, as reported by the Cement Manufacturers' Association of Spain (Oficemen). Over the first five months of 2024, consumption fell by 3.4% to 6Mt, a decline of 0.21Mt from the same period in 2023. From June 2023 - May 2024, consumption dropped by 4.6% to 14.3Mt, nearly 700,000t less than the previous period.

Meanwhile, exports in May 2024 rose by 11.4% to 0.51Mt, nearly 52,000t more than in May 2023. However, cumulative exports for 2024 have decreased by 18.2% to 1.95Mt. Over the past 12 months, exports totalled 4.76Mt, a 14.7% decline, representing a year-on-year decline of over 800,000t.

Spain: Heidelberg Materials plans to stop clinker production at its Añorga plant near San Sebastián and run the site as a cement grinding plant instead. It says it intends to use the change to focus on low-carbon cement products in Spain and the South-West of France. The clinker required to supply the markets in Northern Spain and the South-West of France will be produced at Heidelberg Materials Spain’s Bilbao plant instead. The closure of the clinker production line at Añorga will start once staff negotiations at the plant are completed. The company said that, “socially acceptable solutions for all affected employees are being sought.”

Spain: The Cemex plant in Alcanar has been granted €3m from the PERTE project for industrial decarbonisation, facilitated by the Ministry of Industry. This subsidy is part of a broader initiative involving 19 projects with a total aid of €96m under Line 1 of the programme. Cemex aims to contribute to decarbonisation of the clinker production process at its Alcanar facility by centralising compressed air production to enhance energy efficiency, replacing 14 old compressors with two more powerful and efficient units. The plant also plans to increase the use of alternative fuels in clinker production by integrating waste-derived and biomass fuels.

Spain: Cement consumption in Andalusia fell by 15% in the first quarter of 2024, to 0.67Mt, marking a decrease of 0.11Mt from the same quarter in 2023. The Cement Manufacturers Group of Andalusia (AFCA) attributes the significant 29% drop in March 2024 to the timing of Holy Week and heavy rainfall, which impacted construction activities. Exports of clinker and cement also decreased by 34.2%, with a volume of 97,609t in the first quarter of 2024. Over the last 12 months, consumption declined by 3.8% to 3.06Mt.

President of AFCA, Carmen Díaz Canabal, said "We will have to wait for the second quarter data to see the real evolution of the behaviour of the cement market, and therefore of construction, during this year."

Spain: The Cemex plant in Morata de Jalón, Zaragoza, has won €2.8m in aid from the Spanish Ministry of Industry's first Perte resolution for industrial decarbonisation. This funding, part of a larger €96m aid package, will support the plant's clinker production process and its transition to using sustainable fuels.

The aid will increase the use of alternative fuels in clinker production by incorporating waste-derived and biomass fuels.

Cemex announced last week that it will stop producing clinker at its Lloseta plant in Mallorca. Grinding activity at the site will continue, along with the shipment of bagged and bulk cement products. The company has framed the closure as part of its decarbonisation plans. The dismantling of the two preheater towers at the plant is scheduled to take place by the end of 2030. Cemex said that it will take this long to allow the cement plant to continue operating, as well as a neighbouring hydrogen unit and other nearby industrial units. The status of the Lloseta plant has been in question before. It was closed in early 2019 due to reduced cement demand and mounting European CO₂ emissions regulations. However, it reopened in 2021.

Readers may recall that Cemex España participated in the Power to Green Hydrogen Mallorca project. Land by the Lloseta cement plant was used to hold solar panels and a solar-powered hydrogen unit. Other partners in the project included energy suppliers Enagás and Redexis and renewable power and infrastructure company Acciona, among others. When the unit was commissioned in early 2022, it said it was the first solar power-to-green hydrogen plant in Spain. The link between Cemex and hydrogen is noteworthy given the cement company’s adoption of hydrogen injection as part of its alternative fuels strategy. Interestingly, Acciona planned to use a blockchain method to certify that hydrogen produced at the site was made using renewable energy sources. Heidelberg Materials also plans to use the same process to verify its evoZero brand of net-zero cement products in 2025. Another recent sustainability sector news story in Spain is the commissioning by Çimsa of a 7.2MW solar plant supporting its Buñol white cement plant in Valencia. The new installation is expected to supply about 18% of the plant’s energy needs.

On the corporate side of things, FCC revealed in mid-May 2024 that it was preparing to spin-off its cement and real estate subsidiaries into a new company called Inmocemento. The cement part of this is Spain-based Cementos Portland Valderrivas. The move is intended to bolster the values of the different parts of the business. The proposal will be put to FCC’s shareholders in late June 2024, with any resulting action taking place by the end of the year. The decision to separate FCC’s cement assets is reminiscent of the financial engineering Holcim has proposed with its US business. However, in this case the driver does not appear to be the disparity between the European and US stock markets.

Graph 1: Domestic consumption and exports of cement in Spain, 2013 - 2023. Source: Oficemen.

Market data was also out this week from Oficemen, the Spanish cement association. Domestic cement consumption grew year-on-year in April 2024 but the year so far is looking weaker with consumption from January to April 2024 down by 4.5% year-on-year to 4.65Mt. This is below Oficemen’s forecast for 2024 where it expected a stagnant situation. However, there are eight more months to go. In 2023 cement consumption fell by 3% to 14.5Mt and exports declined by 7.5% to 5.2Mt. The association blamed continued underinvestment in both the public and private sectors due to economic instability since the Covid-19 pandemic. Graph 1 above shows the wider situation in the Spanish cement market over the last decade. The share of exports has declined and local consumption rebounded after 2020 but has declined since then.

These news stories provide a snapshot of what’s been happening in Spain recently in the cement sector. Oficemen’s prediction for 2024 is gloomy but local consumption has risen over the past 10 years. Exports have fallen but the cement association has started to spin the country’s decarbonsiation drive as a potential positive for the industry’s competitiveness generally. It’s hard to discern right now but there might be an advantage for an export-focused country that conforms to European standards in the future if it can hold onto its capacity. Admittedly, that’s a big if. This thinking along sustainability lines could be seen earlier in May 2024 when Cementos Molins Group rebranded itself as Molins. It described the rebranding as a bid to represent the wider range of construction products it manufactures and sells beyond cement. Oficemen has also pointed out that the local market has room for development given the relatively low cement consumption per capita in Spain compared to its peers. So, whatever happens next, there is likely to be room for improvement in the cement market.

Spain: Cement consumption has increased by 11.5% year-on-year in April 2024, reaching 1.3Mt, which is 136,000t more than April 2023, according to the latest statistics published by the Cement Manufacturers Association (Oficemen).

For the first four months of 2024, cement consumption amounted to 4.65Mt, marking a year-on-year decline of 4.5% compared to the same period in 2023. This represents a loss of 218,000t. Over the last 12 months (May 2023 - April 2024), cement consumption also fell by 4.5%, with total consumption standing at 14.3Mt, 672,700t less than the previous period.

Exports fell nearly 24% in April, amounting to 387,500t. For the year to date, from January to April 2024, exports have reached 1.45Mt, a decrease of 25.3% compared to the same period in 2023. Over the last 12 months, exports have dropped below 5Mt, nearly 1Mt less than the previous year.

Oficemen's general manager, Aniceto Zaragoza, said "This is the first positive month after ten months of decline. However, this percentage growth was influenced by the calendar effect, as this April had more working days due to Easter being in March, not April as last year. In fact, the average daily consumption figures, which are more sensitive to the number of working days, show a decline of 8.8%."

Spain: Cemex has announced the definitive closure of its clinker production kilns at the Lloseta plant, aligning its operations with the global 'Future in Action' programme that targets carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company has confirmed its plans to the government and the Lloseta City Council to dismantle the two cyclone towers at the Lloseta plant by 31 December 2030. While clinker production will cease, the site will continue to engage in grinding, storage, marketing and dispatch of bulk and bagged cement; maintain its regional offices, aggregate treatment plant, ground transport base and operate the Can Negret quarry in Alaró.

The plant’s closure has led to the dismissal of six of the seven employees who worked at the kilns. Cemex has offered these workers positions at other company production centres.