Displaying items by tag: Standards

Argos USA announced this week that its integrated Roberta plant in Alabama is set to produce 100% Portland limestone cement (PLC) by June 2022. As part of the transition three of its terminals in North Carolina will also switch over at the same time. The company also expects that all of its plants will convert to PLC in 2023. Cement sites including Newberry in Florida, Harleyville in South Carolina and Martinsburg in West Virginia are already producing PLC.

The change by Argos marks the latest example in an ongoing trend of US-based cement companies moving entire plants to PLC production. In September 2021 LafargeHolcim US said that its integrated Midlothian plant in Texas was preparing to convert to full PLC production and that it would be the first plant in the US to do so. It later confirmed that the plant had done so by the end of 2021. In October 2021 GCC said that its Trident Plant in Montana would fully move to PLC in early 2022. Then in November 2021 Titan America said that its Pennsuco cement plant in Florida would make the change possibly by 2023. Moving into 2022 brought the news that LafargeHolcim US’ Ste. Genevieve plant in Missouri and its Alpena plant in Michigan had each transitioned to PLC production. Lehigh Hanson then rounded up the bunch earlier this month, at the start of February 2022, when it announced that a PLC was the primary product now coming out of its Mason City plant in Iowa. It even invited a US Member of Congress to celebrate!

The current expansionist phase of PLC usage in the US dates back to late 2020 when the Portland Cement Association (PCA) launched a dedicated website to promote the use of the blended cement by discussing its applications and benefits. It then released a new environmental product declaration in March 2021 and PLC received a mention in the PCA’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality when it was released a year later in October 2021. Lots of work went into PLC prior to 2020 though, both by the PCA and others. The first commercial production of PLC in the US started in 2005 and PLC gained its own blended cement specification in 2012. Notably, the PCA has been tracking the state acceptance of PLC by the Department of Transportation and it grew markedly during the 2010s.

The US is playing catch-up with PLC. In Europe its usage dates back to the 1960s. Cembureau, the European Cement Association, reported usage of around 30% in 2004. More recently in 2020, the VDZ, the German Cement Association, reported a similar figure domestically with the proportion of blended cement shipments including limestone, shale and multiple additives at 31.6%. In the US it is hard to gauge the scale of the current move towards PLC by producers, due to limited publicly available data. A PCA survey reported PLC production of 0.89Mt in 2016. If all the plants mentioned above convert fully to PLC and maintain their rated production capacity that would be something like 14Mt/yr of PLC in 2023 or 11% of the US’s total cement capacity. For comparison, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported total shipments of all blended cements at 3.3Mt in 2020 and a total of 5.4Mt for the first 11 months of 2021. Plus, remember that PLC is just one blended cement among others, like those that use slag or fly ash.

Recent developments show that a large change is coming towards the US cement market in the update of blended cements. It’s been a long time coming but the last six months have seen brisk increases in PLC production at scale. The exact data is not available but one might expect something around triple the current number of production plants making PLC if the US market heads towards European levels. This rough estimate doesn’t take into account existing partial PLC production levels. At the same time the US cement sector should see a fall in its emissions due to PLC’s 10% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to ordinary Portland cement

Sri Lanka: The National Construction Association of Sri Lanka (NCASL) claims that no quality control checks are being conducted on imports of cement. The association says that there are labels printed on cement bags confirming that they were quality checked by the Sri Lanka Standard Institute (SLSI) but that it has no evidence of such checks actually being carried out, according to the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror newspaper. It has asked for the authorities to show evidence that the quality control checks are actually taking place.

Sri Lanka faced a shortage of cement in the autumn of 2021 due to input cost rises, supply chain disruption and negative exchange rates effects. The NCASL reports that most cement imports come from India or Pakistan.

World: The governments of Canada, Germany, India, the UAE and the UK have signed a commitment to support the development of markets for low-carbon cement and concrete in their countries. The governments will create market incentives for purchasers, review and update product standards to allow low-carbon materials to be used in all safe settings and promote their use through their public sector tendering rules.

World Cement Association (WCA) chief executive officer Ian Riley said “I’m delighted to see that governments are heeding our call for urgent action to accelerate decarbonisation of the cement industry around the world, and we look forward to hearing more details from the UK, India, Germany, Canada and UAE on the steps they will take.” He added “This commitment marks a hugely significant shift in mindset that we hope will be followed by other countries in the months ahead. When it comes to hard-to-abate industries like cement, it is vital to work together with governments to create the conditions in which we can get to net zero and beyond, as quickly as possible. We cannot do this alone in time.”

Morocco: The government of Morocco has tightened cement and clinker quality standards. The Le Matin newspaper has reported that the new standards will see cement and clinker assessed on the basis of higher consistency and final product durability standards than previously.

Germany/Sweden: Sweden-based BillerudKorsnäs and Germany-based Haver & Boecker have decided to continue jointly developing further standards for sack packaging following positive feedback in 2020. The sack packaging norms include recommendations for the development and use of packaging solutions and processes and define basic standard know-how or standard procedures. They are intended to provide orientation for regular questions that manufacturers of bulk materials face.

"Together BillerudKorsnäs and Haver & Boecker now offer a set of recommendations to minimise problems and maximise performance in the packaging chain. If manufacturers and users of paper sack packaging follow the recommendations and guidelines and implement usage of these norms in their supply chain, efficient and effective packaging production, filling, handling, storage and transport of the end products will be ensured," says Mikael Peterson, Technical Service Director at BillerudKorsnäs.

BillerudKorsnäs has contributed experience in packaging paper production as well as analytical tests, design and developments at the BillerudKorsnäs Packaging Development Centre. Haver & Boecker has contributed its experience in filling technology and handling of powdered bulk materials.

Kazakhstan: The Technical Regulation and Metrology Committee (KTRM) of the Ministry of Trade and Integration is preparing to introduce new standards for imported cement. The new rules will come into place in July 2021, according to the Kazakhstan News Agency. Following their introduction all participants in the cement industry market, including importers, will be required to perform compulsory qualification confirmation in accordance with the national standards. The KTRM has also started setting up a testing laboratory with a site granted accreditation in late April 2021. The Ministry of Integration and Integration and the Kazakhstan Cement and Concrete Manufacturers Association (QazCem) have also held a meeting recently to discuss key industry concerns and the measures required to combat the spread of counterfeit cement products.

China: Starlinger says that its Ad*Star bag has received designation as one of three types of national standard cement bag type specifications by the Chinese government. The supplier developed the block bottom valve bags made of woven polypropylene tape fabric in 1995. Global production was 15.7bn in 2020.

The new Chinese standard for cement packaging was released in October 2020. It applies to cement bags holding up to 50kg and lists laminated woven plastic bags (made of one layer of laminated plastic fabric or with additional paper liner), paper bags (three-layer, three-layer with PE liner, four-layer bags), as well as paper-plastic composite bags (paper bags with plastic liner) as possible packaging options. All three types of bags must be designed as block bottom valve bags.

The standard specifies the dimensions as well as physical and mechanical requirements of the cement bags. Regarding break resistance, for example, a cement bag has to survive a drop from 1m height a minimum of six times before it breaks. Furthermore, printing and marking, general bag appearance, testing methods, and rules for quality inspection during bag manufacture are established in the standard. It also stipulates that each bag must be provided with a certificate before selling.

Local cement companies have been given a transition period until 31 March 2022 to adapt to the new standard. Starlinger expects to deliver and install machines for an additional production capacity of more than 2 billion Ad*Star bags on the Chinese market in 2021 and 2022.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has warned local cement producers to rein in their more outlandish claims. In a letter reported upon by the Economic Times newspaper this week, the government department has accused some manufacturers of making both objective and subjective claims about their products that strained credulity and didn’t fit the corresponding official standards. One industry source from the newspaper blamed the crackdown on some producers claiming that their cement products helped protect people from Covid-19! In their view the bureau was now over-enforcing its rules in retaliation. Given the severity of the outbreak in India - it has the second highest number of reported cases in the world this week - the response of the authorities is understandable to say the least.

The distinction between objective and subjective exaggeration that the BIS makes it worth looking at in more detail. For example, objective or supposedly fact-based claims the BIS cited included: ‘Protect Steel in Concrete’; ‘Protect Concrete from Corrosion’; ‘Corrosion Resistant’; ‘Weather Proof’; and ‘Damp Proof.’ Then, there were subjective, or more emotionally evocative, claims along the lines of ‘strong’ or ‘high performance.’ The BIS then outlines the specific ways in which objective and subjective assertions can be used. Objective claims should be avoided on marketing and packaging material. Subjective claims should, “explicitly indicate that such claims are not covered under the scope of BIS licence granted to them and the responsibility of such claims lies with them.”

Marketing is a big part of standing out in the crowded Indian cement market with producers sponsoring major sports teams. This might seem odd to readers elsewhere in the world but it demonstrates the target market, the importance of cement as a commodity to the general public and the power of brand awareness. Amubja Cement’s logo of a man with a Charles Atlas style physique cuddling a building sums up the message they want to convey: strength. No wonder producers are wary of the BIS wading in.

Standards also appeared in another news story this week with the announcement that Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) had obtained the first cement product carbon footprint label issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in the country. Its products will be marked with carbon footprint labels from the fourth quarter of 2020.

This shows a general trend in cement products towards showing sustainability credentials from putting environmental footprint data in front of specifiers for large projects towards making it a more basic retail selling point. Lots of other cement producers around the world have done and/or are doing similar things, from the dedicated slag cement manufacturers to the larger producers routinely releasing and promoting new low-CO₂ products. To pick one example from many, in July 2020 LafargeHolcim France introduced ‘360Score CO₂ emissions reduction ratings’ to its bagged cement range. The score, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), with ‘A’ products producing less CO₂ than ‘D’ products in their overall creation.

To look at an older example of the need for standards generally, building collapses in Nigeria appeared to increase post-2000, with the misuse of lower-grade cements blamed for the situation. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) took action in 2014, local producers introduced higher strength cements and the problem was reduced. Given the intangible nature of measuring sustainability in cement products there is a need for reliable standards. Unlike performance metrics, such as a strength or durability, the CO₂ footprint of a cement product will generally remain utterly intangible for most end-users. The effects of CO₂ emissions are continually analysed and debated, but the negative climate effects of cement products are more akin to someone else’s house flooding on the other side of the world 50 years later, than one’s own house falling down a decade later due to using the wrong strength cement. So, some form of trustworthy enforcement for sustainability standards is crucial. Standards may represent ‘boring’ bureaucratic red tape at its most officious but we need them. In India and elsewhere though, the debate on enforcement continues.

Russia: The Commission for Entrepreneurs’ Rights has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to change Council for Standardisation, Metrology and Certification (GOST) conformity assessment and cement certification rules requiring production and packaging of cement to be carried out by a single legal entity. The commission says that the restriction, introduced in September 2019, unfairly restrains smaller-scale producers, according to the Kommersant newspaper.

In an open letter to Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Commissioner Boris Titov said, “This preferential treatment of full-scale enterprises negatively affects the formation of a competitive environment. The purpose of cement certification is to confirm quality and safety, which clearly do not depend on production and packaging being carried out by a single legal entity.”

Nepal: The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) has revoked the licences of two cement producers. It reported that International Cement and Reliance Supertek Cement had both sold cement below domestic commercial standards and continued to trade after receiving an order to halt sales. NBSM’s Bishwo Babu Pudasaini said, “We have intensified checks and collected samples from about a dozen cement plants for laboratory tests. These dangerous products undercut Nepal’s transition to cement self-reliance.”