Displaying items by tag: Tarmac

UK: Tarmac says that it is the first cement company to have signed up to the EV100, a scheme that targets net-zero carbon emissions in transportation. Under the initiative, Tarmac will replace its fleet of 2000 corporate cars and vans with electric models by 2030.

Tarmac procurement director Jonathan Harry said, “We are fully committed to supporting the UK’s ambition of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and have been proactive in making significant changes to our business and product portfolio for many years. The road to a reduction in carbon requires collective action and sustainable procurement strategies have an important role to play in supporting these ambitions. By taking progressive actions such as adopting electric vehicle (EV) technology and switching to clean electricity, we can lead by example and begin to effect real change.”

UK: Tarmac has marked the UK’s national squirrel day (21 January 2020) by renewing its commitment to conservation at one of England’s rare red squirrel habitats: its Harden quarry in Northumberland. Harden quarry manager Gareth Williams said, “The team has set up a feeding station and has been working to monitor the number of visitors.”

Two Tarmac employees are trained squirrel wardens and are responsible for keeping track of the resident red population.

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) Cement’s five members – Breedon Cement, Cemex UK, Hanson Cement, Lafarge Cement and Tarmac – saw their direct CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement rise by 0.6% year-on-year to 633kg in 2018 from 629kg in 2017. Refuse-derived fuel rates in 2018 were 43.2%, down by 0.5% from 43.8Mt in 2017. The industry achieved its seventh consecutive year in which producers sent zero process waste to landfill. Overall sales fell by 1.0% year-on-year.

UK: Tarmac has announced plans for the construction of a materials terminal including aggregate processing and manufacturing facilities at the Thames’ new Tilbury2 port in Essex. The terminal will be able to receive vessels of up to 0.1Mt. Tarmac and the Port of Tilbury will develop the site from late 2019, ending in the establishment of operations before 2021.

UK: GyroMetric Systems has signed an agreement to install digital monitoring equipment on a 11kV raw mill drive at Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant in Derbyshire. Measured digital parameters will include dynamic torque across the coupling, radial displacement of the shaft (and therefore misalignment), and torsional vibrations of the drive system. The data will also provide information on the condition of the gearbox. GyroMetric Systems is controlled by Remote Monitored Systems. No value for the order has been disclosed.

UK: The body responsible for the UK’s 15 National Parks has acknowledged the building materials and construction company Tarmac as its lead partner in recognition of its sustainable practice at the UK National Parks Conference at the Yorkshire Dales National Park headquarters. The Conference on the occasion of the 70^th anniversary of the inauguration of the National Parks was supported by Tarmac.

UK: Tarmac has appointed Graeme Bride as the plant manager of its Aberthaw cement plant. He takes over the role from Chris Bradbury, who has been appointed Cement Plant Manager of Tarmac’s Tunstead operations.

Bride, aged 46 years, graduated as a mechanical engineer from the University of Birmingham and has an MBA from Manchester Business School. He has over 24 years of operational experience gained in the cement, sugar and power generation industries across Europe, Asia and Africa. His most recent role was Health and Safety Director in Lafarge Africa. He holds 19 years cement plant management experience from his time spent working in Nigeria and the Philippines.

More positive news emerged from the UK cement industry this week with the news that Cemex is planning to restart the second kiln at its South Ferriby plant later in 2018. This marks the full recovery of the plant after a disastrous flood in late 2013 and it is an all round good news story. Around the same time the local government in Scotland approved the planning application for an upgrade to Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant. That project involves installing a new cement grinding mill, a new cement storage silo and a rail loading facility.

Graph 1: Domestic cement, imported cement and other cementitious sales in the UK, 2001 - 2017. Source: Mineral Products Association.

The timing is interesting given the general uncertainty in the UK economy ahead of the UK exit from the European Union (EU). However, data from the Mineral Products Association (MPA) shows that total cementitious material sales (cement plus products made from fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS)) reached 15.3Mt in 2017 from a low of 10.3Mt in 2009 following the financial crash. This isn’t as high as the 15.8Mt figures recorded in 2007 but it does mark a recovery. This masks to an extent the change in the market since 2007. Cement sales in 2017 at 10.2Mt were still below a high of 11.9Mt in 2008. The recovery has been driven by higher imports, 1.9Mt in 2017, and higher use of fly ash and GGBS products, which reached 3.2Mt in 2017.

Cemex and Tarmac are not alone in announcing projects. HeidelbergCement’s local subsidiary Hanson is upgrading its Padeswood plant with a new Euro22m mill. Irish slag cement grinding company Ecocem opened its import terminal at Sheerness in mid-2017 and French grinding firm, Cem'In'Eu, has also expressed interest in building a plant, in this case in London.

As discussed earlier in the year, new upgrade projects in the UK appear to carry an element of risk given the unknown status of its departure from the EU. Supply chains may be affected, companies are delaying investment and the value of Pound Sterling is falling. The collapse of construction services company Carillion also had a knock-on effect in the industry and, with major work on the Crossrail infrastructure project finishing, the industry has no major infrastructure projects in support. A quarterly graph of UK construction industry output volume by Arcadis shows almost uniform growth since mid-2012 although this started to flatten in 2017. A badly-handled Brexit (UK exit from the EU) could undo this growth.

All of this presents a picture of risk-adverse capital projects in the UK. The MPA figures help to explain the focus on grinding at Padeswood and Dunbar. The market has changed since 2007, with a growing focus on imports and secondary cementitious materials. Hence spending money on equipment to process these inputs makes sense. The decision to increase production at South Ferriby meanwhile depends on reviving existing equipment. Regional cement sales figures to 2016 from the MPA appear to indicate static demand in counties close to the plant (Yorkshire and Humberside) but sales have increased in the East Midlands and the East of England.

Just compare the current UK approach to the situation in Egypt. This week the head of the cement division of the Chamber of Building Materials described the decision to build the Beni Suef cement plant to local media as “not based on precise information” and that it had harmed local production. In case you had forgotten, that plant is one of the biggest in the world with six lines. The commentator may well have been representing smaller local producers but opening a 12Mt/yr plant in Egypt in these turbulent economic times marks a different approach to risk than the modest plant upgrades in the UK. Let’s wait and see who has the best approach.

UK: The planning department of East Lothian Council in Scotland has granted planning permission to an upgrade of Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant. The work will include building a new cement grinding mill, a new cement storage silo and a rail loading facility. The work will also include a shed, belt conveyors pneumatic pipelines and associated works.

In its supporting statement the company said that the new cement mill was necessary to produce new grades of cement required for modern construction and the cement market. The proposed mill will replace two existing mills on the site and is intended to be more energy efficient and quieter than the existing mills. It added that the plant would benefits from rail sidings on both the south and north side of the East Coast Mainline railway line. At present trains are fed only on the south side using adjacent silos where train capacity is already fully used. Additional products are exported by road.

UK: Tarmac plans to restructure the distribution model for its cement and lime division. Following a strategic review it will move to a regional model for both bulk and packed cement distribution, which have previously operated on a national basis. Tarmac’s own fleet operations will handle around 50% of bulk cement and 20% of packed cement distribution, supported by five regional distribution providers selected through a procurement process.

“Our supply chain and logistics operations are crucial to maintaining Tarmac Cement and Lime’s position as the UK’s market leader. The new regional transport operating model will provide enhanced resilience, flexibility, service, cost and safety for our customers, who trust us to deliver the products they need to realise major projects,” said Mike Eberlin, managing director at Tarmac Cement and Lime.

Tarmac Cement and Lime’s regional distribution partners will be engaged on new five-year logistics contracts effective from December 2018. They are Abbey Logistics (bulk cement – Scotland), Pollocks (packed cement – Scotland & North), Lomas Distribution (bulk and packed cement – Central), Wincanton (bulk and packed cement – South West), Stobarts (bulk and packed cement – South East) and Proctors (packed cement – Barnstone).

Tarmac’s Lime & Powders operation will remain fully subcontracted on a national basis to Lomas Distribution (bulk lime and powders and lime tippers) and RR Andrews (powder tipper operations).

There will be no change to customer order arrangements.