Displaying items by tag: Texas

US: Buzzi Unicem USA’s Maryneal cement plant in Texas hit a production record of 1.03Mt of clinker and 1.18Mt of cement in 2022. The figures were more than 4% over the year’s budgeted figures. The plant says it achieved the result through consistent communication and a positive culture. Managers at the unit also shared updated production figures at daily meetings, kept all employees actively engaged and created an encouraging atmosphere. The plant has set new goals for 2023.

Antonio Corea Cruz, Operations Manager at the plant, said, “We’ve implemented strategies to keep reliable assets which allow the team members to work on continuous improvement. This affects the efficiency and productivity of all aspects of the plant.”

US: Lhoist North America says it intends to add lime production capacity in Texas. It stated that population growth in the south of the country had created increased demand for its calcium-based products, with customers having announced new steel mills, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities, lithium hydroxide production plants and water treatment facilities. In its view these expansions in multiple markets require lime both in the initial infrastructure build and in longer-term production processes.

The subsidiary of Belgium-based Lhoist said in mid-September 2023 that it was expecting to file permits for the expansion in the coming weeks and the location for the new production capacity will be revealed at a later date.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of its 2023 Safety Innovation and Chairman's Safety Performance Awards.

The Safety Innovation Award Program recognises companies that have developed innovative practices, projects and programs that improve safety at cement plants in the US. Entries are judged in five areas: innovation, ease of use and ease of construction, effectiveness and risk prevention. The recipients were:

• Distribution: Continental Cement, Continental Port Allen Terminal, Chesterfield, Missouri
• Quarry: CalPortland Company, CalPortland Oro Grande Plant, Oro Grande, California
• Pyroprocessing: GCC of America, GCC Tijeras Plant, Tijeras, New Mexio
• General Facility: Mitsubishi Cement Corporation, Mitsubishi Cushenbury Plant, Lucerne Valley, California

The Chairman’s Safety Performance Awards are given to member cement plants that did not have a reportable injury or illness during the year. Fifteen plants achieved this in 2023, which represented more than 10% of all active cement facilities in the US and its territories. The recipients were:

• Argos USA, Atlanta, Georgia
• Argos USA, Newberry, Florida
• Argos Puerto Rico Corp, Dorado, Puerto Rico
• Ash Grove Cement Company (CRH), Durkee, Oregon
• Ash Grove Cement Company (CRH), Midlothian, Texas
• Buzzi Unicem USA, Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Buzzi Unicem USA, Maryneal, Texas
• CalPortland Company, Rillito, Arizona
• GCC of America, Odessa, Texas
• Heidelberg Materials, Bellingham, Washington
• Martin Marietta Materials, New Braunfels, Texas
• Martin Marietta Materials, Midlothian, Texas
• Martin Marietta Materials, Tehachapi, California
• National Cement Company of California, Kern, California
• St Marys Cement (Votorantim), Detroit, Michigan

US: Terra CO₂ plans to build its first commercial-scale supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) plant in Texas. The plant will have a production capacity of 240,000t/yr. Asher Materials secured an exclusive market license to operate the plant. Terra CO₂’s SCM can replace up to 40% of cement content in concrete. Asher Materials will produce the materials from silicate rock from existing local aggregates operations.

Terra CO₂ chief science officer DJ Lake said "From start to finish, we've designed a system to create large-scale impact in the real world. Our game-changing production process converts affordable, abundant and local raw materials to cementitious material that meets rigorous performance standards.” Lake continued “True sustainability will come from deep innovations in materials and technology and not from incremental improvements to the existing cement supply chain."

US: Texas-based Solidia Technologies has patented a synthetic pozzolan that may be used as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in cement production. The product is based on previously low-value materials, including minimally processed oil shales and clay minerals. Solidia Technologies produces the material by various methods, including firing the materials to yield a mix of crystalline components and activatable amorphous phase material. Alternatively, production may also involve the aqueous decomposition of manmade silicates in the presence of CO₂.

US: GCC has ordered pyroprocessing equipment from ThyssenKrupp Polysius for the expansion of its Odessa cement plant in Texas. The upgrade will more than double the plant’s capacity to 1.9Mt/yr, and reduce its CO₂ emissions by 13%. Contractor H&M Construction says that the project will be the third on which it has collaborated on design and construction.

H&M Vice President Casey Rushing said “H&M is proud to have the opportunity to serve GCC as its design-builder on this great project. H&M has a very strong active presence in Texas and a very strong veteran self-perform team that has recently completed with Polysius a near identical pyroprocessing expansion in the Southeast US. We intend to improve on our successes from our previous pyroprocessing lines by executing this project for GCC with superior safety, quality and customer satisfaction.”

Ireland: CRH recorded US$16.6m in consolidated sales during the first half of 2023, up by 8% year-on-year from first-half 2022 levels. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled US$2.5bn, up by 14%. Throughout the half, CRH invested US$600m in acquisitions, and maintained a ‘robust’ pipeline of further opportunities. In its Americas business, cement sales were ‘robust.’ There, volumes rose by 5%, and prices rose by 17%, despite adverse weather in Texas and the Western US. Meanwhile, price rises successfully offset local volume declines in Europe, but failed to do so in the Philippines. CRH said that infrastructure projects in the Philippines are experiencing delays. In Ukraine, it said that construction activity increased in the first half of 2023, despite the continuing Russian invasion.

CEO Albert Manifold said "I am pleased to report a strong first half performance, reflecting the continued delivery of our differentiated strategy, further commercial progress across our businesses and good contributions from acquisitions. The strength of our balance sheet, together with our relentless focus on disciplined capital allocation, will enable us to invest in future growth and value creation opportunities for our business."

US: Terra CO2 has performed a successful demonstration pour of its OPUS silicate-based supplementary cementitious material (SCM) at a construction site in Texas. Terra CO2 supplied the SCM to indiGO Auto Group for the construction of its Porsche Sugar Land car dealership in Houston. It says that the product delivers durability, strength and functionality on a par with other, traditional SCMs. Tonne-for-tonne, the use of OPUS reduces projects’ CO2 emissions by 70%, and their NOx emissions by 90%, compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

Terra CO2 CEO Bill Yearsley said "Our work at Terra CO2 is about forging a viable path for sustainable construction. We're set on creating a blueprint for the future where performance, cost-effectiveness and sustainability coexist seamlessly across projects. We're moving beyond the lab, beyond the processes that have held us back as an industry, and introducing a sustainable solution to real-world applications."

US/Colombia: Colombia-based Cementos Argos is carrying out expansions to two cement plants in South Carolina and West Virginia. While not specifically named, these would appear to be the 1.1Mt/yr Harleyville and 1.8Mt/yr Martinsburg cement plants. The producer says that the expansions will increase its cement capacity in the eastern US by 450,000t/yr.

Additionally, Cementos Argos plans to expand the capacity of its Cartagena cement terminal in Colombia by 35% to 4Mt/yr. The producer says that this will serve as a platform for subsequent growth. It is targeting the US market, where an expansion is also underway at its import facility in Houston, Texas. The Cartagena terminal achieved its current capacity following a recent US$42m expansion.

Heidelberg Materials North America held an official opening ceremony this week for its upgraded slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The US$24m project added a new roller press to the unit to increase its production capacity. In a statement Chris Ward, the president and chief executive officer of the company, said that it had made the investment to meet sustainability and resilient construction goals. Industrial Accessories Company (IAC) said in mid-2021 that it had been named as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. It planned to install a hydraulic roller press supplied by FLSmidth. IAC also said it was providing instrumentation equipment, hoppers, bins, belt conveyors, bucket elevators and dust collectors amongst other kit and services.

Other recent US slag cement-related news stories have concerned terminals. In late August 2022 Royal White Cement said it had leased a site on the Houston Ship Channel in Houston, Texas to handle and store approximately 100,000t of multiple cementitous products such as slag, ordinary Portland cement and white Cement. In May 2022 Titan America announced plans to spend US$37m on an upgrade to its Norfolk terminal in Chesapeake, Virginia. The major improvement was to add a 70,000t storage dome, with enlarged truck and railway capacity, to allow the site to import and distribute raw materials such as fly ash, slag and aggregates. Completion on this one was scheduled for some point in 2023. Titan added that the project was similar to the addition of a 70,000t dome under construction at the time at Titan's import terminal in Tampa, Florida.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that domestic sales of iron and steel (ferrous) slags in the US amounted to 15Mt in 2022. Sales were around 20Mt in the 2000s but this fell to current levels in the 2010s as blast furnaces closed. In 2022 the USGS noted that, “domestic ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply.” It added that the grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only being carried out domestically by cement companies. Imports of slag were 2Mt in 2022. This is a decline from a peak of 2.6Mt in 2018 but higher than the period 2000 – 2015. The price of slag, meanwhile, hit a high of US$53/t in 2022. This is the highest price recorded by the USGS since at least 2000. It is double that of 2017.

Charles Zeynel of ZAG International noted in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine that cement producers in Florida, California, Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas are far from steel mills, so they import granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and other secondary cementitious materials (SCM). This certainly fits with Heidelberg Materials’ plan to upgrade its slag cement plant and terminal at Cape Canaveral. Also on the US market, Zeynel added that due to rising global demand for SCMs more of the available share of GBFS was being purchased by ‘richer’ markets such as Europe, North America and Australia. He continued that GBFS and GGBFS producers had also started increasing the price of their wares internationally. This too is apparent in the prices published by the USGS.

One final story with links to slag to note this week concerns the launch of the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement & Concrete (ALCC) in Europe. The group brings together companies producing products or services intended to decarbonise the cement and concrete sectors. Two of the members – Ecocem and Hoffman Green Cement Technologies – are Europe-based slag cement producers. Two other members – Fortera and TerraCO₂ – are companies based in North America that are marketing and selling low-carbon SCMs.

Various start-up companies have been emerging on a regular basis in both North America and Europe with the aim of decarbonising cement and concrete in various different ways. The formation of the ALCC can be seen as part of this trend as the more successful non-traditional cement-concrete-aggregate companies establish themselves. One point that cement producers in North America are likely to be well aware of is that concrete is becoming less linked to clinker as the cost of carbon mounts and the clinker factor of cement lowers. Slag supplies may be finite but Heidelberg Materials North America’s latest investment in Florida is further acceptance that one doesn’t just need clinker to make concrete.

Read Charles Zeynel’s interview on SCM Trends in 2023 in the June 2023 issue of Global Cement Magazine

The 15th Global Slag Conference, Exhibition & Awards take place on 6 - 7 June 2023 in Düsseldorf, Germany