Displaying items by tag: Texas

US: Lhoist North America has received permit approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build a new lime kiln at its Marble Falls plant. The new vertical kiln, which is expected to be operational in 2021, is primarily driven by growing demand for Lhoist's dolomitic lime products for the steel industry. The upgrade is also expected to create new jobs at the site.

"This project at Marble Falls aligns with our company's commitment to environmentally sustainable growth," said Ron Thompson, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lhoist North America. The building materials company added that, despite the impacts of coronavirus on the economy, it is investing to create jobs and meet critical supply chain demands, like steel production, which support future infrastructure growth in North America.

US: Turkey’s Çimsa has launched a new white cement product for the US market at the World of Concrete trade fair in Las Vegas. The subsidiary of Sabancı Holding has showcased its Çimsa Aluminates and Çimsa Super White product ranges.

“As one of the largest grey cement producers of Turkey, Çimsa is among the top three in the global league of white cement. We have increased our visibility in the global cement industry through our investments abroad,” said, Çimsa’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ülkü Özcan. He added that the cement producer founded its Cimsa Americas Cement Manufacturing and Sales Corp in the US in 2017. It then started operations at a grinding mill in Houston, Texas in 2019.

US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s 0.9Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Odessa, Texas, will run entirely on wind and solar power. Adpren has reported that the company engaged an unnamed energy provider on a 10-year power purchase agreement for the entirety of its electricity consumption, beginning in July 2022. This will cut 45,000t/yr of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and represents a saving of US$4.6m in energy costs over its period of effect, a saving of 22% annually compared to Grupo Cemento’s current bill.

US: Martin Marietta has benefited from aggregate sales volume growth in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue grew by 17% year-on-year to US$939m from US$802m. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 28% to US$159m from US$124m. However, the gross profit on its cement business was down and both sales and profit was down for ready-mixed concrete (RMX). Despite this the company said that its cement shipments and pricing increased 7.3% due to demand in Texas, a new Houston-area sales yard and an enhanced product line.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Energy Star certification to Buzzi Unicem USA’s plants at Chattanooga in Tennessee, Festus in Missouri, Maryneal in Texas and San Antonio in Texas. This certification is awarded to a facility for superior energy performance in comparison to similar plants. This marks the 10th consecutive year that the Chattanooga, Festus and Maryneal plants have received certification and the fifth consecutive year for the San Antonio plant.

US: Apparent cement consumption grew by 3% year-on-year to 100Mt in 2018 from 97.4Mt in 2017, according to estimates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Production of Ordinary Portland Cement and masonry cement rose by 2% to 87.8Mt from 86.1Mt. Imports of cement increased by 14% to 14Mt from 12.3Mt. Texas, California, Missouri, Florida, and Alabama were, in descending order of production, the five leading cement-producing states and accounted for nearly 50% of US production.

The USGS said that construction spending increased ‘modestly’ during the year, largely owing to somewhat higher spending in the residential and public construction sectors. The non-residential private building sector declined slightly. The leading cement-consuming states continued to be Texas, California, and Florida. Production of cement remained below capacity, in part reflecting both the technical and environmental issues in returning long-idle kilns to full production at some plants, and the availability of imported cement in coastal markets.

Colombia: Poor weather in the US reduced Cementos Argos’ sales revenue in 2018. Its sales revenue fell by 1.4% year-on-year to US$2.7bn in 2018 from US$2.74bn in 2017. Cement sales volumes decreased by 1.1% to 16Mt from 16.2Mt. The cement producer said that its cement volumes in the US were impacted by weather and a 43 day halt at its Martinsburg Plant in Texas, US. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 8% to US$494m from US$457m. This was in part due to an improved Colombian construction market.

US: GCCM Holdings has ordered a ship unloader from Siwertell for a terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Siwertell ST 640-M unit will have a continuous rated cement-handling capacity of 1500t/hr and will be able to unload ships of up to 60,000dwt. The unloader is currently being built and will be delivered fully assembled by heavy-lift ship to the port. Siwertell will supervise its commissioning and the unit is expected to start operation in the third quarter of 2019.

US: Cemex has celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Balcones Quarry in New Braunfels, Texas with an event attended by Cemex USA Regional President - Texas and New Mexico Region Joel Galassini, and which included a planned quarry blast.

Balcones Quarry began operations in 1968. Cemex purchased the quarry along with the neighbouring cement plant in 1994. The quarry currently processes more than 10Mt/yr of crushed limestone annually and supports infrastructure, residential and commercial projects across Texas. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently ranked the quarry as the top crushed stone producer in the country in terms of volume.

In 2016 the site opened a water recycling plant at the quarry to cut reliance on local water sources. Recently, Cemex opened its Wildlife Habitat Centre adjacent to the quarry to promote conservation and sustainability. The centre includes about 17 acres of restored prairie, pollinator gardens and meadows planted with native plants. An education centre and wheelchair-accessible produce garden are also on the site.

US: Welding Alloys has released information about a project to rebuild a FCB Horomill at Buzzi Unicem’s Maryneal cement plant in Texas in early 2018. The engineering company’s Mexican subsidiary Welding Alloys Panamericana has experience of rebuilding these types of mills and it collaborated with the group’s American wing, Welding Alloys USA, on the project.