Displaying items by tag: Texas

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.

US: US Cement is in the process of obtaining a draft air permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build a white cement plant in Brady, Texas. A public hearing on the application will be made in late June 2018. The subsidiary of Royal White Cement plans to build a single line 0.5Mt/yr white cement plant.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced the winners of the 2018 Safety Innovation Awards. The awards recognise creative safety-enhancing projects in the cement industry. Winners were determined by a panel of judges that evaluated submissions from across the country for milling/grinding, distribution, pyroprocessing and general facility.

Cemex USA’s Miami plant Florida won the milling/grinding category with its new process to load ball mills. The site developed a new mill loading process that uses a small hopper for grinding media, and an incline transport system with buckets to convey the grinding media directly to the mill. This new system eliminates the interaction between the employee and the machine, reduces the number of people needed to load the mill from five to two, and eliminates the need for employees to stand on top of the mill. This new system also improves mill loading rates from seven drums/hr to 30 drums/hr.

Cemex USA’s Houston operations in Texas won the pyroprocessing category for it use of drones for hazardous inspections. It has implemented a system for using protected air drones to inspect enclosed and confined spaces. Visual inspections of enclosed areas (preheater towers, tanks, silos, process ducts, etc) normally require intrusive equipment, long delays for system cooling, and placement of employees on scaffolding in confined spaces. These drones utilise an outer protective cage to minimize the risk of breakage due to impact. The drone program has eliminated the risk of putting staff in confined spaces, reduced the cost of scaffolding, and reduced the overall time for inspections.

LafargeHolcim US’ Corporate Program in Chicago won the distribution category for its X-Factor barge cover. It has developed a process for barge cover removal that reduces the risk of falls from employees stepping on to the barge. The X-Factor barge cover, developed over the last three years with a contractor, uses the latest technology and a no-touch design to allow a crane operator to perform all functions associated with barge lid handling without additional human assistance. Barge workers will no longer be required to step onto the barge to remove or replace barge covers, eliminating a potential fall risk.

Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska won the general facility category for its use of magnets as duct hole patches. Ash Grove has developed a hole-patch technique using magnets. Magnetic patches are quick, simple, and effective at preventing or limiting the release of materials from holes created in ducts caused by abrasion, leading to a cleaner plant, reduced slip, trip and fall risks, and fewer related Mine Safety and Health Administration housekeeping citations.

Cemex USA’s Brooksville in Florida also won the general facility category for its filters moved to ground level project. It redesigned the blower housings to move the filter from the top of the blower housings to an easily accessible location at ground level. The redesigned blower housing eliminates the need for employees to climb up and down a ladder, reducing overexertion and fall hazard.

US: A US$2.3m air pollution settlement in 2006 from the Holcim US Midlothian cement plant in Texas has ended. The Sue Pope Pollution Reduction Fund has made its last donation of about US$75,000 to the Midlothian school district’s special needs programs, according to the Dallas Morning News newspaper. The final payment came from interest remaining from the original settlement between Holcim US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Downwinders at Risk environmental group. As part of the deal Downwinders at Risk agreed to stop fighting Holcim’s plans to expand cement production at the site in return for US$2.25m funding towards local projects and an understanding that the cement plant would upgrade its emission filters.

HeidelbergCement made Italy’s Cementir Holding its Valentine last week in the form of a deal for the Italian company to buy up the remaining shares in Lehigh White Cement in the US. Cementir takes control of the former joint venture by upping its share to 63.25% for US$107m and one of the other partners, Cemex, increases its share to 36.75% for US$34m. Despite making the announcement on Valentine’s Day HeidelbergCement then described the sale in fairly unromantic language, “As a niche product with small volumes, the standalone production of white cement does not fit to the strategic focus on efficiency of HeidelbergCement.” Maybe they could just send flowers to each other next year instead!

More seriously, this latest deal by Cementir is yet another intriguing evolution of the Italian multinational building materials producer. The company says it is the largest white cement producer in the world through subsidiaries like Aalborg Portland in Demark, Sinai White Cement in Egypt and Lehigh White Cement in the US. Its plant at El-Arish in Egypt is the largest white cement unit in the world. In 2016 it reported a white cement production capacity of 3.3Mt/yr from six plants in Denmark, Egypt, China, Malaysia and the US. Its volume sales of white cement were 2.2Mt at this time or a capacity utilisation rate of 67%. In the US it operates two white cement plants located in Waco, Texas and York, Pennsylvania with a total capacity of 0.26Mt/yr, as well as a distribution network throughout the country, which is also used to distribute white cement imported from its partners across North America. In 2017 Cementir produced 10.3Mt of Ordinary Portland (grey) Cement and white cement, a rise of 24.6% year-on-year from 8.25Mt in 2016. The boost was delivered by the acquisition of Compagnie des Ciments Belges. Like-for-like sales volumes increased by around 1.7% year-on-year.

Cementir left the Italian market in 2017 when it sold Cementir Italia to HeidelbergCement for Euro315m. As this column commented as the time (GCW320) the deal seemed cheap given that HeidelbergCement paid Euro315m for five integrated cement plants plus extras. However, Cementir appeared to actually make a profit on Sacci which it picked up cheaply in 2016.

Now HeidelbergCement has returned the favour by selling Cementir the controlling stake in Lehigh White Cement. The German cement producer may have grumpily rubbished the sale in its press release but the language makes one wonder whether this was a quiet part of the Cementir Italia deal in 2017. The white cement industry is miniscule compared to the OPC one but HeidelbergCement has just handed even more control of it to Cementir. From Cementir’s perspective this probably seems very efficient.

US: Cemex USA has officially opened its new headquarters in Houston, Texas. Division president Ignacio Madridejos marked the event by presiding over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site at 10100 Katy Freeway in Memorial City in west Houston. More than 200 employees are now working at the new offices.

“These new offices show how Cemex USA stands strong,” said Madridejos. “This beautiful building will be part of the community for years and illustrates our commitment to being part of it.”