Displaying items by tag: UK

UK: Breedon Group plans to appoint Rob Wood as its Group Chief Executive in 2021. He is currently the Group Finance Director. Recruitment for a new Group Finance Director is underway. This will follow the retirement of current head Pat Ward who has held the post since early 2016.

UK: UK Concrete and the Mineral Products Association (MPA) have launched a roadmap for the concrete and cement industry to become net negative by 2050. It plans to do this through decarbonised electricity and transport networks, fuel switching, greater use of low-carbon cements and concretes as well as carbon capture, use or storage (CCUS) technology.

“We have already made significant progress to reduce carbon emissions but are under no illusion about the scale of the net zero challenge,” said Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA. “Achieving this will require the wholesale decarbonisation of all aspects of concrete and cement production, supply and use. The concrete and cement industry as one sector alone cannot deliver net zero and we will only be able to go beyond net zero with concerted support from government, as well as with significant changes across the wider construction, energy and transportation sectors.” He added that the roadmap could be delivered without offsetting emissions, offshoring production facilities or ‘carbon leakage.’

The ‘Roadmap to beyond net zero’ calculates the potential of each technology and the carbon savings which can be achieved. CCUS technology is vital to delivering net zero manufacturing and according to the roadmap will deliver 61% of the required carbon savings. It intends to achieve a net negative industry by 2050 by the ability of concrete to absorb carbon dioxide during use and the thermal properties of concrete in buildings and structures to reduce operational emissions.

The MPA is also lobbying the government for a financial support model including for the capital and operational costs of carbon capture by no later than 2021. This is desired to ensure the technology can be developed, deployed and become an investable proposition in the 2030s.

UK: Quinn Industrial Holdings has announced an upcoming rebranding, to take place in October 2020, to Mannok. The new branding will extend to its subsidiaries Quinn Building Products and Quinn Packaging, as well as to its Quinn brand cement. Chief executive officer (CEO) Liam McCaffrey said that the group’s 2019 results, the strongest since its acquisition from Seán Quinn in 2014, signalled the time for the change. The new name derives from the Gaelic name for Fermanagh, the UK county in which Quinn Industrial Holdings is based.

McCaffrey said, “We are extremely pleased to unveil Mannok as our new brand identity, which we believe better reflects the ownership, evolution and future focus of our business. It marks a major milestone for us following a five-year transformation programme that has empowered our staff and repositioned our businesses for continuing growth and innovation.” He added, “2019 marked our fifth successive year of earnings growth and a robust performance given Brexit uncertainty. Our targeted investment of recent years has established strong foundations for continuing growth across Ireland and the UK.”

UK: Welding Alloys says that it has carried out maintenance on a vertical roller mill at HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson’s 1.0Mt/yr Purfleet slag plant in Essex, repairing the mill’s Loesche 46 2+2S grinding table and rollers. The company said that the mill, which had ground 3500t of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), was “in urgent need of refurbishment.” Following a wear audit, Welding Alloys took the grinding components back to the profile template using its Integra Wire Mill products.

The group said that “both companies overcame the challenges of completing the project within the limited shutdown period while complying with the Covid-19 lockdown measures.”

UK: CRH subsidiary Tarmac has announced its renewal of multiple contracts for transportation of its products by rail, effective until 2025. The contracts - with Colas Rail UK, GB Rail Freight, Freightliner and DB Cargo - cover the shipment of 9.0Mt/yr of cement and building products.

Head of rail Chris Swan said, “The renewal of these contracts highlights both our on-going commitment to supporting the delivery of a lower-carbon built environment and the continued enhancement of our rail freight capabilities. Effective use of the rail freight network is key in supporting the UK’s transition to a net-zero society and supporting a green recovery as we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis. Collaborative working has a vital role to play in this and we are looking forward to working with our freight operating partners as the industry focuses on increasing the volumes of material moved by rail, as well as enhancing efficiencies and service.”

UK: Hanson Cement’s Ketton plant has been featured in a short film as part of ‘Triple Harvest’ by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, an arts charity’s online exhibition of video films looking at public spaces in Northamptonshire. The programme explores the push and pull between nature and human presence and the effect that extracting resources from the landscape has upon those living within it. Amanda Loomes’ film ‘Combine’ mixes footage from the Ketton cement plant in Rutland in 2017 with archive extracts from ‘Double Harvest,’ ‘The Great Jib’ and ‘Iron Ore in Britain.’

Other works in the programme examine the experience of steel production, farming and the experience of refugees moving to the area. The project has been supported by Corby Borough Council Archives and funded by Arts Council England.

View the 'Triple Harvest' online exhibition here: http://fermynwoods.org/triple-harvest-films/

UK: Breedon Group says that it has “continued to deliver an encouraging trading performance since demand began to return in early May 2020 after the Covid-19 lockdown,” recording eight-month sales of Euro580m over the period that ended on 31 August 2020, down by 15% from Euro681 over the corresponding period of 2019. The group says that the figure includes the contributions of its newly acquired Cemex ready-mix and aggregates assets for August 2020.

As a result of this performance, the board reinstated its 2020 guidance, with underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) for the second half of 2020 anticipated to be in line with that in the second half of 2019. It added, “We continue to be reassured by the UK government's restated commitment to investment in the UK's infrastructure and to encouraging demand from the UK housing market, complemented by similar trends in the Republic of Ireland.”

UK: David Jarvis, a long-time friend of Global Cement Magazine, has published a memoir of his life travelling the world, working on refractory projects starting in the 1960s and for the next four decades. His book, ‘Jazzo’s Journeys’ includes hundreds of anecdotes from more than a hundred countries around the world, many of which will raise a smile. The book is now available here.

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will consider the undertakings offered by Breedon Group to which its deal with Cemex UK for acquisition of several of the latter’s ready-mix and aggregates operations would be subject. The regulator explained its ruling by saying, “There are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings might be accepted by the CMA under the Enterprise Act 2002.” This may lead to the completion of the acquisitions, which were agreed on 21 January 2020.

UK: Cemex UK says that construction company Kier used concretes from its reduced-carbon dioxide (CO₂) Vertua range to complete a net-zero CO₂ residential construction project at the University Warwick. Sales executive Matthew Doran said that the student accommodation, called Cryfield, “was the first project for which Kier has chosen to use the Vertua range and it was an exciting opportunity for Cemex to demonstrate the value of this product as both a high-performance and sustainable choice.”