Displaying items by tag: US

US: Cemex USA’s Miami and Brooksville South cement plants in Florida have been awarded Energy Star certification for 2019 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for work on energy efficiency and sustainability. The current year’s recognition marks nine consecutive years of Energy Star certification for the Miami plant and the Brooksville South plant has achieved the certification seven out of the last eight years.

“Cemex is committed to delivering world-class products and services to its clients across the US and the globe while maintaining the highest sustainability standards in our industry,” said Cemex USA president Jaime Muguiro.
To earn the recognition, operations at each plant followed energy-efficiency principles established by the EPA’s Energy Star guidelines and implemented energy conservation technologies along with energy-reduction projects. The recognised facilities were among the top 25% of similar US facilities for energy conservation and met the Energy Star Plant Energy Performance Indicators.

US: Thomas, Bennett & Hunter (TBH) has had a site plan to build a new ready-mixed concrete (RMX) plant in Hagerstown, Maryland approved by the Washington County Planning Commission. The concrete producer is moving its operations in the town to a new site, according to the Herald-Mail newspaper. It is hoped that the new RMX plant will be commissioned by the end of 2020.

US: Lehigh Hanson has started construction work on a US$600m upgrade to its Mitchell cement plant. The groundbreaking ceremony follows approval of an air permit by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in July 2019, according to WBIW radio. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement is building a new production line to replace the existing three lines at the site. Start-up for the line is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022.

Puerto Rico: Cement sales in Puerto Rico experienced a year-on-year fall of 7.4% in September 2019, to stand at 43,500t, the eighth consecutive monthly fall. Meanwhile, overall domestic cement production rose by 1.0% in the month under review, to reach 41,000t. This is the third increase reported to be observed during the first nine months of 2019.

US: People living near the Cemex Lyons cement plant in Colorado have complained about dust emissions. The Save Our St. Vrain Valley group has filed a report with Boulder County Public Health about dust clouds rising from site, according to the Associated Press. The local authorities say that the clouds don't appear to violate any existing regulations but Cemex officials have promised to look into the issue. The cement producer has also said that it has ways to mitigate dust emissions and it welcomes hearing from people so it can address any concerns.

US: Staff members at Ash Grove Cement, GCC and Cemex have won awards at the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) 2019 John P Gleason, Jr Leadership Awards. The awards recognise PCA members who have exhibited leadership in advancing industry programs and initiatives. The scheme is named after John ’Jay’ Gleason, who served as PCA president from 1986 until his retirement in 2007.

Curtis Lesslie, Vice President of Environmental Affairs at Ash Grove Cement, won the Business Continuity award. He has served on the PCA’s Environment and Energy Committee working on numerous environmental initiatives that benefit sustainability and continuity of cement manufacturing. He has promoted information sharing and benchmarking between companies and supported PCA's Occupational Health and Safety Committee as well as the PCA-MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) alliance

David Gray, Market Manager, GCC of America won the Market Development award. The PCA said that he had been a consistent example to industry professionals, customers, and industry associates on how promotion can be both a “fun and rewarding experience.” At the customer level he has raised awareness of the potential gains for cement and concrete in a broad range of construction markets and helped companies and associations create successful promotion initiatives.

Nathan Kimball, Vice President, Safety & Health, Lehigh Hanson won the Young Leaders award. He is an active member of PCA’s Occupational Health and Safety Committee. His work with Mine Safety and Health Administration leaders through information exchange and engagement has helped advance the shared interests of the industry.

US: A court in South Carolina has ruled against a dismissal motion submitted by Lafarge North America, Argos USA and six other manufacturers of ready-mix concrete which stand accused of fixing prices, rigging project bids and allocating territories and customers amongst themselves. Class Action Reporter has stated that the defendants asserted that the complainants, who claim to have suffered injury by the alleged conspiracy, have failed to provide actionable facts pertaining to the role of each accused party, the duration of the purported anti-competitive behaviour and its geographic scope including the court’s jurisdiction. Lafarge further contested that the Statute of Limitations precludes its prosecution, because it ceased concrete trading in the region in 2011. The court concluded that the claim contained sufficient fact for further examination to be reasonably expected to reveal evidence of an illegal agreement. It will hear the case against all defendants.

No overarching theme this week but rather four changes of note in different markets. The first is Lehigh Hanson’s agreement to buy the integrated Bath plant in Pennsylvania, US, from Giant Cement, a subsidiary of Mexico’s Elementia. Lehigh Hanson, a subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement, plans to pay US$151m for the 1.1Mt/yr unit giving it a cost of US$137/t of cement capacity. That’s a similar price that Elementia paid when it acquired Giant Cement in 2016. The Mexican conglomerate paid US$220m for a 55% stake in 2016 for three cement plants with a combined production capacity of 2.8Mt/yr or US$143/t.

The purchase by HeidelbergCement draws a line following problems selling its business activities in Ukraine. The group blamed a drop in profit in the first half of 2019 on this. Since then though it has been linked to a takeover of UltraTech’s stake in Emirates Cement, the owner of the 0.5Mt/yr Emirates grinding plant in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Buying a cement plant in North America, its second most lucrative region after Western and Southern Europe, looks set to be a wise investment.

The timing here is interesting given that Elementia, the building materials company partly-owned by ‘Mexico’s richest man,’ Carlos Slim, has been steadily expanding in recent years. As stated above it only acquired Giant Cement in 2016. However, its net sales and earnings fell in the second quarter of 2019 caused by a market contraction in Mexico affecting all of its businesses. Sales from its cement businesses in the US and Central America grew but they fell by 6% at home in Mexico. Elementia said that proceeds from the sale of the Bath plant will be used for debt repayment and ‘general’ corporate purposes. Notably, Ricardo Naya Barba, the president of Cemex Mexico, has also described the local market as ‘difficult’ this week, in comments reported upon by local media.

Meanwhile in Africa, China’s Huaxin Cement purchased Maweni Limestone from Athi River Mining (ARM) Cement in Tanzania as part of the latter’s on-going administration process. Local press reported the transaction as costing US$116m and subject to regulatory approval. This one’s interesting because it shows a major Chinese cement producer buying related assets outside of China. This is likely part of the country’s Belt and Road Initiative to develop industry and infrastructure around the world and to give its overproducing industries new markets. Perhaps the surprise here is that Huaxin Cement hasn’t gone after the rest of Kenya’s ARM Cement… yet.

The other African news story of note this week was the confirmation that Singapore’s International Cement Group (ICG)’s intended purchase of Schwenk Namibia had failed. This deal was announced in March 2019 but it later ran into trouble when the Singapore Exchange blocked the proposed acquisition in June 2019 on the grounds that ICG didn’t appear to have the money to pay for it.

Lastly, Yamama Cement announced that it wants to sell its Production Lines 1-5, which have a daily clinker production capacity of 5600t/day. The producer previously temporarily shut down the lines in 2017 and it has been planning to build a new cement plant. Since then though it has faced shrinking sales and profits in the tough Saudi Arabian market.

The takeaway from all of this is that, despite the doom and gloom of a world producing too much clinker, some cement companies are targeting growth in specific territories. Sometimes these schemes succeed, as in the case of HeidelbergCement and Huaxin Cement, and sometimes they don’t, as ICG has found out. Heavy building materials like cement are costly to move around so a plant or assets in the right place at the right time can make a fortune.

US: Solidia Technologies has appointed Jules Kortenhorst to its board of directors. Kortenhorst is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Prior to this he was the founding CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and he also served as a member of the Dutch parliament for the Christian Democratic Party.

Kortenhorst was the CEO for International Operations of ClientLogic Corporation and he worked for almost 10 years for Royal Dutch Shell, including managing director at Shell Bulgaria. He began his career as an analyst at McKinsey & Co.

He currently serves on the Energy Transition Commission and is the co-chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Energy. He also is a non-executive board member of the Energy Web Foundation and an advisory board member of Land Life Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a Master’s in Economics from Erasmus University, Netherlands.

US: The US Department of Energy (DOE) has recognised Better Plants partner CalPortland for achieving an energy intensity reduction goal of 28% since 2010. As part of DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative, the Better Plants Program works with leading manufacturers and water and wastewater treatment agencies to boost their competitiveness through improvements in energy efficiency. The cement producer was presented with an award for its efforts at the Better Plants conference in late September 2019.

CalPortland used DOE programs and software tools to help identify energy savings and accelerate investment in energy efficiency technologies and practices. Additionally, the company performed DOE in-plant training sessions driving innovation, cost savings, and the sharing of solutions company-wide to reach its target.