Displaying items by tag: concrete

Turkmenistan: Full-year cement production reached 1.9Mt in 2020. The Trend News Agency has reported that industrial production, construction work and services grew by 8% year-on-year during the period. The nation exceeded its reinforced concrete building construction plan for the year by 4%.

In January 2021, cement production increased by 29% year-on-year.

India: LafargeHolcim subsidiary ACC has launched its ECOPact range of reduced-CO₂ concrete products in Hyderabad and Mumbai. A full nationwide rollout will follow in February and March 2021.

Managing director Sridhar Balakrishnan said, "The innovative manufacturing process of the ECOPact range reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 100% and further enhances our sustainable products offerings for the construction industry.”

UK: Cemex UK has announced the launch of Viabase, an engineered asphalt concrete. The company says that the product is especially suited to use in residential housing estate roads, where it will be exposed to construction traffic before being surfaced after houses are built. The launch supports the UK government’s drive to increase house building to 300,000units/yr.

Europe regional asphalt, paving and building products director Carl Platt said, “With Viabase, we are pleased to offer a way to ensure the longevity of housing development roads, which standard materials struggle to provide if the surface course is not placed soon after. Viabase provides a highly durable, low maintenance surface which will meet the challenges presented by heavy duty vehicles and prevent long-term problems in the overall pavement construction.”

The company will produce Viabase at all its UK asphalt plants, where it will be available for delivery to customers or collection.

Mexico: Cemex recorded consolidated cement volumes of 63.8Mt in 2020, up by 2% year-on-year from 62.7Mt in 2019. Ready mixed concrete sales volumes fell by 6% to 47.0Mm3 from 50.1Mm3. Its net sales fell by 1% to US$13.0bn from US$13.1bn although the group has reported a slight rise on a like-for-like basis. Operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to US$2.46bn, up by 3% from US$2.38bn. However, sales and earnings picked up significantly in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Fernando A González, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cemex said, “2020 was one of the most challenging years we have faced but it also was a remarkable year that tested the strengths of Cemex and several of our recent strategic initiatives. I am proud of our performance, the organisation, and how we responded to the sudden arrival of Covid-19 in 2020.”

Cement volumes rose by 6% in Mexico and by 8% in the US, but fell by 1% in Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa and by 8% in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Prices fell in all regions except Europe, where they rose by 3%, and the US, where they remained level. Annual like-for-like sales and gross profit increases were noted in Mexico, the US and Middle East and Africa.

The group concluded the sales of its 75% stake of US-based Kosmos Cement for US$499m in March 2020 and of ready-mix assets in the UK for US$230m in August 2020.

UK: SigmaRoc has launched Greenbloc, a cement-free concrete block. The product reduces emissions by 77% compared to concrete blocks produced with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), corresponding to a reduction of 1.1kg/block.

Chief executive officer Max Vermorken said, "Our Greenbloc range and brand is the brainchild of our innovation and technical teams. It addresses a key challenge in the building products industry - the embodied CO₂ in one of the most widely used building materials: the concrete block. Greenbloc is only the start of a range of sustainable alternatives to our product offering as we invest, improve, integrate and innovate."

Andrew Minson from the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) kicked off this week’s Virtual Global Concrete Conference with an overview of concrete’s role in the association’s 2050 climate ambition. The association announced in September 2020 that it was starting work on this roadmap for publication in the second half of 2021, just in time for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, currently schedule to take place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021. Minson ran through the topic, providing an overview of concrete’s intrinsic sustainable features and the policy levers the association is considering for its forthcoming roadmap.

One point from circular economy aspects of the plan included design for dis-assembly (DfD) and long life, loose fit modes of thinking around how a building using concrete should be conceived, designed, built, used and - crucially – reused. Long life, loose fit, low energy (to use its original name) was promoted by the Welsh architect Alex Gordon from the early 1970s. It covered themes of sustainability, flexibility and energy efficiency for building design ahead of both the 1970s oil crisis and the current climate one. DfD emerged in the 1990s as a way of thinking about a building’s demolition at the start and working from there. Deconstruction or demolition is prepared for through planning and design. It allows components and materials to be removed more easily, facilitating their subsequent reuse. So, components and materials can be removed more easily allowing their subsequent reuse and elements such as columns, walls, beams, and slabs can be disassembled to facilitate this. Last year Global Cement Weekly explored a similar path with the ideas of Dutch architect and commentator Thomas Rau (GCW348) and his concept of building materials as a service, following on from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) system, and the suggestion that companies simply rent (!) building materials from their manufacturers to encourage whole life thinking.

Chart 1: Uses of concrete by European Ready Mixed Concrete Organisation (ERMCO) members in 2018. Source: ERMCO.

Just how much concrete the world uses each year is a question beyond the scope of this article, given its range of applications and diversity of users. For example, the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) estimated 25Bnt in 2009. Later, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee for concrete, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete placed the figure at around 33Bnt in 2016. It is worth considering how and where concrete is actually used. The chart above from the European Ready Mixed Concrete Organisation (ERMCO) shows how its members used concrete in 2018. Note that use in buildings comprised the biggest share, nearly two thirds, but that the rest included infrastructure, pavements, roads and more. Lifecycle thinking and its various offshoots can apply to all of these applications. Yet it’s easier to imagine a concrete building shell being reused within its lifespan than, say, a bridge or a road. Concrete used in infrastructure seems more suitable for re-use further down the waste hierarchy, such as recycling as an aggregate.

A few final thoughts to consider are that both Cemex and gypsum wallboard manufacturer Etex have invested in modular and/or offsite construction companies in January 2021. Both targets were relatively small companies suggesting growing interest in these sectors by larger players. Offsite building construction suits lifecycle thinking well because the modular components start off being built elsewhere before installation. Factoring in what happens afterwards should be relatively easy and expandable at scale. Finally, LafargeHolcim announced this week that it is acquiring two ready-mix concrete and aggregate suppliers in France and Italy that will give it 35 concrete plants in the region.

Sustainability places lifecycle thinking into mainstream building practice and some methods and tools will inevitably make it into any policy framework the GCCA will recommend. Whether some or all of the ideas above hang around remains to be seen but lifecycle thinking in some form or another is here already and not going anywhere.

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Spain: Mexico-based Cemex has supplied 30,000t of cement and 100,000m³ of concrete for an expansion of Teruel Airport Platform (PLATA) maintenance, repair and operations airport in Teruel, Aragon. The company said that the expansion consists of a 3km runway, terminals, an expanded parking platform and two new hangars, in addition to an industrial zone and other facilities. The airport's current expansion phase requires a further 40,000m³ of concrete.

Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia regional president Sergio Menéndez said, "Since the beginning of the Teruel Airport project more than a decade ago, Cemex has been present in its construction and continuous expansion. We are proud to have contributed to this infrastructure, becoming an engine of economic recovery.”

UK: Cemex will supply 40,000t of lining-sprayed concrete for the construction of the 13km central section of the Thames Tideway sewer project in Greater London. Engineering partners Ferrovial Construction and Laing O’Rourke will use the concrete for shafts and launch tunnels. The company produced the concrete at its Buxton, Derbyshire concrete plant. It says that it offers ultra-high strength, consistency and two-hour workability in line with the stringent requirements of the job. It also needs to be pumpable with a pipeline length of up to 400m. The producer will deliver up to 3000t/month of the concrete to Central London over ‘a few months.’

Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia president Sergio Menendez said “The Thames Tideway Tunnel project is one of incredible scale which will solve serious capacity issues with London’s sewer system and have considerable benefits for the area’s wildlife and population, while also preventing pollution, creating jobs, a rejuvenated river economy and new areas of public space.” He added “This is a remarkable piece of engineering, and we’re proud to be working with world-class contractors to build this key infrastructure in the most sustainable and cost-effective way possible for one of the world’s greatest cities.”

The 25km ‘Super Sewer’ will conduct the city’s sewage to a new treatment facility at Abbey Mills in the Borough of Newham. The central section runs between 30m and 60m below the Thames past part of West London, Westminster and the City of London.

Spain: Cementos Molins has increased its stake in concrete design specialist Escofet to 76% from 37%. The company says that it hopes to retain the public architecture producer’s management team. It said that it will integrate the subsidiary under its prefabricated concrete division to combine industrial expertise with design excellence.

Chief Executive Officer Julio Rodríguez said that the company’s 2020 – 2022 strategy prioritises “both organic and inorganic growth,” seeking new acquisitions while “maintaining financial discipline and selecting projects where the return on investment is clear."

Switzerland: Holcim Switzerland has started using three full electric concrete mixer trucks. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim is working with Designwerk, a Switzerland-based company specialising in the electric mobility sector. Designwerk has equipped a motorless basic chassis of a Volvo vehicle with electric motors for both locomotion and the mixing drum. This is intended to be sustainable and offer quiet driving, mixing and unloading. The three vehicles are expected to save around 90t/yr of CO₂.

The trucks are labeled with the Futuricum brand and are active in the St Gallen, Zurich and Basel regions. The building materials company says that electric vehicles suit concrete logistics because they cover relatively short transport routes and have a fixed starting point with a battery charging station in the Holcim concrete works. Holcim says it obtains the electricity it needs exclusively from renewable energy sources.