Displaying items by tag: costs

US: Solidia Technologies has appointed climate consultancy 3Degrees to manage the measurement, verification and sale of carbon credits for CO₂ emissions reductions generated using Solidia Technologies products. Users of the products can deploy the credits against their Scope 3 emissions from cement and concrete, as well as to compensate for other greenhouse gas emissions.

Solidia Technologies chief executive officer Russell Hill said "By partnering with 3Degrees to issue carbon credits, Solidia is providing a mechanism for the marketplace to invest in technologies that will accelerate and enable global carbon emissions reduction.”

India: Dalmia Bharat sold 13.2Mt of cement during the first half of the 2024 financial year (1 April 2023 – 30 September 2023), up by 9.6% year-on-year 12Mt in the first half of the 2023 financial year. This contributed towards a 24% year-on-year rise in the producer’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$144m from US$116m in the previous first half. During the first half of the current financial year, Dalmia Bharat commenced commercial production from its new 500,000t/yr Ariyalur clinker plant and 2Mt/yr Sattur grinding plant, both in Tamil Nadu. The former commissioning raised the company’s clinker capacity to 22.2Mt/yr.

Group managing director and CEO Puneet Dalmia said “We see a multi-year-strong cement demand trend continuing, as India is undergoing a large-scale metamorphosis. We were one of the first ones to foresee this upcycle and started building our capacity ahead of time. In the past 3.5 years, we have added 17.2Mt/yr-worth of cement capacity, which is 65% growth over 2020 financial year capacity. In line with our vision to reach 110 – 130Mt/yr by 2031, we are continuing to make consistent strides in that direction and capitalise upon the huge opportunity ahead of us.”

The company’s cement managing director and CEO, Mahendra Singhi, noted the effects of a ‘reduction in fuel prices, increased usage of renewable power and improvement in key performance indicators.’ He added “We continue to demonstrate our commitment towards the environment, as we have further brought down our CO₂ footprint to 456kg/t of cement, which is one of the lowest in the global cement sector.”

India: A report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), funded by power provider BP, has estimated that India’s cement and steel sectors will require capital expenditure (CAPEX) investments of US$627bn in order to reach net zero CO₂ emissions. The report stated that waste heat recovery (WHR) and other efficiency-enhancing upgrades to cement plants can immediately reduce the industry’s emissions by 32%.

United News of India has reported that CEEW CEO Arunabha Ghosh said "Incentivising renewable energy will play a pivotal role in decarbonisation, through lower or no transmission charges at central and state levels. The government of India should develop a policy for and expedite the establishment of a carbon capture, utilisation and storage ecosystem to abate more than half of the emissions from the existing steel and cement plants.” Ghosh added “Since hydrogen will play a key role in its implementation, the next phase of the National Green Hydrogen Mission should focus on this agenda."

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement reported sales of US$65.2m during the first nine months of 2023. This corresponds to a year-on-year decline of 4.8% from US$68.5m in the corresponding period of 2022. Steppe Cement forecast a year-on-year decline in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in full-year 2023 from US$30.9m in 2022, due partly to the impact of inflation on costs, including energy costs.

CEO Javier del Ser Perez said "Despite a slightly smaller domestic cement market so far in 2023, we remain confident that the company will continue to deliver strong sales figures going forward."

Kenya: East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has won a legal dispute for the right to evict squatters from 1740 hectares of limestone-bearing land in Machakos County. Nation News has reported that the court struck out the case after claimants failed to produce requested documents. It also ordered the claimants to pay EAPCC’s legal costs.

Pakistan: Fauji Cement sold 4.9Mt of cement during Pakistan’s 2023 financial year (FY2023), which ended on 30 June 2023. This generated revenues of US$244m, up by 25% year-on-year from US$194m in FY2022. The producer’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 29% to US$72.3m from US$56.2m.

Managing director and CEO Qamar Haris Manzoor said “The transformation journey which started in 2020 on capacity enhancement, cost reduction initiatives and increasing captive green energy has now started to pay dividends, despite unpreceded economic challenges.” He continued “FY2023 has been challenging for businesses due to all-time high inflation and interest rates, which saw a drop in consumer demand, negatively affecting the industry. The cement industry saw a demand decline of 16% as construction activities decreased in both the northern and southern regions of the country. Despite the tough environment, Fauji Cement remained committed to its growth strategy, and successfully commissioned its 6500t/day expansion project at its Nizampur site.”

EU: The EU launched the transitional phase of its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on 1 October 2023. Parties that import cement - and five other commodities - into the EU must now show the embodied CO₂ emissions of their products.

The transition comes ahead of the full implementation of the CBAM in January 2026. At this point, those importing cement into the region will have to pay for the embodied CO₂ of their products in order for them to enter the EU Common Market. Producers within the EU already pay for a proportion of emissions under the auspices of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

The intention of the CBAM is to reduce the risk of 'carbon leakage' as the costs of making cement rise in the EU due to changes in the ETS. While cement producers, as heavy CO₂ emitters, are currently shielded from the full cost of their emissions, the number of free allowances they receive is set to fall substantially by 2026. At the same time, the cost of emitting a tonne of CO₂ under the ETS, currently Euro80-90/t on the open market, is widely expected to rise.

India: The India Cements expects to commission the upgraded grinding unit at its Sankar Nagar cement plant in Tamil Nadu later in September 2023. Hindu BusinessLine News has reported that the producer is undertaking the upgrade in order to increase efficiency and lower the plant’s operating costs. The producer has hired US-based Boston Consulting Group to ascertain other possible improvements to three of its plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. At its Chilamkur cement plant in Andhra Pradesh, it is installing a waste heat recovery (WHR) system, scheduled for delivery in early 2024. FLSmidth and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions are both reportedly conducting ‘detailed studies’ for possible future projects for The India Cements.

Europe: Norway-based Capsol Technologies says that it has signed contracts for two new feasibility studies for carbon capture installations at ‘large cement plants’ in the EU. If successful, the plants will proceed to the installation of Capsol Technologies’ CapsolEoP carbon capture systems. Nordic Daily News has reported that the technology reduces the energy consumption of carbon capture by 50%, and lowers its costs by 25%, according to the supplier.

The new contracts bring Capsol Technologies’ number of cement industry carbon capture contracts to four, and its total contracts to nine, with a potential CO₂ capture capacity of 10Mt/yr.

CEO Jan Kielland said "We are pleased that our solution is gaining attention, as demonstrated by an increasing number of incoming requests for sales engineering and engineering studies, and look forward to being a major contributor in the path to net zero for cement.”

India: Ratings agency ICRA says that the cement industry in India will reach a renewable energy reliance of 40% across its operations in the 2025 financial year. The Hitavada newspaper has reported that this will involve the construction of 537MW-worth of new renewable power capacity. During the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023, producers used 35% renewable energy. ICRA said that they can expect to make costs savings of US$240m/yr from 2025 through the scale-up of renewables, including solar, wind and waste heat recovery. This would correspond to a 15 – 18% reduction of estimated energy costs for the 2025 financial year.

Over the same two-year period, ICRA forecast blended cements to rise to 81% of cement sales in the 2025 financial year, from 78% in the 2023 financial year.