Displaying items by tag: lobbying

India: The Cement Manufacturers Association has forecast growth above 10% in the 2019 financial year to the end of March 2019. It is expecting growth to be supported by the government's increased spending on large-scale infrastructure projects and growing residential housing, according to the Press Trust of India. It follows growth of around 13% year-on-year in the first half of the year. If growth stays at above 10% in 2019 it will be the fastest increase since the industry slowed down in 2011. The association is also attempting to lobby the government to lower the 28% tax rate applicable under the General Service Tax.

Chief executives from over 30 companies attended the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) inaugural event last week in London. Its first president Albert Manifold, the chief executive officer (CEO) of CRH, laid out the line by saying that, “For the first time we have a global advocacy body.” He followed this up by emphasising that ‘our product’ is the most used man-made product in the world. Just like the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), the body the GCCA is partly-replacing, it is a CEO-led organisation. The target is very much about giving a global voice to the cement and concrete industries and the vertically integrated companies that produce these products.

Along with the head of CRH, the leaders of LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement, CNBM, Votorantim, Buzzi Unicem and Eurocement, amongst others, were all on the attendance list too. That kind of representation gave the event a charged air and a real sense of intent. At present the association says it represents 35% of global cement production and its aim is to reach 50%. That compares to the 30% base that the CSI had.

Representatives from some major cement associations were also present, including Europe’s Cembureau, the Federación Interamericana del Cemento (FICEM), the Canadian Cement Association and the VDZ. The only thing stopping the US Portland Cement Association being there was reportedly the Thanksgiving holiday. Although not comprehensive, that kind of representation suggests serious interest from the regional cement associations. The word from the GCCA CEO Benjamin Sporton was that the GCCA is here to provide a global level of coordination to the advocacy and sustainability side of the industry dealing with global organisations like the United Nations (UN), development banks, other associations and non-government organisations (NGOs).

How this will work in practice has yet to be seen, but at the very least, the GCCA can take over the work of the CSI and run with it. The word from the attendees we spoke to was uniformly positive for the association. It was seen as a long-overdue move to finally give the industry some sort of uniform voice at a global scale. In this sense it is catching up with similar bodies in industries like wood and steel. One benefit from moving from the CSI to a full advocacy organisation is that the industry can actually talk about the good things it does rather than being limited to sustainability and environmental data reporting. It seems like a small change in focus but it’s a big shift in mind-set.

A cynic might suggest that the exercise is one of a dirty industry trying to wrest the Overton window, or window of public discourse, back from legislators facing mounting environmental pressure. The latest UN Emissions Gap Report for 2018, for example, reported this week that CO₂ emissions rose in 2017 after four consecutive years of decline. This is the latest environmental report in a long line pointing out bad news. Yet, the GCCA’s unwritten mantra, that concrete improves lives, is sound. Somebody or something needs to link it all up. That somebody might just be the GCCA.

A review of the inaugural annual general meeting and symposium of the GCCA will be published in a forthcoming issue of Global Cement Magazine.

Paraguay: Yguazú Cementos has renewed its call for a ban on clinker imports to be lifted. The cement producer made its latest bid to the Luis Alfredo Llamosas, the Vice Minister of Industry, during a visit to its plant, according to La Nacion newspaper. The company produces 0.37Mt/yr of clinker that it uses to make 0.55Mt/yr of cement. However, the plant can grind up 0.75Mt/yr of cement and it wants to import clinker to increase its productivity. Staff at Yguazú Cementos have previously criticised the import ban that allows only Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) to bring in clinker from abroad.

Australia: Industry groups, including cement producers, are lobbying against a new import tax, the Biosecurity Imports Levy. They allege that that new tariff will increase costs by 3000 - 5000% on the inputs for cement, steel and aluminium production, according to the Australian newspaper. The new levy was introduced in the May 2018 budget for implementation in July 2019. It intends to tighten the country’s biosecurity.

Industry lobbyists complain that it will impose a US$0.7/t levy on ‘non-containerised’ cargo for biosecurity inspections, dramatically increasing the cost of inspection for bulk imports of materials. They also deny that it will improve biosecurity outcomes.

Cement Industry Federation chief executive Margie Thomson said that the tax unfairly punished non-containerised cargoes. “It shouldn’t be a tonnage levy, when the biosecurity risk is not­associated with the product.”

This week’s Plastics Strategy from the European Commission (EC) presents the cement industry with a narrowing target. If the Plastics Strategy is successful it will prevent plastics waste altogether. This will then eliminate the key calorific content of refuse-derived fuels (RDF) and disrupt co-processing supply chains at cement plants across the continent. If it is too lax then dumping plastics in landfill could become more economically viable, also changing the market dynamic. Neither extreme looks likely at this stage but the European cement industry needs to make its views known.

Cembureau, the European cement association, has done just that today with the publication of a position paper on the subject. It conveniently ignores the top two tiers of the waste hierarchy – prevention and re-use – but it does recognise that ‘high quality recycling’ is the preferred option. This is followed by the target of its lobbying: protecting co-processing. Make no mistake, this is supporting industrial behaviour change with solid environmental benefits. Its areas for policymakers to focus on include protecting co-processing: a ban on landfill; linking energy recovery to recycling; concentrating on the legislation; thinking about material lifespan sustainability benefits; and helping minimise the investment costs for processing facilities.

Providing cool heads prevail, the importance of co-processing plastics as part of any realistic plastics strategy seems unlikely to change any time soon. What’s more likely to be the real target for Cembureau is standardising measures on collection, sorting and material recovery across the European Union (EU). For example, as this column has reported twice in 2017 (GCW288 and GCW324), the issues with waste disposal legislation in Italy have led to various problems in the sector. Waste collectors found it easier to export RDF to Morocco from Italy rather than use it locally in 2016. The slag industry has also reported similar issues with reuse in Italy. The consolidation of the local cement industry following the takeover of Italcementi and Cementir by HeidelbergCement and of Cementizillo by Buzzi Unicem should present a more unified industry approach towards alternative fuels. Backup from the EC could solve the other half of the alternative fuels puzzle in Italy and help to deliver serious change. Ecofys data from 2014 showed the EU co-processing average rate as being 41%, with six countries – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy and Greece – having rates below 30%.

Vagner Maringolo of Cembureau outlined the market opportunities for waste uptake at cement plants at the 11th Global CemFuels Conference that took place in Barcelona in February 2017. He started by revealing that plastics represented over 40% of the total share of alternative fuels used in the EU in 2014. A ban on landfilling municipal waste was expected to boost the supply of RDF and a Cembureau/Ecofys study on the market potential of alternative fuels concluded that around 10Mt of waste was co-processed in cement kilns in the EU28 in 2015. This represented around 2% of total combustible waste each year but it represented 10% of all of the energy recovery from waste in the EU. In other words co-processing plastics waste offers a very attractive means for the EU to meet its sustainability targets.

However, before Cembureau and the cement industry starts popping the (reusable) champagne corks, consider the wider picture. China has banned imports of foreign waste in 2018 including RDF from the UK, a major exporter. Unless new markets are found this may impact the price of RDF in Europe. Brexit is another example how of European waste markets might be disrupted in the medium-term. Cement producers want a steady supply of cheap fuels but if the providers can’t make enough money from their products then the market will fail. The tightrope for Cembureau to walk with plastics is to promote RDF use and secure its supply. Persuading the EC to support this may involve some wobbling along the way.

The 12th Global CemFuels Conference on alternative fuels for cement and lime takes place in Berlin on 20 – 21 February 2018

Belgium: Cembureau, the European cement association, has published a position paper outlining its stance European Commission’s plastics strategy. The association wants policymakers to ensure any plastic waste that has a calorific value that can be recovered as a fuel source is not landfilled. At present there are differences in waste management policies across the member states of the European Union.

Other points that Cemburea wants to highlight include: a ban on landfill of recoverable and recyclable waste; recognition that cement plants can treat different waste streams such as plastics and simultaneously recycle them as material in the manufacturing process of cement and recover them as energy; the specific relevance that co-processing offers the unique opportunity of a simultaneous energy and material recovery; and the potential to minimise investment costs in dedicated facilities.

In January 2018, the European Commission published a dedicated Plastics Strategy as part of the Circular Economy package. The strategy indicates that there is currently a low rate of recycling or reuse of plastics with most of it going to landfill or used in incinerators.

Canada: Representatives from the Canadian cement and concrete industries have met with government ministers, members of parliament, senators and civil servants in Ottawa, Ontario as part of a two-day advocacy event.

"The cement and concrete industry is uniquely positioned to help all levels of government in Canada achieve their climate change priorities, while also ensuring best value for money invested," said Michael McSweeney, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Cement Association of Canada.

More than 60 industry delegates hailing from across the country and industries have gathered for the event. The delegation includes the CEOs of Canada's cement industry and representatives from the ready mixed concrete, insulated concrete forms, masonry, precast concrete and precast concrete pipe sectors. They hope to highlight the economic and lifecycle benefits of their products to legislators.

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has outlined key points that the UK government should consider ahead of its anticipated triggering of Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon later in March 2017 as it moves towards leaving the European Union (EU). Following consultation with its members the association wants the government to focus on six areas including: investment; growth; access to markets; access to labour and skills; maintaining equivalent regulations and standards; and rebalancing regulation after Brexit.

"More needs to be done, both politically and economically, to give the clarity needed by businesses to sustain investment confidence beyond the triggering of Article 50. The economy has remained resilient in the short term, but the issue always was, and remains, what will happen post-Brexit in the medium and longer term? Given that the public political conversation in the UK has not yet involved the other 27 EU member states, we are currently no wiser as to the likely outcome of negotiations. We must therefore contemplate the possibility that no deal may mean a clean break in 2019 and trading arrangements under WTO rules,” said MPA chief executive officer Nigel Jackson.

The MPA has urged the government to build confidence in the short and long term performance of the UK economy and maintain stability. It also wants it to seek the fullest access to European and non-European markets using comprehensive free trade agreements in preference to adopting World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

The association also highlighted that, on average, 3% of the Mineral Products industry's workforce comes from the EU, increasing to 9% for activities directly related to freight transport by road. It noted that at present there is no guarantee that EU citizens now resident in the UK will have a continuing right to reside in and work in the UK following Brexit.

Other issues include a desire for the government to confirm its commitment to existing regulatory initiatives and to hold and improve on the international competitiveness of energy intensive industries such as cement and lime. However, it also asked the government to mind the impacts of regulation of taxation on these industries in order to protect investment. Lastly, the MPA wants the government to retain influence in European product technical standards development via the British Standards Institution (BSI), the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and design codes.

India: The Builders Association of India has asked the government to create a Cement Regulatory Authority to control the price of cement and prevent cartel activity in the sector. Avinash M Patil, national president of the BAI, told the Hindu newspaper that ‘most’ contracts in the construction industry have no price escalation clauses. Subsequently, unexpected jumps in the price of cement slow down project times. A delegation of the BAI is set to meet the prime minister to discuss the issue.