EU: Cembureau has responded to the European standardisation organisation Cenelec’s CEN/TC 350 ‘sustainability of construction works’ rules by amending its European Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for CEM I, CEM II and CEM III, corresponding to Portland cement, Portland-composite cement and blast furnace cement respectively. It says the update brings the three main cement types into ‘full alignment with the EU Commission strategy for a sustainable built environment.’

US: Charah Solutions has secured a contract with energy supplier Entergy for provision of environmental services to three coal-fired power plants in Louisiana and Arkansas. The gives Charah Solutions the right to dispose of or market 0.9Mt/yr of coal combustion residuals (CCR), including to cement producers in the region for use as a cement additive.

The Queensland state government in Australia took a blunt approach to health and safety earlier this month when a report it commissioned said that it expected 12 deaths to occur in the mines and quarries sector over the next five years unless changes were made. This is far removed from the usual news stories that industry magazines like Global Cement and others cover. Typically, these are either plants or companies reaching Lost Time Injury (LTI) milestones or sad (but thankfully rare) reports of death.

The forecast in Queensland was based on a review of fatalities in the sector that the state commissioned from Sean Brady, Department of Natural Resource, Mines and Energy, looking at the years 2000 to 2019. Year-by-year the figures were significantly lower than those occurring in the 1900 to 2000 period but didn’t appear to have any discernable pattern. However, when presented as a 12-month rolling sum of fatalities, a two to three year cycle seemed to occur. Brady then went on to look at how the fatalities happened, how the industry behaved and reacted and what could be done to improve the situation. His recommendations included looking more deeply at the causes of seemingly unrelated accidents and then changing overall organisational behaviour and insight through methods such as adopting principles of High Reliability Organisational theory, simplifying the reporting system and changing the standard safety indicators like LTI.

That last point is interesting given the prevalence of LTI indicators on corporate sustainability reports in the cement industry. The point that Brady cites here is that LTI can become a measure of how well injuries are managed, not how safely an organisation is performing. For example, the definition of what an injury is can be manipulated, leading to distortion, as can workers being brought back to work before they recover or into lighter duties. Instead he recommends that ‘serious accidents’ be used in place of LTI. These are defined as incidents that result in a fatality or incidents where an individual requires admission to hospital for treatment of an injury. The preference here is based on so-called ‘serious accidents’ being unambiguous and transparent because they are defined by a third-party medical practitioner.

Wider critiques of health and safety measurements have identified under-reporting of incidents arising from safety incentive programmes, safety culture, employee perceptions of reporting and workplace bullying. This isn’t to say that the LTI measure is not fit for purpose. It has undoubtedly led to higher safety conditions around the world, with reduced injury and mortality from working conditions, and it allows for comparisons between organisations. Yet, any health and safety metric or indicator could be liable to bias or manipulation either unconsciously or consciously. Serious accidents, for example, could be potentially undermined by an organisation having its own medical centre and would also suffer from different health care systems in different locations. Throw in different legislative frameworks around the world and comparing countries can also start to become confusing.

This tension between data and real-life safety is acknowledged by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) in its sustainability guidance from late 2018. It distinguishes between so-called ‘lagging’ indicators, like LTI and fatalities, which show the effectiveness of a safety programme after the fact and the importance of continual safety improvement plans that aim to prevent adverse events before they happen. It is easy to become lost in a dust storm of facts and figures on health and safety but, as the Queensland authorities and the GCCA agree, measuring health and safety is a means to an end. The aim is zero harm to everyone involved.

India: Bimlendra Jha, Managing Director and CEO of Ambuja Cement, a member of LafargeHolcim, has left the company to pursue other interests. The company has appointed Neeraj Akhoury as MD and CEO with effect from 21 February 2020. His appointment is subject to the approval of the shareholders.

Meanwhile, LafargeHolcim’s other Indian subsidiary, ACC, which is in the process of merging with Ambuja, has promoted its chief commercial officer Sridhar Balakrishnan to the position of MD and CEO.

France: Cem’In’Eu, the France-based operator of modular grinding plants, has appointed Magali Laurenço as director of its Rhône Ciments subsidiary. She has been in post since January 2020.

Magali Laurenço spent the first years of her professional career at Ciments Calcia, where she held the positions of manufacturing engineer (2006 - 2008), manager of the mechanical maintenance sector (2008 - 2014), then manager of the maintenance and new works (2015 - 2020) and production and maintenance service manager (2018-2020).

UK: Germany-based HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Hanson Cement will be the subject of a study in the use of biomass and hydrogen fuels coordinated by the Mineral Products Association (MPA). The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is funding the Euro3.81m study, the results of which it says will be shared across the cement industry. HeidelbergCement CEO Dominik von Achten said, "In addition to our activities in the field of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), this project is an important step towards realising our vision of carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.”

Uzbekistan: The State Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection (SCEEP) has suspended operations at SingLida’s 0.1Mt/yr integrated Ahtachi plant in Andijan region. Trend News has reported that, following an audit of clinker production between 12 February 2019 and 21 February 2019, the cyclones had failed to meet lawful standards of dust collection. Rates varied between 53% and 61% dust collection, compared to a design capacity of 100%. The government body said that it had given ‘instructions for prompt elimination of deficiencies and reduction of pollutant emissions into the air,’ and has suspended operations of the clinker line and mill until such a time as the problem is resolved.

Egypt: Alexandria Portland Cement has reduced its margin of loss by 40% year-on-year to US$15.2m in 2019 from US$25.3m in 2018.

Greece-based Titan Cement is the 89% owner of Alexandria Portland Cement via its subsidiary Alexandria Development Ltd.

Kenya: East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has recorded losses of US$16.2m in 2019, up by 0.6% from US$16.1m in 2018, in spite of sales growth over the period of 8.0% year-on-year to US$14.7 from US$13.6m. Reuters has reported that the company will not be paying its shareholders.

Tajikistan: Builders completed the construction of 1.36Mm² of multi-storey housing in Tajikistan in 2019, up by 24% from 1.10Mm² in 2018. Tajikistan Newsline has reported that all residential construction concrete comes from domestically produced cement. Tajikistan produced 4.2Mt of cement in 2019 - up by 11% from 1.8Mt in 2018 - exporting 1.5Mt. It imported 20,000t, primarily of white cement.