Global Cement News

US: Ash Grove Cement Company has announced that Stuart E Tomlinson has joined the company as its vice president of manufacturing for the Midwest region and will be based in the company's home office in Overland Park, Kansas. He join will Ash Grove on 15 August 2013 and replaces Edwin Pierce, who will retire on 31 December 2013.

"Stu is a cement industry veteran and he possesses more than three decades of experience," said Ash Grove's senior vice president of manufacturing. "He is an industry leader and will be an important part of the Ash Grove leadership team."

In his new role, Tomlinson will direct Ash Grove's cement operations in the Midwest region, which includes four cement manufacturing plants in Chanute (Kansas), Foreman (Arkansas), Louisville (Nebraska) and Midlothian (Texas).

Ireland: Irish cement conglomerate Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) has announced that Albert Manifold will become group chief executive on 1 January 2014 following the retirement of current chief executive Myles Lee after 32 years with the group.

Manifold, a board member and CRH's CEO since January 2009, has held a variety of senior positions within the company, including managing director of the Europe Materials Division and group development director. Prior to joining CRH in 1998, he was CEO with a private equity group.

Commenting on the appointment, CRH's chairman, Nicky Hartery, said, "I am delighted to announce Albert's appointment as the next chief executive of CRH. This follows a comprehensive selection process led by the Board's Succession Committee."

"Albert will succeed Myles in the New Year, facilitating an orderly transition at chief executive level," continued Hartery. "Albert brings to his new role a deep knowledge of the industry and proven international executive experience."

New Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) data for 2011 shows that the global cement industry has reduced its specific net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious product by 17% since 1990. This represents a serious amount of carbon prevented from entering the atmosphere. Using United States Geological Survey (USGS) world production data, if cement producers in 2011 were still emitting C0₂ at 1990 levels 456Bt of additional CO₂ would have been released between 1990 and 2011.

Unfortunately there are a couple of problems.

Firstly, submitting data for the project is voluntary. As the CSI points out in its press release the data set comprises 55% of cement production outside of China. A rough calculation based on global cement production capacity suggests that this could only account for about one third of cement made. So how much carbon does the other two-thirds of cement made emit?

Secondly, although CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement have gone down by a sixth since 1990, global cement production more than tripled (!) in the same time period. USGS data placed world production at 1.40Bt in 1990. It estimated 3.59Bt in 2011. In terms of net CO₂ released into the atmosphere, in 1990 this was 1058Bt. In 2011 it was 2260Bt.

The big cement producers compare as follows to the CSI data, which reports emissions of 629kg/t. Lafarge reported 592kg/t cementitious in 2011 and 585kg/t in 2012. Holcim reported 584kg/t in 2011 and 579kg/t in 2012. HeidelbergCement reported 621kg/t in 2011. Cemex reported 612kg/t in 2011 and 2012. No data on specific net CO₂ emissions were available for the major Chinese cement producers.

The CSI data shows that the cement industry has made an effort to reduce CO₂ emissions since 1990. Yet this has been counteracted by a rise in cement production. To compensate for the rise in production between 1990 and 2011 the specific net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious product would have had to have fallen to below 300kg/t, a drop of 60%.

Environmentally sensitive readers shouldn't despair yet though as the CSI has demonstrated that emissions and production are gradually separating in the cement industry. From 2010 to 2011 specific net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious product fell from 638kg/t to 629kg/t. If this trend continues - and if it is representative for the cement producers the CSI doesn't cover – then the industry may be getting a handle on its emissions. We may be about to hit peak emissions for the cement industry sooner rather than later.

Pakistan: Muhammad Arif Habib has resigned as director from the board of directors of Thatta Cement with immediate effect. Habib bought Thatta Cement with Al-Abbas Group in 2004 when the cement producer was privatised. The company has since become part of Arif Habib Group.

Following on from last week's analysis column (Global Cement Weekly #107: Gimmie Water - water conservation in the cement industry) Irish cement producer CRH has released its 2012 Sustainability Report.

Unfortunately, no comparable figures for water usage per cement production were published and CRH noted usage measurement as a group objective. Its best estimate was that the group used 36Mm³ of water in 2012, with 12% of that figure (4.4Mm³) used in cement production.

Otherwise plenty of good news filled the report with improvements shown for most of the key indicators. Notably chief executive office Myles Lee pointed out that CRH had substantially increased alternative fuel usage in its European cement operations in 2012 and that this helped with rising energy costs.

Sticking with CRH, the Irish cement producer recently released information on its development strategy for the first half of 2013.

Despite - or perhaps because – of decreasing profits in 2012, CRH's development spend has nearly doubled year-on-year to Euro470m from Euro250m. The increase is mainly due to the asset swap with Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV), which was announced in February 2013. CRH agreed to transfer a 26% stake in Corporacion Uniland to CPV. In return, CPV agreed to transfer its 99% stake in Cementos Lemona to CRH, as well as giving CRH its UK-based cement importer Southern Cement.

In its press release CPV specifically mentioned that the asset swap would reduce its exposure to the Spanish cement market. On CRH's side the inclusion into the deal of a UK cement importer may be incidental but having an additional destination for potential excess Spanish cement production capacity can only be prudent.

Elsewhere this week, Turkmenistan's decision to protect domestic cement production with a 100% import duty raises interesting implications for exporters in the region such as Iran. It is unclear whether Turkmenistan is blocking Iranian exports altogether or just taxing them more. Either way, following news of a Iraqi block on Iranian exports, it seems likely to dent Iran's ambition to reach 18Mt of exports in the 2013 – 2014 Iranian calendar year, which will end on 20 March 2014.