Philippines: Century Peak Cement Manufacturing has started distributed its cement products to the Visayas region. Its blended hydraulic and ordinary Portland cement product received quality standard certification from the Department of Trade and Industry in January 2023.
Century Peak Cement operates a plant at Pinamungajan in Cebu with associated limestone reserves. The unit has its own pier.
Spain: Cement consumption fell by 1% year-on-year to 14.9Mt in 2022 from 14.8Mt in 2021. The Spanish cement association Oficemen blamed the slight decline on bad weather in December 2022. It also noted that the consumption volume in 2022 was the second highest in the last decade. Overall, Oficemen said that the market experienced a strong start in 2022 but energy costs and inflation, partly linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, started to slow down sales from May 2022.
Cement exports fell by 16.8% to 5.62Mt from 6.75Mt. Imports decreased by 5.4% to 1.35Mt from 1.43Mt. Oficemen has linked the fall in exports to high domestic energy and CO2 emission costs since 2019.
Greece: Titan Cement has acquired a share in Aegean Perlites. The company operates perlite and pozzolan quarries on the island of Yali. It also has access to port facilities. Titan Group says it is making the investment to gain direct access to pozzolan reserves to increase its volume of pozzolan-based cementitious products with a lower clinker factor. The deal is connected to Titan’s target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 35% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, and increase the share of green products in its portfolio to over 50%.
Yanni Paniaras, the Group Executive Director Europe of Titan, said “We are pleased to partner with the Govdelas family as joint shareholders in Aegean Perlites, building on our excellent long-term collaboration and aiming to grow our business, maximising the high potential of the Yali pozzolans.”
Belgium: Cembureau, the European cement association, has warned against a proposed 2041 phase-out date for industrial CO2 in the Commission draft Delegated Act on renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs). The European Commission’s (EC) draft Delegated Act on the greenhouse gas saving criteria for RFNBOs sets the rules under which such fuels can qualify as sustainable. The European Commission considers that CO2 from industrial sources should not be allowed for the production of synthetic fuels as of 2041, as this would go against the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Koen Coppenholle, the chief executive officer of Cembureau, said “By proposing an arbitrary deadline on the use of industrial CO2, the EC severely restricts the deployment of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) in the cement sector.” He continued “We regret that this phase-out date was established without a thorough impact assessment. This risks negatively impacting several on-going carbon capture projects in the European Union (EU), at a time of a global race for green investments.” Coppenholle also called for a “real, thorough debate on CO2 utilisation” to ensure that EU policies support CCU and the deployment of CO2 transport infrastructure and storage.
The association is objecting against this proposal because in its view: manufacturing synthetic fuels using industrial CO2 make a “decisive” contribution to climate mitigation in the short to medium term; no impact assessment has been presented by the EC; the delegated act threatens the viability of existing CCU projects in the cement sector, which require a payback time of 30 - 35 years; and the Delegated Act does not recognise the reality of industrial installations like cement plants, which are faced with unavoidable CO2 emissions, and may not have access to CO2 geological storage sites.
The Delegated Act will be passed to the European Parliament and Council for further scrutiny until April 2023 whereupon they will either accept to reject the proposals. The scrutiny period can be extended to June 2023 at the request of either body.
