Global Cement News

France: The government is preparing to approve an extension to the quarry at Ciments Calcia’s Gargenville plant. The extension will cover an area of 74 hectares near the communes of Guitrancourt and Brueil-en-Vexin, according to the Le Parisien newspaper. Local environmental activists are preparing to contest the decision.

Guinea: LafargeHolcim Guinea has ordered a MVR 2500 C-4 vertical roller mill from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Sonfonia cement grinding plant in Conakry. The cement mill will have a total drive power of 1300KW. It has been designed to grind 75t/hr of CEM IV 32.5 and 69t/hr of CEM IV 42.5 to a specific surface of 3440cm²/g and 3340cm²/g acc. to Blaine respectively. The order for the mill was placed by the China’s CBMI working as a general contractor on the project. No value for the order has been disclosed.

India: The state of Gujarat has launched a market-based cap-and-trade system in particulate matter to reduce air pollution. It says it is the first such initiative in the world. The project is being piloted in Surat with the aim to expanding it nationally subsequently.

“With this program, we are kicking off a new era of cleaner production, while lowering industry compliance costs and rewarding plants that cut pollution in low-cost ways,” said Rajiv Kumar Gupta IAS, chairman of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB). The GPCB is carrying out the emissions trading program with the help of a team of researchers from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), the Evidence for Policy Design at Harvard Kennedy School, the Economic Growth Center at Yale University and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. The researchers are evaluating the program’s benefits and costs, relative to the status quo, using a randomised controlled trial.

The emissions trading program builds on work by the GPCB in using continuous emissions monitoring systems to track industry emissions in real time. About 350 industries around Surat have installed continuous emissions monitoring systems and now transmit real-time emissions data. The new scheme takes advantage of this technology for its monitoring.

India: Transport and Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) minister Nitin Gadkari says that cement producers have raised their prices without justification. He alleged that input prices for the industry had not increased and speculated that the companies acted ‘like a cartel’, according to the Times of India newspaper. He added that the higher cost of cement was negatively affecting road and affordable housing construction.

Gadkari said he has asked his officials to intervene in an on-going case in the Supreme Court and also explore the option of approaching the Competition Commission of India. The National Highway Builders Federation has also sought government intervention over the issue.

Mexico: A team led by José Iván Escalante Garcíaat at the Saltillo unit of the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav) is researching the use of volcanic ash in making blended cements and concrete. Volcanic ash is being considered to reduce the clinker factor of cement due to its abundance, low cost and its appropriate chemical composition. A clinker substitution factor of up to 80% has been achieved using volcanic ash. The research group has developed 15 alternatives to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) using waste or materials or minerals.