Global Cement News

US: Two LafargeHolcim US cement plants have been awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star award. The EPA recognised the Holly Hill plant in South Carolina and the Devil’s Slide plant in Morgan, Utah.

“Receiving the Energy Star award this year at two sites is an affirmation of the hard work all our employees are devoting every day to meeting our environmental goals,” said John Stull, chief executive officer (CEO), US Cement.

This recognition is the eighth time the EPA has awarded both the Holly Hill and Devil’s Slide plants with the Energy Star award since 2009.

Belgium: HeidelbergCement has hosted a ground breaking ceremony for the Calix carbon capture pilot at CBR’s cement plant at Lixhe. The ceremony itself took place at the Liège Oupeye Water Treatment Plant near Liège as part of the inaugural Innovation in Industrial Carbon Capture Conference. The two-day event, which took place on 7 – 8 February 2018, was organised by the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) Consortium, a European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 backed research and innovation project.

Construction work on the pilot at the cement plant is scheduled to start imminently. The project will test Calix’s carbon capture technology for two years at an operational cement plant. The technology has previously been used in the magnesite calcining sector.

Over 130 delegates from industry, academia and government attended the conference. The agenda was designed to encourage discussion and knowledge sharing across key stakeholder groups with a strategic interest in innovation in carbon capture technology. As part of the programme, the wider challenges faced by the cement and lime sectors in Europe were also explored focusing on how EU industries can contribute to reaching climate change targets, the role of innovation and company entrepreneurship and a knowledge exchange fair on technology.

The LEILAC consortium, which consists of representatives from the lime and cement industries, technology and engineering providers and research institutes, has set up as an industrial project securing Euro12m in EU funding in order to demonstrate technology to reduce carbon emissions from cement and lime industries.

Ukraine: The share of counterfeit products on the cement market in Ukraine dropped to 8.0% in 2017 from a staggering 21.5% in 2014, according to a press release from the Ukrcement association of cement producers, with reference to a study by GfK Ukraine. Ukrcement believes that change was prompted by the signing of a memorandum on the quality of cement between Ukrcement, the Union of Consumers and large distributors of construction materials in 2017.

France: Access to the Calcia cement factory in Calvados was ‘blocked’ on Wednesday 7 February 2018 by protestors from the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). They were protesting the salary policy of the company, as well as job cuts taking place across France. The move followed the collapse of annual pay talks between the HeidelbergCement subsidiary and the CGT.

Bertrand Moreau from the CGT said that the unilateral 1.3% pay increase offer from Calcia was not sufficient and that workers had witnessed ‘deteriorating working conditions’ since HeidelbergCement took over the company in 2016. He also expressed disappointment at plans to cut 22 jobs at Calcia’s Cruas plant in the Ardeche. The company employs around 1300 people across 10 sites in France.

Denmark: Cement plant manufacturer FLSmidth has announced its financial results for 2017, which show, overall, its strongest order intake for four years. Total orders grew by 6% year-on-year in 2017, bolstered primarily by the company’s Minerals division.

Cement sector orders for the year were Euro611.0m, 1% lower than the Euro615.0m seen in 2016. Revenue from cement sector orders came to Euro547.9m, 5% lower than the US$576.0m orders received in 2016.

“2017 probably marked the trough of the business cycle and, based on our good positioning and strong life-cycle solutions, we expect our business to start growing again in the coming years. Our order intake increased and the momentum in the mining sector continues in 2018, while cement market conditions are expected to remain unchanged,” said CEO Thomas Schulz.

For 2018, FLSmidth anticipates an overall revenue from all activites of Euro2.42-2.68bn (2017 was Euro2.42bn).