Global Cement News

Australia: Adbri has appointed Jared Gashel as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He succeeds Dianne Mong, who has held the position of Acting CFO since March 2023. Mong will resume her role as the company’s General Manager Finance.

Gashel holds over 20 years of financial experience in multiple industries. Prior to joining Adbri, he was Acting CFO at Boral from 2022 to March 2023. His previous post at Boral was as Executive General Manager Group Finance and Property. Before joining Boral, he held multiple senior finance executive roles in Australia and Switzerland, and spent more than a decade working for KPMG, where he specialised in advisory and capital markets.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has appointed Chinedu Richard as its acting Chief Financial Officer.

Richard has worked for Lafarge Africa for over 10 years in a variety of financial roles. Most recently he held the position of Head of Finance Planning & Analysis. Prior to working for Lafarge Africa he was a Financial Analyst for Dangote Cement. He has also worked for Oando.

Richard is a graduate of pharmacy from the University of Lagos and holds a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from Lagos Business School. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Austria/Germany: Rohrdorfer Group and gas network company Bayernets have published a feasibility study for a proposed CO₂ transport network in Bavaria in Upper Austria. The first stage of the CO₂peline plan will be to create an ‘island’ network between the Rohrdorfer cement plant in Upper Bavaria and the so-called ‘Bavarian chemical triangle.’ An additional connection to the industrial and chemical region of Linz in Austria would add additional CO₂ sources, places of use and temporary storage sites to the grid. Further expansion plans could see the network expanded to cover the whole of Bavaria. A future connection to a Germany-based national network and international routes could further link the network to other locations where CO₂ is both produced and used, as well as creating routes to sequestration sites.

No dates have been released for the proposed CO₂ pipeline network. However, the project notes that Germany is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045 and Bavaria and Austria by 2040.

Belgium: The European cement association, Cembureau, has asked the Europen Union (EU) to provide a regulatory framework to support the work of the European cement industry in co-processing waste composite materials as alternative raw materials. The materials in question consist of glass, carbon or other fibres and polymer matrices. The association called on the EU to recognise co-processing as ‘recycling’ under the EU Waste Framework Directive, to establish waste composite materials collection schemes and phase out landfilling, and to introduce dedicated waste codes for the materials. Cembureau said that the last of these proposals would help to increase visibility and attract investments.

Cembureau set out its proposals in a joint statement with resins associations Cefic UP/VE and Cefic Epoxy Europe, boating association EBI, composite materials association EuCIA, glass fibre association Glass Fibre Europe and wind energy association WindEurope.

Austria: Rohrdorfer has bought 20 new railcars equipped with ÖBB Rail Cargo’s RockTainer SAND containers. The cars will transport limestone between the producer’s Ebensee quarry and its Gmunden cement plant. Each railcar consists of two RockTainer SAND containers mounted on an InnoWaggon carriage, with a maximum load of 134t. The new cars will increase the volume of despatches from the Ebensee quarry by 28% to 804t of limestone per train from 630t/train, enabling Rohrdorfer to transport 450,000t of limestone per operating season.