Global Cement News

China: Gansu Qilianshan Cement plans to restructure its business. The group says that, should it proceed with its proposed restructuring, it will issue shares. Reuters News has reported that the restructuring may constitute a material asset restructuring.

Jamaica: Caribbean Cement says that its Rockfort cement plant in Kingston has surpassed 1000 days without a health and safety incident among employees and contractors. Health and safety coordinator Andre Haynes said that the achievement demonstrates that parent company Cemex’s Zero4Life zero-incident policy is possible.

Haynes said “As a company, we have invested heavily in the people aspect, with training geared towards improved safety and culture, and capital expenditure to improve the overall safety of the plant.” He said that the Rockfort cement plant will advance to its next safety milestone by keeping its focus on ‘closing all unsafe conditions’ and developing employees as health and safety champions.

Switzerland: Holcim recorded net sales of US$6.75bn in the first quarter of 2022, up by 20% year-on-year from US$5.62bn in the first quarter of 2021. The group’s recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBIT) rose by 16% to US$643m from US$553m. The company has upgraded its outlook 2022 to a forecast of full-year net sales growth of at least 10%.

CEO Jan Jenisch said “I am very encouraged by the record start of the year, setting a solid foundation to our Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth.”

The first quarter of 2022 brought four new bolt-on acquisitions in addition to the group’s conclusion of its US$1.35bn Malarkey Roofing Products acquisition. The company says that it remains actively engaged in supporting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Holcim has also published its industry-first Climate Report 2022. The report details the company’s progress towards achieving its sustainability targets under the four pillars of its Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth. Under the Accelerating Growth pillar, Holcim reached a total of 15 markets with its ECOPlanet reduced-CO₂ cement range. Under Expanding Solutions & Products, it reduced the proportion of cement sales in its consolidated sales to 57% in 2021 from 60% in 2020. Its other pillars are Leading in Innovation and Sustainability and Delivering Superior Performance. In 2021, the company used 6.6Mt of recycled construction and demolition waste in its products, against a 2050 target of 10Mt.

Chief sustainability and innovation officer Magali Anderson said “On our net-zero journey, we are walking the talk at Holcim, taking clear science-driven action to win the race for climate.”

Middle East/North Africa: The World Cement Association (WCA) has called on its members in the Middle East and North African cement sectors to take new actions towards industry decarbonisation. UAE-based consultant and WCA member A3 & Co has said that companies in the region have the potential to cut their carbon footprints by up to 30% with no new capital expenditure required. The Middle East and North Africa accounted for 15% of global cement production in 2021. In the region, only the UAE and Saudi Arabia have committed to national net zero carbon targets, for 2050 and 2060 respectively.

WCA CEO Ian Riley said “There has been a lot of discussion in Europe and North America about decarbonisation roadmaps for the cement industry and good work has been done to start on this journey. However, 90% of the world’s cement is produced and used in developing countries; to impact overall industry emissions we must include these stakeholders. Cement companies in the Middle East have some low hanging fruit to take advantage of, which will lower costs at the same time as reducing CO2 emissions. At WCA we have a number of programmes that can help them realise this opportunity."

Colombia: Cementos Argos says that 368,000 people directly benefited from its social investment programmes in Colombia in 2021. During the year, the company invested US$4.56m in projects including its Hogares Saludables home improvement programme and its Via Forte road infrastructure programme. The Via Forte programme has laid 600km of road since 2017, while the Hogares Saludables programme aims to assist and improve over 10,000 homes by 2027.