Mexico/US: Cemex has entered into a global agreement with Petuum to implement its Industrial AI Autopilot software products for autonomous cement plant operations at its plants around the world. The products for cement plant operations are being deployed at select Cemex USA and Mexico plants and will continue to be rolled out in 2019.

"We expect our yield improvements and energy savings to be up to 7%, from the connected AI-based autopilots, which is game-changing for our industry,” said Rodrigo Quintero, Operations Digital Technologies Manager at Cemex.

Petuum says that its Industrial AI Autopilot suite of products can deliver real-time forecasts for key process variables, prescriptions for critical control variables and supervised autosteer aligned with business objectives for all cement plant operations including clinker cooler, preheater, rotary kiln, pyro-process, ball mill and vertical mill processes to achieve lowered energy consumption, optimised fuel mix and increased throughput while maintaining stable operation and product quality. The products are integrated with plant control systems and OSIsoft PI data infrastructure for scalable and standardised deployments across multiple lines and plants globally.

The joint Cemex and Petuum teams achieved a cruise-control-like supervised ‘autosteer mode,’ where the AI Autopilot could run operations with full engage-disengage control available to the operator.

To find out more about Pettum visit: https://petuum.com/

Germany: Cemex has received certification from the Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) certification for five of its ready-mix concrete (RMX) plants in Berlin and Potsdam. The CSC acts as a certification system, grading building materials facilities on environmental, social and governance practices throughout supply chains. The auditing was conducted by Kiwa Deutschland, an independent certification body recognised by the CSC.

Poland: Lafarge Poland delivered over 0.2Mm³ of ready-mix concrete (RMX) in 2018 for use in various infrastructure initiatives including road expansion projects. In 2019 the company plans to produce 0.32Mm² of concrete surfacing for a motorway extension. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim set up its LH Engineering business in 2017 to help implement infrastructure projects. It offers engineering services and the delivery of building materials, including RMX, aggregates and other products.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 2.3% year-on-year in 2019. It is a slight drop from the rate of 2.6% it previously forecast in November 2018.

“While there are several phenomena that confront the economy in the next two years, the PCA believes the economy is strong,” said Ed Sullivan, PCA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. He added that rising interest rates are expected to drag on economic growth, leading to a slowdown in private construction. Cement consumption is expected to slow as a result.

The PCA also said in its Spring Forecast that rising state deficits had forced many states to adjust budgets, reduce costs, and re-prioritise spending. Infrastructure spending had been falling in priority as a consequence. In the medium term the PCA expects cement consumption growth to soften until 2021. It then thinks that President Donald Trump’s supplemental infrastructure initiative will arrive in 2022 leading back to increased cement consumption.