Global Cement News

Colombia: Cementos Argos has announced the appointment of four new vice-presidents following of internal reorganisation. Following the promotions Jorge Mario Velasquez, president of Argos, commented that the moves had met the right balance of youth and experience.

Juan Luis Munera, a commercial law attorney with seven years service with Argos, has been appointed to vice president for legal and sustainability. Carlos Horacio Yusty, an engineer specialising in industrial management systems with 16 years service with Argos, has been appointed to vice president of finance. Mauricio Ossa, a business manager with 15 years service with Argos, has been appointed regional vice president of the company's Caribbean operation. Tomas Restrepo, currently vice president of innovation with five years service with Argos, will serve as regional vice president of Argos' Colombian units.

Two stories this week on alternative fuels illustrate their current place in the cement industry succinctly. Sumitomo Osaka Cement in Japan plans to increase the sales of power generated in-house at its Tochigi Prefecture plant using wood biomass fuel. Meanwhile on the other side of the Pacific Cemex US is planning to cut costs and carbon emissions by installing wind turbines at its Victorville site in California.

At the recent Global CemTrader conference on supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), coal and petcoke and logistics for the global cement industry, Patrick Peenaert of Lafarge delivered a presentation entitled the 'Global Overview of Worldwide Coal & Petcoke.'

In his talk Peenaert revealed, unsurprisingly, that fossil fuels dominate the global cement industry for the energy consumption of the top four international producers, with coal and petcoke making up over 70% of usage. However, alternative fuel usage has grown from 13% in 2008 to 18% in 2011. As price pressures on fossil fuels grow from other industries so too will investment into alternative fuel options.

The Japanese story demonstrates this well, especially given that the economic fallout of the 2011 earthquake on the Japanese power industry has made an alternative fuel process considerably more valuable for a plant with a temporary closed kiln. By contrast the US story is more nonchalant: operations will proceed at the Californian plant regardless of whether the turbines are built or not.

Yet hedging one's bets with power sources is increasingly seen to be a prudent long term strategy in an uncertain world. A familiar refrain in the recent batch of cement producer financial reports has been mounting energy costs. This week's half-year results for the Pretoria Portland Cement in the bullish African market is no exception.

Watch the video of Patrick Peenaert's presentation at the Global CemTrader 2012 conference, and all the other presentations

India: Martin Kriegner has been appointed CEO of Lafarge India as part of the current group-wide reorganisation drive. He will hold responsibility for all of Lafarge's cement, aggregates and concrete activities in the country.

"I am happy to return to India as Country CEO, at a time when the construction sector is evolving quickly in the country. By combining all of our activities together we will be able to support this evolution by offering integrated and innovative solutions at an earlier stage of construction in close proximity with our customers, allowing the full benefits of our innovative products and services to be realised," said Kriegner.

Martin Kriegner, an Austrian citizen, joined Lafarge in 1990 and became the CEO of Lafarge Perlmooser AG, Austria in 1998 before he moved to India as head of the cement activity in 2002. Prior to this assignment he served as regional president, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lafarge has four cement plants in India: two plants in the state of Chattisgarh and a grinding plant each in Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Given the legal scuffles over the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) emissions timetable it was nice to see this week how Ash Grove Cement is responding at its Midlothian plant in Texas. The plant is seeking tax breaks on potential upgrade work that it is planning to implement before the current 2013 deadline for the EPA legislation.

For those following the fight between the EPA and the US cement industry here is a recap on the story so far:

The EPA issued a national emission standard for hazardous air pollutants rule to reduce the sector's air toxics in September 2010, alongside a new source performance standard to cut criteria pollutant emissions. In May 2011 the EPA both partly granted and denied petitions from cement industry representatives and environmentalists. In December 2012 the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remanded the cement air toxic rule back to the EPA, delaying the deadline for the cement industry to seek a rehearing or review. Then in April 2012 the cement industry agreed not to seek a rehearing if the EPA extended its deadline until September 2015. The EPA has now sent for the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) to review its proposed revisions to its emissions rules, ahead of a tentative 15 June 2012 deadline.

While the EPA and the cement sector continue to battle it out plants like Ash Grove can do little except keep an eye on the bottom line until the dust settles... in whatever legally mandated fashioned is eventually approved. The Global Cement Directory 2012 lists 22 wet and semi-wet kilns in the US. While some are mothballed, others are likely to be affected by the rules. While the arguments continue the upgrade timetables of these plants hangs in the balance.

France: Gérard Lamarche has been appointed as a director at Lafarge at its Ordinary General Meeting in Paris on 15 May 2012.

Lamarche graduated from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve with a Bachelor's degree in Economic Sciences and a specialisation in Business Administration and Management. He also completed the Advanced Management Program for Suez Group Executives at the INSEAD Business School.

He began his professional career in 1983 with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Belgium, and became a mergers and acquisitions consultant in the Netherlands in 1987. In 1988, he joined the Venture Capital Department of Société Générale de Belgique as an investment manager. He became the special projects advisor to the president and secretary of the Suez board of directors in 1995 where he later became the group's senior vice president in charge of planning, control and accounts management. He was appointed senior executive vice president – finance of the Suez Group in March 2004, becoming executive vice president - finance of GDF SUEZ, and member of the management and executive committees of the GDF SUEZ Group in July 2008.

Lamarche is a director of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (Belgium) and has been a managing director since January 2012. Lamarche is also a Director of Total and Legrand.