Cement News tagged: Environmental
Ireland: cement firms make windfall profits from ETS permits
CRH, Lagan Cement and Quinn Cement have together made EUR128m (US$145m) through the sale of permits under the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS). On Sunday, the Irish Independent reported that the three firms were allocated credits on the basis of a prediction that demand would rise by 30 per cent between 2007 and 2012. The impact of the financial crisis instead caused demand to drop by ove...
Ecuador: Unacem recognised as eco-efficient
Peruvian cement producer Union Andina de Cementos (Unacem), which resulted from the merger of Cementos Lima and Cementos Andino and its Ecuadorian operations of Lafarge and Selvalegre, was acknowledged as an eco-efficient business by Ecuador's Ministry for the Environment late in 2015. To achieve such an acknowledgment businesses have to submit four cases over a period of less than two years...
Cemex paves Egypt's first concrete highway
Cemex in Egypt contributed to the paving of Egypt’s first concrete highway. The approximately 22-mile (35km) road connects Cairo, the country’s capital, with the seaport city of Suez, two of the nation’s most important economic centres. Cemex supplied 130,000m 3 of concrete for the Cairo-Suez highway. This concrete paving solution offers this country a number of advantages over traditional ...
Colombia: Cementos Argos will process 2.5m tyres at its Bogotá plant
Following an agreement with the local government of Bogotá, Colombian cement manufacturer Cementos Argos will recycle 2.5m used car tyres to fuel its cement production. According to the president of Cementos Argos, Juan Esteban Calle, the company's Planta Rioclaro factory is capable of processing 20,000tpa of tyres, which amounts to 1.5m units. Calle also added that Cementos Argos is wi...
Protestors seek talks with President over PT Semen Indonesia's Rembang plant
PT Semen Indonesia was targeted by nine women who protested against the development of its new cement plant in their hometown in Rembang, Central Java. The public rally was held in front of the Presidential Palace on Tuesday from local residents who demanded to meet the President over disputed factory. The protesters expressed their concerns over potential environmental damage, saying that t...
USA: Montana City cement plant wins energy award
Ash Grove Cement Co's Montana City plant has won top honours in the annual "Ash Grove Energy Management (AGem) Outstanding Plant of the Year" competition. “Our team is honoured to win the AGem award,” said Dick Johnson, Montana City plant manager. “This recognition is possible because all our employees are committed to identifying and incorporating ways to conserve fuel and electricity.” An...
Spain: LafargeHolcim to seek different quarry area for Sagunto
Teresa Garcia, environment councillor for the town of Sagunto, Spain, is advising LafargeHolcim to “consider other options” for a new quarry as the coveted area in Pinyal is “an important forest area and head of basin that must be protected.” She also referred to the Valencia Territorial Strategy to support her decision. The original decision, signed in 2009, gave the company the option to o...
OCL invests in West Bengal's first solar power plant
OCL India, part of the Dalmia Bharat Group, has inaugurated West Bengal’s first and largest solar power plant. The 5.5MW photovoltaic plant will deliver power to its grinding unit at Godapiasal Industrial Park in Pashim Medinipore. "The solar plant we inaugurated today would generate approximately 8.25mkWh of energy per annum and will be the first and largest solar power plant in the state ...
Cement Association of Canada registers CSA Group's first EPD
CSA Group, a leading global provider of standards development and testing and certification services, has had its first environmental product declaration (EPD) registered by the Cement Association of Canada for general use (GU) and portland-limestone (GUL) cements. EPDs provide a standard way to communicate the environmental impact of available products and as such are an important part of t...
Second LNG-fuelled cement carrier launched
Less than six months after the first LNG-fuelled cement carrier was launched, JT Cement has launched the MV Ireland, a dedicated cement carrier powered by LNG. JT Cement is a joint venture by Swedish company Erik Thun AB and Norway’s KG Jebsen Cement. The propulsion system was supplied by Cryonorm to shipbuilders Scheepswerf Ferus Smith BV of The Netherlands. LNG as maritime fuel is by far ...
New Sandbag report claims ETS is not working
Sandbag, a UK-based think tank, has released a report about the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and argues that the ETS has actually led to an extra 15Mt of CO 2 being released and that if the scheme had never existed emissions would be lower. The report claims that it is “perverse” companies in the cement sector have collectively received more than GBP1bn worth of spare EU allowances (EU...
Irish Cement's AF plans opposed by local Green Party
Irish Cement’s plans to convert its Limerick plant to burn alternative fuels have run into opposition from the local Green Party. Earlier in March, the CRH group company said it was seeking approval from Limerick City and County Council to burn used tyres as well as shredded plastics. However, this has been opposed by the Green Party’s James Gaffney, who unsuccessfully stood in the Irish ...
European cement industry carbon costs cannot be passed onto customers
One of the issues during the debate on the future of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), is the ability (or not) of a sector to pass on to their customers costs arising from to the purchasing of CO2 allowances. “Based on a recent study commissioned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), it is clear that the European cement industry cannot pass through these additional carbon costs onto its ...
CEMBUREAU welcomes EC progress towards circular economy
On 2 December 2015, the European Commission adopted its ambitious Circular Economy Package, which is expected to help Europe to become more resource efficient. The package has been welcomed by Europe’s cement producers’ association, CEMBUREAU, which sees the step as essential in recycling and reusing waste from various sectors as inputs or fuels in other industrial processes such as the man...
Indonesia January sales rise 4.4%
Indonesian cement sales have begun the year on a positive note, rising by 4.4 per cent YoY in January to 5.14Mt on the back of high demand from infrastructure projects across the country "This shows that the government is able to start construction of housing and infrastructure early in the year. In addition, construction of power plants, smelters and other projects helped boost sales of ceme...
Oil prices tumble, demand rises
As the oil market is supplied with considerable volumes from US shale oil to ramped up production in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, oil prices have tumbled in the past six months. On the back of price falls, demand for oil has increased. Real Brent crude oil prices are hitting bottom prices since decades and the share of energy consumption as percentage of global GDP is 2.6 per cent, a level not se...