Cemex Philippines to invest in co-processing and green cements

Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc has reiterated its commitment to increase its production capacity, while reducing carbon emission with new 'green cements' and higher capacity for co-processing.

At present, 80 per cent of Cemex Philippines' cement products is in the green cement category. It aims to produce 100 new-generation cement products in the short term.  "We need to introduce this new generation of cement products. And this new generation of cement products have basically, a lower CO₂ footprint. They have a new formulation that allows us to provide equivalent and even better product characteristics, chemical characteristics of our products," said Ignacio Alejandro Mijares, Cemex Holdings Philippines CEO and president.

Therefore, Cemex’s Apo Cement plant in Cebu is targeting a new-generation cement or the green cement products, complemented with the goal of sourcing energy from renewable sources, such as using waste materials like plastic, paper, cardboard, and fabric to fuel its power requirement.

Mr Mijares adds, “We are investing in increasing our capacity to co-process, a concept within the circular economy. We will be expanding and investing to increase our capacity to co-process in Apo. Today, we are co-processing 50,000t at the Apo facility. We aspire to co-process 400,000tpa of waste. That is 400,000tpa that will no longer go to land fields,” he said.

Currently, Cemex Philippines plants, Apo Cement and Solid Cement, are running a total capacity of 5.7Mta.

“By mid-2022, we look forward to bringing to market our new 1.5Mt line in Antipolo, in Luzon. And taking the total capacity of our Luzon capacity to 3.4Mt and now our total capacity for the Philippines, about 7Mt,” Mr Mijares explained.