Cement News tagged under: concrete

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Milk and sugar with your cement?

19 October 2023, Published under Cement News

Researchers in Melbourne are trialling adding coffee grounds to concrete to eliminate waste. Each year Australia produces around 83,000t of ground coffee and chaff, the majority of which ends up in landfill producing methane and other greenhouse gases as it decomposes.  A team of scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) are now trying to put the surplus coffee grounds to better use, adding them to cement, water, gravel and sand to produce cement. According to the W...

Breedon Ireland reports 48% profit growth in 2022

16 October 2023, Published under Cement News

Breedon Ireland , the Irish cement-making business of the UK-based Breedon Group , reported profit of EUR21.5m in 2022, up 48 per cent from EUR14.5m in the previous year. Revenue over the same period advanced 21 per cent to EUR72.8m, according to Irish Independent. The results come despite higher energy prices and fears over what impact the government’s planned concrete levy would have on the residential construction market. In 2022 the Irish government announced a five per cent concret...

CEMEX supplies Vertua to the world's largest medical complex

12 October 2023, Published under Cement News

CEMEX is providing more than 20,000 cubic yards of Vertua lower-carbon concrete for Houston Methodist’s Centennial Tower, the newest addition to the largest medical complex in the world. The 26-story tower, expected to begin a phased opening in 2027, will house a new and expanded emergency department, enhanced imaging services, and space for additional hospital beds. CEMEX has already supplied 11,000 cubic yards for the tower’s foundation. “CEMEX’s purpose of building a better future come...

Cemento Polpaico closes two concrete plants

09 October 2023, Published under Cement News

Chile-based Cemento Polpaico announced the closure of two concrete plants in Quilín and Renca, Metropolitan Region, as well as the temporary halt of operations at the Aconcagua Áridos plants. The step is due to the negative trend in the results of Polpaico Soluciones, which showed accumulated losses of CLP8386m (US$9.1m) before taxes as of June 2023 as a result of the crisis affecting the sector, reports CE Noticias  Financieras. Moreover, the industry expects a 28 per cent drop in result...

Titan America wins five awards at ConcreteWorks 2023

05 October 2023, Published under Cement News

Titan America picked up five awards at the National Ready Mix Concrete Association (NRMCA)'s ConcreteWorks 2023 event held in Nashville this week. The company was recognised for its safety, energy efficiency, innovative technologies, and quality.  Titan's Pennsuco facility in Medley, Florida, won the award in the innovative technologies category in the Portland Cement Association (PCA)'s 2023 Energy & Environment Awards in recognition of its use of artificial intelligence (AI) and mac...

Holcim boosts renewable energy at Fort Totten RMC plant

28 September 2023, Published under Cement News

Holcim US has installed new solar arrays at its Fort Totten ready-mix concrete plant in Washington, DC, helping to both offset the industrial load in a major metropolitan area and replace the fossil fuel-generated electricity on site with renewable energy.   “This summer showed why everyone, including a concrete supplier in the middle of a large city, is responsible for reducing energy consumption,” said Cedric Barthelemy, senior vice president and general manager of Holcim US’ Mid-Atla...

Saint-Gobain to acquire Adfil NV

28 September 2023, Published under Cement News

Saint-Gobain has entered into an agreement to acquire Adfil NV, a specialist in fibres for concrete reinforcement. Adfil operates two plants in Belgium and generated revenues close to EUR40m in 2022. In addition to Chryso and GCP’s admixtures, Adfil’s performance fibres contribute to the reduction of reinforced concrete’s CO 2 footprint, the improvement of lead times and productivity for construction projects, and an increased lifespan for concrete. Adfil will be consolidated within Saint...

GGBS unlikely to reduce GHG emissions, warns IStructE

27 September 2023, Published under Cement News

The use of ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in concrete needs to be carefully considered, recommends a new paper from UK-based The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE). For many years GGBS has been specified as a partial replacement for clinker in concrete due to its technical properties. More recently, reducing clinker with GGBS has become the ‘go-to’ method for decreasing the carbon intensity of concrete in the UK, as the product...

Lafarge Greece uses Artevia® for Smart Park landscape

19 September 2023, Published under Cement News

The discount Smart Park in the Spata region of Attica is the first hybrid discount park in Greece with a total surface area of 9.1 acres, of which three have been landscaped into green areas. The industrial aesthetics and the innovative design of the space were highlighted with the architectural Artevia ® Desactive concrete, which covered more than 10,000m 2 . “The Artevia ® architectural / decorative concrete range exceeds the limitations of traditional building materials by combinin...

RAAC failures serve as a warning to new cements

15 September 2023, Published under Cement News

This week's newsletter looks at the recent warnings about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), which was in heavy use over the 1950-90s, but is now the subject of safety warnings across the UK, with hundreds of buildings at risk. RAAC was a convenient building material used in the second half of the 20th century as it was cheaper than traditional concrete to produce, quicker to use and easier to construct with. It was also lighter than traditional concrete with its aerated bubbl...