Wow! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something good for the industry. The EPA will give the Portland Cement Association (PCA) more than $2.4 million to lead a project that will improve both the quantity and quality of industry Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). It’s one of 38 grants that the EPA announced. EPDs are the most widely used tool…
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To fund ongoing decarbonization efforts, Heidelberg Materials introduced a new Green Finance Framework, which is aligned with the most recent best market practices and standards. The company intends to issue Green Bonds to finance and/or refinance assets and capital expenditure associated with economic activities that meet or will meet the eligibility criteria defined in the Green Finance Framework. This will…
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It is 2024, and another new year has us looking ahead at what might be in store for the construction materials and cement industries. If you gauge a year by production volume, you could say 2023 was a bit of a disappointment. A look at the latest cement production numbers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reveals that shipments for…
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By Louis Baer For Americans to start seeing evidence of the Biden Administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) taking shape in their hometowns, the construction industry will need building materials to do the work. Should a newly proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) particulate matter (PM) standard take effect in the next few weeks, those materials might not be readily…
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It is tough to keep up with all of the fast-paced developments in the world of carbon reduction. Our sister website, Construction Materials Carbon Management [CM2] does a very good job of it. The following item is very intriguing: Cambridge University researchers have conducted the first scrap-metal trial melt in the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) Cement 2 Zero project, aiming…
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Registration for the International Cement Seminar & Exhibition (ICSE), the premier event for the cement industry, is officially open. The Nov. 14-15 event at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta will bring together industry leaders to discuss the latest trends and technologies in cement production. ICSE is sponsored by Cement Products and sister publications Rock Products and Concrete Products. Keynote…
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The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has been busy lately. Following an impressive showing at ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas, and a very successful IEEE/PCA trade show in Dallas, PCA has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2023 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award. It’s the fourth consecutive year PCA has been recognized by…
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Publicly traded U.S. cement producers just reported results, and those results are a mixed bag. At Summit Materials, Cement Segment net revenues increased 23.6% to $97.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Cement Segment adjusted cash gross profit margin increased to 47.1% in the fourth quarter, compared to 42.7% in the prior-year period as strong pricing gains more than…
Read MoreThere is no doubt that reducing the cement industry’s carbon footprint is a priority. The Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality recently celebrated one year of progress. PCA said notable achievements over the past year across the value chain include: Multiple cement manufacturers in the United States, with support from the Department of Energy, have begun pilot projects…
Read MoreI’ll state the obvious: carbon is a hot topic right now. Portland Cement Association (PCA) Chairman Ron Henley (GCC America) told a New York Climate Week gathering that U.S. producers have exceeded expectations outlined nearly one year ago with release of the PCA Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality. That is good news. What is happening in the North American market is…
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