Category: News

HeidelbergCement has started its Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) in order to continuously optimize the working processes in cement production. The new program, which will be introduced at 65 cement plants worldwide, takes a systematic approach in order to generate ideas among the employees, prioritize, and implement them. The process enhancements shall lead to sustainable result improvements of at least 120…

Read More

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law the use of coal ash and other industrial byproducts in cement and asphalt, according to Businessweek. The ash is a byproduct of coal combustion that poses environmental threats in landfills but also is commonly recycled for use in roads and parking lots. The laws signed last month shield people and businesses that…

Read More

Holcim released its 2013 Corporate Sustainability Report detailing the company’s ongoing activities in sustainable development and disclosing data on a number of key sustainability performance indicators. CEO Bernard Fontana commented: “Reflecting our vision to provide foundations for society’s future sustainable environmental performance and corporate responsibility are firm parts of Holcim’s business strategy. This mindset has also been part of the…

Read More

Last week Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced a plan calling for an increase in federal gasoline and diesel taxes to shore up the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and prevent a potential nation-wide road construction work stoppage. According to initial reports, the taxes will generate $164 billion increase in HTF revenues. An analysis by the Portland Cement…

Read More

Brazil’s antitrust regulator, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade), ruled an order including fines against six Brazilian cement producers for a total of $1.4 billion (BRL 3.1 million) as part of a cartel case. 

Read More

Carolinas Cement Co. has submitted for a building permit that could result in the creation of a $5 million packaging facility on Roanoke Cement Co.’s site in Castle Hayne, N.C., according to a news release from the company. The permit would allow Carolinas Cement to upfit and equip a large warehouse on its property so that it can package cement into…

Read More

Holcim (US) Inc. has plans to invest $100 million in a modernization of its Ada, Okla., cement plant, according to The Ada News.  The company submitted an application for a permit to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality at the beginning of the month and expects to begin upgrading its sites in Ada between October and December 2014.

 “We can’t start…

Read More

Pond Biofuels’ pilot plant located next to St Marys Cement Co.’s plant in St. Marys, Ontario, is taking raw smokestack gas from the cement plant and growing algae, according to Beacon News.  The company just installed their own third-generation 25,000 liter bioreactor. “We consider ourselves a carbon recycling technology. Something that allows us to reuse a byproduct from industry,” said Steve…

Read More

The Paraguayan government is set to approve a $67 million loan to Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) to reactivate the company’s investments in its Vallemí and Villeta plants, which were on hold due to lack of funds.  The funding will allow INC to continue its $25.7 million contract with FLSmidth for fuel conversion at the Vallemí plant as well as…

Read More

A lawsuit in Spain has turned up documents indicating that Holcim may have invested in a Cuban cement plant despite warnings the deal might violate U.S. law because it sits on land seized from U.S. citizens, reports the Miami Herald. The deal took place in 2000 – when Holcim operated under the name Holderbank – but ownership was put under a…

Read More