A new culture for cement giant HeidelbergCement

A NEW CULTURE

FOR CEMENT GIANT

HeidelbergCement is the world market leader in aggregates and a prominent player in the fields of cement, concrete and other downstream activities – making it one of the world’s largest manufacturers of building materials. Industry Europe looks at its activities, and at how a new business culture is set to foster sustainable growth.

Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, HeidelbergCement has operations in more than 40 countries around the world. It operates in two core lines of business: cement and aggregates (sand, gravel and crushed rock), in both of which it is acknowledged as one of the global leaders. Its product range is supplemented with downstream activities such as ready-mix concrete, concrete products and concrete elements. In 2013, group revenue amounted to some €14 billion.

Over the past few years the company has continued to expand its operations throughout Asia-Pacific and the AfricaMediterranean Basin, as well as maintaining its strong position in Europe and North America. Since 2010 it has been divided into six group areas: Western and Northern Europe; Eastern Europe-Central Asia; North America; Asia-Australia-Africa; Asia-Pacific; and Group Services.

Within the Eastern Europe-Central Asia division alone Heidelberg has 18 cement plants, three grinding plants, 28 cement terminals, 70 aggregates operations, 208 ready mix concrete operations and three concrete products plants across 11 countries. In Western and Northern Europe, meanwhile, it operates across 11 countries with 21 cement plants, six grinding plants, three ground granulated burning slag plants, 53 cement terminals, 176 aggregates plants, 39 asphalt plants, 596 ready mix concrete plants, 34 concrete products facilities and 22 brickmaking facilities. With these capabilities in Europe and Central Asia alone, it is easy to see why it remains a world leader.

Cement and aggregates activities

HeidelbergCement’s focus is divided equally between its cement and aggregates activities. Formerly the emphasis was on cement, but the acquisition of building materials manufacturer Hanson in 2007 has created a second core strategic pillar.

Hanson has deposits in North America, the UK and Australia so it has allowed Heidelberg to strengthen its raw material base considerably.

Alongside aggregates, cement is one of the essential components of concrete. The company offers various kinds of cement using different additives for a range of applications. These include: white cements; high sulphate resisting Aquament and Portland cement for hydraulic engineering; anti-sulphate for sewage works construction; microcem, which is extremely fine cement for soil injection and masonry repair; and Depocrete and Procrete for waste dump sealing.

The varieties of aggregates cannot be controlled in the same way as cements. Their features as high quality raw mate-

Höganäs Bjuf AB

Höganäs Bjuf AB is a multinational organization, part of Borgestad Industries, headquartered in Sweden, with subsidiaries and representatives around the world.

Höganäs Bjuf has a well-deserved global reputation as a developer, producer and supplier of smart refractory solutions. The company serves the cement and steel industries, as well as a range of other applications that require refractories capable of withstanding high temperatures and highly corrosive or abrasive operating conditions. Our high quality and customized product line include fire clay, high alumina and magnesite bricks, monolithics, precast blocks, anchor systems, insulations materials, linometerTM XLNT for kiln lining measurements, coating binder CoroTexPro and mixers. Our activities range from applicationsdriven R&D, production, distribution, support and services for complete refractory management, including wrecking, installation, supervision and maintenance. The ambition of Höganäs Bjuf is to offer the most effective refractory products and turnkey solutions that will contribute to increased efficiency and profitability among the customers.

rial for ready mixed concrete and concrete products depend on the specifications of the quarries from which they are derived. In addition to their function as an essential component of concrete, aggregates are also used for structural fill, road base, railway ballast and others.

In addition to these two main areas, Heidelberg offers concrete products such as building blocks, pavers, prefabricated ceilings and walls; and building materials such as limestone aggregates, sand-lime bricks and products and services for waste stabilisation or landfill construction.

A new business culture

In September this year (2014) HeidelbergCement implemented its Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) in order to continuously optimise 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, prioritise, and implement them. The process enhancements is expected to lead to sustainable result improvements of at least €120 million by the end of 2017.

“With our Continuous Improvement Program we are changing the business culture at our production sites,” says Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. “Our staff at the cement plants will be trained in entrepreneurial thinking in order to identify improvement potentials and implement them with creative ideas. In this way, we want to secure the efficiency gains from our previous projects while further improving our production processes systematically.”

The Continuous Improvement Program, which has been tested at three pilot sites in Europe since the beginning of 2014, has already led to result improvements of almost €4 million.

Continued investment

Heidelberg continuously invests in new plant to improve its capabilities and maintain its position as a global leader. In July 2011 it opened a modernised kiln in its Polish cement plant Górazdze. This involved the expansion of the clinker capacity to 6000 tonnes per day. This has confirmed Górazdze’s position as HeidelbergCement’s most advanced cement plant in Europe.

Last year the company expanded its cement capacity in Liberia with the commissioning of a new cement mill at its cement grinding plant in the capital city of Monrovia. The investment in the new mill, which has an annual capacity of 0.5 million tonnes, amounted to US$ 14 million.

Its Liberian subsidiary Cemenco is the only cement producer in Liberia and has a strong market position. The company is part of HeidelbergCement’s network of cement grinding facilities on the West African coast supporting the group’s regional strategic presence. By setting up adequate capacities to better serve the growing market in important coastal cities, HeidelbergCement is aiming to maintain its competitive edge in West Africa. n