material advantage Heidelberg Cement

MATERIAL ADVANTAGE

Heidelberg Cement is the world’s largest integrated manufacturer of building materials. It leads global markets in aggregates, cement and ready-mixed concrete. Following the acquisition of Italy’s leading cement company, Italcementi, it has significantly enhanced its global footprint and technological superiority. Philip Yorke reports.

Heidelberg Cement is a global market leader in the supply of building and infrastructure materials such as aggregates, cement, and many related downstream products that include ready-mixed concrete and asphalt. Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, the company employs 63,000 people at over 3000 locations and in more than 60 countries worldwide. Heidelberg has over 3000 production sites globally as well as more than 150 cement plants with an annual cement capacity of almost 200 million tonnes. In addition, the group owns 1700 ready-mixed concrete sites and operates over 600 aggregates quarries.

Following the recent acquisition of Italcementi, Heidelberg has continued to expand its operations throughout the Asia Pacific region and the Africa-Mediterranean basin, as well as enhancing its dominant market position in Europe and North America. Today the group is divided into six key geographic business units: Western & Northern Europe, Eastern Europe-Central Asia, North America, Asia-Australia-Africa, Asia Pacific and Group Services.

New markets targeted

Heidelberg Cement and Italcementi are a perfect fit. With this recent significant acquisition, the company is well placed to enter new markets, such as France in Europe, Egypt and Morocco in North Africa, and Thailand in south-east Asia. In the USA, Canada, India and Kazakhstan, the takeover will further strengthen the global presence of Heidelberg Cement. Heidelberg told Industry Europe, “The core activities of Heidelberg Cement include the production and distribution of cement and aggregates, the two essential raw materials for concrete. Our downstream activities mainly cover the production of ready-mixed concrete, but also of asphalt and other building products in some countries. With the acquisition of Italcementi, we have significantly expanded our maritime trading activities.”

The company added, “Cement is by its very nature an energy intensive raw material. That is why we build our long-term success on sustainable business practices. This includes securing access to raw material reserves, efficient and innovative production processes and the use of alternative production processes. Heidelberg Cement is also active in the promotion of bio-diversity at its extraction sites.”

Focus on sustainability

Heidelberg Cement has been recognised as a global leader for its corporate action on climate change and its response to the need to protect bio-diversity and focus on sustainability. The award by US Charity CDP has listed Heidelberg Cement on the A List of companies driving Climate Change awareness and implementing strategies to prevent it.

The Climate A List is released in CDP’s campaign, ‘Out of the starting blocks’, which tracks the progress on corporate climate action reports. CDP’s CEO said, “We congratulate the A List companies that are leading the charge towards our low carbon future. Companies are key actors in in enabling the global economy to achieve its new climate goals, and the leadership group point the way for others to take bold action and to capitalise on the many opportunities that await.”

In July this year, Heidelberg released its 2016 Sustainability Report which saw major advances in the company’s achievements in relation to CO2 emissions and sustainable devlopment processes. This is Heildelberg’s 8th Sustainability Report and was prepared in accordance the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI G4) and summarises important topics and challenges for Heidelberg Cement in its drive for sustainable development.

New value-added additives

Heidelberg Cement, in association with RWTH (the University of Aachen), is carrying out a major research programme into the binding potential of CO2 minerals. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the ‘CO2MIN’ project with three million euros. During the three-year research project the absorption of CO2 from flue gases by the minerals olivine and basalt will be investigated and evaluated. In the future, these carbonised materials could be used as a value-added supplement in the manufacture of a wide range of building materials. Heidelberg and the Aachen University will be supported by the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies and the Dutch startup Green Minerals. The natural minerals olivine and basalt are able to bind CO2 over their entire life cycle. With natural absorption, it takes decades until these minerals are saturated with greenhouse gases. The ground-breaking research project is designed to speed up the absorption process. If successful, carbonised materials can be used in many manufacturing applications.

The use of CO2 as a raw material has high priority in the climate strategy of Heidelberg Cement. “We are already reducing CO2 emissions at our plants very successfully by using alternative fuels and raw materials by optimising the efficiency of our kilns,” explained Jan Theulen, director of alternative sources at Heidelberg Cement. “In order to reduce CO2 emissions even further in the future we need to develop and test new approaches. One of them is the binding of CO2 materials,” added Theulen. n

For further details of Heidelberg Cements latest innovative products and sustainable development strategies visit: www.heidelbergcement.com