Displaying items by tag: contract

Canada: Threatened strike action at Heidelberg Materials North America’s ready-mix concrete plants in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, is on hold after the company and the Teamsters Local 213 union agreed to mediation meetings. Local press has reported that the meetings will seek to draw up a new contract for workers at the producer’s ready-mix concrete plants. The union previously voted down Heidelberg Materials North America’s last and final offer in the on-going contract dispute in April 2024.

Heidelberg Materials North America said “The potential strike notice will be held in abeyance until a new collective bargaining agreement is ratified or the mediator is unable to resolve differences between the parties."

Canada: Carbon-negative concrete producer CarbiCrete has signed a deal with Holcim subsidiary Lafarge Canada. Under the deal, Lafarge Canada will process steel slag at its St. Constant cement plant in Québec for use as an ingredient in CarbiCrete’s CO₂-cured cement-free concrete.

CarbiCrete partner Patio Drummond produces carbon-negative concrete blocks using CarbiCrete’s technology at its Drummondville concrete block plant in Québec. The company is on a drive to double the production of CarbiCrete blocks. It first partnered with CarbiCrete during trial production of its material in 2018.

Lafarge Canada vice-president of cement Andrew Stewart said “We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and leading the way in sustainable construction. Our partnership with CarbiCrete is a testament to our dedication to offering sustainable solutions and actively participating in the circular economy.”

CarbiCrete CEO Chris Stern said “Collaborating with Lafarge allows us to leverage long-established infrastructure and years of expertise in processing steel-related by-products. This enables us to make an immediate climate impact as we scale the deployment of our technology which reduces embodied carbon in concrete by both avoiding emissions and removing carbon through mineralisation.” Regarding the on-going scale-up of production at Patio Drummond’s Drummondville plant, Stern said “Increased production of our carbon-negative blocks brings us closer to our common goal of decarbonising production of the world’s most consumed man-made substance.”

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies signed a partnership agreement with ready-mix concrete producer CRBPE, Dow Jones Institutional News has reported. Under the contract, Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies will supply its clinker-free cement to CRBPE’s four batching plants in eastern France.

Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies co-founders Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann said "This new commercial partnership with CRBPE, a family-owned company that shares our ambitions to decarbonise the construction sector, strengthens our position in the ready-mix concrete market. It is also a fantastic opportunity to increase our presence in the eastern area of France and expand our territorial coverage."

US: Georgia Power has awarded Eco Material Technologies a contract to start harvesting 600,000t/yr of pond ash from the site of its decommissioned Harllee Branch power plant in Milledgeville, Georgia. Eco Material Technologies will dry the ash and begin recycling it as replacement for cement in its concrete production from 2026. It expects to extract a total of 8Mt of pond ash from the site. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reports that Georgia Power intends to invest US$7.8bn to disposal of its ash deposits across the country over the next 60 years to around the early 2080s.

Eco Material Technologies’ chief executive officer Grant Quasha said that he hopes for the company’s work at the Harllee Branch site to serve as a ‘model for the rest of the country’ for the efficient recycling of stored coal ash.

UK: Recycl8 and Breedon Group have poured concrete containing Recycl8’s R8 Mix additive at the site of the upcoming Huntingtower residential block in Perth, Scotland. The R8 Mix additive contains recycled materials, helping to lower the CO₂ emissions of construction projects. Meanwhile, Breedon supplied blended cement from its Breedon Balance range of reduced-CO₂ products.

Breedon commercial manager Craig Godsman said "We are really pleased to be involved in this innovative project using Recycl8's sustainable R8 Mix concrete technology. It aligns perfectly with our commitment to decarbonisation, with the provision of lower carbon solutions through our Breedon Balance range of products.”

France: Lafarge France is participating in a 76-unit housing development project called Recygénie, at Gennevilliers in Hauts-de-Seine. Lafarge France will supply the project with 100% recycled concrete for use in facades, interior walls and roof slabs. It produced 2000t of 100% recycled 'clinker' at its Altkirch cement plant in Haut-Rhin during a suspension of ordinary clinker production in 2022. It has produced 1600m³ of recycled concrete to date. The concrete won the New Materials Prize at L'Usine Nouvelle's Sustainable Industry Awards 2023.

The Recygénie housing project is due for delivery in late 2024.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines and Sungshin Cement have signed a memorandum of understanding whereby Holcim Philippines will be priority supplier of cement for use in Sungshin Cement's ready-mix concrete operations in the Philippines, InPR News has reported. South Korea-based Sungshin Cement is anticipating growing demand from infrastructure projects, partly due to a US$3bn development loan agreement between the government of the Philippines and South Korea.

Denmark/Germany: US-based Master Builders Solutions has won a contract to supply admixtures for use in the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel project. The project will build a 17.6km immersed tunnel between the islands of Fehmarn in Germany and Lolland in Denmark. It will directly connect Germany via a double-track railway and four-lane motorway to eastern Denmark and the Scandinavian Peninsula beyond. This will reduce rail travel time between Hamburg in Germany and Copenhagen in Denmark by 35% to 3 hours 15 minutes. The tunnel will consist of 79 standard 217m-long precast elements, and a further ten 85.7m-long service elements. The latter include a subfloor sections in addition to the tunnel's four tubes. Master Builders Solutions says that it will supply 11,000t of admixture to produce a total 3Mm3 of concrete required for the project. The supplier said that its admixtures will help concrete to meet specifications in line with the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel's projected 120-year lifespan. Master Builders Solutions has collaborated with contractor FLC to develop a new MasterEase superplasticiser for use in the project.

Master Builders Solutions Denmark technical manager Jens Qvist said "This has been an incredibly exciting process, requiring very close collaboration with both our own European colleagues and FLC’s Danish and international concrete experts."

US: Eco Material Technologies has supplied its PozzoCEM Vite clinker-free cement to 3D printing construction firm Hive 3D for its The Casitas @ The Halles project in Texas. PozzoCEM Vite cement has 92% lower CO₂ emissions than ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The producer said that concrete produced using PozzoCEM Vite is also more durable and longer lasting than OPC-based concrete. Eco Material Technologies and Hive 3D developed a custom batching system to mix PozzoCEM Vite cement and local Texan sand for use in the project. Eco Material Technologies said that the system created a significant cost reduction compared with other available printable mortar technologies.

Eco Material Technologies recently launched a new 99% reduced CO₂ PozzoCEM formulation, which it expects to use in future projects with Hive 3D. Other reduced-CO₂ cements produced by Eco Material Technologies include its PozzoSlag 50% ground granulated blast furnace slag cement. In total, Eco Material Technologies has supplied 1Mt of reduced-CO₂ cements across 4000 construction sites since 2012. It said that it expects to announce multiple new infrastructure projects and strategic partnerships later in 2023.

Eco Material Technologies' CEO Grant Quasha said “Hive 3D’s commitment to building the first 100% cement replacement 3D printed homes aligns with our goal of transitioning the construction industry away from using materials that generate approximately 8% of the world’s carbon emissions each year."

India: Antony Waste Handling Cell Limited (AWHCL) has won a US$124m contract for construction and demolition waste management services in Mumbai. Press Trust of India News has reported that the contract covers nine municipal subdivisions of the city and will last until 2044. AWHCL said that the contract will enable it to develop the circularity of cement and concrete within the local economy. It expects to commission 600t/day-worth of waste processing capacity by March 2023. The waste management company expects a recovery rate of 25% recyclable materials.

AWHCL chairman and managing director Jose Jacob said "This sub-segment of solid waste management provides tremendous growth opportunities given the number of infrastructure development projects underway, and the government's push to accelerate the economic growth with infrastructure being one of the important growth pillars."