Displaying items by tag: finance

Taiwan: Chongqing La Rui Yonggu Concrete has loaned US$2.91m to fellow Yonggu Group subsidiary Chongqing Taihong New Building Materials. Chongqing La Rui Yonggu Concrete informed the Taiwan Stock Exchange that the finances are intended to support the working capital needs of Chongqing Taihong New Building Materials.

UK: Graphene-enhanced concrete admixture developer Concretene has raised €3.5m in an investment round led by technology venture capital (VC) firm Molten Ventures. Fellow VC LocalGlobe supplied additional funding. Concretene says that the finances will support scale-up and product certification of its liquid admixture. The product increases various performance metrics of concrete, while reducing cement requirements, according to the developer. It derives its graphene from industrial by-products from the energy sector.

Concretene chief operating officer Mike Harrison said "We’re delighted to welcome Molten Ventures to join with us and LocalGlobe on our mission to decarbonise concrete. We also want to thank LocalGlobe for their enthusiasm and support in getting Concretene off the ground. Our team in Manchester has a unique combination of expertise and experience across construction and nanomaterial science, which will enable us to deliver our next stage of development and earn industry confidence and certification.”

George Chalmers, head of climate at Molten Ventures, said "Concretene has made tremendous strides in getting its technology out of the lab and into meaningful real-world projects and applications. Its solution, viable today, is poised to make a meaningful impact in reducing emissions in one of the hardest to abate sectors. We are delighted to support Concretene’s world-class team of scientists and operators in scaling its solution across the industry.”

Canada: Canal Block will begin to produce CarbiCrete's cement-free concrete products under licence from 2025. The partners say that they have installed a new curing system for the purpose at Canal Block’s Port Colborne plant. Innovation cluster NGen awarded them US$4.04m in funding for the project.

Canal Block president Durk Bylsma said "We look forward to offering a carbon-negative masonry unit to Ontario's construction market in 2025.”

CEO Jacob Homiller said "We are tremendously pleased to bring our cement-free concrete technology to Ontario through Canal Block."

US: The ready-mix concrete and heavy building materials producer Knife River Corporation has appointed Patricia Chiodo to its board of directors. Chiodo will serve on the board's audit and compensation committees. The company says that she brings a ‘wealth of financial expertise.’ She previously held the position of chief financial officer at Verra Mobility Corporation, from which she stepped down in 2022, prior to which she was chief financial officer at RSC Holdings. Chiodo is also a member of UNS Energy Corporation’s audit committee and has served on the audit committee of Embark Technology.

Knife River Corporation chair Karen Fagg said "Tricia is an accomplished business leader with experience in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, risk management and capital markets. When we chose to expand the board and add another independent director, we were looking for someone with Tricia's combination of financial expertise, experience with public companies and proven skills as a team builder. She is a great addition to the board, and we look forward to working with her as we continue to grow Knife River."

US: The US Department of Energy has awarded C-Crete Technologies US$2m in funding. C-Crete Technologies is developing a method for using CO₂ captured at industrial sources or from the air as an ingredient in its cement-free concrete. The binder will produce almost no CO₂ and continue to absorb more CO₂ from the air over time. It offers scalability and cost-parity with conventional cement for concrete producers, according to the developer.

C-Crete Technologies president Rouzbeh Savary said “We are committed to crafting a cement-free, carbon-negative ready-mix concrete that doesn’t just mitigate CO₂ emissions but actively contributes to reversing climate change. Our aim is nothing short of revolutionising this hard-to-abate, carbon-heavy sector.”

US: The Department of Energy has awarded cement-free concrete developer C-Crete Technologies US$950,000-worth of research funding. The company will put the funds towards developing its concrete using new feedstocks.

Resources News has reported that C-Crete Technologies’ president Rouzbeh Savary said "By enlarging our technology toolbox to utilise geographically versatile and abundant feedstocks, we can ensure that local materials can be converted to cementitious binders, eliminating the need for shipping such materials over long distances.”

US: Block-Lite plans to install a system to cure concrete blocks using direct air capture (DAC)-sourced CO₂ at its Flagstaff, Arizona, concrete block plant. The upgrade will implement CarbonBuilt’s low-CO₂ concrete production technology and AirCapture’s modular DAC technology, across five or six capture units. Direct air capture will thus remove 500 – 600t/yr of CO₂ from the atmosphere, while process changes will reduce CO₂ emissions from the Flagstaff plant by over 2000t/yr. The project has attracted fundraising from the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition (4CCC), with a goal of US$50,000. The Arizon Daily Sun newspaper has reported that Block-Lite plans to supply its first shipment of low-CO₂ blocks to a 50-home development by Habitat for Humanity in Flagstaff.

US: SRM Concrete has borrowed US$300m as an add-on to its senior secured term loan. Moody's Investor Services reported that part of the funds will pay off SRM Concrete's US$130m seller note issued for its acquisition of USC Atlantic from Vulcan Materials in November 2022.