Displaying items by tag: precast

France: Ireland-based Ecocem has entered into a new agreement with Saint-Gobain's France-based concrete subsidiary POINT.P. Under the agreement, Ecocem will supply its ACT alternative cement for use in POINT.P's precast and ready-mix concrete production. Ecocem said that the partnership is an opportunity for it to develop and market new low-carbon binders.

Ecocem executive director Olivier Guise said "This partnership with POINT.P is a natural extension of the alliance announced with the Saint-Gobain Group in October 2022. The shared objective is to accelerate the widespread deployment of low-carbon cements in France, both in the ready-mix concrete and precast concrete markets. By paving the way for the replacement of current traditional cements with ACT technology, our partner POINT.P has a real opportunity to meet its ambitious carbon reduction targets by 2030. We are firmly committed to this partnership and to working with a partner who shares our ambitions for rapid decarbonisation of the construction industry."

Ecocem is 25% owned by France-based Saint-Gobain.

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."

Finland: VTT Technical Research Centre subsidiary Carbonaide has concluded its seed funding round, having raised funds worth Euro1.8m. Lakan Betoni, which produces precast and ready-mix concrete, led the funding, along with utilities provider Vantaa Energy. Carbonaide will use the funds to build an industrial pilot plant for its carbon neutral precast concrete product at an existing precast concrete plant in Hollola. The plant will bind captured CO₂ in the product at atmospheric pressure. The process generates 50% lower CO₂ emissions than precast concrete production using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Suitable raw materials include ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), green liquor dregs and bio-ash. In trial production, the use of GGBFS gave Carbonaide's concrete a negative carbon footprint of -60kg/m³.

Other sources of loans and in-kind contributions included Finnish state innovation fund Business Finland.

Poland: Switzerland-based Holcim has acquired precast concrete producer HM Factory. HM Factory supplies precast concrete products manufactured in Poland to the Scandinavian export market. It employs 70 people across its operations.

Holcim’s Europe regional head Miljan Gutovic said “HM Factory is a perfect complement to our existing operations, offering multiple technological and raw material synergies. I look forward to welcoming the employees of HM Factory, whose expertise will be invaluable in accelerating green growth, especially in highly efficient modular construction.”

Bolivia: Construction of an upcoming 237,000m³/yr precast concrete plant in Uru Uru, Cercado Province, commenced on 13 December 2022. The plant will cost US$2.22m and have the capacity to produce 23,000 concrete paving blocks per day.

China: A team at Southeast University has developed an alternative concrete that contains 8% cement. It uses coral reef limestone fragments and biodebris with an upper particle size of 53mm as fine aggregate. The researchers concluded that the material proved suitable for use in precast concrete paving slab production.

Costa Rica: Holcim Costa Rica has acquired the heavy precast unit of Productos de Concreto for US$3.35m. The La Nación newspaper has reported that the company also increased its stake in prefabricated construction company Tecnología de Construcción to 100% from 49%. The latter deal's value was US$774,000.

Holcim Costa Rica's corporate affairs manager José Alfredo Alpízar Guzmán said that these latest acquisitions complement the producer's existing abilities to supply its customers.

India: Finland-based Betolar has launched its first concrete products manufactured using Geoprime on the Indian market. Geoprime is an additive designed for use in cement-free concrete production with ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). The new concrete product range consists of precast blocks, paving slabs and tiles, and is currently on display at World of Concrete India in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Betolar's India managing director Abhishek Bhattacharya said "We are happy to introduce our first products to our customers for the Indian markets. We have now moved from laboratory tests into the production phase, and can show concretely how well this solution works. It is great to hear the feedback from the concrete industry in the region to our sustainable solution. Decarbonisation of the concrete industry is a very current and important topic."

India: Three new Indian concrete companies have separately secured agreements for the use of Finland-based Betolar’s Geoprime alkali-activated slag and fly ash additive. Reuters News has reported that the companies are Balaiji Cement Products, Shiv Tiles and SNEH Precast. Engineering company Godrej & Boyce has also signed a letter of intent with the supplier for pilot production of concrete blocks, paving slabs and other elements.

Betolar expects producers to achieve global concrete production volumes of 250,000t/yr of concrete containing Geoprime by 2023.

Vietnam: Trung Hieu Development Corporation has secured a five-year contract to use Betolar’s alkali-activated slag and fly ash-based concrete additive Geoprime. Trung Hieu Development Corporation plans to source the materials for Geoprime from local industrial side streams. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that the move will eliminate 80% of raw materials CO₂ emissions across its 120,000t/yr-worth precast concrete production capacity.

Betolar's Head of Asia Juha Pinomaa said "Vietnam is the world's third largest cement producer and fourth largest cement consumer, with 85Mt/yr. We estimate that the Vietnamese market represents significant commercial potential for us in the coming years due to the huge potential for cement replacement.” He concluded “We can promote the local circular economy and accelerate Vietnam's sustainable development efforts by directly offering cement-free alternatives. The Vietnamese steel and energy industry generates large amounts of steel slag and fly ash as side streams, which can be used for Geoprime-based concrete."