Global Concrete News

US: Switzerland-based Sika is starting up production at a new concrete admixtures plant at Stafford in Virginia that opened earlier in 2022. The 3950m² facility has a production capacity of 50,000t/yr and two mixers with a capacity greater than 27,000l each. The unit is intended to serve markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions along with the company’s existing concrete admixtures plant at Fairless Hills in Philadelphia.

Christoph Ganz, Regional Manager Americas said "This investment allows us to significantly expand our production capacity while creating the best possible conditions for continued growth in the North American market. Our concrete admixtures satisfy the construction sector’s most demanding requirements and make it possible to produce higher-performance, resource-saving concrete. Sika admixtures enable the realisation of critical infrastructure projects, are used in state-of-the-art high-rise construction, and help increase sustainability in megacities."

Germany: HeidelbergCement has joined EPEA’s Heidelberg Circular City Building Material Registry pilot project. The initiative uses EMEA’s Urban Mining Screening digital registry, which is able to estimate the composition of buildings based on building data. HeidelbergCement says that it will enable it to source construction and demolition waste for circular economic use in building materials production. This will support its ReConcrete 360° recycled concrete CO₂ reincorporation project, among other projects. The initiative will turn Heidelberg into Europe’s first Circular City.

“Full circular economy and sustainable construction are central elements of our climate strategy,” said HeidelbergCement chair Dominik von Achten. “We are focusing on the life cycle assessment of our product concrete, including the processing of demolished concrete, and returning it to the construction cycle. By 2030, we want to offer circular alternatives for half of our concrete products.” Von Achten concluded “Together with the city of Heidelberg, also a pioneer in the area of climate protection, we want to use the Circular City project to demonstrate the enormous potential of concrete recycling for future urban construction.”

Finland: Betolar has patented a method for producing binder from the by-products of metal extraction. The method uses metallic effluent, sludge and dregs generated by the bioleaching of ores.

Chief innovation officer Juha Leppänen said “The ability to produce new solutions for the utilisation of sidestreams is essential to the functioning of our ecosystem. Betolar has a rapidly growing patent portfolio considering its age. We have already obtained approved patents for five inventions of ours.” He added “Waste materials, such as gypsum sludge, can also be used in other construction applications which will be of great value to Betolar's business in the future.”

Switzerland: Holcim has announced a partnership with Norman Foster Foundation with the aim of turning emergency housing into resilient homes. The collaboration will leverage Holcim's concrete expertise to develop reusable designs. Holcim says that it will focus on innovations such as low-carbon concrete, lightweight prefabricated support structures and green cements for soil stabilisation.

Chief executive officer Jan Jenisch said “Currently, we have over 80m people who have been forced to flee their homes around the world. Emergency shelters can be more than just a roof over their head: they should offer people the dignity and safety of a home. We are excited to collaborate with the Norman Foster Foundation to put our solutions as well as our expertise in affordable housing to work to achieve this goal.”

Europe: Italy-based Cementir has launched Aalborg InBind, a premixed white binder for ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) applications. The supplier said that Aalborg InBind optimizes UHPC producers' costs by leveraging locally available materials.

Group chief sales, marketing and commercial development officer Michele Di Marino said “The specific needs of local projects have led precast concrete producers to look for their own UHPC by using local aggregates and chemical admixtures." He added "InBind is set to meet the market needs by providing a flexible and user-friendly binder solution.”