Displaying items by tag: Netherlands

Netherlands: Ireland-based Ecocem has agreed a deal with Overslagbedrijf Moerdijk (OBM) to expand production and storage capacity at the company’s Moerdijk slag cement grinding plant. The project is intended to allow the unit to both produce and store the company’s advanced cement technology (ACT) product. It will quadruple the storage capacity for key materials at the site up to 40,000t. Ecocem has signed a long-term agreement to lease the site from OBM, who will manage the handling and storing materials on Ecocem’s behalf.

This expansion of the Moerdijk plant is part of Ecocem’s plans to expand its manufacturing and storage capacity to support the commercialisation of ACT across all its plants. It follows the expansion of its Dunkirk plant in France, which was announced in June 2023. These expansion plans will be supported by licencing and partnership strategies to accelerate availability and adoption of scalable low clinker cement at speed.

Conor O’Riain, Managing Director (Europe), at Ecocem, said: “We are increasing our capacity at all of our locations and our deal with OBM is a hugely important aspect of our expansion strategy. It will accelerate our ability to manufacture ACT our low clinker cement technology and make it available commercially by 2026. At the same time, we are actively pursuing licensing and partnership agreements in the construction industry to ensure the benefits of this technology are shared widely and we accelerate progress to Net Zero.”

In February 2024 Ecocem said that its ACT technology received an ETA (European Technical Assessment), which provides the technology with a route to full commercialisation by 2026.

Netherlands: India-based Tata Steel has announced a planned total investment of Euro300m in environmental upgrades to its IJmuiden, Noord Holland plant. The upgrades include a Euro150m nitrous oxides control (DeNO_x) plant at its pellet plant and a Euro50m odour, particulate emissions reduction modernisation of a coke and gas plant and projects to dust from converter slag processing. The steel producer says that these measures, called Roadmap+ will help the foundry to ‘exceed environmental laws.’

European regional chief executive officer (CEO) Henrik Adam said, "Tata Steel is taking additional action to build on its Roadmap 2030 plan with the announcement today of Roadmap+, which will enhance the environment in and around the IJmuiden plant. We are absolutely committed to sustainability as a strategic priority across the company, of which these measures are the latest example.”

Netherlands: Ecocem Benelux has inaugurated a new 5000t export silo at its Moerdijk ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) plant. The new silo has been built at the waterfront in Moerdijk and rests on 65 piles sunk to a depth of up to 50m. The system operates via a screw extractor that conveys the GGBS to the centre of the bulk silo, where screws and a bucket elevator carry it to the new 150m³ day-silo. Both trucks and ships can be directly loaded from the silo: trucks on the weighing bridge situated under the silo and ships via a pneumatic transport installation with a maximum capacity of 250t/hr.

Ecocem Benelux is a subsidiary of Ireland’s Ecocem Materials. Ecocem Benelux supplies GGBS in bulk to the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux) market for both concrete and mortars. The facility also exports to the Swedish market. Since opening in 2002 the plant has doubled its production capacity to 0.65Mt/yr.

Ireland: Eocem Ireland has introduced new corporate branding following growth in the Ecocem Group across Europe. The rebrand has been timed to tie in with group integration and new product launches. The ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) producer has adopted a new logo with a company tagline – ‘Innovation Powering Sustainability’ – to accentuate the group’s innovation and environmental sustainability. Ecocem says that the rebrand of Ecocem Ireland, which is tied in with a rebrand across the group, is an indication of the revised focus of the group over the coming years.

“It is an exciting time for the Ecocem Group as there are many areas that we are working on with our innovation teams that will bring targeted solutions to customers across Ireland and the UK enabling them to benefit from using increased percentages of GGBS within their market offerings,” said Micheál McKittrick, the Managing Director for Ecocem Ireland.

Ecocem says it is Europe’s largest independent specialist producer of GGBS cement with a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr. Developments in the organisation have seen a growing interaction across its operating regions in Ireland, Holland, France, UK and Sweden, as well as the emergence of new products. Ecocem Ireland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ecocem Materials and it operates a slag grinding plant in Dublin Port.

Europe: Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a European steel company by merging their flat steel businesses in Europe and including ThyssenKrupp’s steel mill. The proposed 50:50 joint venture will have its headquarters in Amsterdam and will be able to supply around 21Mt/yr of flat steel products.

“The Tata Group and ThyssenKrupp have a strong heritage in the global steel industry and share similar culture and values. This partnership is a momentous occasion for both partners, who will focus on building a strong European steel enterprise. The strategic logic of the proposed joint venture in Europe is based on very strong fundamentals and I am confident that ThyssenKrupp Tata Steel will have a great future,” said N Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Steel.

The merger will create the region’s second largest steel producer after ArcelorMittal. Cost synergies of up to Euro600m/yr are expected through the integration of commercial functions, research and development and other supporting activities. In addition to this, ThyssenKrupp Tata Steel would seek to improve capacity utilisation of the network across the three hubs of Ijmuiden in the Netherlands, Duisburg in Germany and Port Talbot in the UK and their related downstream facilities.