58th Cement Industry Technical Conference

The 58th Cement Industry Technical Conference in Dallas, Texas attracted 971 attendees who celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the Portland Cement Association. The conference was truly international with representatives from 28 countries; the top five of which were the United States, ­Canada, Germany, the UK and Italy. The cement producers sent 160 delegates from 28 cement producing companies who discussed the newest technologies and innovations with 176 exhibitors.

The organizers invited, as a keynote speaker, Jeff Austin III. He is the commissioner of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees statewide activities of the Texas Department of Transportation. Mr. Austin, Vice Chairman of the Austin Bank of Texas NA, focused his presentation on the economic opportunities and challenges for the state of Texas to improve and develop the transportational infrastructure. Over the last 40 years the population of Texas increased by more than 125 % while the road capacity increased by only 9 %. He predicted that traditional roadways will soon no longer be sufficient to move all goods and services in a timely and efficient manner considering the economical and population growth of the state.

Ed Sullivan, PCA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, presented his much anticipated outlook on the economic growth of the cement industry. Mr. Sullivan explained why the PCA’s long term forecast had to be revised: The “structural forces”, brought on by the recent recession had a much greater hindering affect on the economic growth than expected. He described the revised outlook as a more patient forecast due to the impact, for example, of the weak economic growth in China and the decay in cement intensity (the amount of cement/concrete per ton of construction activity) in 2015 in the U.S. The millennials are burdened with student loans and the construction industry lost 30 % of its skilled labor force during the last recession. This is affecting, in particular, the residential construction sector.

Cement imports have increased due to lower freight rates in spite of the fact that in the U.S. there continue to be kilns in temporary shutdown. The import penetration reached 19 % in 2015 according to the PCA and this trend will most likely continue even if the cement consumption grows at a slower rate than previously expected.

The kiln utilization rate was at 78 % in 2015 and is forecasted to be at 88 % in 2020. Additional capacities will be compensated through imports which will prevent or delay the investment in new capacities in the United States.

However, the previous forecast did not take into consideration the FAST new highway bill which will strengthen the market. Also, the oil price decline did not have a significant impact on the construction sector as expected. The non-residential sector will benefit from the increased job creation over the next years. The public construction sector will grow as the population grows, which is a major driver for the cement industry. The United States will add approximately 59 million people with 50 million more drivers by 2040 in comparison to 2015. According to Mr. Sullivan, a 7 % yearly growth rate in the cement industry to meet market demand is expected every year from 2016 through 2020.

The technical conference offered, for the first time, a 10-module series of training called “Process Training” that focused on the cement manufacturing process, which was well attended. This was in addition to the Professional Development Training, Tutorials and General Session Papers.

The General Session Papers focused primarily on plant experiences with equipment upgrades, new environmental rules and regulations as well as best practices.

Major equipment suppliers took the opportunity to take their customers sightseeing on day two of the conference. On day three and four, the 176 exhibitors had intense product and project discussions with their customers.

Plant tour to Ash Grove cement plant,

Midlothian, Texas

The plant tour, on day five, at the Ash Grove cement plant in Midlothian, TX was overshadowed by a fatality which occurred the week leading up to the conference. The plant personnel voted in favor of welcoming the delegates and the plant tour took place under rainy conditions. The facility was built in 1966 under a different owner and underwent numerous updates and upgrades over the years. The latest major upgrade was completed in 2014. After the most recent modification, the kiln system consists of a semi-dry system with a 3 stage preheater/precalciner with a modern clinker cooler and a design clinker production capacity of 2360 t/d. The pyro-system also includes one of the world’s largest Hotdisc Reactors for whole tire combustion of up to 7 t/h with a table diameter of 8.7 m.

The plant produces ASTM Type I/II cement and specialty products for the housing market (i.e. siding). The system is equipped with the latest state of the art emission control technology and was in 2014 the first plant in the United States in compliance with the new National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutions (NESHAP). The rule took effect in September 2015.

59th Annual IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement

Industry Technical Conference in Calgery

The conference concluded with the outlook of next year’s 59th IEEE-IAS/PCA 2017 Cement Industry Technical Conference (21.05.-25.05.2017) in ­Calgery/Canada where the LafargeHolcim Exshaw cement plant will be toured.

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