Cement

10 Impressive Facts about Concrete

1. Concrete is the most-used material in the world
It may not come as a surprise to discover that concrete is incredibly widely used; it is, in fact, used more than any other material in the world – perhaps because the aggregates and water used to create concrete are available virtually everywhere. However it might be more surprising to learn that 20 billion tons are put to use every year, with China being the largest consumer of concrete in the world, responsible for half of the world’s concrete annually!

2. Concrete and cement are not the same
To think ‘concrete’ and ‘cement’ are identical is like saying flour is the same as cake. Only around 10-15% of concrete is cement, which is itself mostly made up of lime; between 60% and 65% is made up of an aggregate such as gravel or sand and 15-20% is water.

3. The Ancient Romans perfected concrete – and it still stands today
It formed naturally in Israel twelve million years ago, and the Ancient Egyptians used a type of concrete in the pyramids at Giza; but it was the Romans who captured the knack of concrete. Most famously, the Pantheon in Rome, built in around 120 AD, is still the largest unsupported concrete structure in the world.

4. Portland Cement is named after the limestone of a similar colour
Developed in 1824 by Joseph Aspdin, Portland Cement is widely used today as the aggregate for most concrete. Aspdin heated limestone and clay to produce a render, which could pass for the sought-after limestone Portland, Dorset. He quickly discovered it could be used for house building and patented the material.

5. Concrete was used to detect enemy aircraft in the Second World War
Remarkably, concrete “sound mirrors” were used at the beginning of the Second World War to provide an early warning of approaching aircraft. Initially they had microphones attached, and had an impressive aural range of about 27 miles.

6. Incredibly high compression strength
Concrete commonly reaches between 3,000 and 7,000 psi (pressure per square inch), though can reach as much as 20,000 psi. The fact that the Colosseum, Hadrian’s Wall and the aqueduct at Pont du Gard in the south of France are all still standing is testament to being built using concrete. When reinforced with steel, it is even more sturdy and more rigid.

7. Concrete was named by the Romans
The word ‘concrete’ comes from the Latin word ‘Concretus’, which roughly translated means, appropriately, to ‘grow together’.

8. Concrete is used for motorway bridges and high-rise buildings
Almost all motorway bridges use concrete for decks, because they are both easier to maintain and cheaper than steel. It remains in use in the construction of high-rise buildings; the tallest concrete structure in the world is the Trump International Hotel and Tower, standing at 423 metres.

9. Concrete continues to strengthen for decades
After around four weeks, concrete has reached around 90% of its final strength. However it continues to strengthen for decades afterwards, due to the conversion of calcium hydroxide into calcium carbonate, due to its absorption of carbon dioxide over time. Some bacteria also help to strengthen concrete!

10. It took 16 million cubic metres of cement to make the world’s largest dam
The Three Gorges dam in China’s Hubei Province is the largest concrete pour in a single project – but this was no one-off pour. In the 17 years of construction time, almost one million cubic metres of cement per year was needed.

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Republic Cement expects strong growth in the Philippines

Philippines: Republic Cement has said that it expects the cement sector in the Philippines to grow strongly in 2021 following a 10% decline in demand in 2020. Speaking to local press, the company’s president and chief executive officer Nabil Francis said that the drop in demand in 2020 was actually less severe than the expected 15%. He added, “We strongly believe that we will get back to 2019 level in 2021. That means 12% growth compared to 2020.” Francis added that the industry is expected to sell 35Mt of cement during 2021. The main driver is the bagged cement segment, with infrastructure and the non-residential, likely to grow less rapidly.
Francis additionally said that he welcomed the Department of Trade and Industry’s investigation into alleged dumping of cement into the Philippines from Vietnam. He said that the imported cement is sold at very low prices, its production having been subsidized by the Vietnamese government. He said the influx of imported cement has injured the local industry.

The cement industry in the Philippines has been generating a lot of ‘steam’ in the past three months. Some of this has now come to a head in the last few weeks with the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) decision to impose tariffs on imported cement and the Philippine Competition Commission’s (PCC) on-going investigation into alleged-anti-competitive behaviour. Then, there was the unnamed sourced quoted by Bloomberg this week that LafargeHolcim was seriously thinking about selling up in the country.
Resistance to imported cement has been building for a while as local producers and importers have repeatedly clashed in the media. The latest thread of this story started in September 2018 when the DTI started an investigation into imports. A review by the department found that imports grew by 70% year-on-year in 2014, 4391% in 2015, 549% in 2016 and 72% in 2017. However, the market-share of imports grew from 0.02% in 2013 to 15% in 2017. This was followed by various organizations taking sides. The Philippine Constructors Association, Laban Konsyumer (a consumer group), the Philippine Cement Importers Association and others came out on the side of the importers, warning of the risk to prices and consumers if duties were implemented.
It didn’t stop the DTI though. It imposed a provisional safeguard duty of US$0.16/bag on imported cement, around 4% of the cost of a 40kg bag. The PCC then said that it was going to consider the new tariff as part of its on-going investigation. Its probe started in 2017 following allegations that the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CEMAP), LafargeHolcim Philippines and Republic Cement and Building Materials had violated the Philippines Competition Act by engaging in anti-competitive agreements.
Amid all of this, LafargeHolcim popped up earlier this week with a news story that it was actively trying to find the ‘right’ price for its local subsidiary, Holcim Philippines. The ‘right’ price at the moment being something around US$2.5bn for four integrated plants and associated assets. That’s around US$225/t of production capacity using the total of 8.4Mt/yr in the Global Cement Directory 2019 and considering LafargeHolcim’s 75% share in the subsidiary. This is about what you’d expect, but it is certainly higher than the US$120/t LafargeHolcim has officially accepted for its divestment of its Indonesian operations.
Given the anonymous nature of the sources involved, it’s uncertain whether LafargeHolcim’s alleged intentions to sell in the Philippines is anything more than market scuttlebutt. What is more certain is that Holcim Philippines has had a tough time so far in 2018, reporting a 23% year-on-year drop in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$64.8m in the first nine months of 2018 from US$83.9m in the same period in 2017. Sales have grown but this has been hit by the fuel, power and distribution costs as well as the depreciation of the Philippine Peso against the US Dollar. It also blamed imports for its problems. However, alongside all of this the company announced in December 2018 that it was spending US$300m towards increasing its production capacity by 30% to 13Mt/yr by 2020. This includes upgrades to its plants at Bulacan and Misamis Oriental with the installation of new kilns, mills and waste heat recovery systems.
The latest victory in the war between producers and importers seems to be on the side of the producers as the government steps in with protection for the industry. The Philippines’ economy is doing well with its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast to rise by 6.5% in 2019 by the World Bank. The trick for the government will be striking the balance between shielding industry from dumping and allowing the construction industry to keep on growing. Rumours about LafargeHolcim selling up are enticing but seem less likely than LafargeHolcim’s decision to exit Indonesia. Leaving would mean abandoning South-East Asia and exiting a country with a growing industry.
This Article is written by David Perilli, Global Cement

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It's "CONCRETE" not CEMENT

Smoothing This Out
Felt a Little Ruff😅