Lafarge to make cement cheaper thanks to domestic garbage

20.05.2009 — News

THE CHELYABINSK OBLAST.

France's Lafarge Group plans to build waste-recycling facilities in the Urals that will produce fuel for cement plants. The first one will be situated in the Chelyabinsk oblast next to the Uraltsement plant that Lafarge owns.

EcoUral ZAO, Lafarge's affiliate, suggests building two such plants in the Sverdlovsk oblast as well, one near Nizhniy Tagil and one near Kamensk-Uralskiy. As the company representatives informed RusBusinessNews, estimated investments are 3.5 million US dollars per plant.

Substituting 30-40% of the usual fuels with waste decreases production costs per 1 tonne of cement by 20% from the current 35 US dollars. In the USA, domestic garbage provides 100% of fuel for cement plants, in Europe - about 50%. It is not used in Russia yet.

In Q1 2009, Lafarge's cement sales fell by 9% down to 2.33 billion Euro, whereas the key markets such the Near East, Africa and Asia demonstrated steady growth. According to Alex de Valuhoff, Director of Lafarge Cement OAO, cement consumption in Russia this year will fall by more than 40%, below 36 million tonnes. At the same time, taking into consideration the rouble's devaluation potential, the prices may fall by 64%.