Buzzi Unicem has approved a capital plan to modernize and expand its cement production facility located at Maryneal, Texas. The project will reduce the plant’s environmental footprint while more than doubling capacity to serve the increasing demand for cement for the construction and oil and gas industries.
With the expansion, cement production capacity at the Maryneal plant will be increased from 600,000 tons per year to 1.2 million tons per year. Buzzi Unicem also will install state-of the-art emission control equipment that will significantly reduce the level of nitrogen oxide and allow for compliance with other stringent environmental limits.

“As an industry leader in quality and service, Buzzi Unicem is committed to sustainable, environmentally responsible manufacturing at all of its plants,” said David Nepereny, president of Buzzi Unicem USA. “The Maryneal plant expansion will result in a world-class facility that has the latest pyroprocessing, environmental, and safety equipment.”
The company currently employs approximately 100 full-time employees at the Maryneal plant, 80 percent of whom live in Nolan County, Texas. This expansion will solidify the jobs for the plant’s workforce and create more than 200 full-time construction jobs during the estimated two to three year time period to erect and commission the facility.

We are pleased to announce the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) has awarded Buzzi Unicem USA two certifications under their wildlife improvement programs. The WHC Wildlife at Work certification, recognizing programs that create, conserve, and restore wildlife habitats on corporate lands, was awarded to the Cape Girardeau, MO plant for their efforts in assisting the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) in restoring the population of alligator gar fish in eastern Missouri. The WHC Corporate Lands for Learning certification, recognizing programs that promote innovative teaching and learning techniques and provide opportunities for community members to get involved in conservation efforts, was awarded to the Stockertown, PA plant for their creation of an open air laboratory designed to enhance the education of local high school students, about the interactions between a heavy manufacturing facility and the surrounding environment.

Buzzi Unicem USA recently announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have awarded four of its U.S. cement manufacturing plants the ENERGY STAR® label for their superior energy performance.  Buzzi’s plants in Chattanooga, TN, Festus, MO, Maryneal, TX, and Pryor, OK, received the honor.
This marks the fifth consecutive year the Chattanooga, Festus, Maryneal plants have received certification, while it is the third consecutive year that the Pryor plant received the award.
In order to qualify for ENERGY STAR recognition, cement plants must score at least 75 on the Energy Performance Indicator (EPI), used by the EPA to measure energy efficiency.  In addition, the plant must have a three-year history of environmental compliance.
The ENERGY STAR program is a joint initiative by the EPA and DOE that focuses on strategic energy management and emphasizes the importance of demonstrating environmental leadership for future generations.

The European cement industry association Cembureau has initiated a project, “The Role of Cement in the 2050 Low Carbon Economy”, in which Buzzi Unicem is participating through the Italian cement industry association, AITEC.
The goal of the project is to find solutions for reducing CO2 emissions generated by the cement production process using current and future technologies, concluding theoretically in 2050. That’s not all, however. Another goal set by Cembureau is to find ways of building with concrete that use less energy. As opposed to other construction materials, concrete could in fact play a key role due to its long life and insulating properties. Studies have shown that, if designed correctly, concrete structures consume up to 75% less energy during their lifetime, so appropriate investments in new products and innovative applications could significantly help reduce emissions.

There are many other ideas on the table to help make the European cement industry more sustainable, such as constructing innovative, low-energy buildings, finding new solutions for transporting the materials with less impact on the environment, constructing taller buildings with a view to the global population that is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, and numerous other large-scale projects that will make greater use of our natural resources such as the wind, sea and sun.

Since the beginning of May, a miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty has been camped out in front of the main building of Volyn Cement at Zdolbuniv in Ukraine. Two meters tall, the statue was named Liberty Enlightening the World (Liberty inspires the world). It represents the stability of the company and the reliability of its products, and has been a symbol of pride for the employees who pass it every day. In fact, Dyckerhoff was awarded the contract to supply 8,000 barrels of high quality cement for the foundations of the Statue of Liberty, the pouring of which commenced in 1884. This order was the first time that the company exported its products to the new market overseas.

The constant evolution of our products was recently underlined by a new advertising campaign, which accurately promotes the properties of special binders. In particular, the advertising pages for Solidur, Rocket and Buzzi Unicem Next were all completely redesigned. We identified a key concept for each product, which the communication would then be developed around with the intention of highlighting use of the product from a technical point of view, without detracting from the visual and emotional impact. For example, for Solidur we focused on the concept of securing a contaminated site, the message associated with Rocket is speed and for Next the emphasis is on the concept of versatility and the multiple uses of the binder. The new advertising pages will be released in a selection of specialist magazines and will initially be aimed at the Italian market.

After a few years of absence, Buzzi Unicem is returning to the SAIE – Building Innovation Exhibition, at the invitation of Federbeton. The exhibition will be held in Bologna from 16 – 19 October 2013.
Our stand will be located in the Safe Building area, where we will present new Buzzi Unicem Next, the first sulphoaluminate cement in Europe to have received CE marking including structural uses, and New Rocket 200.
Our subsidiary Unical will in turn be emphasizing the new Unical Smart supply model and the H2NO project, an initiative strongly backed by the company in order to declare war on concrete weakened by adding water on site.
During the exhibition, which has now reached its 49th edition, numerous seminars and workshops will be held on subjects in the same field, such as seismic and geotechnical issues and maintenance and structural consolidation.

For a free pass click here , fill in the form and download your pass using the code: SAIEYXE1.

Buzzi Unicem will participate in the 7th edition of the Remediation of Contaminated Sites and Area Redevelopment (RemTech), which will be held at the Exhibition Center in Ferrara from 18-20 September. We will be exhibiting Solidur®, our special binding agent for environmental remediation, in pavilion 3, stand n° 4.
This marks the seventh consecutive year that Buzzi Unicem has participated in RemTech, the most specialized expo on remediation technologies in Italy and which has always proven to be extremely interesting, mainly because it provides an excellent opportunity to meet environmental and hydraulic engineering professionals and for some lively exchanges with experts, technicians and architectural designers.

On 28 June 2013, Buzzi Unicem obtained the CE mark for its Next sulfoaluminate binder product line developed by the R&D team of Buzzi Unicem located in Trino (Vercelli) laboratory. The certification was awarded after a series of experiments and tests conducted over a period of 3 years.
Buzzi Unicem is the first company in Europe to obtain the CE mark on calcium sulphoaluminate cement and to grant also on this special binder the same strict requirements in terms of composition, performance and durability characteristics that can be obtained with Portland cements.
Obtaining the CE mark forges the way ahead toward new uses for these cements in concrete structures, thus spawning innovation in the hydraulic binders sector and simultaneously guaranteeing the strict quality control standards as well as greater environmental protection.

Until a short while ago, the use of visual concrete in buildings was the exception rather than the rule, and this was not limited to the Czech Republic. These days, however, architects, designers and artists are increasingly turning to this material due to its versatile workability useful for boundless creativity. ZAPA has become a leading brand in the visual concrete market in the Czech Republic as evidenced by the long list of projects made with its products throughout the country. One of the most interesting works undertaken by the company was in Prague from sculptur Roman Týc, who created three 5-meter high parallelepipeds which are scattered with shoes incorporated during the pouring of the concrete and arranged at specific points. ZAPA has also worked on other original projects, such as the “denticulated” facade of a wine cellar in southern Moravia and the 2nd World War victims memorial in Dolní Počernice.

Other works have been truly challenging, such as the Karlov hotel in Benešov due to the huge quantities of colored concrete that had to be delivered over a span of two years, or the creation of a bar counter made of red self-compacting concrete mixed with polypropylene fibers in the Mala Strana district of Prague, which was a particularly problematic task both during the production and transport phases as well as the pumping operations.

Since its founding in 1916, the PCA's mission is Improve and expand the uses of Portland cement and concrete. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. the PCA's goals are to create jobs and economic growth and to develop infrastructure investments, innovation projects and excellence in construction throughout the U.S. and Canada.
On April 29, PCA recognized six cement plants with the Chairman's Safety Performance Award for outstanding safety records at PCA's Spring Meeting in Chicago. PCA honored plants in three categories designated by the number of hours employees collectively worked in 2012 for achieving superior safety records.
The plants were:
- Texas Industries Inc., Riverside, CA - Less than 193,500 employee hours
- St. Marys Cement, Detroit, MI - Less than 193,500 employee hours
- CEMEX USA, Odessa, TX - Between 193,501 and 255,500 employee hours
- CalPortland, Rillito, AZ - Between 193,501 and 255,500 employee hours
- Lafarge North America, Alpena, MI - More than 255,001 employee hours
- Alamo Cement Company, San Antonio, TX - More than 255,001 employee hours.

This year the records of 101 portland cement plants in the United States and Canada were reviewed to determine which ones achieved the best safety records. Several of these plants had no accidents in 2012, and all the plants excelled in preventing accidents.

Buzzi Unicem started commercializing the new Next line this year. Produced in Italy, this family of innovative binders is capable of forging a new frontier in the construction industry and in particular in the high performance hydraulic binder segment.
Next binders can be used in multiple applications in the pre-mixed building material industry  and in the precasting sectors, which demand high mechanical performance levels, low shrinkage rates and high resistance to sulfates.
The Next product line consists of three main sub-families: Next clinker, Next base and Next binder.
Next clinker, when used in mixes with Portland cement, it accelerates setting and initial hardening times and can also be used to formulate binders for quick setting mortars.
Next base ensures the reliability and constancy of performance, which is essential in the pre-mixed building material industry. It can be used in tile adhesives, technical mortars, quick hardening premixed mortars and grouts even at low temperatures, in spray and injected  products and in the latest generation self-leveling screeds.
Next binder is a ready-to-use hydraulic binder suitable for self-leveling screeds and quick precasting. It can be used to create mortars and concrete of any workability class to obtain strong, durable products that allow early removal of formwork.

We publish the 10^th edition of the sustainability report.
On May 10^th the 10^th edition of the sustainability report 2012 was presented during the General Shareholders  Meeting.
The report shows the social, environmental and economic indicators related to the year 2012 disclosed according to the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines.

The 2012 edition shows a group disclosure and a focus on Italy, while the country reports related to the other nations will be available in the sustainability section of the corporate web site.
The sustainability report 2012 confirms the level of application A+ and is written up and published in Italian and English.

A few months ago, the Geseke cement plant (North Rhine-Westphalia) inaugurated the “Mythos Stein” park, which extends along a 750-meter itinerary in a disused part of the plant’s quarry. Designed in close collaboration with the Nature Conservation Foundation of Geseke, the site is open to visitors 24 hours/7 days per week allowing them to experience a unique symbiosis between man, nature, industry and culture. Sculptures by artist Renate Geschke, carved mainly from Anröchte dolomite or limestone from Geseke, are situated harmoniously among the local flora and fauna. The park hosts approximately 40 species of animals and plants on the “at risk of extinction” list. In some areas, visitors can see different types of orchids such as the early purple orchid or the bee orchid, and from the animal kingdom the predominantly amphibian species which inhabit the park. On the walls of the quarry, visitors can see the traces of history left by the various geological eras over millions of years. Embedded in the rocks are numerous fossils, the remains of life that existed in the epicontinental sea in Northern Germany.
Besides sculpture, nature and geology, Dyckerhoff also wants visitors to discover the company and cement plant so various descriptive panels have been installed in the park illustrating the characteristics of “Cement and Concrete” and the “Dyckerhoff Geseke Plant”. In other words, a complete itinerary, full of information in the middle of nature.

The “La Madonnina” nature oasis is situated on the right bank of the Stura di Demonte river in the municipality of Sant’Albano Stura, 20 km north of Cuneo.
Extending over an area of 220,000 m2 in a former natural aggregates quarry, the land was donated to the town by our company to create a bird reserve. The land was transferred in two parcels, with the first 100,000 m2 donated in 2003 and the remaining 120,000 m2 in 2009. With the donation of the last parcel and the installation of bird-watching infrastructures, the oasis has become one of the most important wetlands in Piedmont, dedicated to passionate ornithologists and enjoyed as a place of recreation in the middle of nature by families and children alike. On Sunday, March 17, 10 years after the first parcel of land was transferred, the town council awarded Buzzi Unicem with a plaque for making this tranquil, peaceful Oasis visited by thousands of people possible.
Please visit the www.oasimadonnina.eu website for further information and see the study created by our Quarries and Mines department here enclosed.