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Ecocem Set to Capitalise on Booming UK Market with £2 Million Investment

Ecocem Ireland, Ireland’s premier manufacturer of high performance low carbon cement, upped their export capacity with the official opening of their first bulk Import terminal, capitalising on the booming UK construction market.

Ecocem Ireland, a subsidiary of Irish company Ecocem Materials (Europe’s largest Independent Manufacturer of high performance, low carbon cement), will supply their first Bulk Import Facility in the UK (located in Runcorn on the Manchester Liverpool Ship Canal), from their production facility in Dublin Port.

The import terminal required an investment of £2 Million (€2.5 Million), with a further £2 Million already committed to increase capacity due to the growing demands of the market.

Conor O’Riain, Managing Director of Ecocem Ireland commented: “We’ve invested in state of the art equipment to demonstrate to the market that we’re here for the long term, and I’m delighted to say that the response from the market has been phenomenal. We’ve made commitments to sell more in the UK in our first year than our total domestic sales in 2016.”

Ecocem’s cement is the Best Available Technology for minimising the environmental impact of concrete, whilst maximising its technical performance. This technology is used widely in Ireland and the UK in projects such as the AVIVA Stadium in Dublin and the Shard in London.

Domestic cement production in the UK has traditionally not been sufficient to cope with domestic demand. The shortfall is covered by imports from around Europe, and using alternative locally available materials. Two of the most prominent materials are Fly Ash, a by-product of the burning of coal, and GGBS (manufactured using a by-product of the production of Steel) – the technology used by Ecocem.

As the UK seeks to reduce its carbon footprint, coal fired power stations are either being shut down or switching to biomass fuel. The challenges facing the UK steel Industry have been well publicised (strong sterling, cheap Chinese imports, etc…) and have resulted in the closing of some factories and a sharp reduction in output from others. These two factors have resulted in shortages in the supply of alternative binders to the concrete industry, increasing costs and lowering performance.

The UK concrete industry have long appreciated the technical superiority of using alternatives such as GGBS, and Ecocem are now in a very strong position to exploit this opportunity.

Ecocem have already started construction on another import facility in Sheerness, giving access to the lucrative London and South East markets to further develop in the UK.Andrew Martin – Group Land & Property Directory of Peel Ports commented “We are delighted to be working with the Ecocem team to enable and support their entry into the UK market. We have been able to provide a multi-site solution that will accelerate the delivery of product as close as possible to the areas of consumption. We wish Conor and his team the best of success for the future.

This is part of the overall Ecocem Materials Strategy to develop export markets from its existing facilities. For example, their Dutch subsidiary, Orcem, recently completed an import terminal in Sweden and began exporting in February.

The demand for low carbon materials in Europe has never been stronger, reinforced by the historic international agreements at the recent COP 21. Ecocem’s ability to deliver a reduction of over 70% in the carbon footprint of concrete, the world’s most popular building material, means the future is bright for the Irish firm.

Source: www.ecocem.ie

 

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