Today we visited VTTV and Vassiliko Cement. VTTV is an oil storing and modification company, which is a subsidiary of VTTI. Vassiliko produces cement for concrete.

VTTV stores oil for its customers. They also have the ability to modify the oil to meet certain specifications of different countries. They do not take ownership of the oil, they are just a middleman. A large part of their business is storing oil for countries as well. All countries in the EU legally need to store a certain amount of oil in case of emergency.

Their supply chain is as follows: Crude oil to refinery to storage to end user. The crude oil and refineries are their upstream suppliers and the end user is the only part of the downstream portion.

Vassiliko Cement also presented to us today. They started off the presentation by providing some background information on the area. They were the first company to contribute to what is now known as the energy district of Cyprus. It was empty there previously.

Energy is very prevalent in cement production. Also, with the ingredients of cement, aggregate and water, concrete is the second most consumed material in the world behind water (75 billion tons a year). Concrete is made up of about 13% cement on average. Therefore, the company needs a lot of energy to keep their plant running. They have shifted to burning cut up tires and wood for some of their fuel. Despite the challenges, they were ranked in the top 35 of 350 cement companies around the world.

Finally, we also shortly visited two very important religious locations in Cyprus. First, we saw Hala Sultan Tekke, which was beautiful. Then we saw St. Lazarus Church which was also beautiful. Both locations had an unbelievably rich history which I felt very lucky to be able to see.

Overall, we learned a lot today and also ended the day with a beach trip. We are heading to Paphos for our overnight stay tomorrow.