Today we visited Vassiliko Cement Works and had an interactive tour of the premises. In the company’s presentation, they discusave 310 factories in 33 countries, and their facility in Cyrpus is their largest in Europe. I learned from this presentation that concrete is the second most consumed material in the world, the first being water. I had no idea how important concrete is to our societies, and that just shows how important this business of making cement is. To clarify, cement is the main ingredient in concrete.

Something Vassiliko stressed is their efforts to be more sustainable and decrease their CO2 emissions. Making cement produces 8-10 tons of steam coal (a type of fossil fuel) per hour. They are currently looking into and experimenting with alternative forms of fuel such as chopped tyres, dry sewage sludge, waste wood, and RDF (refuse-derived fuel). To do this, they process local waste streams such as garbage and recycling, which we saw when we drove into the plant. Many companies we talked to seemed to bring up sustainability for the “brownie points”, and did not have much data to back up their claims. Also, many of these companies are shipping related, which contributes very little CO2 in the grand scheme, so there is not much more they can even be doing to be more sustainable. However, Vassiliko Cement Works was fairly impressive in their efforts in becoming more sustainable, especially because they are in an industry that could be improved in that area. 

In this one cement plant, Vassiliko covers the majority of the cement supply chain. Here, they own quarries that produce the raw materials for clinker (intermediate of cement). These materials include limestone and clay, and they also have a gypsum quarry that is used as an additive. Here, the raw materials are transformed through many stages (crushes, pre-blended, grinded, stores, pre-heated, etc), until the final product is produced. Not only that, but Vassiliko also bags their product and exports it via the Vassiliko port. I can only imagine how much money is saved due to the fact that so much of the supply chain is in-house and not outsourced. 

In terms of being a Global company, that comes with a few challenges. They have to be careful about following EU regulations, as well as deal with the added concern of how  the Turkish side of Cyprus’s regulations are different from the lower part of Cyprus. Additionally, where they ship the product is restricted, not because of different country’s regulations, but because of the high cost of shipping in certain parts of the world.