Materials Handling, News

Holcim acquires Nicem in green construction materials push

Nicem

Holcim has acquired Nicem, a leader in grounded calcium carbonate aggregate in Northern Italy, to increase the development of green construction material solutions.

With the acquisition of Nicem, the low-emission raw materials provided by the company are set to accelerate the green formulation of Holcim’s sustainable building solutions, which range from the ECOPact to ECOPlanet product lines.

Calcium carbonate is a highly versatile, low-carbon raw material that is useful for a broad range of applications. Nicem’s broad customer base spans industries from construction to plastic, rubber and paints.

Region head for Europe at Holcim, Miljan Gutovic, spoke on the benefits of the materials that Nicem supplies in Holcim’s push to decarbonise concrete.

“Nicem complements our existing operations perfectly and allows us to further leverage our expertise in green formulation, opening a new source of alternative materials to decarbonise our ready-mix concrete,” Gutovic said.

“I look forward to welcoming the employees of Nicem to the Holcim family, whose valuable expertise will help us accelerate green growth.”

ECOPact reduces the carbon intensity of concrete by 30-60 percent, by replacing the standard cement with alternative materials.

These alternate materials include industrial by-products like fly ash, blast furnace slag or silica fume and with the acquisition of Nicem, may in the future include calcium carbonate.

ECOPact provides designers and contractors with easy solutions to achieve lower embodied carbon outcomes in projects, through the carbon offsets which are built into the design of ECOPact..

Carbon offsets are an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions using programs that are recognised by the Australian Government’s Climate Active program.

These offsets work by proportionately compensating for any remaining carbon emissions, emissions that Holcim said the company plans to continue to invest significantly in research and technologies so that future carbon neutrality can be achieved entirely through product.

The acquisition of Nicem advances Holcim’s “Strategy 2025 – Accelerating Green Growth” by further fuelling growth with bolt-ons in aggregates and ready-mix concrete businesses.

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