CEMEX : SALE OF THE CENTURY?

CEMEX'S AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION COMES TO A STICKY END as Cemex try to reduce costs by £288 million by selling off assets and re-financing  the £2 billion loan it used last year to buy Australia's RINKER group. So far sales of cement, concrete and aggregate plants are anticipated in Australia, Austria and Hungary and possibly in the USA, according to the press reports, which say that product sales are down by 20-30%, or so. The Credit Crunch has hit home hard, and the loan has been restructured from 2009 to 2010 with a higher interest rate.


JOB LOSSES
worldwide equate to about 10% of the work force - about 6,000 jobs - as concrete sales flop and Cemex sells assets. In the UK Cemex has been working on efficiency; prioritising capital expenditure, and cutting back on investment in new projects  and in some cases putting them on hold;  reducing the cement and aggregate fleet to improve productivity, reducing shifts, overtime spend and head count across the business by at least 10%. Underutilised assets are to be closed and mothballed. Won't come a moment too soon for Rugby residents, who eagerly plan the street party to celebrate the permanent mothball of the monstrous plant.


WASTE PLANT PLAN: IN JEOPARDY AS CO-INCINERATOR CANNOT BE USED FOR INCINERATION ONLY -  will not meet the more restrictive Waste Incinerator Directive limits, without the cement-related exemptions it currently "enjoys", which permit much higher emissions than incinerators.

PROXIMITY PRINCIPLE?
SOUTHAM /RUGBY WAR CONTINUES:

GOING IN:
North Warwicks  42,000 tpa =  151 tpd  = 14 HGV.
Nuneaton            75,000 tpa =  270 tpd =   24 HGV
Stratford             30,000 tpa  = 108 tpd = 10 HGV
Stratford             30,000 tpa  = 108 tpd = 22 REFUSE TRUCKS.
Warwick             66,000 tpa =   257 tpd   = 20 HGV
Rugby                57,000 tpa =   205 tpd  =  42 REFUSE trucks
SUB-TOTAL    300,000 tpa = 1,099 tpd = 132 HGVs per day.
RDF                124,000 tpa = 354 tpd = 34 HGVs
TOTAL             424,000 tpa = 1,453 = 166 HGVs?


GOING OUT
250,000 tpa - 713 tpd = 68 HGVs to the Cemex co-incinerator.
70,000 tpa - 210 tpd to landfill
35,000 tpa - 107 tpd to recycle
335,000 tpa - 1,030 tpd


TOTAL POLLUTION/GAS/AIR/WATER/ETC DRIED OFF AND VENTED OVER RUGBY 400  tonnes each day!! Why bring in about 1,500  tonnes waste daily  then DRY one third of it off over our heads with all these POLLUTANTS in it - nearly 20 tonnes an hour over us from a 45 metre stack with a semi-permanent plume?  And that is without counting the Cemex co-incinerator emissions from the 30 tonnes an hour of refuse burning - for which they have no IPPC Permit as yet!

SENSITIVE LORRY MILE ASSESSMENT:
In a detailed planning application for a half a million tonne a year waste plant one would expect the required  assessment of the SENSITIVE LORRY MILES which involve the costing to the community, infrastructure, health service etc of the different lorry routes to be used. Obviously the motorway miles are priced most cheaply  as they do the least damage to the environment, where as those miles in small country lanes are more costly  to the public, and those in towns, especially  in air quality management areas, are even more costly adding as they do to the damage
to the infrastructure, the environment, pollution, air quality problems and associated health damage.



LAING RAIL REPORT April 2004 as submitted is five years out of date, and only considered the 140 clay lorries each day, and is not relevant to this new proposal. The railway needs to be re-assessed as an alternative form of transport and  the SOUTHAM site shows there would be much less environmental, air quality and health damage if that site were to be used, AND even more if  the rail link re-opened. It would take off the road some 140 clay lorries each day, and the RDF 160, so say 300 HGVs a day on a 30 mile round trip. That would save about 4,500 lorry miles each day on small B roads and in the town of Rugby.
How much pollution is that - tail pipe, brakes and tyres, and the SAVING of 4,5000 miles a day of fossil fuels?  No attempt has been made to seriously address the total lorries and the pollution that could be avoided.