The Slovenia Times

The future of Lafarge cement plant Trbovlje

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At Friday's press conference Haimo Primas said that Lafarge Cement submitted the appeal within the statutory time limit. "In the appeal we have stated several reasons why we disagree with ARSO's rejection of the environmental permit," He emphasized there was 32 million EUR of investments made in the past years to reduce environmental impact of the plant. "The plant operates in accordance with Slovene and EU legislation," he concludes.

Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Central Europe Thomas Spannagl presented position of Lafarge Group. "In other EU countries it normally takes us 2 years to obtain environmental permit. This procedure in Slovenia lasts for 7 years now, making our operations in Trbovlje uncompetitive. We see great potential in Trbovlje cement, which is one of the best plants inside Lafarge group in terms of environmental impact, safety performance and skilled staff.'' He added that Lafarge has positive experience in obtaining environmental permits in other European countries, including for the use of alternative fuels. He explained that German cement plants use in average 63 per cent of fuel they need for cement production from waste, and Austrian 65 per cent. We assume that competitor plant in Slovenia uses 60 per cent. Spannagl stressed out that the use of alternative fuels in the EU is the rule rather than the exception.

Lafarge Cement operates in line with the Slovenian and EU legislation. The plant obtained the environmental permit for alternative fuels in 2009, after investing more than EUR 32 million in the upgrade and modernization of cement plant. The plant operates in accordance with European legislation and all the measurements are well below legal limit values. The results from the past show that plants operations while using alternative fuels have no negative influence on the emissions. Also, its modernisation resulted in significant reduction of emissions: SO2 was reduced for more than 97%, NOx emissions for more than 60% and dust emissions for 50%.

Lafarge Cement, with 85 employees, currently can operate, but without the use of alternative fuels. They will increase production of clinker and cement in 2013 comparing to previous year. Operating 1,5 month in 2012 they produced 45,000 tons of clinker and 255,000 tons of cement. In 2013 they plan to operate six months and produce 205,000 tons of clinker and 305,000 tons of cement.
 

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