The 8th International Conference “UKRCEMFOR 2019: Cement Industry. Best Practices. Prospects for Development ” organized by the Ukrcement Association, was held in Kyiv.
Opening the Conference, the Chairman of the Association, Pavlo Kachur, presented the industry’s numerical indicators: “It is an industry that generates more than 4,500 jobs, and which paid more than UAH 1 billion 200 million of taxes to the budget in the past year only. It is an industry that provides an average salary of 25-30% higher than the indicators of the region, and which invested more than 1 billion 700 million UAH in its development and improvement of product quality during the past year only”.
The First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv delivered a welcome speech, noting that over the past 3 years 6800 km of roads were built in Ukraine. “We have put 55.1 billion UAH this year on road construction and we intend to introduce insurance as a new element of the quality of maintenance of their construction,” the official said.
The Era of concrete roads was announced by the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelian: “The first kilometers of concrete roads will be constructed already in 2019. And I want that in 3 years already thousands of kilometers of highways were built of concrete.” According to the head of the Ministry, Ukravtodor has a vision of how to build rural and urban roads, which will be exploited much longer than those with asphalt coating.
The executive director of the Ukrcement Association, Roman Skilsky, in his presentation made an overview of the current state of the cement industry and its prospects for the coming years.
The two-day conference gathered more than 300 participants from 15 countries of the world in the NSC “Olimpiyskiy”.
Global trends, challenges and role of the cement insudtry in the European economy was covered by speeches from the European and global experts: Koen Coppenholle, Chief Executive of the European Cement Association CEMBUREAU (Belgium), Arnaud Pinatel, Cement Industry Analyst, Managing Partner, ON FIELD INVESTMENT RESEARCH, (UK), Bożena Środa, senior expert in the field of environmental issues and alternative fuels, The Polish Cement Association, Stefan Achleitner, Managing Director, Ecorec, Austria (CRH), Slavomir Novak, Acting Head, State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine, Sergiy Savchuk, Head of State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, Andriy Ryazantsev, CFO, PJSC ‘Ukrzaliznytsia’, Volodymyr Shulmeyster, First Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine (2014-2016); Director of the area “Infrastructure of the Future”, Ukrainian Institute for the, Vadym Oliinyk, Vice President of the All-Ukrainian Road Association, and others.
The Head of State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine Sergiy Savchuk proposed to arrange a meeting on investment issues into waste processing facilities with alternative fuel lines production (RDF / SRF) for cement kilns. In addition, Savchuk said that work is underway to create a system of tax incentives for the transition of enterprises from organic fuels to solid renewable fuels from waste, which can significantly change the fuel balance of factories and save the national economy millions of tons of coal.
Among the main topics discussed during the conference were: current state and trends of the development of the cement industry, energy efficiency and ecology, construction trends in Ukraine, alternative fuels, neighboring markets, cement concrete roads, quality of concrete, modern architecture and urban space, etc.
Acting Head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine Slavomir Novak presented a national program for the renovation of roads of territorial importance. “We propose to the government to consider a separate program according to the new technology for Ukraine – the roller compacted concrete technology (RCC) – with a separate financing of UAH 10 bn per year. We calculated that this road repair program will be resolved in three to four years.” According to Novak, roller compacted concrete combines the advantages of asphalt concrete technology with regard to the conclusion and speed of commissioning and technology of ordinary cement-concrete, and is very popular in Europe.
The highlight of the agenda was the presentation of the “Queen of Concrete”, architect, founder of the studio “Solmaz Primavera” Solmaz Fuladi. Designer of Iranian origin – the winner of many world professional competitions due to her products from concrete. In her hands, the cold mixture turns into furniture, decor, accessories of various colors and combinations. Solmaz invited the attendees to her own apartment-studio, completely made of concrete, to make sure it was a convenient and comfortable material.
UKRCEMFOR is the largest industry event in Ukraine, which takes place once every two years. This year, the event, which has already become the main communication platform for market representatives, has been organized for the 8th time.
