Generalitat of Catalonia offers its support to the projects of the Catalan cement industry related to energy recovery. In a meeting between the Secretary for Business and Competitiveness, Joaquim Ferrer i Tamayo, and a delegation headed by the president of Ciment Català, Salvador Fernández Capo, both parties agreed on the diagnosis that the energy use of waste not only helps to solve a problem social and environmental, but can be a source of competitiveness for Catalan factories, which have to fight in foreign markets with companies based in countries outside the greenhouse gas market and, therefore, with the capacity to transfer to a few manufacturing costs this environmental dumping.
During the meeting on December 11, the representatives of Ciment Català reported about the situation of the sector and the market, which shows a drop of around 10% as a result of lower economic activity due to Covid-19. They also defended the modernity of cements and derivatives, and explained the different innovation processes in the industry. But the central point of the meeting was the analysis of solutions to deal with the high costs of electrical and thermal energy, and CO2emission rights. The material and energy recovery of waste appears here as the most suitable and advantageous way, but it is necessary that there be availability and authorization of new alternative fuels to be more competitive.
On the other hand, both the Generalitat and the representatives of the cement industry also agreed on the need to start up new infrastructures to achieve a more competitive country, and to support exports, which in the current situation are essential to maintain activity.