During the month of October the Ciment Català Board of Directors held two working sessions in the Catalan Parliament with the top leaders of two parliamentary committees so relevant to the sector as Economy and Finance and Environment and Sustainability. On October 4th, the meeting with Antoni Castellà (chairman of the Committee on Economy and Finance) served to expose the distressing situation of the Catalan cement industry in the current context of crisis, greatly affected by the drastic drop in consumption (more than 80% in the last 8 years). A fall in which the decline in public bids has had much to do. The representatives of the cement companies asked Castellà for a government effort to invest in infrastructures, since it is not only a formula to help the sector to recover, but also a strategy to maintain the country’s competitiveness.
For its part, the visit to Germà Bel (president of the Commission on Environment and Sustainability) took place in parliamentary seat on October 17th. During the meeting, Ciment Català made clear the commitment of the sector towards Sustainable Development, exemplified by the introduction in advance of all measures for environmental improvement included in the II Voluntary Agreement and in the volume of investments in technology to minimize the Impact on the natural environment. The members of the Board asked Bel for support in order to expand the variety and volume of waste to be used as fuel in factories, in the line undertaken by main European countries for more than 30 years, in what is an efficiency strategy and a sectorial contribution to the reduction of landfills.