Search results

This paper aims to reveal the impact of five industry forces (IFs) on implementing input‐based competitive strategies (CSs) and to determine relationship of these CSs on cement plants' environmental performances (EPs).

Data were collected from cement manufacturers in Turkey. This study employed structural equation methodology to examine relationships between IFs, CSs, and EP.

Cement plants with the advantage of low buyer bargaining power, low threat of new entrants, and few rivalries exhibit strong energy and raw material strategies. Also, an advantage of low supplier bargaining power and low threat of substitutes causes competitive raw material strategy. Finally, competitive energy and raw material strategies enhance EP, while competitive human resource strategy has no influence on it.

The model should be tested on other organizations in supply chain. Future researches can also investigate the difference of findings to other industries and in other countries and examine reasons behind hypothesized relationships. Moreover, additional factors may be incorporated into the model. However, a larger participation could provide a different perspective of issues in consideration.

This paper can serve as a valuable framework for top managers to draw the direction of their companies in terms of IFs, CSs, and EP. In this context, practitioners should focus on production inputs to withstand external environment and to experience better EP practices.

A better EP can both enhance sustainability of the overall environment and affect society positively. For such benefits, sustainability of EP should be a subsequent step to be taken to possess long‐lasting societal advantages.

This study is first to propose a model that integrates competitive IFs and input‐based approaches to measure cement plants' EPs. These are relevant issues for competitiveness of cement manufacturers willing to increase their EPs.

Cement industry for both developed and developing countries is important from the economic point of view. It is playing a vital role in economic development of a developing country like Pakistan. However, these industries are posing threat to the environment, human health and plant species. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most critical factors of cement industry that have a negative impact on the environment, human health and plant species in the context of Pakistan.

The factors are categorized into air pollution, noise pollution, soil pollution, human health and plant species. These factors are categorized on the basis of previous literature and environmental safety reports. Air pollution is caused by iron and sulphur while noise pollution is mainly caused by crusher room and rotatory kiln end. The soil is being polluted by zinc and lead while human health and plant species are being damaged by sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. For the analysis purpose, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, i.e., decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is used.

The result shows that the major cause of air pollution is “sulphur” while “crusher room and rotatory kiln end” are responsible for noise pollution. On the other hand, “mercury” is responsible for causing soil pollution while human health and plant species are influenced by the toxic effect of “nitrogen dioxide.”

The results obtained are specific to cement manufacturing industry of Pakistan and cannot be generalized for any other manufacturing sector.

The proposed methodology shows the most critical factors toward which concertation should be given for mitigating their impact. This study will help the government and the cement industry to focus on all those elements that are the most responsible for causing different types of pollution.

No such work is reported in previous research that proposes a framework using DEMATEL technique for analysis of critical factors of cement industries that have a dangerous impact on the environment and human health, especially in a developing country, like Pakistan.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to perform non‐parametric production efficiency analysis of cement companies in India. Relative technical and scale efficiencies are estimated for the year 2005‐2006. Design/methodology/approach: Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been used to calculate the technical and scale efficiency measures of the companies. Within DEA framework, the input oriented variable returns to scale (VRS) model is employed for the study. A representative sample of 20 companies which account for 85.5 per cent of the total market share is studied. The selection criterion for the inclusion of a firm in the analysis has been market share of one per cent or more. Findings: Findings suggest that 50 per cent of the firms are found to be technically efficient and they are also operating at optimum plant size. Whereas 25 per cent firms are exhibiting decreasing returns to scale inferring over utilization of their plant capacities and the rest 25 per cent are showing increasing returns to scale signifying underutilization of plants. Input targets and reductions are suggested for the inefficient firms. Overall, the industry seems to do well on both the efficiency parameters since the average scores for technical and scale efficiency for the industry came out to be 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. Originality/value: This current paper is the first study to apply DEA tool to get insights on productivity efficiency of the cement firms in India.

Investigates the characterization of cement dust collected by electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters to study its ability to be used as a concrete material. The study includes 26 cement dust samples collected from different points on dry process lines in four of the major cement plants in the United Arab Emirates. The collected samples were subjected to detailed physical tests and chemical analyses. Results obtained were compared with the British Standard Specifications set for ordinary Portland cement. Finds that eight samples show comparable physical properties and chemical as well as mineral composition.

This paper explores the impact of international acquisitions on the efficiency and productivity of the cement industry in an emerging economy.

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist index (MI) are used to calculate the partial efficiency and productivity of individual inputs (materials, labour and fixed assets), as well as the total factor efficiency and productivity during the period 2000–2018. DEA and MI are combined with bootstrapping to perform succinct statistical inferences for determining the accuracy of results. In this paper we apply the input-oriented CCR DEA Window model. With respect to the level of analysis, data was collected from individual companies and then aggregated data at the industry level.

The research results show that international acquisitions positively affect efficiency of the cement industry in the long term. Efficiency of capital is lower in the short period after acquisitions. Additionally, international acquisitions positively affect partial productivity, as well as total factor productivity of the cement industry.

The results of the study may be significant for managers and policy makers to design appropriate strategies for the improvement of the cement industry performance over time.

Research in emerging economies related to subject matter is limited, and this is one of the earliest research studies which explore change in efficiency and productivity at the level of Serbian cement industry.

The aim of this study is to assess the role of CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) technologies in the reduction of CO₂ emissions from European industries.

A database covering all industrial installations included in the EU ETS has been created. Potential capture sources have been identified and the potential for CO₂ capture has been estimated based on branch‐ and plant‐specific conditions. Emphasis is placed here on three branches of industry with promising prospects for CCS: mineral oil refineries, iron and steel, and cement manufacturers.

A relatively small number (∼270) of large installations (>500,000 tCO₂/year) dominates emissions from the three branches investigated in this study. Together these installations emit 432 MtCO₂/year, 8 percent of EU's total greenhouse gas emissions. If the full potential of emerging CO₂ capture technologies was realized, some 270‐330 MtCO₂ emissions could be avoided annually. Further, several regions have been singled out as particularly suitable to facilitate integrated CO₂ transport networks. The most promising prospects for an early deployment of CCS are found in the regions bordering the North Sea.

Replacement/retrofitting of the existing plant stock will involve large investments and deployment will take time. It is thus important to consider how the current industry structure influences the potential to reduce CO₂ in the short‐ medium and long term. It is concluded that the age structure of the existing industry plant stock and its implications for the timing and deployment rate of CO₂ capture and other mitigation measures are important and should therefore be further investigated.

CCS has been recognized as a key option for reducing CO₂ emissions within the EU. This assessment shows that considerable emission reductions could be achieved by targeting large point sources in some of the most emission‐intensive industries. Yet, a number of challenges need to be resolved in all parts of the CCS chain. Efforts need to be intensified from all stakeholders to gain more experience with the technological, economical and social aspects of CCS.

This study provides a first estimate of the potential role for CO₂ capture technologies in lowering CO₂ emissions from European heavy industry. By considering wider system aspects as well as plant‐specific conditions the assessment made in this study gives a realistic overview of the prospects and practical limitations of CCS in EU industry.

In the cement industries maintenance cost consumes approximately 20‐25 per cent of the total production cost, which comes in the second rank after the energy cost. Therefore, cement plants in Jordan, taken as a case study that represents developing countries, are facing big challenges in reducing both energy and maintenance costs. In order to improve the maintenance system in the Fuhais plant, auditing of the existing maintenance system had been conducted, since this step is essential in improving any maintenance system. A quantitative (statistical) method was used in order to determine the weakness points in the existing maintenance system. Where based upon this auditing, several actions and strategies were put in a medium‐range plan to resolve the problems and improve the system.

This paper seeks to focus on energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW) in Croatia. The state strategy is based on the mechanical and biological treatment of waste in the future waste management centers (WMC). Left over after the treatment is waste that can be used as fuel (e.g. RDF).

Starting from the geographical distribution of waste generation (quantities and transport distances), taking into account the costs of collection, transfer and thermal treatment, recommendations on optimal number and size of the dedicated waste‐to‐energy (WtE) plants in Croatia as well as their potential locations are given. The opportunity of the cement industry to utilize ash from thermal treatment of waste in the process of the cement production and the RDF as a substitute fuel is also examined.

By varying the number of WMCs, the minimal specific cost of waste collection of €33 is obtained, for maximal number of WMCs, which is 21. The optimal capacity of WtE facility is approximately 300,000 t/year, for expected quantity of 600,000 t/year of waste available for energy recovery. However, the geographical shape of Croatia and traffic connections suggest that its area could be better covered by four WtE facilities, each with the capacity of 150,000 t/year. The alternative solution could include the existing cement industry. In this case one bigger WtE plant (preferably near the city of Zagreb) could be built, with the capacity of 400,000 t/year, while the rest of the waste would be used in the cement industry, which capacity amounts to 167,000 tons of RDF annually.

This analysis gives another view of a possible system for energy recovery from MSW in Croatia. MSW has never been used in Croatia for the purpose of energy generation on a wider scale.

Due to the increasing awareness of the need to protect the environment, reverse logistics (RL) is being promoted to improve the ecological sustainability of production. RL can lower the costs of waste disposal, increase market competitiveness, and maintain a good corporate image. Hence, modern companies are focusing on environmental protection to demonstrate social responsibility. According to the OECD report of 2003, buildings consume 32 percent of resources, 12 percent of water, and 40 percent of energy worldwide, and the building waste comprises almost 40 percent of the all waste in the world. Therefore, controlling waste from the interior design sector may help slow global warming. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

This investigation models the current and new RL of disposing interior design waste in Taiwan. Modeling the carbon footprint (CF) of disposing interior design waste can help companies be aware of the environmental impact of disposing of waste, and how to improve it through RL. This investigation models the CFs of disposing interior design waste based on studies from Benjaafar et al. (2013), Pishvaee et al. (2009, 2010), and Tascione et al. (2014).

Analytical results showed that the RL significantly decreases the environmental impact of wastes. Companies can control carbon emission through the findings of this study and find how to improve their recycling process through RL.

This study used the model proposed by Tascione et al. (2014) to develop an RL model for Taiwan. Whereas most studies in the literature analyze the carbon emissions from the comparison between cost and benefit, this study considered the logistics for the whole lifecycle of a product. The analytical results of this study reveal that that RL can reduce the environmental impact of wastes. This case study is the first to obtain results that can be extended to other countries. This study also reveals the importance of recycling plants that can process demolition waste for reuse.

This is the first study to model the RL based on literatures. The findings of this study can be extended to other cases.

This paper aims to discuss opportunities for pairing the carbon dioxide (CO₂) points of supply from stationary sources such as power plants, steel and cement production, coal to liquid plants and refineries, with potential oil reservoirs in China.

This study builds a linear optimization model to analyze the tradeoffs in developing CO₂-enhance oil recovery (EOR) projects in China for a range of policy options to match points of supply with the points of demand (oil fields). The model works on optimizing CO₂ application costs by meeting four principal components; CO₂ storage, CO₂ capture, transport costs and additional oil recovery.

This study reveals new opportunities and economic sources to feed CO₂-EOR applications and offers reasonable options to supply CO₂ for potential points of demand. Furthermore, power plants and coal to liquid industries had the most significant and economic contributions to potential CO₂-EOR projects in China. Total annual emission reduction is expected to be 10% (based on 10 Gton annual emissions). The emission reductions and potential CO₂ storage from the different industries as follow; 94% from power plants, 4% from biofuel and 2% from coal to liquid plants.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one practice aiming to reduce the amounts of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere and reduce the related social costs. However, given the relatively high cost associated with this practice, coupling it with EOR could offer a significant financial incentive to facilitate the development of CCS projects and meet climate change objectives.

The model used in this study can be straightforwardly adapted to any geographic location where industry and policymakers are looking to simultaneously reduce CO₂ emissions while increasing hydrocarbon recovery. The model is highly adaptable to local values in the parameters considered and to include additional local considerations such as geographic variation in capture costs, taxes and premiums to be placed on CO₂ capture in so-called “non-attainment zones” where pollution capture make could make a project politically and economically viable. Regardless of how and where this model is applied, it is apparent that CO₂ from industrial sources has substantial potential value as a coproduct that offsets its sequestration costs using existing, commercially available CO₂-EOR technology, once sources and sinks are optimally paired.