Welcoming over 300 senior delegates from all over China’s cement sector the 2013 China International Cement Conference got underway at the Hotel Nikko New Century in Beijing on April 25. Opening the meeting, Qiao Longde, president of the China Cement Association, highlighted some of the successes of the China cement industry, which in recent year has made dramatic strides in adopting more efficient production processes while eliminating backward production capacity.
Longde said that high-quality dry process cement production now accounts for about 90 per cent of overall cement production, which has been realised through technological renovation and cement plant modernisation over the past 20 years.
Nevertheless, the industry is still an enormous consumer of energy and because of its scale, responsible for high levels of pollution. Longde said that the key short-to-medium term objectives of the industry, therefore, will be energy saving and emissions reduction. This will be achieved by driving forward technological innovation and developing a ‘second generation of dry process kiln technology, he said.