Italian cement maker, Buzzi Unicem, acquired a stake in Ecotrade SPA, a provider of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as coal ash and blastfurnace slags, to the cement industry. The acquisition occurred at the beginning on 2017.
Ecotrade has around 30 years of experience sourcing SCMs from around the world, supplying them to cement plants on several continents. At its peak, Ecotrade has supplied over 2 million tpy of SCMs.
“Buzzi Unicem’s goal is to leverage Ecotrade’s experience in its field to expand the scope of collaboration from just Italy to other countries,” the Italian company said in a statement.
SCMs can be used to reduce the clinker content of cement. As the production of clinker represents the greatest source of carbon and other emissions in the cement-making process, its substitution in the finished cement offers the opportunity to reduce the cement’s environmental footprint.