Taiwan Cement shifts focus to green energy and waste

Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC) saw its cement revenue on mainland China fall by 7.8 per cent YoY in the opening quarter of 2022 with the sales volume over the same period contracting by 24.1 per cent, according to Nelson Chang, chairman of TCC, speaking at the company’s annual general meeting on 26 May, 2022. Cement prices in the 1Q22 improved by 18 per cent, but this did little to offset the 195 per cent YoY uptick in the international coal price. However, consolidated revenue advanced by four per cent in the three-month period to TWD22.97bn (US$780.6m), compared to the 1Q21, mainly due to new energy businesses, reports PRNewswire. 
 
Over the next decade, the three pillars of growth for TCC are low-carbon cement, resource circulation and green energy. New subsidiaries in the energy sector, including E-One Moli and TCC Energy Storage, have helped boost the company’s consolidated revenue as TCC increasingly moves into new growth markets and pursues its strategy of achieving carbon neutrality. Over the past two years, TCC has invested two-thirds of its profits into EGS-related projects, including building waste treatment plants in Taiwan and mainland China, green energy projects and acquiring a majority share in Italy-based energy storage company NHΩA. With TCC expecting to see a supply shortage of industrial green energy in Taiwan in the future, the company’s global energy storage capacity is forecast to exceed 400MWh by the end of this year, but reach over 2900MWh by 2024. 
 
According to the company, as cement markets fall from their peak, waste treatment has become a focus of TCC’s business operations, not only as a means of solving society’s waste problems but also increasing profits. As a circular economy company, TCC’s waste treatment capacity has been expanding, alongside its use of alternative materials and fuel. By 2030, the total waste treatment volume by TCC is expected to come in at around 10Mt, with alternative fuel usage of more than 1.3Mt, equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by more than 10Mt.