The FINANCIAL — HeidelbergCement has invested more than EUR 200 million in Georgia since 2006, out of which more than EUR 12 million has been allocated for environment protection alone.
Currently HeidelbergCement runs three cement plants in Kaspi and Rustavi and a cement terminal in the western region of Supsa. “Cement production capacity, quality and delivery speed are what determine our leadership in Georgia,” Akaki Chkhaidze, Sales and Marketing Director at HeidelbergCement Caucasus, told The FINANCIAL.
HeidelbergCement started its concrete business in 2008 and has expanded rapidly on the Georgian market since then. Nowadays, HeidelbergCement runs four concrete plants, which gives the company the possibility to serve Tbilisi and its surrounding areas as well as the western part of Georgia, specifically the Adjara region.
The company employs more than 1,000 people.
“Every year we have been named a favourite brand at the Golden Brand Awards Ceremony in the category of construction materials. This is not surprising for HeidelbergCement, which is a large, stable company. As for the special prize for promoting healthy lifestyle, we expected to win this prize as well because HeidelbergCement has laid the foundation for a new initiative, the running of marathons in the country. I would like to thank the organizers of the Golden Brand Awards as well as the jury for establishing this prize.
Installation of new fabric filters, the Quarry Life Award and Public Private Partnership projects, building and modernizing the plants are the main projects of HeidelbergCement within the framework of environment protection.
“HeidelbergCement constantly cares about environmental issues and customer satisfaction,” Chkhaidze told The FINANCIAL. “It is modernising its plants. All these initiatives need large investments. The installation of a modern sifter separator was recently completed, for which GEL 5 million was invested. That gives us the possibility to offer customers high quality cement produced by different technologies. The existing plants in Georgia, Turkey, Russia and Kazakhstan create an effective network of delivering cement for supplying the markets near the Black and Caspian Seas. Due to the large supply of oil and gas in the region, HeidelbergCement expects rapid economic growth and increased investments for infrastructural projects. All of this will lead to growing demand for cement,” he added.
“Accordingly, HeidelbergCement’s strategic decision is to invest in building a new plant in Kaspi. So the company will expand its production volume and increase export to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia,” Chkhaidze said.
A new concrete plant was opened in Khelvachauri for which GEL 2 million was invested. This strategic decision was made because of the current ongoing construction projects in the Adjara region, according to Chkhaidze. The plants are working with a German standard operating system. The Khelvachauri concrete plant’s capacity is 100 m³ an hour.
“Offering an exclusive service, laboratory testing of construction materials, is important for construction companies. It is a fact that for many companies, when it comes to producing concrete, they use HeidelbergCement. HeidelbergCement uses only local raw materials to produce cement,” he added.
“The year 2012 was very successful especially in relation to implementing environmental projects in Georgia. For example, an international project about international scientific and educational competition – The Quarry Life Award – was conducted simultaneously in eighteen countries, including Georgia. Students and researchers and NGO partnerships were invited to participate in the Quarry Life Award individually or as teams.
The idea of this competition is the protection and promotion of biodiversity in quarries during and after extraction. This competition gives us the opportunity to show that our quarrying operations are completely in line with environment protection standards.”
“The statistics show that out of eighteen countries Georgia was distinguished by its high rate of public involvement. Out of 53 interesting ideas 5 of the best projects were selected, about re-cultivation as well as research and educational activities. The competition Quarry Life Award will run in 2013 as well.”
Q. What about the Public-Private-Partnership project running in Georgia?
A. The three-year pilot project called the “Public-Private-Partnership Project” was finished in 2012. This project was promoting biodiversity through the development and implementation of different re-cultivation models in all the mining sites of HeidelbergCement in Georgia. In addition, this project aimed to promote the share of experience on modern re-cultivation/renaturation practice with a variety of stakeholders (local community, authorities, universities etc). The project was completed successfully with the support of HeidelbergCement, German CIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development). Within the framework of PPP an action plan was developed to support biodiversity and rehabilitate the quarries. PPP was implemented with the financial support of HeidelbergCement and BMZ, consisting of EUR 325,000 in total.
I would like to mention the Filters Project as well. When entering the market, HeidelbergCement took responsibility for bringing the existing plants into compliance with environmental norms. More than EUR 12 million was invested for the purpose of de-dusting with the installation of new fabric filters in the Kaspi and Rustavi plants. Both plants operate six kilns in total, so the six new fabric filters had to be installed without significantly disrupting the production process.
Q. What about your big social project – “TbilisiMarathon”?
The Tbilisi Marathon which was held on 28 October, 2012, was the first large scale marathon to be held in Georgia; a grand event dedicated simultaneously to establishing the concept of healthy lifestyle in Georgia and to charity contributions. This year, it will be held for the second time, on 26 October. The registration process has already started and can be found on the website: www.tbilisimarathon.ge. We are encouraging companies and the Georgian population to register on time as the number of possible participants is limited to 3,000. It is a charity event, as registration fee, doubled by us will be transferred to foundation “Iavnana”. The slogan of TbilisiMarathon” is “Run for Health – Run for Charity!”
