"Smoking smoke", "self-cleaning", "purifying air", "staying on the day of decoration", "furniture making" and "transparent walls" seem to have little to do with the traditional product of cement, but Italian cement, which takes R & D and innovation as its strategy, has made cement and these products relevant. Cement, a cold product, has infinite possibilities.
Italy Cement Group is the fifth largest cement producer in the world, with a comprehensive production capacity of more than 60 million tons for 150 years, and has production bases in more than 20 countries around the world. In 2007, Italian cement entered the Chinese market, but in the past seven years, it has been very low-key. In 2012, when Italian Cement merged its business in China into Western Cement and became a shareholder of Western Cement, many people thought that Italian Cement had withdrawn from the Chinese market, but in fact it was not. Dr. Ma Weiping, President of Italian Cement China, told reporters that Italian Cement cooperated with local cement plants in China. We will continue to focus on our business market in China.
In an interview with China Cement Network, Dr. Ma Weiping said that the reason why Italian Cement made this adjustment was that, on the one hand, it combined with Western Cement, which could instill the experience of Italian Cement in management concept, management mode, sustainable development and technology into Chinese enterprises. On the other hand, from the operational level, Italian Cement is committed to the R & D and production of innovative products with high technology content and high added value. In the Chinese market, the advantage of Italian Cement lies not in traditional cement, but in innovative and sustainable products, as well as its R & D capabilities and technologies.
Italian Cement Research and Development Center
Two years later, Italian Cement, with new products that have been studied for decades and tested by time, appeared in the Chinese market. On April 3, the AC International Forum, jointly sponsored by Architectural Creation Magazine and BIAD Science and Technology Quality Center and undertaken by Italian Cement Group, was held in the Lecture Hall E of Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. In this forum, Mr. Fortunado Zaffaroni, General Manager of Global Marketing of Italian Cement Group, focused on the three series of cement products that Italian Cement Group plans to promote in China: transparent products, photocatalytic products and aesthetic design products. We can see that Italian cement has completed a magnificent turn from traditional cement to high-end innovative products in China, and hopes to serve China's cement industry with innovative products and sustainable development concepts.
Support environmental protection and provide innovative materials for building innovation
Italian cement believes that innovation, as the pillar of the group's development strategy, can play a positive role in sustainable development, so the primary task of Italian cement product research and development is to meet environmental protection, resource optimization, and take into account market demand-striving for low energy consumption in technology, using recyclable raw materials, having low carbon dioxide emissions, and reducing water consumption. At the same time, it creates green products with design appeal and provides innovative materials for architectural innovation.
Three years ago, Italian Cement set up a technology research and development center in Milan and built a new research and development center building. The R & D building itself uses 100% of its own innovative materials, so it has won many awards. According to Ma Weiping, this building reflects the Italian Cement Group's emphasis on product research and development. After the completion of the building, the Italian Cement Group held a celebration and invited many government officials, including the Italian Minister of Environment, to attend the ceremony. It is rare in the global cement industry that a cement company can invest such a large amount of money and R & D team to build such a building, so as to fully display its innovative products and ideas. Ma Weiping said, "From the perspective of R & D, cement is a traditional industry after all, even if the company does not engage in innovative R & D work, it can still operate profitably.". Investment in innovation and R & D depends entirely on the company's philosophy and objectives. The unique feature of Italian cement is to look at the future of itself and the whole building materials industry from the perspective of sustainable development. Therefore, the company has spent a lot of energy to make the material more environmentally friendly and more humane. [Page]
Sculpture of Italian Cement Research and Development Center
It is precisely because of such a keen attitude towards innovation that Italian Cement has been quite effective in the development of new products in recent years. According to Ma Weiping, Italian Cement has recently developed 11 series of products, three of which can be promoted in the Chinese market and displayed to Chinese users at the AC International Forum on April 3. Especially recommendable is one of the photocatalytic products called I. Active, whose principle is to add some chemicals that can play a photocatalytic role in cement products, so that cement products have the performance of "smoke sucking" and "self-cleaning". Nowadays, China's haze problem is very serious, and this product can convert some harmful impurities in the air, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, into harmless substances through photocatalysis. This series of products have been applied in many buildings in the United States, Italy, France and other countries, effectively alleviating the problem of urban pollution.
This series of products can be made into various forms such as cement, putty and paint, so it can be used on both interior and exterior walls. According to reports, compared with other organic materials that need a long time to volatilize the smell, this cement-based material plays a very good role in environmental protection and has no effect on human health. It can be moved in on the day of basic decoration, and then it can continue to carry out photocatalytic action to purify indoor air. In addition, this product not only has the function of anti-pollution, but also has the function of self-cleaning, basically without dust on the surface.
If this photocatalytic product developed by Italian Cement enters the market smoothly, it will subvert some indoor and outdoor decoration materials. According to monitoring, the photocatalytic cement covers an area of 1000 square meters, which is equivalent to planting 80 deciduous trees; it is more than 10 times as effective as 1000 square meters of leaves in removing pollution; It can eliminate the pollution produced by 30 gasoline vehicles or 10 diesel vehicles.
Transparent Cement (I. Light) is the second product that Italcementi is going to promote in the Chinese market. The designers of Italcementi's construction materials combine special resins with cement to make transparent cement. According to reports, there are many small holes in the transparent cement, which can make sunlight come in without destroying the integrity of the building structure. Up close, these gaps, which are nearly 2 to 3 millimeters wide, can form incredible patterns, and from a distance, they look no different from ordinary concrete. But on a sunny day, the inside of a building made of this material is a different story. The sunlight shines through the light holes in the wall, and the whole wall looks like a big window.
This is considered to be a unique and unprecedented product, which is deeply loved by designers who pursue innovative architecture. It can not only spread natural light and light, but also make human eyes directly see the images and objects behind the partition wall.
The cement was used in the Italian Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China. About 40% of the walls of the 18-meter-high Italian Pavilion are made of I. Light materials from Italian Cement Group, which uses 189 tons of new materials to make 3774 transparent and translucent panels. Each transparent plate has about 50 holes, and the transparency is close to 20%. The transparency of the translucent plate is about 10%. [Page]
National Pavilion of Italy
In the past, similar attempts have been made in the industry to improve the light transmission performance of cement. At that time, optical fibers were added to concrete, but Italian Cement said that this method was not as effective as the use of special resins. "Transparent cement made from plastic resin costs less than transparent cement made from fiber optics," said Enrique Bergalero, the group's creative director. The former also has a greater ability to'capture 'light because the resin has a wider viewing angle than fiber. These characteristics make the transparency of this new material better, and the light transmission effect of buildings built with it is stronger. Now there are more than a dozen projects around the world using the transparent cement products of Italian cement, mainly used in public facilities and commercial buildings.
In addition to the above two kinds of cement, the third kind of Italian cement to be introduced in the Chinese market is I. Design (aesthetic design products) rubber cement, which is characterized by good flexibility and can be used to build various indoor and outdoor furniture. Using rubber cement as raw material to make household products can achieve a more fashionable and textured effect. Combining the high strength and durability of traditional cement with the plasticity of plastic, it is suitable for the creation of indoor and outdoor non-architectural elements, city streets, lamps, furniture decoration, kitchen and bathroom design accessories, etc. It is a perfect combination of art and creation. It can be imagined that in the future, every object in home life may be made of cement.
Optimistic about the cement market, the scenery is long and should be measured.
In 2008, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the United States and spread to the world financial crisis in Europe. Affected by this, the business development of major companies in the world cement industry has not been very smooth in recent years, and Italian cement has not been spared.
As a company that originated in Europe and has a history of 150 years, Italy Cement has a large amount of cement production capacity in Europe and North America, which are relatively hard-hit by the financial crisis. Among the many markets of Italian cement, only the turnover in Asia, which accounts for more than 10% of the group's business, is rising. The overall performance in recent years is not satisfactory. However, for this old company with a long history of one and a half centuries, the world financial crisis is not too special than any time in the past.
Ma Weiping believes that the international cement giants have experienced a hundred years of development and many world financial crises, but cement, as a basic building material, is a necessity in the process of human social development, and its demand will eventually rebound, "no matter how the economy fluctuates, whether in the financial crisis or after the financial crisis." The demand for cement fluctuates with the big economic cycle, but what can not be changed is that cement is a necessity, just like the food we eat. Ma Weiping said, "We don't have to worry too much, mergers and acquisitions only solve the current problems, but from the market demand, the demand for cement has always existed, the future impact will not be too great."
Like many international cement giants who are optimistic about the future development prospects of the Chinese market, Italian cement is also full of confidence in the Chinese market. Ma Weiping believes that although it is impossible for China's cement market demand to grow at an annual rate of more than 10% due to the rapid growth of GDP in the past two decades, it is certain that the support of cement demand in the process of infrastructure and urbanization construction will remain stable in the next few years. However, compared with the growth of market demand, Italian cement is obviously more concerned about the healthy and sustainable development of market development. At present, the key is still to solve a series of problems caused by blind expansion of production capacity. "However, the government and industry have realized this problem, and the general trend is still good," Ma Weiping said. [Page]
Ma Weiping, President of Italian Cement Group in China, and Xu Jie , Director of Beijing News Center of China Cement Network
Postscript:
Since 2008, the global financial crisis has led to a downturn in the development of the world's construction industry and a decline in cement demand. The five largest companies in the industry, including Lafarge, Holcim, Heidelberg, Cemex and Italian Cement, have felt the strong power of the financial crisis. Today, these giants have not completely emerged from the quagmire of the financial crisis, and the world's cement giants have been seeking ways out of the crisis.
Recently, Lafarge and Holcim have also reached a merger plan. Dr. Ma Weiping, who has worked in the two groups for 15 years, said: The financial crisis is the reason why the world cement industry is still difficult. The merger of Lafarge and Holcim is also a solution to the current predicament. The two giants hold together to keep warm. It can greatly benefit from the improvement of operating efficiency and the reduction of financial costs. On the other hand, due to the impact of economies of scale, it will seriously change the competition pattern of the cement industry in many countries.
Perhaps the merger is only to solve the current problem of reducing costs and solving debts, while Italian Cement supports sustainable development with innovation, and redistributes the Chinese cement market with the concept of development and environmental protection, focusing more on the long-term development of the future. With the deterioration of China's environmental problems and the aggravation of haze problems, we believe that these products and solutions provided by Italian Cement can help the sustainable development of China's environment. However, just like the problems encountered by many international cement giants in the process of expanding the Chinese market, due to the particularity of the Chinese market, how to achieve a good local transformation of innovative products and advanced concepts will still be the biggest problem and challenge that Italian Cement Group will face in China in the future.
浙公网安备33010802003254号