In 2011, the collapse of the domestic and export markets led to historically low capacity utilization at the Greek cement plants.
At the same time, increases of solid fuel prices offset the Group’s effort to reduce the cost of cement production by increasing the use of alternative fuels. TITAN’s long term objective is to increase the rate of substitution of conventional by alternative fuels across the Group, setting a target of 10% substitution rate by 2017. Within this framework, the Kamari plant exceeded 10% substitution of conventional fuels by alternative fuels.
In 2011, the Group’s cement plants used around 440,000 tons of alternative raw materials for cement production, such as recycled aggregates and concrete and residual material from other industrial sectors. This quantity signals a higher substitution rate of primary raw materials by alternative materials than in the past few years.
In 2011 the majority of capital expeditures were directed towards emissions reduction, use of alternative fuels and upgrading occupational health and safety conditions.