Aalborg Portland is a

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

-producing company in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It was established in

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

in the 19th century.

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

was patented in 1824 by the Englishman

Joseph Aspdin Joseph Aspdin (25 December 1778 – 20 March 1855) was an English bricklayer, businessman, inventor, and stonemason who obtained the patent for Portland cement on 21 October 1824. Life Joseph Aspdin (or Aspden) was the eldest of the six c ...

. Six decades later the Aalborg businessman Hans Holm and the engineer Frederick Læssøe Smidth built a cement factory northeast of Aalborg in the town of Rørdal. The Aalborg Portland-Cement Factory was founded in 1889. Aalborg Portland produces four major products: grey cement, white cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates. In 1898, the company's growth accelerated after it purchased two rotary kilns from the Philadelphia-based company Laxhbury & Spackman. In 2009 the Sinai White Portland Cement division became the "biggest white cement integrated plant worldwide in terms of capacity". Since 2003, the company is a subsidiary of Cementir Holding S.p.A. The sale was approved by competition authorities in 2004. In 2013 it had a workforce of over 1,500. In 2019, Aalborg Portland had 335 employees in Denmark.

Impact on climate change

Aalborg Portland is considered the biggest polluter in Denmark. The emissions of the industrial company in 2018 were equivalent to 2.2 million tons of CO₂, or 4% of the national CO₂ emissions. According to the Danish Economic Council, the cement industry does not have a sufficient economic interest to reduce its CO₂ emissions, because the price to pollute is too low. In 2022, Aalborg Portland announced a corporate roadmap that sets an emissions ceiling target of no more than 600,000 tons by 2030.

References

External links

Official website
Cement companies of Denmark

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Danish companies established in 1889 Manufacturing companies established in 1889 {{Denmark-company-stub