The strategically important site provides 75% of Sweden's cement and has been the subject of an ongoing legal wrangle which threatens the country cement supply.
The case centres around the limestone quarries at Slite on the island of Gotland operated by Cementa, the Swedish subsidiary of HeidelbergCement. The quarries supply Cementa’s integrated cement plant on the island.
On July 6 last year Sweden’s Land and the Environmental Court of Appeal rejected Cementa’s permission-renewal to continue and expand its limestone quarry activities at the Slite site due to concerns about its environmental impact.
On November 18 the Swedish government granted Cementa a new permit to continue quarrying limestone at the site. Cementa said this heads off the immediate prospect of an acute cement shortage in Sweden. The new permit is valid until the end of 2022.
Moderates party leader Ulf Kristersson and Jesper Skalberg Karlsson, the Moderates' regional councilor on Gotland, visited the Slite site on January 18. They met HeidelbergCement's northern European manager Giv Brantenberg and factory manager Matilda Hoffstedt to discuss the opportunities and challenges that Swedish cement production faces.
A large part of the meeting was about the ongoing permit situation for Cementa's operations on Gotland and how it affects the security of supply of cement in Sweden. Cementa says the permit issue will also have a major impact on the climate change issue that the industry is at the centre of, and the HeidelbergsCement Group's goal that Slite facility will be the world's first carbon dioxide-neutral cement factory by 2030.
The visit started with a visit to the File hajdar quarry, followed by a tour of the factory area and conversations with Cementa's employees.
Kristersson commented: "It was impressive to take part in Cementa's operations, which have built Sweden for many decades. If we are to continue to build Sweden strongly, industry and business need long-term rules of the game to be able to plan their operations. It is quite obvious that we need a review of the permit processes in Sweden where, among other things, the climate benefits must weigh heavier."
HeidelbergCement is currently building the world's first CCS (carbon capture and storage) plant on an industrial scale in the cement industry in Brevik, Norway, which will be put into operation in 2024. The planned plant in Slite is dimensioned to be four times larger.
Brantenberg added: "CCS is of central importance for the cement industry and the public construction sector to achieve their climate goals. HeidelbergCement has a firm plan to be able to produce climate-neutral cement in Slite 2030. Therefore, it is most welcome that the Moderates have put forward offensive political proposals to make this possible."
