Holcim has closed the acquisition of Belgium’s Mark Desmedt as it bids to advance circular construction in Europe
Founded in 1989 in Westvaartdijk, Mark Desmedt recycles 500,000 tonnes of construction demolition materials per annum. The company entered the ready mix concrete market in 2001.
Located on the Brussels-Scheldt canal, the company is strategically placed to serve Belgium’s two largest metropolitan areas, Brussels and Antwerp.
Holcim said the acquisition will help it to scale up the ECOCycle circular construction technology platform across Belgium.
Using ECOCycle, Holcim can recycle 100% of construction demolition materials across a broad range of applications, from decarbonized raw materials in low-carbon cement formulation, through to aggregates in concrete and fillers in road construction.
Circularity ‘a driver of profitable growth’
Holcim has set a target of recycling 10m tonnes of construction demolition materials per annum.
Miljan Gutovic, CEO of Holcim, said the acquisition of Mark Desmedt will help make circularity a driver of profitable growth.
“With the Mark Desmedt team, we are accelerating our vision to drive circular construction in the key metropolitan areas where we operate to build cities from cities,” he added.
The deal is Holcim’s fourth acquisition this year to scale up circular construction, building on Cand-Landi Group in Switzerland, Land Recovery in the UK and Mendiger Basalt in Germany.
In May, Holcim broke ground on a €500m net zero cement plant in Obourg, Belgium.
Go4Zero is one six large-scale, European Union-supported carbon capture, utilization and storage projects.
Together, they aim to capture a total of 5m tonnes of CO2 per annum, supporting the production of over 8m tonnes of fully decarbonized cement a year across Europe by 2030.
Holcim has also recently announced plans to ramp up the adoption of AI in its manufacturing operations.
The company already uses AI in 45 manufacturing sites to improve operational resilience by predicting and preventing failures. It plans to expand this to more than 100 plants over the next four years.
