“We see many exciting things happening right now”

Companies will focus on fast exchanges, an available stock of standard belts and service on short notice that is locally available and allows for the quick repair, exchange, and splicing of conveyor belts. Cement plants and quarries are managed locally due to different operation and replacement conditions.

Reducing CO₂ emissions is their main concern – everything possible will be done to achieve this, including changes in the processes and raw materials. Costs are an additional priority followed by the extension of the lifetimes of assets such as conveyor belts.

An increasingly important one. Cement production is responsible for six to eight percent of man-made CO₂ emissions worldwide. There is great hidden potential here for climate protection. That’s why something needs to be done politically with regard to the regulations, for example to drive forward further steps for international CO₂ certificate trading or to formulate a legally secure definition of “climate-friendly cement.”

Governmental requirements are like a double-edged sword: They play a very important role for companies operating in this sector, as any regulation on CO₂ will directly affect their bottom line negatively, and extensive infrastructure investments on the other hand are pushing the results. So, the pressure is on to meet the government’s and the industry’s carbon targets.

As innovation is a key to achieving these goals, we see a lot of exciting things happening right now – for example, the move from fossil fuels to alternative fuels, the replacement of clinker with industrial byproducts such as fly ash, CO₂ separation projects and the utilization of hydrogen-based energy.

A positive customer experience is very important for local plants – a direct relationship and availability are valued very highly. Having this mind, we are working towards strengthening the local presence of our service teams and service partners all around the globe and increasing the availability of our long-lasting conveyor belt solutions.

All topics play an important role and go hand in hand with each other. At the forefront, there is climate protection with a strong focus on the innovations just mentioned and the main process of burning or grinding cement clinker. Automation and digitalization will provide support to optimize this process using artificial intelligence. This can be supported by using high-quality assets with the longest lifetime possible.

At this point, conveyor belt systems can play an important role to sustainably increase the efficiency and profitability in a quarry or cement plant. We think that this factor will become more important in the future, which leads us to the conviction that advanced and resistant compounds and monitoring systems will play an increasingly important role in the near future.