Case Study: Lafarge - Avancrete Cement

Lafarge had initiated a project for replacing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) with Portland Composite Cement

With the addition of cement fillers such as limestone and fly ash, the workability and compressive strength of cement is lower than OPC. The current cement quality enhancers available in the market can improve compressive strength of cement but fail to improve the workability of cement to that similar to OPC

Fosroc was required to provide a cement additives solution that would help Lafarge to produce Portland Composite Cement with higher performance than normal OPC by improving the strength and workability of the cement

Fosroc had developed CEMAX 625PC, based upon the latest innovation in cement and concrete technology and incorporating high performance surfactants into the well-established Fosroc quality enhancement technology. The product is formulated in such a way that it is stable enough to withstand extreme conditions during cement grinding and deliver consistent quality to cement. The product also works as a grinding aid to improve cement grinding efficiency

Reduction of clinker content in cement from 95% to 80%

Reduction in cement production cost by approximately 10% through improvement in cement grinding efficiency and reduction of clinker content in cement

Improvement in cement performance when compared to standard bagged OPC

Based on the advantages of the new cement product Lafarge launched a high cost marketing campaign in Malaysia to increase awareness of the Lafarge and Avancrete brands and promote the benefits of the new product. As a result Lafarge were able to capture increased market share in a very competitive segment using a product that generated higher margins for them