The CGC™ – a new cement related
database and intelligence platform
CemBR (Cement Business Research) is a data, insights, and intelligence provider in the global cement sector, which was launched in 2018. However, this November CemBR has launched the CGC™ (CemBR Global Compendium) – the first of CemBR’s developing cement related intelligence platforms.
The company
CemBR is a subsidiary of Cement Business Advisory Ltd. or CBA for short, a UK-based private company providing advisory services in the global cement sector. CemBR was founded by CBA and other cement-related professionals.
Based in the UK, the company operates globally. CBA and CemBR are “virtual” organisations with several team members located in many different parts of the UK, Europe and beyond.
CemBR’s management team consists of five members; the overall CemBR team currently consists of ten people including researchers, analysts, and client co-ordinators.
The reason behind CemBR’s launch in 2018 was the lack of accurate, relevant, meaningful, and up- to-date information in the cement sector, something that CBA experienced during the execution of several advisory projects.
CemBR currently provides three distinct services:
Reports (multi-client reports on single markets/regions and thematic)
Bespoke research (single-client defined research and analysis for specific projects)
CemBR Intelligence Platforms (CemIPs); the first CemIP launched is the CGC
Corporate strategy and company philosophy
CemBR’s strategy is to address the needs of all cement-related professionals in terms of data, insights, intelligence, and communication. In this light and as part of CemBR Intelligence Platforms service, the company is planning to launch several platforms of which the CGC is the first.
CemBR’s philosophy is based on the belief that cement-related professionals require facts, data, and accurate and up-to-date insights and intelligence to support their decision-making process. In this light, CemBR’s aim is to be an important “intelligence” provider in the global cement sector.
What makes CemBR different from the competitors
CemBR’s business model differs from current competitors in several ways. The first is that although many competitors are primarily publishers (trade magazines, portals), journalists and/or event organisers (conferences etc.), CemBR is focused only on research, intelligence gathering, and communication. This is supported by the nature of the team members, all of whom are cement practitioners with several years of experience in hands-on roles in the cement industry and finance.
Secondly, CemBR is a service provider whose revenue is totally dependent on clients paying for its products and services. CemBR does not rely on advertising for any part of its revenue. CemBR’s belief is that the nature and quality of its services have a value that many cement professionals will be willing to pay for.
Thirdly, CemBR has no connections whatso-ever with any cement-related or government-related organisation, thus is free to focus on the needs of cement-related professionals without having to promote anyone else’s agenda or narrative. The loyalty is with the paying customers.
Finally, the company strongly believes that the depth, breadth, and quality of its services cannot be matched by anything currently available in the market.
So, CemBR’s business model, nature of services, independent nature, and quality of products differentiates it from the existing competition.
What is special about the database and intelligence platform
The CGC (https://cembrcgc.com) is one of the most comprehensive cement-related database and intelligence platforms in the world after its launch in November. A subscription will offer the following benefits:
Access to one of the most comprehensive, interactive, and up-to-date cement-related databases in the world. The CGC has three parts:
› Country dashboard – with 12 cement-related indicators on each market; dashboard downloadable in PDF
› Market and economic data – with ten years of macro and cement data, including “compare up to five markets - cluster creation” functionality; all data downloadable in Excel
› Manufacturing facilities data – which includes all cement producing plants, location map with zooming and other selection criteria functionality; tables of industry summary and individual plants
Updated data and insights on an ongoing basis. The CGC will never be out of date
Plus, as part of the “intelligence platform”:
Country narrative and manufacturing facilities narrative listing the latest major events that affect the market/industry
A frequent tailor-made email with the latest major events and their impact on the markets
Frequent bulletins with regional summaries, insights, and data
Direct communication with the team of cement specialists to respond to all CGC-related questions
The CGC is a result of several years of research and data gathering in the sector. The CGC, at launch will cover the 90 largest markets in the world, representing over 95% of global cement demand.
The CGC covers just under 1800 cement manufacturing facilities (outside of China) representing over 2.3 billion of capacity.
CemBR plans to expand the platform to include all cement markets in the world by 2022.
The CGC is for anyone that has an interest in the global or regional cement sector. It provides an accurate and reliable “first view” of a market. It is a tool that can be used for strategy, planning, production, trading, capacity expansions and other new projects, and investment decisions in other markets.
Latest development, focus of development work
The CGC is the first of CemBR’s intelligence platforms. Currently four more platforms are being developed as follows:
CemBR Forecasts: this platform is almost 100% developed and will be launched in 2021
CemBR Carbon platform: this will include at launch detailed data on the EU ETS scheme members and will expand to other ETSs as they become operational. Most of the research and data is now complete and the web based platform is being developed
CemBR Simulation Tool for plant benchmarking: An innovative, comprehensive and easy to use benchmarking platform for integrated cement plants. The data behind this platform is extensive covering individual kilns and operating conditions of close to 1400 plants
CemBR Seaborne trading platform: this will involve international trade, terminals and even shipping intelligence
The scope and range of the platforms will expand according to the needs of the industry. CemBR has several ideas for the future in areas such as scoping micro-markets and informing marketing and sales decisions (locally), benchmarking of performance by defining competitive characteristics, and many others.
The company is also developing several thematic reports such as White Cement, Clinker Substitutes, Green Cements, and Carbon & Cement among many. Last year, a first thematic report on the Carbon & Cement series was published. The report was titled: “EU ETS & Cement – How did we get to this point?” This report is data driven and details the progress of the EU ETS and the performance of cement producers in the scheme.
Strengths and benefits
As CemBR is a start-up, it is highly flexible and responsive to both customer needs and the business environment. Current client feedback attests to the high quality of the work as well as the high value of the services provided.
The web-based platforms are developed by using the latest and most modern available technology. Accuracy of data is combined with acuteness of analysis delivered in a user-friendly and modern way.
CemBR’s plans for the future
CemBR has several plans as described above, which will need time and effort to achieve. The main tasks going forward are:
Keep the quality and relevance of the products high and keep close contact with the industry and feel its pulse
Enhance the team with capable, committed, and knowledgeable individuals (cement related) that will support the next stage of development. This is the main challenge in the short to medium term
Expand and establish the franchise based on several marketing initiatives, working both with own resources and with like-minded partners
