In mid-July 2022, it was decided to place an extra cement silo at our site in Lelystad. At that time, cement was delivered using trucks. It was not possible any other way, as the storage capacity of the cement silos was too small, making ship deliveries impossible.

On average, a truck can transport approximately 32.9 tonnes. As our location in Lelystad is growing all the time, this would mean that more than 563 trucks would be necessary each year in order to supply the IJB Group with sufficient cement at the site. This means at least two trucks per day arriving and driving across the site to unload and then depart again.

In order to work more sustainably, the decision was therefore taken to order and install an extra silo. The company Polem, our “neighbour” in Lemmer, produced the new silo. After the production, this was transported by ship from Lemmer to Lelystad, in order to be transported on a low loader on the last leg of its journey to its final destination.

The extra silo was finally put into use in April 2023.

Now that this silo is being used and a number of modifications have been carried out, it’s now possible to fill not only this silo but two other silos with loads from both a bulk truck and a ship.

This reduces transport on the site and consequently also the number of transport movements, which not only makes things safer, but also reduces the CO2. After all, a cement carrier ship can transport the equivalent of 21 trucks. This considerably lowers the amount of litres of fuel per tonne of cement, and therefore also the price, and significantly reduces the CO2 emissions.

The aerial photograph shows the first unloading of a ship carried out by skipper Bonte.