2012 Annual Report - Italcementi Group

5.2 Quality
The Group is committed to guarantee and continuously improve the quality of its products, processes and
services. Implementing a systematic approach is the key issue to manage the Group processes aiming at
satisfying quality requirements, creating value along the life-cycle of products and enhancing relationships with
customers and suppliers. The new group Quality Policy, consolidates this approach. All the Group sites adopt
quality management systems, subjected to regular audits and periodic updates.
Clinker/cement ratio (% of clinker) 2012 2011 2010
Mature markets 79.4 78.9 78.5
Emerging markets 83.8 83.5 84.1
Group 81.8 81.3 81.6
Cement types (% production volumes) 2012 2011 2010
Ordinary Portland cement 50 46 45
Limestone cement 26 27 22
Multiple blended cement 7 10 12
Fly ash cement 4 5 7
Slag cement 7 6 5
Pozzolan cement 2 2 3
Others 4 4 6
Recycled content (*) of cement (% production volumes) 2012 2011 2010
Cement with > 30% recycled constituents 5.5 6.5 6.5
Cement with > 20% recycled constituents 9.6 - -
Cement with > 10% recycled constituents 16.6 - -
Cement with recycled constituents 56.9 - -
(*)Recycled content do not account for recycled materials used for clinker preparation, or to substitute fuels. It only relates to mineral addition to clinker in the formulation
of cement.
5.3 Research and Innovation
Italcementi Group commitment to research and innovation is of strategic importance as a guarantee of growth,
global competitiveness and a contribution to a better quality of life for the wide community. The Group
Innovation has found applications in three fields: performance to give constructors suitable materials to match
the ever growing building challenges; aesthetic value to offer materials appealing to architects that maintain the
aspect over time; and sustainability to make building materials more and more “green”, durable and resilient.
A dedicated Innovation Department was created in 2011 to facilitate and approve projects for new products
and applications. The innovation process itself was revised in order to make it more effective and to meet
market needs. Projects are now classified upon the level of newness when compared to the reference market
and to the Group. Three levels have been set: established, i.e. activities with an average innovative contents,
enough to differentiate from current offer (e.g. performance improvements, product repositioning, coverage
extension); incremental, i.e. activities not changing dramatically the usual way of working but showing a
relevant improvement (e.g. products, applications, distribution services, packaging formats, processes, already
present in the market but new to the Group); and radical, i.e. disruptive projects, capable to make a real
discontinuity with traditions, to suggest a new perception of materials and of their use and to reinvent the
building sector (e.g. the same as for the incremental category, but with a clear degree of newness also versus
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