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Fernandez: Getting cement offtake agreements beyond five years is very difficult

Mario Fernandez · FOAK tales · Jan 16, 2025 · at 31:36

Mario Fernandez of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst explains how commodity dynamics affect offtake durations for first-of-a-kind decarbonization projects.

0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.2s
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“In cement, Where it's so short term, it'd be really hard to get anybody to sign more than a five-year agreement, right?”

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