21 July 2017
Uzbekistan: President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has issues a decree detailing the construction of a new 1.2Mt/yr cement plant. The US$204m unit will be built at Bulakbashy, Andijan by 2019, according to the Trend News Agency. Shangfeng-Bridge of Friendship, a Uzbek-Chinese joint-venture, will manage the project. Investment for the scheme will come from foreign direct investment and loans, a loan from Uzpromstroybank and from Shangfeng-Bridge of Friendship directly. Tax and customs relief will also be offered to Shangfeng-Bridge of Friendship as part of the project.
India: The credit ratings agency ICRA has forecast that cement demand is likely to increase by 5% year-on-year in the 2017 – 2018 financial year due to increases in infrastructure and residential housing. In a report on the Indian cement sector it said that demand for cement fell by 1.2% to 280Mt in the 2016 – 2017 period, according to the Hindu newspaper. It added that the government’s demonetisation policy had decreased sales volumes by 9% between November 2016 and March 2017 as construction activity fell. However, in July 2016 ICRA failed to anticipate the negative effects of demonetisation predicting that cement demand would grow by 6% in the 2016 – 2017. Since then sales picked up by 17% in April 2017 leading to the current optimistic outlook.
India: JSW Group is considering plans to build a 200MW solar plant next to its cement grinding plant at Salboni in West Bengal. The owner of JSW Cement is considering plans for land it owns at the site, according to the Press Trust of India. The group says it is in advanced talks with foreign contractors to build the US$124m project. However, if the proposal fails it will build a 36MW thermal power plant instead for use by the cement plant.
SCG opens research and development centre 21 July 2017
Thailand: SCG had opened its ‘Open Innovation Centre’ research and development hub. As well as supporting SCG’s internal research across its three core businesses the centre also intends to support business start-ups in conjunction with the group. Suvit Maesincee, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, Atchaka Sibunruang, Minister of Science and Technology, Roongrote Rangsiyopash, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SCG and Cholanat Yanaranop, Executive Vice President of SCG and Chairman of SCG Innovation Committee attended the event.
Germany: Currax has added Siemens Simatic S7 controller systems to its drive portfolio under the IDS Digital brand. A variety of CPU models are available in several classes of performance in its product groups. Currax also intends to offer Simatic Human Interface (HMI) systems for compatible controller systems in the future.