28 January 2015
RHI gets US$11.6m refractory order from Lafarge 28 January 2015
Canada: Austria's Radex-Heraklith Industriebeteiligungs (RHI) has received a US$11.6m order from Lafarge in Canada. RHI will deliver materials for the expansion of Lafarge's cement plant in Exshaw, Alberta. The cement industry comprises 12% of RHI's sales.
US: Haldor Topsoe, a catalysis producer, and FLSmidth, a supplier of equipment and services to the global cement and minerals industries, have signed a cooperation agreement that marks the beginning of a joined global effort to commercialise a new catalytic filter bag technology.
"Developing this product has been a combination of the very best that Topsoe and FLSmidth have to offer from an R&D perspective," said Bjerne S Clausen, CEO of Haldor Topsoe.
The product has been designed over the last four years and will carry the brand name EnviroTex catalytic filter bags. It is capable of removing dust, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides in one integrated and cost-effective process. The patent-pending catalytic filter bags use three layers of filter fabric. Each layer contains a tailored catalyst optimised for the removal of specific kinds of compounds from the off-gas that passes through it.
As part of the agreement between FLSmidth and Topsoe, the new product will be manufactured at FLSmidth's bag production facilities in Georgia, USA. The filter bags will then be catalysed and assembled at Topsoe's catalyst production site in Houston, Texas. Topsoe's production site will be expanded with a new production line dedicated to the production of EnviroTex catalytic filter bags. The goal is to complete construction of this facility by the end of 2015.
Cement producer in Crimea unreasonably increases prices 28 January 2015
Russia: The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has found that the 'Stroiindoustria' Bakhchisaray cement plant in the Crimea violated antimonopoly law by 'unreasonably' raising prices of cement. In April – May 2014 Bakhchisaray increased prices for its different product brands by an average of 45%. FAS established that the company had the dominant position on the cement market in the Crimea Federal District.
Completing the investigation, the antimonopoly body did not reveal any economic, technological or other justifications for the increased prices of the company products. The case against Bakhchisaray was initiated following an inspection of the largest producers of construction materials in the Crimea Federal District to verify whether prices complied with the antimonopoly law.