25 March 2015
Cement firm sales set to surge 10 - 15% 25 March 2015
Turkey: Sabancı Holding expects its cement business sales to rise by 10 – 15% in 2015 and is looking for acquisition opportunities, according to its chief executive Hakan Gurdal. Sabancı's cement group, which consists of Akçansa and Çimsa, posted a 16% increase in sales to US$980m in 2014.
"We are chasing opportunities for growth abroad. The financial structures of Akçansa and Çimsa are getting stronger, creating serious potential. We currently have the ability to borrow up to US$1.5bn to fund an acquisition," said Gurdal.
Sabancı Holding has long been interested in acquisitions, but has not bought any companies. Gurdal explained that this was due to geopolitical risks in the countries bordering Turkey. Gurdal added that the group had an investment target of US$117 – 129m, most of which would be invested in a plant in the Aegean province of Afyon. The plant is expected to start producing in May 2016.
Mexico: Holcim has announced plans to reduce its water consumption by 14% year-on-year in 2015 in Mexico. It has invested US$332,167 in the initiative and has installed meters at all of its cement plants. The installation was carried out to reduce the business's operational water footprint.
Donskaya Tekhnicheskaya Company to build cement terminal 25 March 2015
Russia: Donskaya Tekhnicheskaya Company, one of the largest suppliers of construction materials, intends to construct a cement terminal in Azov, Rostov in 2015, for Euro3.13m. The terminal will load out over 490,000t/yr or 2000t/day of cement. The cement will be dispatched by rail and by ships from the Sebryakovcement plant in Volgograd and the Novoroscement plant in Krasnodar. The project will help solve the cement deficit in the region.
QPMC cement terminal to be operational in 2015 25 March 2015
Qatar: The upcoming cement storage and conveying terminal being developed by Qatar Primary Materials Company (QPMC) in Mesaieed will be completed by the end of 2015, according to a senior official of a consultancy associated with the project.
The facility has been designed to discharge 1.8Mt/yr of cement into the 12 silos with a total storage capacity of 60,000m3. Once operational, the plant will be able to load 1000t/hr of cement in trucks, which will significantly reduce the truck loading time to about 90 seconds per truck.
"Once completed, the facility will help Qatar to import and store more cement than what it is able to do today. In case the local producers have a surplus output, in future, they can also use the storage facility, which will maintain the quality of cement intact for a longer period of time," said Marc Stordiau, managing director of 'Rent A Port', a Belgium-based engineering consultant specialising in port designing and logistics operations. "Although the temrinal has been designed for cement, it can also be used to store gypsum and clinker after minimal modification," added Stordiau.
According to Stordiau, the terminal will also improve the cost efficiency and handling capacity of the port significantly as the latest technology will help unload a vessel with 60,000m3 of cement within a day, instead of 10 - 15 days without the conveyor belts and silos facilities. The high rate of discharge capacity from ships will also reduce ship waiting times. The cement terminal is also equipped with smaller silos, which have been designed to load up to four trucks simultaneously, taking the total loading capacity to 40 trucks per hour or 20,000t/day.
Turkey: Loesche has delivered and is currently installing a LM 45.4 raw meal mill ordered by Vicat Service Technique Ciment for Bastas Baskent Çimento in Elmadag in May 2014.
The Loesche LM 45.4 vertical roller mill will grind 260t/hr cement raw meal at a product fineness of 16% R90μm. The installed drive power is 2100kW. Loesche's scope of supply includes weigh feeders, apron feeders, magnetic separators, metal detectors, shut-off and control flaps, vibrating conveyors, a bucket elevator and expansion joints. The commissioning of the new mill is scheduled for the third quarter of 2015.