01 June 2016
Indonesia: PT Krakatau Semen Indonesia has ordered a slag grinding mill from Loesche for its Cigading grinding plant in Cilegon, Banten. Krakatau Semen will use a Loesche mill with an LDC classifier to grind ground granulated blast furnace slag to a fineness of 4500cm²/g. The scope of supply for this contract also includes the raw material transport system, the mill dust extraction system, the reject system and the silo equipment. The mill is scheduled for operation by the first quarter of 2017.
Subsidiaries of Loesche are participating in the contract. Loesche ThermoProzesstechnik is supplying the grinding plant with a hot gas generator type LF-36L (fully inline) for the combustion of industrial diesel oil. Automation of the plant is supplied by Loesche Automatisierungstechnik. Loesche Indonesia will provide a service contract including personnel services. In addition, Loesche will monitor the local production as well as the assembly and commissioning.
PT Krakatau Semen Indonesia was founded in November 2013 as a state-run company. In a joint venture with PT Semen Indonesia, PT Krakatau Semen Indonesia is building its first plant of this type with a planned production of 0.75Mt/yr.
Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA) has signed two agreements with CBMI, a subsidiary of Sinoma, to build a new cement plant in Bechar and upgrade the Zahana plant at Mascara. The agreements were signed in the presence of Industry and Mines Minister Abdessalem Bouchouareb, China's ambassador to Algiers Yang Guangyu and the chief executive officers of GICA and Sinoma, according to the Algeria Press Service.
The Bechar cement plant will have a cement production capacity of 1Mt/yr and it will be run by the Saoura Cement Company. The upgrade work at Zahana cement plant has an investment of US$344m. A new 1.5Mt/yr production line will be built at the site run by the Cement Company of Zahana. Work at both sites is planed to be complete in 2018.
Silo collapses at Fauji Cement plant in Pakistan 01 June 2016
Pakistan: A raw meal silo has collapsed at the Fauji Cement Company plant at Tehsil Fateh Jang, Punjab. The structure containing 25,000t of raw material collapsed on 29 May 2016 also causing damage to the coal mill area of second production line. The company reported no casualties.
Fauji Cement has shutdown its 7200t/day second production line following the incident. It expects that the line will remain closed for approximately five to six months. However, dispatches out of stock will continue as the plant’s cement mills are operating normally. The plant’s 3700t/day first production line is currently undergoing planned maintenance and will resume production soon.
The cement plant’s second production line was completed and started in 2011.
Brazil: InterCement’s sales have fallen by 28% year-on-year to Euro454m for the first quarter of 2016 from Euro637m in the same period in 2015. Its cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 11.2% to 6.03Mt from 6.79Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 36.2% to Euro77.9m from Euro122m. The group blamed the falling sales on construction market contraction in Brazil and negative currency effects in certain territories.
The Brazilian-based cement producer reported sales volumes declines in most countries it operates in. Cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 17% to 2.27Mt in Brazil, by 34.8% to 0.73Mt/yr in Portugal and by 7.1% to 1.41Mt in Argentina. However, volumes rose by 26.3% to 0.37Mt in Mozambique and by 2.8% to 0.32Mt/yr in South Africa. Overall sales volumes declines were attributed to the political instability, economic problems in Brazil and decreased exports from Portugal to Algeria due to issues with import licences.