Displaying items by tag: Plant
US: GCC plans to fully convert production at its 0.35Mt/yr Trident Plant in Montana to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) in early 2022. The cement producer estimates that the plant’s production change will reduce its CO2 emissions by almost 25,000t/yr.
“We believe that our industry must continue to provide the homes, roads and infrastructure that shape our world while, simultaneously, addressing the challenge of climate change,” said Ron Henley, president of GCC’s US division. “PLC is one piece of the puzzle to reduce greenhouse gases. Concrete made with PLC is a resilient material that easily meets the needs of our customers for generations to come.” He added that GCC signed the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s (GCCA) net zero pledge earlier in 2021.
Taiwan: Taiwan Cement plans to build 87.5MWh and 250MWh large-scale energy storage units at its integrated Suao and Hualien plants respectively. Once complete it will become the largest energy storage field in the country. The company will also install a 4MW solar plant at Hualien.
Australia: Boral plans to run a pilot scale carbon capture and storage unit at its integrated Berrima Cement plant in New South Wales. The project follows an allocation of a US$1.7m grant from the Australian Government’s carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS) Development Fund in June 2021. The pilot intends to develop and test a re-carbonation strategy for CO2 storage. Captured CO2 will be stored in recycled concrete, masonry and steel slag aggregates. In its 2021 sustainability report, the buildings materials company said that, “The relatively low capital and operation costs, abundance of selected waste materials and the financial return potential due to the increased value of processed aggregates are key drivers for adoption of this technology.”
Mozambique: West China Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mozambique government for four upcoming ‘industrial investment and development’ projects including a cement plant worth a total of US$800m. Local press has reported that another of the projects will be the construction of a power plant.
President Zhang Jimin said Zhang thanked the government for its past support of subsidiary Dugong Cimentos. He added “Due to this support we have, we are confident to continue the implementation of the development projects in Mozambique, as the government shows its concern to improve the investment conditions and environment.”
India: Ambuja Cements has commenced commercial production at its new 3Mt/yr Marwar cement plant in Nagaur, Rajasthan. The plant has and an additional 2Mt/yr of grinding capacity. The Orissa Diary newspaper has reported that the producer invested US$316m in its construction. The Marwar cement plant increases Ambuja Cement’s installed capacity by 20% to 29.7Mt/yr.
Managing director Neeraj Akhoury said “Ambuja has ambitious growth plans to expand its capacities in India, and the Marwar plant is a step in that direction. We are very proud that it is a ‘green plant’ designed to meet our ambition for a sustainable future. The plant has deployed all modern equipment and technology to produce cement in a more environmentally friendly manner. It has a waste heat recovery (WHR) system that converts waste heat derived during the production process into energy.”
Update on Oman, September 2021
29 September 2021Raysut Cement Company (RCC) announced this week that it is preparing to commission its Duqm grinding plant in late 2021. It follows the news from earlier in September 2021 than Oman Cement Company (OCC) is planning to build a new clinker production line at its Rusayl cement plant.
First some detail on the RCC project. The new US$30m unit will have a production capacity of 1Mt/yr, bringing the company’s total cement production capacity to 7.4Mt/yr. As part of the development process, RCC signed a land lease and Port of Terminal services agreement with the Port of Duqm Company. The new grinding unit is also intended to complement RCC’s expansion and new investments and acquisitions in Oman, Asia and East Africa.
Other relatively recent RCC news include, in 2019, its acquisition of Sohar Cement Company in Oman for US$60m, the announcement of plans to build a new 1.2Mt/yr integrated plant in Georgia for US$200 and a joint-venture deal to establish a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in Somaliland for US$40m. Then in 2020 it obtained a 75% stake in a cement terminal in the Maldives owned by subsidiaries of Holcim, and a project to build a 0.75Mt/yr grinding plant in Toamasina, Madagascar, for US$30m was detailed in the local press. More recently in 2021, China-based Sinoma started building a waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at RCC’s Salalah cement plant, RCC gained certification for some of its cement products for export to the European Union, and the Competition Authority of Kenya granted RCC permission to sell a majority stake in its East African based business.
OCC’s upgrade to its Rusayl cement plant will see it add a new production line and increase the capacity of one of the existing lines. Overall the project will increase the unit’s nominal clinker production capacity to 15,000t/day from 8700t/day at present by adding a new 10,000t/day line and increasing the current Line 3 to 4000t/day from 2700t/day at present. Lines 1 and 2, at 2000t/day and 2700t/day, will then be decommissioned after the new line starts operation. OCC says that the new line, when built, will be the biggest in the country. Scant detail has been released beyond the main vision but the company says it wants to focus on low power consumption, consider using a waste heat recovery unit, increase its fuel efficiency, use alternative fuels and adhere to ‘best’ environmental standards. It has hired PEG Resources, a Switzerland-based engineering consultancy, to conduct a technical study, tendering and contracting as well as supervision of the project execution. The company had also been working towards building a new integrated plant at Duqm. However, this project was put on hold in the first quarter of 2021 pending confirmation of fuel availability and as the Rusayl upgrade took priority.
The Omani cement sector is dominated by OCC and RCC since they own the biggest plants and they have consolidated this by buying competitors and building new plants. Both companies suffered from reduced sales year-on-year in 2019 due to imports from the neighbouring UAE. The government duly implemented anti-dumping measures in 2020 and company revenues recovered that year. However, the coronavirus pandemic then hit, leading to losses at RCC in 2020 although the situation appears to have improved for the company in the first half of 2021. OCC reported continued ‘intense’ price competition between local producers and importers in the same period.
OCC is majority owned by the government via an investment fund. As the recent announcement shows, it has decided to focus on building production capacity domestically. This week’s launch of its Al Burj Cement as a distinctive local product looks like another part of this approach. However, as Bloomberg reported in May 2021, the government was considering selling its stake in the producer and had been in discussions with financial advisors on the matter. By contrast, RCC’s biggest shareholder at the end of 2020 was the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, with a 15% share. RCC has taken a more international approach, operating an integrated plant in the UAE and focusing on trading and grinding cement around the Arabian and African parts of the Indian Ocean.
Similar to other Gulf States, the building materials markets in Oman are dominated by government spending and the price of oil. Market forecasts predict recovery in the building materials markets in 2021 but in the longer term growth depends on general economic diversification. Oman, like its neighbours, is trying to do this. In this context it is instructive to see that OCC and RCC are pursuing different business strategies.
Spain: Votorantim Cimentos España has appointed Pablo Viedma as the director of its integrated Niebla cement company in Huelva.
Viedma joined Votorantim in 2015 as its Regional Maintenance Manager for Europe Africa and Asia. Prior to this he worked for industrial minerals company Sibelco as a Maintenance Manager. Before this he worked for Holcim España for over a decade as a Maintenance Manager. He has worked in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Turkey and Egypt. Viedma holds a degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad de Jaén.
Çimko Çimento to acquire Çimsa assets for US$127m
29 September 2021Turkey: Sanko Holding subsidiary Çimko Çimento has agreed to acquire several assets from Sabanci Holding subsidiary Çimsafor US$127m. The Dünya newspaper has reported that the deal covers two cement plants – the Nigde plant and Kayseri plant – the Ankara grinding plant and seven ready-mix concrete plants.
Nigeria: Finland-based Wärtsilä has extended its operation and maintenance agreement with Lafarge Africa by another five years. The agreement covers the 100MW Ewekoro power plant, which provides a dedicated supply of electricity to the company’s concrete and cement manufacturing processes. The extension of the deal was signed in July 2021 and it follows a previous 10-year agreement. The scope of the agreement includes the operating crew, performance guarantees, plant availability and spare parts.
The captive Ewekoro plant was supplied and commissioned by Wärtsilä in 2011. It consists of six Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines, operating primarily on gas, but with the flexibility to automatically switch to liquid fuel in case of a disruption to the gas supply. The engines are also designed to function efficiently with a low-pressure gas supply, a necessity given the region’s vulnerability to supply interruptions.
“We have benefited significantly from the efficient way by which Wärtsilä has operated and maintained this plant for the past 10 years, and we had no hesitation in extending the agreement for a further five years. An uninterrupted reliable supply of electricity is essential to our production, and having our own power plant, built, operated and maintained by Wärtsilä, gives us this assurance,” said Lanre Opakunle, Strategic Sourcing Director, Power & Gas, Middle East & Africa, Holcim.
Wärtsilä has also supplied Lafarge Africa with another 100MW power plant located in Mfamosing.
Nairobi Business Ventures to start building cement plant near Nairobi by end of 2021
29 September 2021Kenya: Nairobi Business Ventures (NBV) plans to start building its new 1Mt/yr cement plant at Machakos near Nairobi by the end of 2021. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, according to the Business Daily newspaper. Cement sold from the plant will be marketed under the Delta Cement brand. The announcement follows the approval by NBV’s shareholders of its acquisition by Delta Cement. The company was acquired by UAE-based Delta International Holdings in late 2020.