Displaying items by tag: Upgrade

India: JSW Cement plans to invest around US$277m towards increasing its production capacity and it is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in 2019 or 2020. The cement producer wants to increase the cement production capacity to 2.2Mt/yr in 2018 from 1Mt/yr at its Dolvi grinding plant in Maharashtra, according to the Press Trust of India. A further expansion to 4.5Mt/yr is scheduled for 2019.

"We expect huge demand for cement in the country and plan to expand our cement manufacturing capacity from 12.5Mt/yr to 20Mt/yr by 2020. We are adding 4.5Mt/yr at our Dolvi unit in Maharashtra and 1.2Mt/yr at out Vijaynagar unit in Karnataka, apart from 1.2Mt/yr adding at our Odisha unit,” said JSW Cement’s managing director Parth Jindal. He added that the company would wait for the outcome of the general election in 2019 and create a ‘healthy’ financial profile before launching the IPO. After raising money in the offering the company plans to reach a 30Mt/yr capacity by 2025 and 50Mt/yr in 2030 both through new builds and acquisitions.

Venezuela: The Corporacion Socialista de Cementos’ Las Llanadas plant in Trujillo has started its second production line. Following the upgrade the state-owned plant’s cement production capacity will rise to 1.35Mt/yr from 0.5Mt/yr, according to the El Mundo newspaper. The new line was built using Chinese technology.

Mexico: Cruz Azul has confirmed that it plans to spend US$300m on upgrades at two of its cement plants over the next 28 months. Previously the plan was announced in late 2016. Guillermo Álvarez Cuevas told the El Economista newspaper that the cement producer intends to carry out work to increase production capacity at its Hildalgo and Oaxaca plants.

Libya: British consultants on behalf of the Libyan Cement Company have met with the Benghazi Mayor Abdelrahman Al-Abaar in order to help restart two cement plants in Benghazi and Hawari. Work is due to commence on removing land mines from the sites as well as an assessment of damage caused to the units from fighting that took place in 2016, according to the Libya Herald newspaper. The Libyan Cement Company announced that it was going to reopen the plants in May 2017.

Philippines: The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved Eagle Cement’s application to build a third production line at its Bulacan cement plant. The cement producer plans to increase the site’s clinker production capacity to 4.2Mt/yr from 2.8Mt/yr and its cement production capacity to 7.1Mt/yr from 5.1Mt/yr, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The upgrade has a cost of around US$138m.

The BOI, part of the attached agency of Department of Trade and Industry, has also approved an application by Eagle Cement’s subsidiary South Western Cement Corp. (SWCC) to become a new cement producer on a non-pioneer status but with pioneer incentives.

Argentina: Cementos Avellaneda plans to spend US$230m towards upgrading its La Calera and Olavarría cement plants. The company is a joint venture between Spain's Cementos Molins and Brazil’s Votorantim. US$200m will be used to increase the production capacity of the La Calera plant in San Luis to 1Mt/yr from 0.7Mt/yr by the second half of 2019. US$30m has been targeted to increase the Olavarría plant’s capacity by 0.3Mt/yr. Commissioning is planned for the end of 2017.

France: Lafarge France plans to spend Euro14.5m towards upgrading its Havre-Saint-Vigor cement plant. Euro8m will be spent on upgrading the plant’s mill and modernising its dock. The remainder will be spent on changes to the quarry including a new crane and wharf. The quarry at the site will be used to process construction waste from the Greater Paris area.

Pakistan: Cherat Cement has contracted Finland’s Wärtsilä to increase its power output at its Nowshera plant. It has ordered three Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both natural gas and heavy fuel oil (HFO). The total electrical output will be approximately 29MW. Wärtsilä will also provide advisors to oversee the installation and commissioning of the engines.

“We need to enlarge our facilities and this we must to do quickly on a tight schedule. Wärtsilä has supported this timetable by agreeing to deliver their generating sets on a very short timetable…” said Azam Faruque, chief executive officer of Cherat Cement. The Nowshera cement plant is also powered by Wärtsilä equipment, consisting of four Wärtsilä 32 engines.

The new generators are scheduled for delivery in March 2018 and the plant is expected to be fully operational by June 2018.

US: Lafarge North America, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has officially opened the upgrade to its Ravena cement plant in New York. The upgrade work took three years at a reported cost of US$300m.

“By modernising the plant, we have transformed it into an efficient, competitive and state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to meet the growing needs of our customers and remain a strong partner to the community for the foreseeable future,” said John Stull, chief executive officer (CEO) US Cement, LafargeHolcim. He added that the plant has supplied cement for high profile projects, including the Tappan Zee bridge reconstruction and One World Trade Center Memorial.

Upgrade work focused on building a new clinker production line to modernise the previously wet process plant. Following the work the plant now has a clinker production capacity of 2Mt/yr with improved emissions levels and higher operational performance.

US: The Charlevoix Township Board of Trustees has approved a request from St Marys Cement to extend a certificate allowing St Marys Cement more time to complete expansion work at its Charlevoix plant in Michigan. Votorantim Cimentos North America asked the local government body to extend its industrial facilities exemption certificate abatement by one year, as construction at the site is not expected to be completed until the end of 2018, according to the Charlevoix Courier newspaper. The cement producer plans to have the new systems at the plant running by mid-May 2018.

Upgrade work at the plant will increase its production capacity from 1.3Mt/yr to nearly 2Mt/yr. The cost has been budgeted at US$130m.