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El Salvador: Holcim El Salvador has officially inaugurated an upgrade to its Maya cement plant. The company has invested US$11.6m towards increasing clinker production capacity by 0.45Mt/yr at the unit. Total cement production capacity of the plant has increased to 1.9Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr previously. The Maya cement plant previously reduced production levels significantly in 2008 in response to the global financial crisis at the same time. Oliver Osswald, Region Head of Holcim LATAM, attended the inauguration. The event was also used to launch Holcim’s new corporate branding in the region.
Lehigh Cement’s Union Bridge plant to switch to Portland limestone cement production by 2023 20 July 2022
US: Lehigh Hanson’s Lehigh Cement plant in Union Bridge, Maryland plans to fully switch from Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to Portland limestone cement (PLC) production by January 2023. It will manufacture its EcoCemPLC product. The company says that the Union Bridge plant is currently the company’s largest cement plant in North America.
The decision to move to PLC follows similar changes at the company’s Mason City plant in Iowa and three cement plants in Indiana. Lehigh Hanson produced over 2Mt of PLC in 2021 and it says it is set to double this figure in 2022.
US: Dome Technology has commissioned a 169,000t dome at Lehigh Cement's Mitchell cement plant in Indiana. The dome is equipped with three reclaim tunnels, enabling 83% live reclaim.
Dome Technology sales manager Lane Robertssaid “It’s a colossal project. It’s one of our bigger domes as far as storage capacity goes."
UK: Cemex UK has commissioned a new 25kg plasticcement bag packing line at its Rugby cement plant in Warwickshire. The line will operate alongside an existing paper bagging line.
Cemex UK's packed cement sales manager Graeme Barton said “The packaging of our products is under routine scrutiny to meet customer demand and reduce waste. We have listened to what our merchants and customers need, and by investing in higher, more reliable capacity, Cemex can now meet the demand from the market in peak months with greater confidence. In turn, our stockists can meet their customers’ requirements by supplying what they need, in a format that works better for them. Our merchants and end-users are already seeing the immediate benefits of the new packaging by reporting fewer breakages in branch and onsite – which helps to cut down on waste."
India: Grasim Industries plans to establish a building materials sales platform with a total investment of US$250m over the five-year period to 2027. The Business Standard newspaper has reported that the new platform offers clear adjacencies with the cement and building materials producer's existing businesses and associate companies.
Parent company Aditya Birla's chair Kumar Mangalam Birla said "The building materials segment presents a huge scalable business opportunity with a proven path to profitability. With this foray, Grasim will be able to leverage the large business-to-business ecosystem within the Aditya Birla Group."