India: Shree Cement has commissioned its 3Mt/yr integrated plant at Kodla, Kalaburagi in Karnataka state. The cement mill and the clinker line at the line were commissioned at the same time in late December 2018.

Namibia: China’s Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute (TDI) has successfully ignited the kiln on a new 1.2Mt/yr production line at Whale Rock Cement’s plant near Otjiwarongo. The Chinese equipment supplier says that the line was started on 25 December 2018, 58 days ahead of the contracted start date. The project officially began in late 2017. The US$350m plant was originally scheduled to be commissioned in late October 2018, according to local media.

Nigeria: The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) says it has received formal approval from the Securities Exchange Commission and the Federal High Court for its merger with Kalambaina Cement. It added that the scheme of the merger was effective from 24 December 2018. New CCNN shares have been issued to and allotted to Kalambaina Cement’s shareholders at an agreed ratio.

Russia: South Ural Mining and Processing Company has purchased a 77% stake in Gornozavodsktsement in Perm region. It intends to buy the rest of the company at a later date, according to the Kommersant newspaper. The acquisition was supported by Gazprombank.

Belarus: The Architecture and Construction Ministry has supported the country’s use of a commodity exchange to sell cement. Deputy Architecture and Construction Minister Alexander Sidorov said that his ministry was prepared to support an increase in supply to the exchange if demand allowed, according to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). It was previously announced that the country was planning to make 0.2Mt/yr of 10% of the country’s cement exports available to purchase via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) from the start of 2019.

Chile: Colbún has signed a deal with Grupo Polpaico to supply the cement producer with 183GWhr/yr of renewable energy for a 10 year period. Cementos Polpaico will start using renewable energy at its Cerro Blanco integrated plant and its Coronel cement grinding plant in 2019 to allow energy efficiency upgrades to be implemented. Other plants in the group’s portfolio will start using the renewable energy supply by 2022.

US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) says that the upgrade to its Rapid City cement plant in South Dakota has started operation. The expansion has added 0.44Mt/yr of production capacity to the unit taking its total capacity to 1.18Mt/yr. The project cost US$105m and it started in 2016. Tie-in of the upgrade was finished in late November 2018. Production was suspended during the tie-in-process and has now resumed. The new facilities are now being stabilised.

“The Rapid City expansion comes at an opportune time, as our US cement plants are running nearly at full capacity, and we expect to see continued, steady growth in demand across our market area. We will be able to serve our customers better and operate our cement logistics network more efficiently with the additional capacity,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer (CEO).

GCC has 5.8Mt/yr of cement production capacity. Of this, 3.5Mt/yr is in the US, with plants in Pueblo in Colorado, Odessa in Texas, Tijeras in New Mexico, Trident in Montana and Rapid City in South Dakota. GCC expects to ramp up the new production capacity at Rapid City gradually over the next 18 to 24 months, in accordance with market conditions.

GCC’s cement production capacity in Mexico is 2.3Mt/yr from plants in Chihuahua, Juarez and Samalayuca in Chihuahua state. In the third quarter of 2018, GCC reactivated two idled kilns in Chihuahua to increase production of both oil well cement and construction cement.

US: France’s Fives Group has released detail about a project to upgrade the cement mill workshop at Giant Cement’s Harleyville plant in South Carolina. The contracts included the complete engineering, supply, fabrication, transport, installation and commissioning services for material handling, cement grinding and cement loading. New equipment included a clinker and additives transport circuit with a dedusting system, a classifying circuit with a FCB TSV Classifier, a new Fives TGT Filter, all gas and material connections as well as the ball mill internals revamping, a cement truck bulk loading area and a weighing station.

Engineering, offshore supplies and project management were handled by Fives FCB. Onshore supplies and all site works including civil and structural works, mechanical and electrical installations were covered by Fives Solios. Major milestones of the project included starting civil works in November 2017. Mechanical and electrical erection work ran from February to July 2018. First cement production was on 29 June 2018.

Uzbekistan: Uzbek-Chinese joint venture Titan Cement (unrelated to the Greek group of the same name) has commissioned a 0.2Mt/yr plant in the Korauzyak District of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The project had an investment of nearly US$40m, according to the Uzbekistan Daily newspaper. The funding was comprised of US$19m in direct investment from the joint venture, US$17m from loans and US$2m in foreign investment. This plant was originally reported as having started operation in mid-2016.

Bangladesh: Saudi Arabian company Engineering Dimensions has signed a partnership agreement with Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to build a cement plant at Chhatak in Sunamgan. BCIC Chairman Shah M Aminul Haque and Engineering Dimensions President Mohammed N Hijji signed the deal, according to the Financial Express newspaper. Representatives of the Ministry of Industries and the Saudi Arabian embassy also attended the ceremony.