Articles on the cement industry from Global Cement

The price of cement is the subject of questions often asked but seldom answered satisfactorily. Manufacturers, certainly in the UK, tend not to publicise anything other than an aspirational percentage increase from time to time and the government issues figures that reveal only trends against an index. Market commentary generally confines itself to comparative statements, rather than identifying absolute prices.

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a constitutional monarchy located on the Arabian Peninsular. It is sandwiched between Saudi Arabia to its south east, Israel to the west and Syria to the north. It also shares a short border with Iraq to the north east. It covers an area of 89,342km², around half of which is covered by the Arabian Desert.¹ In the west, however, the land is fertile and is used for farming, with some forested areas.

To coincide with the 7th Global Slag Conference in Helsinki, Global Cement here discusses the trouble with 'slag' as a name. Is it a problem or not? You decide!

There is always a potential risk of explosions when handling combustible bulk solids and powders. Process technicians and engineers know how to estimate and minimise this risk. Nevertheless, devastating dust explosions occur too frequently. So-called 'hot-spots,' sudden spontaneous combustion and explosion risks lurk in every stage of the storage, processing and transportation of combustible powders. In the cement industry, this has relevance to coal-grinding systems. Here, Achim Rott from Yara Industrial GmbH explains the different types of inerting systems that can be used to prevent such explosions in the cement industry.

The largest country in the world,¹ Russia is also in the enviable position of having huge natural resources, including limestone, diamonds, gold, fresh water, minerals and oil.² Indeed, it ranks top in the CIA World Factbook list of oil producing nations³ and has benefitted from recent increases in the price of fuel. Russia is populous and has seen steady economic growth so far in the 21st Century. Its cement industry is also growing rapidly, although it needs significant investment and consolidation to remove older, inefficient plants. Indeed, FLSmidth recently described Russia as its 'most promising' market because of the need for more efficient plants.⁴