Issue introduction

2016 was an uncertain year for the cement industry, with slow or falling sales revenue for the major cement producers and rising cement sales volumes. Events such as the Chinese slowdown, the election of Donald Trump as the next US president and the UK’s decision to leave the European Union have all contributed to this uncertainty. In this atmosphere mergers and acquisitions have dominated the news as companies find alternative routes to profit. Here Global Cement presents some of the major stories and trends from the year.

Following on from the mid-2015 merger of Lafarge and Holcim to form LafargeHolcim, 2016 was another year of consolidation for the cement sector. HeidelbergCement acquired Italcementi and Cemex sold a number of key assets. Meanwhile, a number of smaller regional producers made up ground by acquiring selected assets that had to be divested by the merging parties. Others, notably Dangote and PPC, continued to build fresh cement capacity. Prior to the release of the Global Cement Top 100 Report 2017 and the final print version of the Global Cement Directory 2017, we present a run down of the top cementproducing nations and cement producers as they stand at the start of the New Year.

Cement producers around the world are under greater pressure than ever to maintain margins in light of difficult conditions in many markets. Once any apparent technical process solutions have been implemented, what else can be done to improve the performance of cement producers in terms of operational costs, suppliers, staff attitudes and management approaches? Here, we hear about the work of Alexander Proudfoot, a management consulting company with wide experience in the global cement industry, from Angus Maclean, the firm’s Executive Vice President for Client Delivery, Europe.

The transport of fine bulk solids such as cement, raw meal, fly ash and coal along complex routes often takes place pneumatically. The friction that occurs between bulk solid and the piping line wall and the vertical lift of the bulk solid in vertically-extending conveying lines creates a pressure loss. Consequently, conveying air must be provided, for which different feeding systems are available. Here we describe the installation of a Kreisel Ceramic Rotary Feeder at the PPC Hercules plant in South Africa.