Malaysia: Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMSB) has officially launched its 1Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Mambong for a cost of US$45m. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the unit was awarded to Germany’s Christian Pfeiffer Maschinenfabrik GmbH in April 2014. Construction at the site started in July 2014, production ramp-up commenced in December 2015 and it was fully commissioned earlier in 2016. The plant comprises a 150t/hour ball mill, a high efficiency separator, 2 units of 10,000t concrete silos, four-line bulk loaders and a 3000 bag/hour packing and palletising machine.

“This third plant will increase CMSB’s total annual rated cement production capacity by almost 60% to 2.75Mt/yr, well above current local demand of around 1.7 – 1.8Mt/yr.” said Richard Curtis, Group Managing Director of CMSB. The plant joins the company’s integrated cement plant at Mambong and a grinding plant at Bintulu. CMSB intends to meet growing cement demand in Sarawak, including from big projects such as the Baleh Dam and the Pan Borneo Highway.

The official launch also included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CMS Clinker and ZHA Environmental to enter into negotiations for the use of shredded rubber tyres as an alternate fuel in the production of clinker. CMSB has also signalled its intent to use slag in its cement manufacture as sources become available.