23 April 2018

Nigeria: Dangote Cement will use two vertical roller mills (VRM) from Germany’s Loesche for a new production line at its Obajana plant in Kogi State. The order comprises a six-roller mill for raw cement meal with a capacity of 580t/hr, the largest roller mill for raw material in the Loesche range, and a three-roller mill with a modular design featuring a drive power range of 1000kW for grinding hard coal and lignite with a throughput of up to 70t/hr.

The scope of delivery also includes a LDC classifier for the raw cement mill and a LSKS ZD classifier for the coal mill, which is characterised by individually adjustable grain size separation. The raw material mill is equipped with metal-matrix-compound (MMX) technology. The two mill gear units are equipped with state monitoring and remote access for remote monitoring. Loesche is also contributing to the design and planning of the entire plant as well as the engineering for the electrical measurement, control and regulation technology and complete automation. The delivery date is scheduled for the third quarter of 2018.

The contract partner for this project is China’s Sinoma International Engineering, which has previously installed a seven clinker and cement raw meal VRMs for the Obajana plant. The site has a cement production capacity of over 12Mt/yr and it is the largest cement plant in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana: Diamond Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to build a port at Kedzi in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region. The site is being developed to help the cement producer import raw materials, according to the Ghanaian Times. At present it uses the port of Lome in Togo.

Paraguay: Edgar Acosta, the general manager of Yguazu Cementos, has called for a law banning imports of clinker to be lifted. Acosta, the former president of Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), argues that the legislation is ‘unfair competition’ as it was introduced in 2006 when INC was the only cement producer in the country, according to the ABC newspaper. However, at present INC imports large volumes of clinker despite owning large reserves of limestone in the country. Of the 550,000t of cement produced by INC in 2017, more than 50% was made with imported clinker. INC imports clinker from Uruguay, Spain and Greece.