19 September 2018

UK: Cemex is planning to restart commercial production on the second kiln at its South Ferriby cement plant in November 2018. The company says that this investment highlights its confidence in the long-term potential of the UK building materials market.

The kiln has a capacity of 1000t/day and was originally installed in 1973. Since then the cement producer has conducted upgrade work on the production line to comply with environmental legislation and to install new electrical infrastructure, a control system and instrumentation. The second kiln was previously the first Cemex line in the world to achieve a 100% alternative fuel substitution rate in 2011. Once fully operational both kilns at the plant will give it a production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr.

UK: The planning department of East Lothian Council in Scotland has granted planning permission to an upgrade of Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant. The work will include building a new cement grinding mill, a new cement storage silo and a rail loading facility. The work will also include a shed, belt conveyors pneumatic pipelines and associated works.

In its supporting statement the company said that the new cement mill was necessary to produce new grades of cement required for modern construction and the cement market. The proposed mill will replace two existing mills on the site and is intended to be more energy efficient and quieter than the existing mills. It added that the plant would benefits from rail sidings on both the south and north side of the East Coast Mainline railway line. At present trains are fed only on the south side using adjacent silos where train capacity is already fully used. Additional products are exported by road.

Ukraine: Ukrcement, the Ukrainian cement association, has found in a study that over 80% of cement with the wrong labelling was counterfeit. The research was conducted on 50 cement bags for the consumer market, according to Interfax. 82% of cement proved to be counterfeit, over 50% of the samples were below the declared weight and 56% had weaker strength and did not comply with the В.2.7-46 -2010 national standard for minimum compressive strength.

The association said that the risks of using counterfeit cement vary from loss of time and revenue in smaller projects to a direct threat to human life in larger projects such as high-rise buildings. Local regulations require that cement bags include five items: the name of the producer, the conventional designation of cement, the designation of the normative document, the net weight and a conformity mark.

South Korea: Ssangyong Cement has launched what it says is the world’s largest waste heat recovery unit at its Donghae plant in Gangwon. The 43.5MWh unit had a budget of US$889m and was originally planned to 2016, according to the
Maeil Business Newspaper. 11 boilers plus turbines and cooling towers have been installed on six cement kilns at the site. The new system will also work in conjunction with an energy storage system (ESS) that was installed in April 2017.

Republic of Congo: Cement producers have expressed concerns about government plans to increase Value Added Tax (VAT) on cement to 18% from 5%. Cement prices are expected to rise as manufacturers pass the extra cost on to consumers, according to the Central African Information Agency. An industry source quoted by the agency said that local cement plants are doing badly due to a capacity utilisation rate of 10 – 20%. The country has five cement plants with a production capacity of 3.2Mt/yr but cement consumption was only 0.7Mt in 2017.

Kenya: The Mombasa county government has ordered the closure of a clinker storage plant run by Corrugated Sheets due to the accusation that is has emitted large amounts of dust. Stephen Wambua, the head of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) in Mombasa said that operations at the Mikindani-based unit had been stopped and would not resume until it was in full compliance with environmental regulations, according to the Business Daily newspaper. The closure followed complaints by local residents.

Wambua said that imported clinker via the Port of Mombasa is stored in a number of premises locally. Dust is emitted during loading and offloading of consignments. Nema is also investigating claims that other companies are storing ‘toxic’ materials in the Jomvu area. In August 2018 the Kenya Star newspaper linked the Corrugated Sheets site to widespread respiratory illness in the local neighbourhood, including some suspected fatalities since clinker storage started in 2010.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has formally launched BlocMaster Cement product in Kano. The new cement product is described as ‘extra strong’ and targeted at block moulders, according to the Vanguard newspaper. At the official launch event Joe Makoju, the group managing director of Dangote Cement, said the new brand had followed ‘years’ of research and that it had been tested and approved by builders in the country.

Pakistan: Maple Leaf Cement’s profits have fallen due to mounting costs of goods. Its profit after taxation fell by 4% year-on-year to US$37m in the year to 30 June 2018 from US$39m in the same period in 2017. Despite this its sales rose by 7.5% to US$208m from US$194m. The cement producer added that it had approved a US$8.1m loan to its holding company Kohinoor Textile Mills to meet ‘working capital requirements.’

Vietnam: Tan Thang Cement has ordered additional integrated digital automation and electrical equipment from Switzerland’s ABB for a new 2Mt/yr plant it is building in Nghe An province. The order is a follow- up order to the initial automation and electrical systems delivery from ABB for this site, which is currently under construction.

The follow-up order includes a 110kV AIS Substation (Air Insulated Substation), with a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system based on ABB Ability System 800xA for Power Control, as well as telecommunications, and High Voltage primary and secondary equipment to support the electrical infrastructure. ABB will also deliver power transformers, distribution transformers, an Intelligent Motor Control Centre, Auxiliary Control Centre, Emergency Diesel Generator, DC power supply, various field devices and related commissioning services.

ABB’s initial delivery included ABB Ability System 800xA DCS (Distributed Control System) to integrate control, electrical and communication systems for optimal visibility into all processes for stable production and efficient use of raw materials and energy. It also included ABB Ability Knowledge Manager and Expert Optimizer software, as well as basic communication and electrical system infrastructure and equipment.

The project is scheduled to be commissioned in late 2019.

US/China: The Office of the US Trade Representative has started implementing a 10% tariff on mineral and other products from China, including cement, following a consultation period. Mineral products affected by the proposed tariffs of interest to the cement industry include limestone flux, quicklime, slaked lime, gypsum, anhydrite, clinkers of Portland, aluminous, slag, supersulphate and similar hydraulic cements, white Portland cement, Portland cement, aluminous cement, slag cement, refractory cements, additives for cement, cement based building materials and more.

The latest tariff list follows an earlier decision by the US government to tax imports from China worth US$34bn that came into force in early July 2018.