16 May 2019

India: The Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) plans to invest around US$140m towards developing dry ports and related infrastructure as well as buying more railway wagons. The government-controlled organisation, under the remit of the Ministry of Railways, intends to target the cement industry, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. V Kalyana Rama, the chairman and managing director of CONCOR, said that the company wants to increase transportation of bulk cement in the country to reduce inefficiencies.

Mali: Ibrahima Dibo, a director of Diamond Cement Mali has denied that his company is responsible for recent price rises. At a press conference on the issue he explained that the cement producer has had fixed prices in conjunction with the government at its units at Astro and Dio Gare since 2012, according to the Le Républicain newspaper. Instead he blamed traders for exploiting cement shortages and poor roads. Dibo added that the company produced 0.73Mt of cement in 2016 from its two units in the country but that its sales have fallen since then. As a whole the country has an estimated 3Mt/yr demand for cement.

South Korea/Thailand: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has commissioned a MAS kiln burner at a cement plant in South Korea. The order was issued in late 2018 for three MAS burners. The first burner was delivered in February 2019 and the other two in March 2019. In May 2019 Unitherm Cemcon says it supported the commissioning of the first burner.

The scope of supply included two 43MW MAS/4/KO SO type burners for coal and heavy oil and one 87MW MAS/7/KO SO.X type rotary kiln burner for coal, heavy oil and solid secondary fuels. All three burners have been executed with a divisible burner jacket tube. One MAS/7/KO.SO.X is already successfully operating in another line, firing up to 6t/hr of coal and around 10t/hr of solid secondary fuel.

The burner manufacturer has also been awarded a contract to supply a hot gas generator for a plant in Thailand. The scope of supply includes: engineering and manufacturing drawings for the hot gas generator combustion chamber; a combined 45MW oil and coal burner; a primary air fan; a gas electric pilot burner; a flame monitoring device; and an oil valve train with burner management system.

Myanmar: 17 residents have been injured in a protest against the Alpha Cement Plant at Patheingyi in the Kyaukse district or the Mandalay region. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protestors, according to Radio Free Asia. The local residents were complaining about compensation for a road that is being built as part of the project. Concerns have also been raised over the use of Chinese nationals at the site.

The Alpha Cement Plant, previously known as Myanmar Conch Cement, is a joint venture between Myanmar's Myint Investment Group and China's Anhui Conch. The unit is currently being upgraded to a production capacity of 5000t/day. Construction work started in late 2017.