23 September 2024

Lithuania: Ignitis has signed a 4-year power purchase agreement with Lithuanian cement producer Akmenės Cementas to supply electricity from the Mažeikiai wind farm, starting in 2026. The wind farm features 14 wind turbines with a capacity of 63MW and began operations in 2023.

CEO of Akmenės Cementas Artūras Zaremba said "We are excited about this partnership as it allows us to use green energy in the cement industry. This cooperation is an important step towards our commitment to achieve long-term sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint. By integrating renewable energy sources into our activities and planned projects that will contribute to the EU’s Green Deal objectives, we are strengthening our environmental efforts and creating sustainable and innovative solutions.

India: Ramco Cements has increased its cement grinding capacity by nearly 1Mt/yr. The company carried out debottlenecking at its Kalavatala plant in Andhra Pradesh, enhancing capacity from 1.5Mt/yr to 2Mt/yr. Similarly, at the Valapady grinding unit in Salem District, Tamil Nadu, capacity has been increased from 1.6Mt.yr to 2Mt/yr.

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement Corporation, one of the island's largest coal importers, will completely halt its cooperation with Russia, according to The Moscow Times. This decision exacerbates the challenges faced by Russian coal exporters, who have already seen a nearly 12% decline in exports from January to July 2024. Since spring 2023, Taiwan has purchased more than 10Mt of Russian coal, accounting for nearly 20% of the island's total coal imports.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement has reported a loss of US$4.4m in the first half of 2024 compared to a profit of US$61,000 in 2023. The company, which operates two cement production facilities in Kazakhstan, saw its revenue fall by 7% to US$34.4m, down from US$36.9m, reportedly due to a 4% reduction in sales volume and higher electricity and maintenance costs.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has ordered a crossbelt analyser for stockpile optimisation and an airslide analyser for raw mill control from SpectraFlow for its new Line 3 project at the Jazan cement plant. The new line will have a capacity of 5000t/day of clinker.