Displaying items by tag: Asia Cement

South Korea: UK-based TCRK has announced a deal with Asia Cement to use its carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technology at the cement producer’s plant in Jaechon. The project will see the first commercial deployment of TCRK’s CCUS technology from the first quarter of 2023. It will initially target 30,000t/yr of CO₂ equivalent and then ramp up to 120,000t/yr of CO₂ equivalent by mid-2024. The second target is intended to help Asia Cement reduce its emissions by 20% required to meet its 2025 decarbonisation plan.

TCRK’s approach will use two processes to utilise capture CO₂ from cement production. Its Arago Cement Process uses captured CO₂, cement kiln dust and by-pass particles to produce precipitated calcium carbonate, which TCRK uses to produce a product called Arago Cement. The captured CO₂ will also be used to grow microalgae in a process called bio-fixation. This method will offer 10% extra carbon storage capacity. The microalgae has a wide range of potential end-products including bioplastics and animal feed, and can also be used as a source of bio-cement production.

China: Sichuan Yadong Cement’s plant in Sichuan has restarted production following a suspension of electricity to industrial users due to a heat wave. The local authorities stopped supplying industrial plants in late August 2022. The subsidiary of Taiwan-based Asia Cement Corporation also reduced staff levels at the plant to cope with the extreme weather event.

China: Asia Cement (China) reported a 7% year-on-year drop in its first-half sales to US$732m in 2022. Its first-half profit was US$46.1m, down by 70% year-on-year from US$156m. The producer sold 13.4Mt of cement during the half. It plans to achieve full-year cement sales of 29.4Mt.

Asia Cement (China) believes that cement demand in China is now on a ‘downward trend.’ It nonetheless remains ‘cautiously optimistic’ about its full-year 2022 results, foreseeing a degree of demand recovery arising from planned government infrastructure investment in the second half of the year.

The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle (CCEC) in Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality represents a growing market for Asia Cement (China). Of a total of 160 planned key projects in the CCEC in 2022, 152 commenced construction during the first half of the year.

Taiwan: Asia Cement Corporation plans to establish further offshore wind power plants under an extension of its partnership with Germany-based power company RWE. SNL Energy Finance Daily News has reported that the partners are investigating potential sites in Changhua, Hsinchu and Taichung.

Taiwan: Asia Cement Corporation has completed its US$1.3m full shore power project for its cement vessels. Following the upgrade its cement carriers use the ‘Taipower’ power supply when berthed at port instead of using on-board generators. The project has been implemented at the ports of Kaohsiung, Taichung, Keelung and Hualien. The cement producer currently operates four cement carriers.

The shipping upgrade is expected to save over 1474t/yr of fuel oil and effectively reduce 5329t/yr of CO₂ emissions. The cement producer added that it would improve the unloading efficiency of cement carriers, decreasing the unloading time by 50%, and reduce wear on the ship generators.

India: Denmark-based Hasle has supplied a Hasle D59A coating-resistant castable to Asian Cement for use on the inlet chamber and riser duct at its cement plant. The supplier supervised installation. It said that the castable will reduce the required lining materials of the equipment, resulting in savings.

Taiwan: Asia Cement has bought all shares in Taiwan Chiahui Power Corporation belonging to co-owner Electric Power Development Company (J-Power). Electronic News has reported that the two companies have jointly owned Taiwan Chiahui Power Corporation since December 2002. The deal awaits ratification by the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs Investment Commission.

China: Asia Cement China’s revenue dropped by 29% year-on-year to US$620m in the first half of 2020 from US$868m in the same period in 2019. Its cement and clinker sales volumes fell by 24.4% to 11.1Mt from 14.74Mt. Its profit for the period declined by 41% to US$131m from US$223m. The group said that in the central and downstream region of the Yangtze River the market peaked in May 2020 following coronavirus-related disruption. However, flooding then reduced demand. In Sichuan, coronavirus and foreign imports reduced the price of cement in the first quarter of 2020.

China: Asia Cement China has estimated a 40% - 45% year-on-year decline in profit in 2020 due to lower sales volumes and selling prices. Dow Jones Newswires has reported that this is due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on cement demand outside of China. The company is active in several countries including Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea.

South Korea: All nine domestic cement producers and the Ministry of Environment have agreed on measures to reduce NO_x emissions. Asia Cement, Halla Cement, Hanil Cement Manufacturing, Hyundai Cement, Korea Cement, Sampyo Cement, Ssangyong Cement Industrial, SungShin Cement and Union Corporation have agreed to invest in upgrades to filters or new high-efficiency filters and process improvements, according to the Korea Times newspaper. There was also an agreement to set NO_x emissions reduction targets for the allocation of funding. The Korea Environmental Industry Technology Institute is investing US$2.93m in research towards developing methods of selective catalytic NO_x emissions reduction and selective non-catalytic NO_x emissions reduction.

The government aims to reduce national NO_x emissions by 20% to 155,000t/yr from 195,000t/yr through subsidies to emissions reduction technologies development and uptake. The cement sector presently emits 62,500t, 32% of the domestic total.