Displaying items by tag: Bangladesh

One of the ideas aired by several speakers at last week's 6th Brazilian Cement Congress was that using cement as a construction material is inherently a sustainable option.

The reasons for this included the durability of cement's construction products and the role cement plays in improving the living standards of a country. For example, under the onslaught of extreme weather like hurricanes, concrete structures are more likely to remain standing. Or, for a country like Brazil with sections of society living in long-term 'temporary' buildings in its favelas or shanty towns, providing affordable cement to help the country build better housing for its inhabitants is the only sustainable future that could be considered.

Perhaps in line with this concept of cement-as-sustainable-construction-material we see Semen Indonesia this week announcing expansion plans in three countries in South and Southeast Asia.

In West Sumatra a Semen Indonesia subsidiary has started building a 3Mt/yr cement plant in Padang. Then in Bangladesh Semen Indonesia revealed its intention to buy a 1Mt/yr plant. Finally, the state-owned Indonesian cement producer said that its Semen Gresik subsidiary was planning to build a new cement plant in Central Java at Rembang in June 2014. From previous press releases we can see that both new plants are FLSmidth builds. Both orders were announced in early 2014. Each has a capacity of 8000t/day.

The plans to expand outside of Indonesia echo reports that Semen Indonesia was set to buy a minority share in a Myanmar cement producer. Although the producer was unnamed as of early May 2014, Semen Indonesia CEO Dwi Soetjipto valued the stake at US$30m and the producer's production capacity at 1.5Mt/yr in comments to the Jakarta Globe.

Altogether the two new plants in Indonesia will place Semen Indonesia's total cement production capacity at 40Mt/yr by 2017 according to company figures. This would be enough to place the company within the top 20 of the world's largest cement producers by production capacity following the research from Global Cement's 'Top 75 global cement companies'.

In a nice coincidence, the company with a production capacity of 40Mt/yr on that list was Eurocement. Last week the Russian cement producer announced that it had signed contracts worth Euro387m with Chinese companies - including Sinoma, CNB, Sinomach and CAMC Engineering Co - to add 17Mt/yr cement production capacity across six plants in Russia. Another six or seven more construction agreements for cement plants are also expected to be signed in the coming months.

Certainly for the countries Semen Indonesia is focusing on – Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar, with low gross domestic product per capita – providing the raw material for stronger and more durable buildings covers some of the sustainability bases. Yet if all these new plants only use fossil fuels and are subject to few environmental restrictions then that undermines some of this. However, whether all this expansion is sustainable or not, the cement industry never remains stationary.

Asia: PT Semen Indonesia's subsidiary PT Semen Padang has commenced construction of its US$279.5m Indarung VI cement plant in Padang, West Sumatra on 26 May 2014. The new plant, which has an annual cement production capacity of 3Mt/yr, is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2016.

"We are developing the Indarung VI factory as the demand for cement keeps increasing across Sumatra and western parts of Java," said Dwi Soetjipto, CEO of PT Semen Indonesia. With the operation of the new plant, Semen Padang's total cement production capacity is expected to increase to 10.5Mt/yr, up from 7.5Mt/yr.

Brisk development of property, toll roads, and other infrastructure projects has pushed up demand for cement in East Java. "Demand for cement in the country has increased. All cement production is absorbed by the market for government and private properties and infrastructure projects," Bambang Djoko claimed. The commercial director of PT Semen Gresik Aunur Rosyid said that cement sales in West Java reached 2.83Mt in the first four months of 2014, an increase of 9.8% from 2.56Mt in 2013. "The growth exceeded the 3.7% growth of cement sales nationally in the same year," said Rosyid.

Elsewhere, PT Semen Indonesia has announced that it may acquire a cement plant in Bangladesh as part of its efforts to expand business. Soetjipto stated that the Bangladeshi cement plant has a production capacity of 0.60 – 1Mt/yr.

"We are now in the process of approaching the management of the plant for further negotiations. Hopefully, it can be realised in the coming six months," Soetjipto said. He was reluctant to reveal financial details, saying that the acquisition value was less than that made for Thang Long Cement in Vietnam. In November 2012 Semen Indonesia acquired 70% of Thang Long Cement (worth US$157m) from Geleximco.

Soetjipto also disclosed that Thang Long Cement will build a new plant in Rembang, Central Java in June 2014. "We will begin the construction of a new plant in Rembang in mid-June 2014," he remarked. He explained that with the development of new factories in Padang and Rembang and upgrades to the existing plants, Semen Indonesia will have a combined production capacity of 40.8Mt/yr by 2017.

PT Semen Indonesia hopes to boost its sales in Vietnam by expanding the production capacity of its Vietnamese subsidiary Thang Long Cement. " Thang Long Cement's market share in Vietnam is relatively small at around 2.3Mt/yr, but its market potential is huge," said Thang Long Cement executive Bambang Djoko.

Bangladesh/India: The Indian compliance adviser/ombudsman (CAO) is assessing a complaint that was filed in January 2014 against Lafarge Surma Cement's land acquisition and limestone quarrying operation close to the villages of Shella and Tynger in Meghalaya state.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, partly financed a project with Lafarge Surma Cement for the construction and operation of an integrated cement plant in Bangladesh, which is very close to the border with Meghalaya, India from where the limestone is obtained.

"The complaint raises concerns about the legitimacy of the land acquisition and the process used for the project's limestone quarrying operation close to the villages of Shella and Tynger in Meghalaya," said the CAO. The complainants said that the Khasi indigenous people have been deprived of their land, their livelihood has been impacted and their customary land rights and systems have not been respected.

Bangladesh: Asadul Haque Sufyani has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer of Seven Circle (Bangladesh), a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Shun Shing Group. Previously Sufyani had been working as the General Manager (Sales, Marketing & Distribution) of Seven Circle. He joined in Shun Shing Group in 2009.

Sufyani, aged 40, started his career in the Brand Management department of Sanofi-Aventis and later worked as a Senior Marketing Manager in Bengal Group and Head of Trade Marketing in Robi (formerly AKTEL). Sufyani graduated in Commerce from Delhi University, India and later gained his MBA from the Lincoln School of Management, University of Lincoln in the UK.

Bangladesh: HeidelbergCement Bangladesh has appointed Albert Scheuer as its chairman. Scheuer is a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement Group with responsibility for Asia-Oceania and worldwide co-ordination of the Heidelberg Technology Centre. Before this, he was chief operating officer of HeidelbergCement's operation in China and served as managing director of HeidelbergCement Technology Centre in European Cement Plants of the group from 1998 to 2005.

Bangladesh: Lafarge Surma Cement (LSC) earns up to US$60m/yr from sales of clinker to other cement companies in the country. The Bangladesh-based subsidiary of Lafarge imports limestone from a quarry in Meghalaya, India via a 17km belt conveyor to its cement plant at Chhatak, Bangladesh. According to the Financial Express, the setup is the only cross-border industrial venture between India and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh: Loesche has been thanked by the Charity: Water non-government organisation for its donation towards a clean water project in the community of Lutarupara-Molliktola, Char region in Bangladesh. Thanks to the funding, the village has received a tube-well and now has access to clean water and sanitation.

Due to Loesche's donation in late 2011, 347 people in Lutarupara-Molliktola now have access to safe and clean drinking water. In December 2012 Loesche donated again to Charity: Water to help a community in Malawi that will be completed un 2014.

Charity: Water is a non-profit organisation that provides clean and safe drinking water in developing countries. In addition to helping communities access clear water the organisation trains beneficiaries on best sanitation and hygienic practices, safe water storage and water point management.

Bangladesh/India: India's Star Cement has started exporting clinker to Bangladesh by river. According to a report by the Times of India, the cement producer aims to export over 50,000t/month of clinker to Bangladesh by this route.

"Exporting clinker to Bangladesh by the river will give an edge to the company to encounter the stiff competition it is likely to face from manufacturers of Southeast Asian countries, all of whom cater to 99% clinker requirement of this country," said a Star Cement official.

In a pilot project in 2012 Star Cement had started clinker exports to Bangladesh by road. The company has deals with several leading cement producers in Bangladesh to meet their clinker requirements and is planning more.

Bangladesh: Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd signed an agreement with Madina Cement Industries Ltd at a ceremony organised at the company's headquarters. Under the terms of the deal, Lafarge Surma will supply its high quality clinker to Madina Cement from its integrated plant at Chhatak to produce 
'Powercrete.' This will be subject to strict quality controls by employees of Lafarge Surma to ensure world-class quality that Lafarge Surma promises to deliver to its customers.

Furthermore the production process will follow the highest safety standards. Lafarge will shortly launch Powercrete, with the aim of strengthening its market position in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh: Seven Circle Bangladesh, manufacturer of Seven Rings Cement, is going to establish a 1.3Mt/yr cement factory in Khulna by July 2013.

"We are expecting to enhance our production capacity to 4.4Mt/yr million tonnes by 2015 and the new factory in Khulna will help us a lot to achieve our business expansion target," said Seven Circle Bangladesh's general manager of marketing and sales Asadul Haque Sufyani. The company's current annual production capacity is 1.6Mt/yr

"Since 2008, we are exporting our product in 50kg bags to different states in India. We will be able to allocate more quantity of cement for export after starting production in our new lines. At present we are giving priority to our local buyers," added Sufyani, adding that the company was involved in numerous key building projects and highway developments in the capital Dhaka.