Displaying items by tag: Bolivia

Bolivia: President Evo Morales has inaugurated the Itacamba Cement plant in Yacuses in the department of Santa Cruz. The plant had an investment of US$220m and has a production capacity of 0.95Mt/yr, according to Via Empressa. Itacamba Cement is a joint venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins, Brazil’s Votorantim Cement and Camba Cement. The cement producer also operates a grinding plant in Puerto Quijarro and its hopes to produce up to 1.2Mt/yr of cement from both sites. The plant is also expected to create up to 540 direct and indirect jobs.

Bolivia: FLSmidth has received an order from Fábrica Nacional de Cemento SA (FANCESA) for the supply of equipment to build a complete cement production line with a capacity of 2100t/day, including plant design, procurement and civil engineering services. The plant will be located in Sucre.

The order is valued at over US$75m. It includes a range of equipment from crushing to packing and loadout. Equipment ordered includes an ATOX 35.0 vertical mill for raw grinding, a ROTAX-2 rotary kiln with low NOx ILC calciner, a Cross-Bar 8x38 cooler and a OK 30 vertical mill for cement grinding. The order will be completed by the first quarter of 2018. FLSmidth's supply also includes equipment from product companies of FLSmidth, such as planetary gear units from FLSmidth MAAG Gear, fabric filters from FLSmidth Airtech, a packing plant from FLSmidth Ventomatic, control system and plant automation from FLSmidth Automation and weighing and metering systems from FLSmidth Pfister.

"The project underlines FLSmidth's strength as the leading supplier of the most productive and energy-efficient equipment and technology for the cement industry," said Group Executive Vice President, Cement Division, Per Mejnert Kristensen.

Bolivia: The government plans to build a 1.3Mt/yr cement plant at Cutara in the Potosí department with an investment of US$306m. The government will spend US$245m on plant infrastructure and US$61m on road, electricity, water and natural gas connections, according to the ABI news agency. The new plant will join the state’s 1.3Mt/y cement plant being built in Oruro for US$244m.

Bolivia: Menzel Elektromotoren has delivered two motors for a cement mill and a classifier to a cement plant in Bolivia. The mill, which manufactures high-strength cement with 5000 Blaine is the country’s first vertical roller mill for cement grinding. It is also the highest installed elevation, at 4000m above sea level, of an OK mill in North and South America.

Particular technical attention had to be paid to the motors' durability and ruggedness to withstand the special operating conditions. During the planning phase, the drive engineers and the customer decided on a change of voltage levels, construction of a foundation plate and the installation of a vibration monitoring system for integration into the control as requested by the customer.

After commissioning in September 2016, more than 10 motors from Menzel will be powering machines in the Bolivian cement plant.

Bolivia: Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia (ECEBOL) has reported that its cement plant project in Jeruyo, Caracollo is 35% complete. The state-run cement producer said that a Spanish-German consortium formed by Imasa, Polysius and Valoriza commenced civil works and installation of machinery in May 2015.

The project has an investment of US$306m. Testing is scheduled to start in late 2017 followed by final delivery of the plant in September 2018. The plant will have a cement production capacity of 1.3Mt/yr. Upon full operation the plant is expected to create 500 direct and 2000 indirect jobs.

Bolivia: SOBOCE has awarded a contract to FLSmidth for an OK 36-4 cement grinding system to be installed at its Viacha cement plant in Bolivia. The scope of supply includes cement grinding system equipment, engineering and site advisory services.

This will be the first vertical roller mill for cement grinding in Bolivia and will produce high strength cement with 5000 Blaine. Furthermore, at 4000m above sea level, it will have the highest installed elevation for any OK mill in the Americas. Additional scope of supply includes a longitudinal stacker, a sizer for gypsum and pozzolan, Airtech filter, Ventomatic silos and a packing plant.

Once installed, the new cement mill grinding system and packing plant will allow SOBOCE to increase its production capacity to meet cement demand in Bolivia. FLSmidth installed the existing line at Viacha in the late 1990s and in 2010 an expansion project that enabled the plant to double its capacity.

Bolivia/Mexico: A civil court in La Paz, Bolivia has ruled to suspend the damages sentence imposed by the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission (CIAC) that obliged Mexican cement company Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) to pay Bolivian investment company Compania de Inversiones Mercantiles (Cimsa) compensation. The decision, announced on 9 October 2015, sets the arbitration court to issue a new resolution and cancels the embargo sentence ruled by a court in Colorado, US. This resolution obliged GCC to provide information about its properties in Colorado and to cancel any assets sales in that area.

Bolivia: Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce) has posted a profit of US$16.1m in the year that ended on 31 March 2015, down by 48.76% from US$31.5m in its 2014 financial year, according to Esmerk Latin American News. The fall was attributed to an increase in costs, rainy weather and a US$7.41m fine it had to pay in 2015, according to Esmerk Latin American News. The company is 98% owned by Consorcio Cementero del Sur, part of Gloria group.

Bolivia: Itacamba Cemento has announced that it is currently importing large amounts of cement from Brazil to meet local demand in Santa Cruz. The Bolivian cement company will continue to import cement from Brazil until the second half of 2016 when it expects to start its new US$220m cement plant in Yacuses. It estimates to import some 5400t/month of cement, or around 107,000 bags, dependent on market demand.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has announced a new investment package for 2015 – 2018. US$1.6bn will be invested in five new plants in Brazil, one in Turkey and one in Bolivia, as well as in the expansion and modernisation of existing plants. The announcement comes after an investment plan of US$3.2bn, completed in the period between 2007 - 2014, when the company expanded its global production capacity by 51%.

In Brazil, Votorantim's priority is to increase production in the central-north and northeast regions. It has identified growth potential in the construction sector and in cement consumption in those regions. Two of the new cement plants will begin operating in 2015, one in Edealina, Goiás and another in Primavera, Pará. In the second phase, the construction of two plants in Sobral and Pecém in Ceará is planned and one in Caaporã, Paraíba. The plants are expected to come on stream in the second half of 2017.

With its new plants, Votorantim will increase its cement production capacity in Brazil by 18%, adding about 6Mt/yr to the current capacity of 32Mt/yr of cement. The investments are in line with the company's preparation for a new cycle of growth in the country. "We are concentrating investments in attractive and profitable markets, always with long-term vision and thinking of the future market demand," said Walter Dissinger, Votorantim Cimentos' CEO.

In the Americas and Europe, investments include one cement plant in Yacuses, Bolivia in partnership with two other companies and one new plant in Turkey. The company is also considering the construction of a new plant in Morocco. In the US there is a project for the expansion of the Charlevoix plant in Michigan. "The American market is recovering and is also attractive," said Dissinger. The new projects outside of Brazil will add 2.5Mt/yr to the company's installed capacity. "We prepared ourselves to confront a challenging scenario in Brazil and follow our policy of thinking in the long term. Our discipline and financial solidity allows us to keep investing to be ready for the recovery of the markets," said Dissinger.