Displaying items by tag: Chile

Chile: Despatches of cement fell by 10% year-on-year to 2.25Mt in the first seven months of 2022 from 2.51Mt in the same period in 2021. Data from the Cámara Chilena de la Construcción (CCHC) shows that cumulative annual despatches have been falling month-on-month since January 2022.

Belgium: Magotteaux has appointed Gonzalo Cavada as its chief executive officer with effect from 31 October 2022. He will succeed Sébastien Dossogne, who will stay in post until the end of October 2022 as part of a transition period. Cavada will be based in Vaux-sous-Chèvremont in Belgium, at Magotteaux’s headquarters.

Cavada currently works as the chief financial officer of Magotteaux’s parent company Sigdo Koppers (SK). He previously worked for SK’s acquisition team when the Chile-based conglomerate purchased Magotteaux in 2011. He is a trained civil engineer who attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and he holds a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Cambridge.

Chile: Cbb's first-quarter operating income was US$93.5m in 2022, up by 14% year-on-year from US$81.7m the first quarter of 2021. Nonetheless, the company's net profit fell by 89% to US$573,000 from US$5.04m.

Chile: Melón has inaugurated a new 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant in Punta Arenas. The project had an investment of US$45m, according to the El Pingüino newspaper. In its first year of operation an output of 80,000t is planned. It is the first cement plant in the Magallanes Region. Spain-based Cemengal supplied a Plug&Grind Xtreme grinding unit for the project.

Jorge Eugenín, the chief executive officer of Cementos Melón, attended the event and said, “For us Magallanes has always been an interesting market. Its consumption is comparable to cities in developed countries.” He added that the region has a per capita cement consumption level of 550kg/yr compared to the Chilean mean of 280kg/yr.

The cement producer previously announced plans to double the production of the plant by building a second grinding mill if the market supported it. Eugenín commented that the announcement of a large-scale hydrogen project in the region by Total Eren in late 2021 could add further momentum to expansion plans for the new cement plant.

Germany: Beumer has announced its acquisition of conveying systems supplier FAM Group. The group says that the two companies complement each other ‘ideally.’ FAM Group employs 750 people in Germany, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China and India, as well as representatives elsewhere. Beumer says that the company’s ‘leading technology’ for transporting and processing minerals fits well with its own portfolio.

Chile: Andrés Pérez Algarra has been appointed as the general manager of Cemento Polpaico. He succeeds Javier Moreno Hueyo who has been in the post for five years, according to the Valor newspaper. Andrés Pérez Algarra, who is currently working as the commercial manager for the company, will take up his new position in April 2022.

Chile: Peru-based Unacem has bought CBB’s Cemento San Antonio grinding plant in Valparaíso region for US$30.8m. The deal also covers the nearby Popeta pozzolano deposit.

Chile: Melón has filed an Environmental Impact Statement with the authorities in Santiago for a project to extract pozzolana at a site at Culiprán in Melipilla. The deposit has total reserves of 20Mt and an extraction rate of 0.4Mt/yr is anticipated, according to Minería Chilena. Pozzolana from the site would be used to supply Melón’s cement plants at La Calera and Ventanas

Chile: Cemento Polpaico has obtained a licence for the use of Canada-based CarbonCure’s CO₂ utilisation technology. The Diario Financiero newspaper has reported that the cement company plans to implement the technology in its concrete production.

Head of development and projects Matias Saenz said that Cemento Polpaico was among the first cement producers to commit to the UN’s Race to Zero decarbonisation initiative. It has also set out 20 sustainability goals to achieve before 2025. The company said that by implementing CarbonCure technology it is contributing to CarbonCure’s vision of eliminating 500Mt/yr of CO₂ emissions.

Chile: Cementos Polpaico has submitted an environmental impact study for a US$60m upgrade of its Cerro Blanco cement plant in Tiltil, near Santiago. Business News America has reported that the proposed work consists of the installation of a new precalciner, an expansion to its four limestone quarries and the establishment of a new filtered tailings deposit and 3000t cement silo.

The producer hopes to launch the project in January 2023 in order to commission the upgraded plant before 2026.