Displaying items by tag: Closure

Estonia: Cement producers achieved a total output of 129,000t of cement in the first half of 2020, down by 31% year on year from 187,000t in the first half of 2019. Eesti Statistika has reported that the sharpest decline was in June 2020, by 41% year-on-year to 25,800t from 43,700t. Estonian clinker production ended on 27 March 2020 with the closure of Kunda Nordic Cement’s 0.8Mt/yr integrated Kunda cement plant in Lääne-Viru County.

UK: Mexico-based Cemex has confirmed its decision to mothball the 0.8Mt/yr integrated South Ferriby, Lincolnshire cement plant following a consultation period with employee and union representatives. The company estimates that the majority of redundancies of the plant’s 110 staff will happen in July 2020.

It said, “Cemex customers will be supplied from the company’s existing cement network. Cemex’s supply chain plan and commercial management will ensure that customer service will be maintained at all times. Cemex remains committed to the UK and will continue to have a strong national presence.”

India: Construction has stalled in Tamil Nadu because consumers are reportedly unable to buy cement. The supply chain has been disrupted because police have shut shops across the state following breaches of social distancing rules after the partial easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

Ramco Cements Managing Director Arrakundal Dharmakrishnan said, “We have instructed our dealers that they must follow social distancing norms.”

In neighbouring Telangana, chief minister Kalvakuntla Rao has extended the lockdown period to 29 May 2020, subject to a review on 15 May 2020 that may result in the resumption of construction works and the re-opening of non-essential shops.

Australia/New Zealand/US: Ireland-based James Hardie has announced the planned closure of three of its fibre cement board plants. The Cooroy, Queensland plant in Australia, Summerville, South Carolina plant in the US and Penrose, Auckland plant in New Zealand will close permanently in mid-2020, resulting in a total of 375 job cuts. The NZ Herald newspaper has reported that the decision to shut the plants came about due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on the global economic situation. James Hardie will now supply the New Zealand market from its Carole Park, Queensland and Rosehill, New South Wales plants. James Hardie also closed its Siglingen, Baden-Württemberg plant in Germany on a temporary basis, ‘in order to better match supply and demand in the European market.’

James Hardie revised its 2020 profit forecast to US$355m, down by 4.1% from US$370m.

Estonia: Germany-based HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Kunda Nordic Tsement has announced the planned closure of its 0.8Mt/yr integrated Kunda plant in Kunda, Lääne-Viru County in March 2020. Business World Magazine has reported the plant closure will result in 80 redundancies. The company has stated the reason for the closure as being that the plant’s equipment, which produces cement by the wet method, is economically unviable due to its CO₂ intensity.

The price of EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) emissions permits fell to Euro15.24/t of CO₂ on 18 March 2020, down by 30% from Euro21.71/t on 18 March 2020.

China: On 9 February 2020 Taiwan Cement announced the extended suspension of operations at some of its Chinese plants closed due to the coronavirus outbreak to 16 February 2020. Taiwan Cement acknowledged the possibility of ‘some effects on financial figures this year,’ but said that it had adopted the measures to minimise the effect of the outbreak on operations.

China: Anhui Conch’s subsidiary China Cement Plant Company (CCPC) has made the best of the downtime necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak by carrying out necessary maintenance work on its integrated plant’s third line, including the installation of a new vertical roller mill. Anhui Conch says CCPC is undertaking the work with the greatest degree of care for the ‘prevention and control of new coronavirus cases.’

China: Three cement plants in Dali, Yunnan province with a combined capacity of 5.0Mt/yr and belonging to Dali Cement (Group), Dali Hongshan Yunnan Cement and Hongta Dianxi Cement have ceased all functions except the packaging of existing cement in order to stop polluting the area of Erhai Lake. The shutdown was mandated by the City of Dali and Dali Economic Development Zone authorities in mid-2017. Xinhua Net newspaper has reported that the removal of kilns is underway and that demolition on all three sites will have been completed by 31 May 2020. The companies will be permitted to construct plants of corresponding capacities at allotted sites elsewhere.

Netherlands: Germany’s HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Eerste Nederland Cement Industrie (ENCI) announced on 9 December 2019 the upcoming closure of its former 1.8Mt/yr integrated Maastricht plant in 2020. Het Belang van Limburg has reported that the Maastricht plant, which stepped down to grinding-only in March 2019 after 91 years’ kiln operation, received an insufficient supply of clinker from ENCI’s sister company CBR Cement’s 1.5Mt/yr Lixhe plant in Wallonia, Belgium to guarantee profitable production.

Clinker grinding continues at ENCI’s 1.4Mt/yr IJmuiden and 0.6Mt/yr Rotterdam grinding plants, each of which has better access to clinker imports due to their proximity to deepwater ports.

Argentina: Loma Negra plans to close its Olavarría integrated cement plant. The unit has 45 employees who will be relocated elsewhere in the business, according to the Buenos Aires Económico newspaper. In recent years the plant has been operating solely as a grinding and bagging unit. The cost of upgrading the plant and the relative distance of its raw materials were factors in the decision to close it. The Olavarría cement plant was the first to be built in the country.

In September 2019 the subsidiary of Brazil’s interCement said it was converting its San Juan integrated cement plant to grinding and bagging only. Earlier in the year it came close to closing its Barker plant as it was unable to reach an agreement with the local union over staff redundancies. Alongside this it is building a new production line at its L'Amalí cement plant.