Displaying items by tag: Cuba

Cuba: Cementos Cienfuegos has gradually restarted production following Hurricane Irma hitting the island in early September 2017. Electricity was restored to the site on 14 September 2017 enabling the cement mills to be operated. The kiln was ignited on 19 September 2017, according to the 5 de Septiembre newspaper. Components damaged by the storm included the insulation covering electrofilters on the plant’s tower, broken power cables and a breach to a water dyke near the site.

Cuba: The Cuban cement industry is operating at a 58% capacity utilisation rate, according to the CiberCuba website. The low rate has been blamed on logistic and electricity supply problems.

India: Swiss, Indian and Cuban researchers have come together to develop limestone calcined clay cement (LC3), which can help reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of cement by almost 30%.

"The LC3 project is an example of scientific and technical collaboration between Switzerland and India. The innovative cement production process on which these institutions are working is of great economic and environmental significance," said Switzerland Ambassador to India Linus von Castelmur.

The LC3 is a synergetic hydration of clinker, calcined clay and crushed limestone to achieve the performance required from commercial cements, with clinker factors as low as 0.40. It also costs less than traditional types of cement.

"The testing and application phase is over, now it has to pass through standardisation committee before it is accepted by the industries. The research that has been done will not be patent protected but available to everyone," said Castelmur.

US/Cuba: A lawsuit in Spain has revealed documents indicating that Holcim may have invested in a cement plant in Cuba despite warnings the deal might violate US law because the plant sits on land seized from US citizens. The deal took place in 2000, when Holcim was known as Holderbank, but allegedly the ownership went through a string of companies in Spain, the Netherlands and Panama, according to documents filed in a lawsuit reported upon by the Miami Herald.

"Holderbank's investment in the Cienfuegos property clearly would constitute 'trafficking' in confiscated property under Title IV of Helms-Burton," wrote US lawyers hired to advise Holcim. Holcim denies that it owns a business or a stake in a business in Cuba.

The court documents are part of a lawsuit involving three Spanish firms. Firebrick SA and Acedos Trading allege that Inversiones Ibersuizas owes them more than US$2m from an investment in Cuba in 2000. The documents suggest that Ibersuizas created a Spanish firm, Las Pailas de Cemento, in 2000 that paid US$70m to Cuba for 50% of the joint venture, Cementos Cienfuegos plant. Holcim allegedly controlled the project through a Panama company, Windward Overseas. The deal subsequently began to break down in 2004.

Since 2004, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the US embargo on Cuba, has fined foreign companies more than US$1.25bn for violating US laws and regulations.

Cuba: A Cuban cement plant has launched industrial trials to produce environmentally-friendly cement, according to the National News Agency.

Gustavo Suarez, director of the Siguaney cement plant in central Cuba reported that the kilns began to burn local kaolin minerals to partially replace the CO2-intensive clinker used to make cement on 4 April 2013. Suarez said the production phase was preceded by a year and a half of testing by researchers at Las Villas University and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, a partner in the project.

The factory is preparing the first 300t of burnt metakaolin needed to make two experimental types of 'green cement,' in which clinker will be replaced by 15% and 45% kaolin respectively. It is estimated that Siguaney will consume only 68% of the energy used in making normal cement, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32%. "(Our) current grey cement production requires a temperature of 1200°C, while the new local formula needs only 750°C," said Suarez.