Displaying items by tag: Egypt

Egypt: Heidelberg Materials subsidiary Suez Cement has invested US$16m in upgrading its operations towards increased alternative fuel (AF) use since 2010. The producer uses AF in the burners and kilns of all three of its cement plants, at Helwan, Kattameya and Suez. Meanwhile, Suez Cement has invested US$60m in dust control measures over the same period. Other on-going investments include US$25m in the construction of a waste heat recovery (WHR) plant at the Helwan cement plant. The company is committed to reaching a 24% reduction in its CO₂ emissions between 2019 and 2030.

Technical director Omar Khorshid said “We are committed to pursue initiatives to broaden our range of innovative and eco-friendly building solutions, advance operational efficiency through digitalisation and strengthen customer engagement for better business results and more positive impact."

South Korea: The Korea Trade Commission (KTC) has launched a probe into imported white cement from Egypt. The commission will investigate the possible necessity of anti-dumping duties on imports of the product. Yonhap English News has reported that the KTC is responding to a complaint from domestic white cement producer Union Corporation. The producer accuses International Cement Trading and Egypt-based Royal El Minya Cement of damaging its business through cement dumping. The KTC will complete its preliminary investigation before 1 September 2023.

Mozambique/South Africa: InterCement, a Brazil-based cement producer controlled by Mover (formerly Camargo Corrêa), has started to receive offers for its assets in South Africa and Mozambique. The US-based bank JP Morgan is advising the company on structuring the group’s business in Africa. The value of the deal has been estimated at around US$300m.

The company previously announced the sale of its Egyptian unit in January 2023, undertaken to reduce its debt, which has come under pressure from rising global interest rates. The company must refinance US$548m in senior notes by May 2024, which were previously raised when InterCement acquired Portugal’s Cimpor through Camargo Corrêa in 2010.

InterCement sold 17.8Mt of cement in 2022 excluding the Egyptian unit.

Egypt: Reliance Heavy Industries (RHI) has appointed Sameh Saleh as its chief executive officer. He holds over 30 years of experience in the cement sector in both plant operation and engineering. Notably he worked for Arabian Cement for 10 years as a plant manager and then its chief operations officer. He later managed the company’s alternative fuels subsidiary Egypt Green. Other notable placements include those with Tabuk Cement, RHI and the Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC).

Sameh Saleh trained in mechanical engineering at Cairo University. He later gained a qualification in project management and an executive master of business administration degree from the American University in Cairo.

Egypt: The General Authority for the Economic Zone of the Suez Canal has awarded UAE-based Abu Dhabi Ports Group (ADPG) a contract to operate two cement terminals, at Arish and Port Said. ADPG plans to establish 60,000t-worth of additional cement storage capacity at the Arish cement terminal, and 30,000t-worth of new cement capacity at the Port Said cement terminal. This will give the two Mediterranean ports a combined cement despatch capacity of over 2Mt/yr. The company expects this to double Egypt's cement capacity upon the completion of both projects in late 2023.

Under the contract, ADPG has also gained a 30-year concession over the Safaga Port multi-purpose terminal on the Red Sea coast. It plans to invest US$200m in an expansion to increase the terminal's dry bulk goods capacity to 5Mt/yr. It expects to commission the expanded facility in mid-2025.

Egypt: Researchers at the University of Cairo have used nanomaterials from agricultural wastes to produce biocement with 'increased strength and durability' compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The study employed microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) with the addition of carbon nitride nanosheets and ash from waste maize cobs. Besides its improved physical performance, the researchers also found that their biocement offers improved endurance against water permeability.

Mexico: Cemex has launched its global waste management subsidiary Regenera. Regenera will be involved in the reception, management, recycling and coprocessing three major waste streams: municipal and industrial waste, construction, demolition and excavation waste (CDEW) and industrial by-products. It will tie in with Cemex’s own cement sustainability initiatives, for instance in its supply of waste recovered from the River Nile to Cemex Egypt’s Assiut cement plant for co-processing as alternative fuel (AF).

Egypt: Lafarge Cement Egypt has appointed Ahmed Elserafy as its Director of Public Affairs & Security. He has worked for Lafarge for over 10 years in security and resilience roles. Before this he worked for the African Union and the United Nations. Elserafy is a graduate of the Egypt Police Academy.

Egypt: LafargeHolcim Egypt supplied 8200t of its ECOPlanet reduced-CO₂ cement for construction of Alamein Downtown Towers in Alamein City. The producer said that the cement reduced the project's carbon footprint by 45% compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The government contracted China-based China State Construction Engineering Corporation for construction of the five-tower development. Three of the buildings will be residential, while the remaining two will house business and events facilities.

Chad: Société National de Cimenterie (SONACIM) has placed an order with a China-based machine parts supplier for a part for its Baoré grinding plant’s generator. Alwihda News has reported that previously ordered the part from a supplier based in Egypt, which since failed to make the delivery. Cement production has been suspended at the plant since early July 2022, pending delivery of the missing part.

SONACIM’s deputy director general Koye Ndaye Benoît said “As soon as the part arrives, production will be restarted.”

430 people are employed in SONACIM’s operations in Chad.