Displaying items by tag: FLSmidth

Denmark: FLSmidth has appointed Jan Kjaersgaard as a new Group Executive Vice President, Product Companies Division, and a member of Group Executive Management. Kjaersgaard, aged 51 years and a Danish citizen, will take up the position as head of Product Companies Division on 1 March 2018.

Kjaersgaard holds a Master of Business Administration from Aalborg University and comes from Bladt Industries where he currently serves as chief executive officer (CEO). His previous postings include various senior positions at Siemens Wind Power.

FLSmidth revealed this week that Cooperativa Boliviana de Cemento, Industrias y Servicios (COBOCE) has ordered a cement mill for its Irpa Irpa plant near Cochabamba. The Danish engineering firm was pleased to note that with the sale it has now delivered mills to three of the country’s five producers. Other recent orders include supplying an OK 36-4 mill to Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento’s (SOBOCE) Viacha cement plant, announced in early 2016, and a sale of a complete integrated production line at Sucre to Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (FANCESA) in late 2016.

These order reveal slow but steady growth in the local industry in recent years. However, a slowdown so far in 2017 suggests that the market is changing. National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia (INE) data shows that sales in the local market broke down in 2016 into a 42% sales share for SOBOCE, 25% for FANCESA, 19% for COBOCE, 8% for Yura and 6% for Itacamba. This changed somewhat in the first quarter of 2017 with a reduction in the sales of SOBOCE and Yura. Sales in the country are concentrated in the departments of Chuquisca, La Paz and Cochabamba, which held 70% of cement sales in 2016.

Graph 1: Cement production and sales in Bolivia, 2012 – 2017. Source: National Institute of Statistics of Bolivia.

Annual cement sales in Bolivia have been growing consistently since 2001. Financial services company Pacific Credit Rating placed average annual sales growth at 7.72% from 1998 to 2016. In 2016 sales reached 3.7Mt. Graph 1 shows a continuation of this trend although the first half of 2017 has been weaker than 2016. COBOCE blamed the reverse in 2017 on reduced local government spending on infrastructure projects and poor weather. The producer was expecting sales to grow by 6 – 8% as a whole for 2017. However, on the basis of the figures for July and August 2017 this is not looking likely. Sales for the two months dropped by 2.5% year-on-year to 0.64Mt. A representative of FANCESA later blamed the market change on a reduction in sales supporting the construction of tall buildings in the country’s key markets as customers switched to buying ‘random’ volumes.

Sure enough local producers have started to complain about foreign exporters damaging their trade. A union head in Chuquisaca called for cement and clinker imports by Yura from Peru to be banned and concerns have been raised about concessions offered to Itacamba, a joint venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins, Brazil’s Votorantim Cement and Camba Cement. President Evo Morales inaugurated this company’s new plant in Yacuses, Santa Cruz in early 2017. The niggles about foreign exports to Bolivia seem counter-intuitive given that the country is landlocked and it has the world’s highest capital city above sea level. Usually, markets with nearby ports are most at risk from clinker and cement imports. Yet, Itacamba was planning exports to Argentina in November so the import and export markets via road and river links can’t be discounted.

Cement sales may be down so far in 2017 but overall the wider economy appears to be in rude health. After a strong decade of growth the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate has fallen each year since 2014, but it was still 4.3% in 2016, one of the highest in South America. If that kind of growth persists it seems unlikely that the cement industry will have trouble for long.

Bolivia: Cooperativa Boliviana de Cemento, Industrias y Servicios (COBOCE) has ordered an OK 43-4 vertical cement mill from FLSmidth for its Irpa Irpa plant near Cochabamba. The unit will have a production capacity of 130t/hr. The order includes a complete range of equipment from mill feeding bins, grinding and cement transport. FLSmidth will also supply equipment from its product brands, such as planetary gear units from FLSmidth MAAG Gear, fabric filters from FLSmidth Airtech, a control system and plant automation from FLSmidth Automation.

“We are proud to deliver the first cement vertical roller mill to COBOCE making it the third out of five Bolivian suppliers choosing our cement vertical roller mill technology. This order underlines FLSmidth’s strong position in Bolivia,” said Per Mejnert Kristensen, Group Executive Vice President, Cement Division.

Sweden: Denmark’s FLSmidth has completed its acquisition of Sandvik Mining Systems’ projects business except for the transfer of assets in South Africa, which is awaiting merger control clearance. The acquisition includes continuous surface mining and minerals handling technologies and competences that strengthen the group's core minerals business. The purchase is intended to increases FLSmidth’s coverage of the full mining value chain.

"With this acquisition we will be able to increase the productivity of the complete ‘Pit to Plant’ operation by better integrating upstream mining with downstream processing. The acquisition also allows us to digitalise the full value chain and enables a better utilisation of existing leading technologies by obtaining direct access to all key processes and equipment," said Manfred Schaffer, Group Executive Vice President, Minerals Division of FLSmidth.

The acquisition includes the part of Sandvik Mining Systems that is closest to the mine, which excludes Sandvik's conveyor component and its Finland based businesses. It includes all products for continuous surface mining, inpit crushing and minerals handling technologies and related intellectual property, including reference lists, drawings and data for installed base. The deal includes the transfer of over 200 employees from Sandvik. FLSmidth will also provide project management services to Sandvik on the majority of ongoing projects to be delivered during 2017 - 2019 period and parts and services for the installed equipment.

The closing of the acquisition in South Africa is expected to occur in early 2018.

Africa: FLSmidth says that a contract for a cement plant valued at more than Euro100m in an unspecified location in North Africa is now effective. The change in the project’s status follows the completion of carious conditions, including the receipt of a down payment for the work.

The order is in part a result of the partnership between FLSmidth and Beijing Triumph International Engineering Company, a company under the China National Building Material Group Corporation (CNBM Group), which will be responsible for the construction of the cement plant. The plant will mainly supply cement to the North African market. Once completed, the cement plant will have a capacity of 12,000t/day. The includes engineering, equipment supply, construction supervision, commissioning and training.

India: Aumund Engineering has received an award for ‘delivery excellence and dedicated support in meeting on-time delivery’ from FLSmidth. The award was part of an initiative to congratulate suppliers that successfully met delivery requirements and quality standards in 2016. A certificate marking the achievement was issued at a suppliers meeting held in Chennai, India.

Germany/Italy: Stephan Oehme has been appointed as the Global Sales Director of both FLSmidth Pfister and FLSmidth Ventomatic. Oehme, aged 50 years, is an industry expert with more than 20 years experience in the respective business fields. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and has worked previously as a Director Sales and Technology. In order to support the combined sales force of both companies he will increase the cooperation between both sales teams.

FLSmidth Pfister develops high-end gravimetric dosing systems for the cement and minerals plants. FLSmidth Ventomatic specialises in packaging and delivering solutions for the same sector. Both companies are subsidiaries of Denmark’s FLSmidth.

India: FLSmidth has signed a contract to deliver an OK 52-4 cement mill system for India Cements’ Shankar Nagar plant in Tamil Nadu. The engineering company will carry out the system engineering, procurement and supply machinery for a cement production capacity of 200t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement at 3500 Blaine. The supply also includes a ROKSH 82 separator and gear units from FLSmidth product company, MAAG Gear.

"This contract reflects the strong relations we have had with the India Cements for almost a decade and our extensive knowledge in the region. We are happy to partner with them again," said Country Head of FLSmidth India, Carsten Riisberg Lund.

The new mill will replace the existing ball mills at the plant. The contract is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018.

Denmark: Cement plant manufacturer FLSmidth has seen its revenue increase by 11% year-on-year in the first half of 2017, as its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 25%. The group highlighted that strong momentum in orders from service activities continued along with a higher operating profit, despite one-off costs. Revenues were Euro1.21bn, while cement sector revenues were Euro140m.

"We are pleased to report solid progress towards our key performance indicator targets. The group's service activities continue to benefit from the firming global growth and improvement in confidence. With the second quarter marking the fourth consecutive quarter of strong aftermarket momentum, especially in mining, the service business is stabilising at a higher level," said CEO Thomas Schulz.

Uruguay: FLSmidth has been awarded an order from Cielo Azul Cementos y Calizas to build a 1200t/day cement plant at Treinta y Tres. The order is scheduled for completion by the end of 2017. The plant will be ready mix concrete producer Cielo Azul’s first cement production site.

The equipment being supplied includes an Atox 25.0 vertical mill for raw grinding, an Atox 13.5 vertical mill for coal grinding, a pyro processing system with low NOx ILC calciner, 3 base kiln, a Jetflex Burner, a Cross-Bar CB 6x29 cooler and OK 25-3 vertical mill for cement grinding, planetary gear units for vertical mills, bag filters, packing plant, control system, plant automation, weighing and metering systems.