Displaying items by tag: GCW155

UK: Repairs to the flood-damaged Cemex UK cement plant at South Ferriby are said to be making 'good' progress according to Cemex UK. The 0.8Mt/yr plant was flooded by a tidal surge from the River Humber in early December 2013.

Partial production started in April 2014 and a Cemex UK spokesman has reported to the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph that they plan on resuming full production later in 2014. Repair efforts are now focusing on the kiln systems and the two raw mills and coal mills. Cemex UK has declined to comment on how much the repairs have cost although it is rumoured to have cost as much as Euro14m. The plant employs 150 people and contributes Euro 12.5m/yr to the economy of North Lincolnshire.

Chad/Morocco: Moroccan company Ciment de l'Afrique intends to build a US$40m cement unit in Chad. The announcement was made by Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno at a launch event in N'Djamena for two large investment projects made in conjunction with Morocco.

Colombia: Cemex is pursuing alternative energy sources, including landfill biogas, wind and solar energy, for its operations in Colombia. It has planned some US$50m of projects for the next five years. The company will look for partners among financial entities and investment funds, according to Edgar Angeles, Cemex's vice president of operations for Central, South America and the Caribbean.

Since the elaboration of Colombia's law on renewable energy, Cemex has been studying projects of this type. The law allows companies to invest in their own power supply and to sell any surplus on the wholesale market. Cemex wants to guarantee 100% of its power supply, compared to 65% now. It already has three small hydroelectric stations and a gas-fired plant in Colombia's Junin, Bucaramanga and Ibague municipalities.

Germany: Loesche GmbH has won the Deutscher Bildungspreis 2014 in the category 'Production: small and medium-sized enterprises,' for its training and management programmes. It beat 120 other companies to the award, which was awarded at a ceremonial event at the historic Munich Künstlerhaus on 12 May 2014.

The Deutscher Bildungspreis is presented annually by TÜV Süd Academy and EuPD Research Sustainable Management under the motto 'Learning from the best.' In four sector categories, companies are awarded for best education and talent management under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

"Loesche owes this success to the instruments of the demand-oriented personnel development introduced in 2008 as well as the close cooperation with the Loesche Training Center and the benefits for the staff associated with this," said Christian Trzeczak from Loesche's Corporate Human Resources department. "This result will further consolidate the employer brand Loesche and shows that we are on the right track towards a productive personnel development in the company."

Australia: After being mothballed in 2012, the disused Hydro Aluminium plant on Kooragang Island could soon be operational again. The site is set to be reincarnated as a cement-mixing plant. Vue Australia has lodged a US$3m plan with Newcastle council to change the site's use from an aluminium transfer, storage and dispatch facility to a cement storage and transfer plant.

Under the plan, Vue will transfer, store and dispatch an estimated 300,000t/yr of Portland cement, utilising the site's existing three large silos and overhead conveyor. Much of Vue's US$3m investment will be spent on installing dust-control measures, particularly in truck-loading areas.

Vue is also seeking approval to operate 24hr/day, every day, because it needs to do so when a ship arrives with raw materials to unload. "This is expected to occur some 16 times a year," said a company spokesperson. The conveyor to the silos would carry raw products delivered by ship. The cement products would be dispatched via road tankers to customers.

Dust-emission reports and environmental reports have been submitted. An environmental impact statement concluded that potential environmental impacts associated with the upgrade are negligible and could be managed through the implementation of the mitigation measures identified by the study.

Vue said that it hopes to have the new cement plant operating within months. While the project would only create a small amount of jobs, the company said that it would help to diversify the port's industry, put mothballed infrastructure to work and 'increase competition within the New South Wales cement market and related construction industry.'

Iraq: BASF has entered into a joint venture with Lafarge to set up a new plant for the production and marketing of construction chemicals in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan. BASF said that the new production site would mainly produce concrete admixtures and cement additives and that the products would be offered to the local market.

For BASF, the joint venture offers the opportunity to further tap into Iraq's growth market with a partner that is already well-established in the region. "This initiative clearly represents BASF's interest and commitment to the Middle East," said Dick Purchase, the head of BASF Construction Chemicals division in the Middle East, West Asia, CIS and Africa. "With this joint venture we are fulfilling our Master Builders Solutions promise of connectedness by being closer to our clients, providing our innovative and sustainable solutions and creating new job opportunities in the region," he added. Under the Master Builders Solutions brand, BASF bundles its advanced chemical solutions for new construction, maintenance, repair and renovation of structures.

Nigeria: In a bid to tackle 're-bagging,' which is one of the biggest threats in the cement industry in Nigeria, Dangote Cement has launched an all-out attack on perpetrators.

In the cement industry 're-bagging' refers to the emptying of the original cement bag and refilling with a different adulterated product or commodity. Another common method is to buy cement from shops, grind it, mix it with sand and then put the adulterated commodity into a bag belonging to a reputable cement manufacturer.

Often cement makers end up bearing the brunt of customer dissatisfaction, as they believe the product is from the original source. In the case of damage associated with the product, consumers often attribute it to the firm whose bag has been used for the product.

"There are different forms of what these people are doing," said Devakumar V G Edwin, Dangote's managing director and CEO. "We have an extensive team that is spearheaded by a former police commissioner exclusively on this." According to Edwin, his team is working hard to halt bag thefts by cement plant workers, which facilitate the re-bagging business.

"We have even heard people say that they sell Dangote Cement for US$5.52 – 6.13/bag," said Edwin. "What happens is that our customers often call us and inform us of the situation. Sometimes, they tell us that we are cheating them because of the price someone tells them elsewhere. Once we get the information, we launch into action."

Turkey: Gebr. Pfeiffer SE has received another order from Bolu Cimento Sanayii A.S., Turkey. In addition to the three MPS mills that Bolu Cimento ordered in December 2013 for the Kazan, Ankara Province plant, this order will see Gebr. Pfeiffer supply an MPS 4500 BC mill for the grinding of granulated blast furnace slag, which will be set up at Bolu Province plant. The mill will be identical to the cement mill that will be installed in Kazan.

The mill is designed to reach a throughput rate of 85t/hr of slag, ground to a product fineness of 4500 - 4750cm²/g. Gebr. Pfeiffer's scope will include the core components of the mill and classifier as well as the mill gearbox. The required drawings and parts lists for the local manufacture of housing and steel parts as well as documents for quality control will also be produced and supplied.

The delivery of the mill scheduled to start at the end of 2014 and will have been completed by early 2015.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Schaefer Kalk Gmbh & Co is planning to initiate a joint manufacturing project with BFS, part of the Stanić group. The Euro30m project will be located in the city of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and will generate around 150 jobs.

The entire production of the future lime plant will be exported to markets in Africa, Asia and Europe. Mostar was chosen because of its proximity to the port of Ploče in Croatia, which would facilitate the export process.

"At the moment the initiative is in the preparation phase, which includes obtaining certification on taking the test quantity of limestone," said the Mostar city authorities. "After this a trial production would take place in the BFS plants in Kresevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina."

France: Italcementi has announced that it will target the minority holdings of Ciments Français with a buyout bid of Euro79.5/share, excluding dividend, from 13 June - 3 July 2014. The announcement follows the receipt of regulatory clearance.

Italcementi unveiled the final offer price on 20 May 2014. The company said at the time that it held 83.83% of the share capital and 91.03% of the voting rights of Ciments Français and that its bid had a maximum total counter-value of some Euro464m.

The move is in line with a drive to increase Italcementi's capital and streamline the group's structure. It will use the proceeds from a capital hike of up to Euro500m to bankroll the recommended offer. In the event that Italcementi builds a stake of at least 95% through the tender offer, it would initiate, within three months from the completion of the bid, a squeeze-out procedure for the rest of the shares at the offer price.