Displaying items by tag: GCW181
Atrus halts construction of cement plant in Krasnodar
17 December 2014Russia: Austrian company Atrus Cement has halted construction of a cement plant in Krasnodar territory indefinitely. The project has been temporarily put on hold due to a lack of funds to finance the construction, according to Interfax.
Atrus Cement was planning to build and launch a cement plant in the Crimean district of Krasnodar territory by 2016. The project will cost over US$188m and will have a cement production capacity of 2.1Mt/yr. The company had hoped to start construction in 2012 and complete the project by 2016.
Australia: The Boral cement plant in Berrima, New South Wales, will receive a US$3.3m grant from the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW Environment Protection Authority's Waste Less, Recycle More initiative. The funding will be used to increase the use of waste derived fuels at the plant.
Executive general manager for Boral Cement Ross Harper said the achievement of the grant confirmed the potentially-important role that the New Berrima site could play in reducing the increasing impact of re-usable materials ending up in landfills.
"Since September, we have been informing our local stakeholders about the positive environmental and economic effects which can be obtained by replacing a portion of our coal consumption at Berrima with fuels derived from recovered and processed waste streams," said executive general manager for Boral Cement, Ross Harper.
Boral is currently preparing to submit planning applications which will seek approval for the use of wood waste-derived fuel and refuse-derived fuel in production at the Berrima plant. The site already holds an approval to use rubber tyre chips. Pending approvals, the site is looking to begin integration of the two fuels from the start of 2016 following construction of the new infrastructure.
Sarbottam Cement Industries starts commercial operation in Nepal
17 December 2014Nepal: Sarbottam Cement Industries (SCI) has started commercial operation at its 400,000t/yr cement plant. The plant, which includes a captive power plant and a grinding unit, will employ over 1600 staff both directly and indirectly when fully functional. Saurabh Group, which has major share in import-export business of cement, steel, tea and woollen products, among others, set up SCI with an investment of US$64m. The cement plant has 45% foreign investment.
India: The Pollution Control Board has despatched 20,000t of effluent sludge generated by textile units in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate in Perundurai to cement plants in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu state for use as an alternative fuel. Local media reports that local cement producers have started accepting effluent sludge from the dying industry after the success of a trial run that indicated no variation in the strength and quality of cement. Following the first order demand for another 8000t has been expressed.
Saudi City Cement starts trial operations of new production line
17 December 2014Saudi Arabia: Saudi City Cement Company has started trial operations of a second production line. Without disclosing any financial details, Saudi City Cement said that the new production line will have a production capacity of 5,500t/day. The trial period will last about four months.
EU approves LafargeHolcim merger
16 December 2014Europe: The European Commission (EC), the European Union's antitrust authority, has approved the proposed merger of Lafarge and Holcim, subject to asset sales by both companies in regions where their activities overlap. The EC's approval is conditional upon the divestment of Lafarge's businesses in Germany, Romania and the UK. Holcim is required to divest its operations in France, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and the Czech Republic. The proposed transaction concerns assets worth several billion Euros and will create the world's largest cement producer with operations in 90 countries.
"The Commission had concerns that the transaction, as originally notified, would have had a detrimental effect on competition in a significant number of markets in the European Economic Area (EEA)," said the EC. "The commitments offered by the two companies address these concerns."
According to the EC, its assessment found that the merged entity would have faced insufficient competitive pressure from remaining players in many markets. This would have brought a risk of price rises. In order to prevent a negative impact on competition, the companies have committed to divesting most of the operations where their activities overlap. Further, the EC said that Holcim and Lafarge will not be allowed to close the deal until it has approved the buyers of the assets put up for sale.
In April 2014, Holcim and Lafarge announced their plan to combine through an all share merger of equals to create LafargeHolcim, with nearly Euro32bn in sales. The proposed combination would be structured as a public exchange offer initiated by Holcim for all outstanding shares of Lafarge on the basis of a 1 for 1 exchange ratio. The companies also agreed to have equal dividends on a per share basis between announcement and completion. The offer would be subject to Holcim holding at least 2/3rd of the share capital and voting rights of Lafarge.
Guyana’s first integrated cement plant commissioned in Berbice
16 December 2014Guyana: Caricom Cement Company has commissioned its new US$53.1m cement plant at Everton, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). The new plant will produce 500,000t/yr of cement, double Guyana's current consumption. The plant, which is the first integrated cement plant in Guyana, employs in excess of 250 persons from Berbice, Georgetown, Essequibo and Suriname.
"Caricom Cement Company has been in operation for the past four years and during that period we were bagging cement under the brand names West Indies Cement and Titan Cement," said Caricom. "The main purpose of the cement plant is to make cement affordable to all Guyanese, taking into consideration the construction boom that our country is undergoing at this time."
The plant was built in three phases and started in August 2010 at the old bauxite plant (Bermine), which was developed in phase one. The first part of the current operations saw a bagging system installed at the Everton plant. Phase two saw a Portland cement plant being added to the system while the machinery was being built for phase three, which commenced in December 2013 with the installation of the new plant. The plant was then upgraded with a kiln and cooling system and its grinding capacity was increased by 50%.
LSR to sell Slantsy cement plant to Eurocement
16 December 2014Russia: LSR Group is selling its Slantsy plant in the Leningrad region of Russia to Eurocement Group. The parties have signed a preliminary sales agreement, with Eurocement having obtained approval from Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS).
Control of plant operations is expected to be transferred later in December 2014. LSR said that the deal is part of its strategy to 'focus on projects with the highest returns on invested capital and fast growing real estate development business, thus maximising value for shareholders.' LSR will use most of the proceeds to reduce its debt and make it 100% Ruble-based by the end of 2014.
India: The government has asked Coal India Ltd (CIL) to stay away from the initial rounds of coal block auctions due in January 2015 that are meant for the cement, power and steel industries. The state-run monopoly miner has, however, requested the government to reallocate a few blocks to it, including two that it had lost that were being jointly developed with private firms.
"We are a commercial producer of coal and we do not fit into the category for which the blocks are being auctioned," said a senior CIL official. "CIL will stay away from the first rounds of auctions." However, CIL is likely to participate in bidding when coal blocks are auctioned for commercial mining.
The company has requested that the government return the blocks that it lost following the Supreme Court's order rendering almost all allotments illegal 'because substantial investment has already been made by all parties in these blocks.' CIL had floated majority joint ventures with two private companies to undertake mining projects in those two blocks.
Graymont to buy Holcim’s McDonalds Lime for an undisclosed sum
15 December 2014Canada/New Zealand: Canadian lime company Graymont has agreed to buy McDonalds Lime from Holcim New Zealand and Bluescope Steel, owned New Zealand Steel, for an undisclosed sum. The McDonald's sale is subject to regulatory approvals and should be completed in 2015.
Holcim plans to close its Westport cement plant in 2016 and will also sell its Taylor's Lime assets to Graymont. McDonalds Lime is 72% owned by Holcim New Zealand, with the remainder owned by New Zealand Steel. It has the country's largest lime quarry at Oparure, north of Te Kuiti.
Graymont is North America's second-largest supplier of lime and lime-based products and also has an investment in Grupo Calidra, Mexico's largest lime producer. This is the Canadian company's first investment in the New Zealand market.
Holcim has been trying to sell the lime business, which it no longer considers a core business, as it plans for imported cement to replace local production at Westport. It wrote down the value of its Westport cement plant ahead of the coming closure, booking US$24.1m of charges for the plant. The plant will close by the second half of 2016 when new US$77.6m import facilities at Waitemata in Auckland and Timaru are fully operational. Plans for a new cement manufacturing plant at Weston in North Otago remain on hold, but Holcim is keeping the assets so it has the option of 'eventually building a new cement plant.'