Displaying items by tag: GCW231
Huaxin Cement to build cement plant in Aktobe
15 December 2015Kazakhstan: The Governor of Aktobe, Berdybek Saparbayev, and Chairman of the Board of Huaxin Cement, Xu Yongmo, have signed an agreement on an investment project for the construction of a cement plant in Kargaly, Aktobe.
Huaxin Cement has decided to invest US$150m in the construction of the 1Mt/yr plant, which will produce different cement types, including oil-well cement. The construction of the plant is scheduled to start in the middle of 2016. The project does not require any investment from the state budget. In addition, it will reduce the need to import cement from Russia.
India: Petron Engineering Construction has received a Letter of Intent from Ramco Cements for civil and mechanical works to upgrade line 1 at the cement plant and captive power plant at Jayanthipuram, Andhra Pradesh for US$3.36m.
Lhoist mothballs Thrislington lime plant
11 December 2015UK: Lhoist has announced that its Thrislington lime plant in the north of England will be mothballed. The decision came on the back of the recent closure of steel manufacturing facilities in the UK, to which the Thrislington plant supplied the vast majority of its dolomitic lime. A total of 40 staff will now commence a collective consultation process with management via union and employee representatives.
"Unfortunately demand for dolomitic lime from our Thrislington plant has drastically reduced, since the closure of steel manufacturing plants in this region," said Cedric de Vicq, Managing Director of Lhoist UK. "We are looking at opportunities to retain staff where possible."
India: The Competition Appellate Tribunal has set aside a US$945m penalty imposed on 11 cement firms by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on accusations of cartel behaviour and asked the fair trade regulator to resubmit the case. The Tribunal also allowed the cement manufacturers to withdraw the 10% penalty amount already deposited with the CCI, according to the Press Trust of India.
The judgement follows appeals filed by the cement firms and their industry body, the Cement Manufacturers Association, against the two CCI orders passed in June - July 2012. The cement companies included ACC, Ambuja Cements, Binani Cements, Century Textiles Ltd, India Cements, JK Cements, Lafarge India, Madras Cements, Ultratech, JP Associates and Shree Cements.
The CCI had passed the orders after an investigation into complaints, including from Builders Association of India (BAI), against alleged price collaboration between cement firms.
The orders were later challenged at the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which ordered that 'the impugned order is set aside and the matter is remitted to the CCI for fresh adjudication of the issues relating to alleged violation" of the relevant sections of the Competition Act.'
Beumer celebrates 80 years of business
11 December 2015Germany: Beumer Group celebrated its 80th anniversary on 9 December 2015. The conveying, loading, palletising, packaging, sortation and distribution manufacturer was originally founded by Bernhard Beumer on 9 December 1935 with four employees. In 2014 Beumer Group reported a turnover of Euro680m and today it has around 4100 employees.
"The success is primarily due to the familial spirit. We have consistently held to our motto 'We are looking for the long-term success, and not for the short-term profit'," said Christoph Beumer, Chairman and CEO of Beumer Group. Beumer is the third generation of his family to manage the business and he has held the post since 2000. Beumer attributes the long-term success of the company to manageable growth, a large range of products and a global market presence. Beumer machines and systems are in use all around the world.
Conveying technology formed the foundation of Beumer Group's business when Bernhard Beumer started the company in 1935. His eldest son, also named Bernhard Beumer, took over the company in 1981 and promoted the development of bucket elevators leading to the company belt bucket elevators. By the mid-1980s, the supplier had installed about 100 systems altogether, in 2007 and 2008 there were about 450 installed per year. Besides the product development in the field of conveying technology, Bernhard Beumer Jr. also continued the initial development of loading systems and steered Beumer's international growth with the foundation of companies in Brazil, the USA and Asia.
In the 1960s, Beumer laid the foundation for curved belt conveying systems. The first theoretical designs on the market were from the company's Department for Research and Development. Today this group is one of the technological leaders for these systems, either as troughed belt conveyors with open design or as Pipe Conveyors. In the field of loading technology, Bernhard Beumer Jr. developed new products, such as the three-dimensional loading machine for loading cement bags onto trucks. In the 1970s, the engineers further developed this machine until it became completely automated. The stationary palletiser is a result of this development.
Beumer took over the Danish sortation technology specialist Crisplant in 2009, followed later by companies in India, the US and Belgium. It acquired Enexco Technologies in India, a manufacturer of grinding systems and packaging machines for the cement industry, in 2011.
"I view the company as a little jewel case," said Beumer when speaking of the company history. "When my grandfather founded it, it was no more than a little wooden box. He added some velvet lining to it and then handed it over to the second generation, my father, who added some more and embellished it further."
WTW & MHC Group celebrate multiple milestone anniversaries
11 December 2015Germany/Poland: MHC Engineering Fördertechnik GmbH in Cologne, Germany celebrated the 10th company anniversary in November 2015. Its sister company WTW Engineering MiUP Sp.z o.o in Wroclaw, Poland has also celebrated its 20th company anniversary recently.
MHC Egineering Fördertechnik GmbH was founded in 2005 and immediately made an impact by acquiring WTW Engineering MiUP Sp. Z.o.o. located in Poland, as well as WTW Americas Inc. located in Canada.
The three companies together form the WTW & MHC Group, a prominent supplier of: silo and bunker discharge technology for all bulk materials, discharge capacities and silo diameters; complete turnkey systems or individual components for the reception, storage, discharge and transport of alternative fuels; materials handling in general; laboratory testing of bulk materials.
"We are not so much interested in short-term and quick profits but in long-term trusting and cooperative relationships with our clients," said managing director Marek Lewicki. "Our success, even through the highs and lows of the material handling market due to fluctuations in the world economy, is confirmed every day by our loyal clients in the cement, power and metallurgical industries," Added managing director Aaron Reid.
Qalaa Holdings’ net loss rose to US$16m in the third quarter of 2015
10 December 2015Egypt: Qalaa Holdings' revenue grew by 19% year-on-year to US$262m in the third quarter of 2015. In the first nine months of 2015, its revenue rose by 31% to US$777m. The growth was attributed to ASEC Cement and energy distribution business TAQA Arabia. ASEC Holding saw its top line grow by 30% to US$299m.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the third quarter of 2015 fell by 9% to US$27.4m. The decrease comes on the back of several factors; Qalaa's exit from Misr Cement Qena, which had been positively contributing to EBITDA; the third quarter of 2015 having two Eid Holidays (Eid El Fitr and Eid El Adha) leading to less working days; and Sudan's Al-Takamol facing temporary fuel shortages during the third quarter of 2015. These factors affected cement revenues and EBITDA. In the first nine months of 2015, Qalaa's EBITDA grew by 71% to US$99.5m.
Qalaa has continued to press forward with its strategy of divesting non-core investments, with several exits concluded during the first nine months of 2015 and more recently in the fourth quarter of 2015. In the second quarter of 2015, Qalaa concluded the sale of its 27.5% stake in Misr Cement Qena, while in the fourth quarter of 2015, the company further reduced its exposure to the cement industry with its business unit ASEC Cement divesting its stakes in subsidiaries ASEC Minya Cement and ASEC Ready Mix.
"We are pressing ahead with plans to divest assets that will allow us to deleverage and devote maximum attention to high-growth businesses in sectors that are vital to the development of our region such as refining, energy distribution and transportation and logistics," said Qalaa Holdings Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal. "We remain firmly committed to growing our investments in ERC, Egypt's largest in-progress private-sector megaproject due to begin production in 2017, and TAQA Arabia, which is pursuing exciting new opportunities in gas distribution, electricity generation and renewable energy. In parallel, we are also looking for opportunities to unlock shareholder value at subsidiaries, including ASCOM and Rift Valley Railways, which have strong growth outlooks."
"The sale of ASEC Cement's Egyptian assets alongside other transactions will fundamentally re-shape Qalaa's financials, giving more weight on both our income statement and balance sheet to ongoing operations at our energy and mining units and setting the stage for the transformative impact of ERC," said Qalaa Holdings Co-Founder and Managing Director Hisham El-Khazindar. "The near-full impact of the substantial deleveraging that accompanies these transactions will be felt in our fourth quarter 2015 and first quarter 2016 financials."
The company reported a net loss after tax and minority interest of US$16m in the third quarter of 2015, a two-fold increase compared to the net loss of US$7.59m in the same period of 2014. On a nine month basis, however, bottom-line losses narrowed by 31% to US$41.2m compared to US$60m in the same period of 2014
Wastecycle expands site and takes on 20% more staff
10 December 2015UK: Wastecycle's recycling facility in Colwick, Nottinghamshire is now one of the largest in the UK after an expansion of the site. By acquiring seven acres of property, which the company previously leased, and buying an additional four acres, Wastecycle has extended its site to nearly 20 acres.
"It's an exciting time for us because this expansion provides us with the platform we need to reach the next stage of growth as a company," said Financial Director Nathan Cole. "Over the long term, we plan to use the additional land to expand our extensive recycling and resource management activities. This will help us broaden the services we offer our customers while improving the quality and sustainability of the recycled products we manufacture."
The company has also completed an expansion of its main office to accommodate its growing workforce. After a 20% growth in staff 2015, it now employs almost 300 people across its Colwick site and its two sites in Leicestershire. "Ensuring our teams are comfortable in their working environments is very important to us because, not only does it increase productivity, but it also creates positive morale," said Cole. "Larger premises also provide the opportunity to open up new jobs, while improving the quality of service we can provide to customers."
Wastecycle separates 500,000t/yr of waste, including 18,000t/yr of recycling from 126,131 homes in the Nottingham City Council area. Some of the waste is turned into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for use at cement plants. It also sorts through the rubbish of thousands of businesses across Nottinghamshire, runs a skip hire service and operates a wallboard recycling facility, which it developed with British Gypsum.
In 2014, Wastecycle's turnover increased to Euro42.8m from Euro35.9m in 2013. In 2015, it won four awards, including a bronze environmental best practice accolade at the Green Apple Awards in November 2015. It was recognised for the success of its wallboard recycling scheme, which has prevented more than 30,000t/yr of wallboard from reaching landfill.
HeidelbergCement’s Burglengenfeld cement plant to be upgraded
09 December 2015Germany: HeidelbergCement has decided to modernise its Burglengenfeld cement plant in Germany with parts and services from IKN and Gebr. Pfeiffer.
IKN won the contract for the engineering, supply and installation of a complete 4000t/day pyro line, from raw meal feeding to clinker discharge. Included in the scope of supply are integration engineering, supply and installation of add-on components for the raw meal grinding plant. The upgraded plant will feature state-of-the-art technology to comply with the targeted production level and future emission limits.
The new line will consist of a two-string, five-stage preheater tower with inline calciner. IKN's preheater and calciner design will ensure minimum pressure drop at maximum performance and high efficiency. The kiln line will be optimised to use of a variety of alternative fuels. Among several innovative features will be a tertiary air duct damper, which has proven successful in operation for more than three years with outstanding reliability and performance. Another essential component of the plant is IKN's Pendulum Cooler, which is highly reliable and has low maintenance and operational costs. Its design allows recirculating bypass gas into the recuperation zone to boost cooler efficiency.
As part of the modernisation of the kiln line, the four existing MPS vertical roller mills will be replaced after forty years of successful operation. HeidelbergCement has ordered two new Gebr. Pfeiffer MPS 4250 B roller mills as replacements. Each mill is designed to achieve a capacity of 200t/hr of cement raw material ground to a fineness of 12% R90µm. The drive power per mill is 2250kW. Gebr. Pfeiffer will also supply the complete equipment for the external material circulation system as well as the cyclone collectors and mill fans. The supply of the mechanical equipment will be completed by engineering services covering the plant layout and the integration of the process-related ductwork within the existing, complex plant. Raw mill 1 is scheduled to go on stream at the end of 2016 and raw mill 2 is scheduled to start operations in 2017.