Displaying items by tag: GCW322

Brazil: Wellington Dias, the governor of Piauí, is seeking the reopening of the Itapissuma cement plant. Owners João Santos Group closed the plant in March 2017 due to an 80% drop in sales caused by the country’s poor economy. Around 500 employees were laid off, according to the state government. The cement producer planned to make a final decision on the future of the plant by the end of September 2017. However, the governor has intervened to try and coordinate the purchase of the plant by a local business consortium.

Italy: Cementir has defended its conduct in an illegal waste investigation. It expressed ‘full confidence’ in the Prosecutor’s Office of Lecce following the decision by a judge to seize a power plant run by Enel, according to Reuters. The probe is exploring whether Cementir Italia’s Taranto plant purchased ‘illegal’ by-products from Enel and the ILVA steel plant to produce cement. Cementir confirmed that it had regularly purchased fly ash for its Taranto plant but that this ended at the start of 2016. It added that its use of sludge in cement production was covered by an Integrated Environmental Authorisation.

Philippines: The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved Eagle Cement’s application to build a third production line at its Bulacan cement plant. The cement producer plans to increase the site’s clinker production capacity to 4.2Mt/yr from 2.8Mt/yr and its cement production capacity to 7.1Mt/yr from 5.1Mt/yr, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. The upgrade has a cost of around US$138m.

The BOI, part of the attached agency of Department of Trade and Industry, has also approved an application by Eagle Cement’s subsidiary South Western Cement Corp. (SWCC) to become a new cement producer on a non-pioneer status but with pioneer incentives.

India: The credit ratings agency ICRA has downgraded its forecast for cement demand growth to 3.5 – 4% for the 2017 - 2018 financial year due to a slow first half of the year. It blamed the slow first half on a sand shortage in some regions, the implementation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority and slowed construction activity in the west, according to the Press Trust of India. The agency expects demand to be subdued during the second quarter of the year due to weather and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

However, it forecasts demand to rebound afterwards as housing demand and infrastructure projects pick up. In July 2017 the agency had predicted a growth rate of 5%.

Denmark: The UK’s John King Chains has purchased a stake in ScanChain. The purchase is in support of a takeover of the business by the sales director Kåre Söderberg, who was one of the original founders of the chain and socket company in 2009. No value for the transaction has been disclosed.

“We see this union as a logical part of our expansion strategy with reciprocal benefits. Through ScanChain we have not only gained access to the Scandinavian market, but have enhanced our commercial and technical expertise within the Group. We have always identified Kåre as one of the key operators in the chain market and an individual who is customer driven, technically competent and ambitious in his plans for the future,” said John King Chains in a statement.

David Wadsworth, the managing director of John King Chains, added that ‘…the alliance between John King and ScanChain comes at a time when there has never been such a high degree of optimism for the future of a long-established British manufacturing business and all those associated with it.’

Mexico: Cemex has sold its remaining direct 9.47% stake in Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) for around US$168m. Proceeds from the sale will be used for debt reduction and for ‘general’ corporate purposes. However, the Mexican cement producer will continue to hold a 20% indirect stake in GCC through its subsidiary Camcem.

Sri Lanka: Insee Cement has started building a new 0.45Mt/yr cement grinding mill, supplied by Loesche, at its Ruhunu plant in Galle. Deputy Minister of Port and Shipping Nishantha Muthuhettigama and Residence Manager of Galle Sujeewa Wimalasiri attended the event, according to the Daily Financial Times newspaper. The US$14m project is scheduled for completion in mid-2018.

Loesche is supplying a jumbo-sized compact cement grinding (CSG) mill for the unit. The mill is capable of grinding clinker and granulated blast furnace slag into Portland Limestone Cement and Portland Slag Cement (PSC) with a throughput of up to 60t/hr.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton’s Birkenhead cement plant has been criticised by a local environmental group for its dust emissions ahead of a review of its licence. The Port Adelaide Residents’ Environmental Protection Group has asked the plant to pay towards cleaning up dust emissions near to the plant as well as stricter controls of dust and noise, according to the Westside Weekly newspaper. The local Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is reviewing the cement producer’s current licence, which expires at the end of October 2017. The EPA has released a draft licence including conditions requiring the cement company to produce management plans to address dust and noise levels.

Germany/ UK: Germany’s Hosokawa Alpine and the UK’s Atritor have started a global marketing partnership to promote their processing equipment for ground calcium carbonate (GCC). The Hosokawa Alpine ANR vertical wet grinding mill will combine with the Atritor Cell Mill slurry drying and powder coating system to provide an offering for superfine GCC products.

“… a partnership with Atritor is a natural step for us to enable customers to produce very fine, dry, coated or uncoated Ground Calcium Carbonate products. This area of the GCC market is growing quickly as more and more customers look to increase the quality of their end products and to enter the market for very fine products,” said Paul Woodward, Division Manager Minerals and Metals at Hosokawa Alpine.