Displaying items by tag: Gebr Pfeiffer

Zimbabwe: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer says that a new MVR 3070 C-4 mill for cement grinding is due to be commissioned at Holcim Zimbabwe’s integrated plant at Manresa near Harare. The order was handled by the Chinese contractor CBMI.

The roof at the plant collapsed over a cement mill in October 2021 leading to a reduction in production volumes at the plant. The mills were restarted in February 2022 but one of the one of the existing cement ball mills was decommissioned. This mill is being replaced by the new vertical roller mill supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer. It is expected to double the plant’s cement production capacity after it is commissioned in the second quarter of 2022.

India: Chettinad Cement has ordered a MVR 5600 R-6 type mill for raw meal grinding and a MVR 5300 C-6 type mill for grinding composite cements from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for a new production line at its integrated Kallur plant in Karnataka. The supplier says that the MVR 5600 R-6 type mill is the first of its kind provided with six rollers. The order was placed in April 2022 and the contract has since been activated with the receipt of down-payment and a letter of credit.

The core components of the MVR mills as well as the 5810 kW gearbox will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer SE from Europe. Foundation parts, housings and other components will be manufactured in India and delivered to the customer under responsibility of its subsidiary Gebr. Pfeiffer (India). The office of Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) in Noida, near New Delhi, will also support the end customer in plant design, procure most of the grinding plant machinery such as filters, fans, hot gas generators, the fly ash handling and conveying aggregates, and will be on site with personnel for quality control of the customer's site fabrication as well as supervision of erection and commissioning.

The news from Sri Lanka this week is that Lanwa Sanstha Cement is preparing to commission a new 3Mt/yr grinding plant in January 2022. The timing is apposite given the current shortages in the country.

Some inkling of local problems can be seen in the cement news over the last few months. In August 2021 Insee Cement said that it was operating at full capacity utilisation across its network. Later, at the end of October 2021, the government intervened in the import market by opening up the use of Trincomalee Harbour. This was followed by the nation’s other main producer, Tokyo Cement, announcing that it too was operating its grinding plant at Trincomalee at full capacity. It also said that, at the government’s behest, it was going to increase its import rate.

The new Lanwa Sanstha Cement unit originally came to international attention when Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer revealed details in 2019 of an order of two MVR 5000 C-4 type roller mills from Onyx Group. Lanwa Sanstha Cement has since said that the plant will cost US$80m. Once operational the unit at the Mirijjawila export processing zone of the Hambantota International Port will manufacture ordinary Portland cement, Portland slag cement, Portland limestone cement and blended hydraulic cement. A further equipment order for the project was announced this week when the Chinese-run Hambantota International Port Group signed an agreement with Lanwa Sanstha Cement to build a conveyor from the port to the plant. The deal also includes two ship unloaders.

Other new cement units on the horizon include an integrated plant project from Nepalese businessman Binod Chaudhary that was announced in mid-2019. The US$150m plant was planned for Mannar in the north of the island. However, not much more has been heard since then. Chaudhary’s company CG Cement operates a grinding plant in Nepal. More recently, in October 2021, local press reported that the government had tentative plans to build a new plant at the old state-owned Kankesanthurai site, also in the north. The plant was originally built in the 1950s and production ran until 1990 when the military took over the unit amid the then on-going civil war. Earlier in 2021 the government agreed to sell off the machinery at the site. However, much of it has gone missing in the intervening period! Proposals to revive the plant have circulated since the mid-2010s.

Graph 1: Cement production and imports in Sri Lanka, 2015 – 2021. Estimate for 2021 based on January to August data. Source: Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan cement market has faced a tough time over the last two years. First, total local production and imports fell by 11% year-on-year to 7.2Mt in 2020 from 8.1Mt in 2019. Then, imports fell by 18% year-on-year to 1.83Mt from January to August 2021 from 2.24Mt in the same period in 2020. Local production has more than compensated though, leading to growth in the total so far in 2021. There have been general economic reasons for why the ratio of imports to local production has fallen in 2020 and 2019 and this is explained in more detail below. Yet, imports hit a high of 5.68Mt in 2017 and have been declining since then both in real terms and proportionately.

Insee Cement summed up the local situation in its third quarter results by blaming cement shortages on input cost rises, supply chain disruption and negative exchange rates effects. The first two problems are issues everywhere around the world as economies speed up again following the coronavirus lockdowns but the last one is more specific to Sri Lanka. The country has faced a recession in its economy because the pandemic shut down tourism. The government initially introduced import limits to try and control foreign currency reserves. It then imposed price controls on essential foods and commodities, including cement, in September 2021 to try and stop shortages but this plan was abandoned a month later. Focusing on cement, some idea of the input cost inflation facing the sector can be seen in Tokyo Cement’s latest quarterly financial results. Its cost of sales rose by 72% year-on-year to US$59.5m in the six months to end of September 2021 from US$34.5m in the same period in 2020.

Lasantha Alagiyawanna, the State Minister of Consumer Protection, said at the end of October 2021 that it would take three weeks to import the required cement into the country. Whether this is enough to end the shortage remains to be seen. Yet, whatever does happen, it is likely that more production capacity from the likes of Lanwa Sanstha Cement and others will be welcome in 2022 and beyond.

Pakistan: Askari Cement has awarded a contract to Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for the supply of three of its MVR vertical roller mills to replace the existing mills at its Nizampur cement plant. Two of the mills will be MVR 5000 C-4 cement mills with the capacity to grind 360t/hr of clinker to a fineness of 3250 blaine. The other mill, an MVR 5000 R-4 raw meal mill, will grind 520t/hr of clinker to a fineness of 12% R90µm. The Chinese contractor Hefei Cement Research & Design Institute will install an SLS V high-efficiency classifier on each of the mills. The upgraded plant is scheduled for commissioning in mid-late 2022.

India: Wonder Cement has ordered its eighth vertical roller mill from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer. A MPS 3070 BK type mill has been selected for grinding petroleum coke and coal. The throughput rate for pure petcoke grinding will be 40t/hr with a product fineness of 2% R 90µm. The mill will be equipped with an SLS 2900 BK type classifier. Due to the high abrasiveness of Indian coal, the mill and classifier will be designed with a correspondingly robust wear protection. The new mill will support the fourth 8000t/day production line at the producer’s plant at Tehsil Nimbahera, Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

Most of the components of the coal mill will be manufactured by Gebr. Pfeiffer India including the housing and foundation parts, the grinding bowl and a large part of the force-transmitting parts. Delivery of the mill is scheduled for the end of 2021. Commissioning of the entire kiln line with the new grinding plant is scheduled for spring 2022.

Burkina Faso: Germany-based Gebr Pfeiffer is supplying a MVR 6000 C-6 type vertical roller mill for Cim Metal Group’s upgrade to its Cimasso cement grinding plant in Bobo Dioulasso. The mill, with an installed gear power of 6800kW, will be used on the plant’s second production line. The vertical mill can be used for different cement types between 4000cm²/g and 5000cm²/g according to Blaine and produces more than 400t/hr with its six active grinding rollers. The mill will be equipped with a SLS VC type classifier. The order also includes the delivery of a replacement gearbox. The upgrade project is being managed by Germany-based Intercem Engineering with Gebr Pfeiffer supplying the mill and the process design. The supplier says that this will be the first MVR mill to be installed in the country.

India: Gallantt Industry has ordered a Ready2Grind compact grinding plant from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Gorakhpur cement plant in Uttar Pradesh. The supplier says that the 65t/hr-capacity plant will grind cement to a Blaine fineness of 3750cm²/g. The planned MVR 2500 C-4 represents the medium size of the portfolio of the supplier’s modular mill range. Due to the planned installation in the vicinity of a steelworks, blast furnace slag, steelworks slag from an induction furnace and fly ash from an in-house power plant will also be considered as supplementary cementitious materials addition to clinker and gypsum. The mill will be equipped with a 1270kW main drive and an integrated SLS 2650 VC high-performance classifier.

India: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer has won a contract to supply a vertical roller mill for grinding coal to Deccan Cement’s Bhavanipuram cement plant in Andhra Pradesh. Gebr. Pfeiffer India will be responsible for processing the order and supervising production and installation at the plant’s 3500t/day kiln line. The mill will be the company’s second from the supplier. It chose an MPS 250 BK mill, which can also grind petcoke or a mixture of coal and petcoke. Commissioning is scheduled for before mid-June 2022.

Poland: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Poland has ordered a 307t/hr MVR 3750 R-4 vertical roller mill from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Malogoszcz cement plant in Świętokrzyskievoivodeship. The supplier says that the equipment has a drive power of 2500kW and that it is the first MVR mill to be installed in the country. It said that the producer chose the mill for its reduced energy requirements compared to those of other grinding mills. China-based Nanjing Kisen will execute the order for commissioning in early 2022.

India: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer has received an order from Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement for nine vertical roller mills. The producer plans to install the mills across three newly-built clinker lines. The supplier said, “The cooperation between UltraTech Cement and Gebr. Pfeiffer is based on the understanding of not only being a customer or supplier, but to achieve common goals in partnership.”