Displaying items by tag: Government
Planning department approves upgrade to Tarmac Dunbar cement plant
19 September 2018UK: The planning department of East Lothian Council in Scotland has granted planning permission to an upgrade of Tarmac’s Dunbar cement plant. The work will include building a new cement grinding mill, a new cement storage silo and a rail loading facility. The work will also include a shed, belt conveyors pneumatic pipelines and associated works.
In its supporting statement the company said that the new cement mill was necessary to produce new grades of cement required for modern construction and the cement market. The proposed mill will replace two existing mills on the site and is intended to be more energy efficient and quieter than the existing mills. It added that the plant would benefits from rail sidings on both the south and north side of the East Coast Mainline railway line. At present trains are fed only on the south side using adjacent silos where train capacity is already fully used. Additional products are exported by road.
Kyrgyzstan: Member of parliament Karamat Orozova has proposed setting up a commission to examine building a new cement plant in the Batken region. She has proposed allocating land and loans for local businesses to build a new unit, according to the Central Asia News Service. The politician has criticised the decision to place the South-Kyrgyz Cement (SKC) plant in the Osh region of the country given the neighbouring problems in Batken. The 1Mt/yr SKC plant was built in 2010 with Italcementi.
Egyptian government shuts down National Company for Cement
12 September 2018Egypt: The Ministry of Public Business Sector has shut down the National Company for Cement due to mounting losses. Hisham Tawfik, the Minister of Public Business, said that the plant’s losses had reached Euro43m in the last year, according to Egypt Today magazine. Its creditors include the Gas Company and the Egyptian Electricity Company.
The company’s registration with the local stock exchange was closed in August 2018. The government is now intending to sell its stocks in the Suez Cement Company and Al-Nahda Company. The company’s assets will then be sold. The minister said that workers aged 50 years or more will receive redundancy and that younger workers will be moved to other cement companies.
The cement producer reported mounting losses in recent years due to higher production costs. Reportedly, the cost of producing one ton of cement was 60% higher than the average comparable cost of its competitors. In addition the company was paying its workers twice the average wage than other state-owned businesses.
Ukraine bans clinker imports from Russia
30 August 2018Russia/Ukraine: The Cabinet of Ministers has banned clinker imports from Russia. The government says that cement imports from Russia almost doubled in 2017, according to Interfax. Its share in total imports in 2017 was 85 - 87%, and in January - May 2018 it grew to 100%.
"The introduction of cement clinkers into the list of goods banned to import into Ukraine from Russia is carried out as part of the policy of economic opposition to discriminatory actions against Ukraine by the aggressor state," said the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. It added the ban is expected to increase local production. Although a cement deficit is not expected, the ministry said that, if necessary, additional clinker could be imported from the European Union (EU).
According to the draft resolution, the ban on the import of Russian clinker will come into force 10 days after the publication of the document.
Tanzania: Charles Mwijage, the minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, has threatened to cancel the licences of so called cement ‘super-dealers’ if they fail to curb rising prices. Super-dealers are middlemen who acquire cement directly from the producers for sale to distributors, according to the Citizen newspaper. Mwijage made the comments on a tour of the Tanzania Portland Cement Company. He called on the management of the cement company to intervene in order to hold prices down for ends users. However, the cement company wants the government to take action itself against traders.
ARM Cement recovery threatened by loss of mining licences
28 August 2018Kenya: Any potential financial recovery of ARM Cement could be threatened by the loss of its mining licences. Local legislation lists insolvency as a condition that could trigger suspension or revocation of a mining licence, according to the Business Daily newspaper. The cement producer was placed into administration by UBA Bank in mid-August 2018, with PricewaterhouseCoopers staff appointed as administrators. PWC’s Muniu Thoithi said that the company was approaching the government on the issue.
India: Prism Johnson, formerly known as Prism Cement, has received a letter of intent from the state government of Madhya Pradesh allocating it a mining lease for limestone. The agreement lasts 50 years for a site at Bairiah and Chormari villages and it includes approximately 77Mt of reserves.
Zambia: ZCCM-Investment Holding, an investment company owned by the Zambian government, says that it will be the junior partner in a cement plant that it is planning to build in a joint venture with China Machinery Construction Group Limited (SinoConst). ZCCM will hold 35% of the joint venture, Central African Cement, and SinoConst will hold the remaining 65%. The US$680m project was announced in early 2018.
ZCCM also announced that its subsidiary, the Ndola Lime Company, was continuing to be in ‘distress.’ It said that its board was considering its options. The lime producer has reportedly suffered from liquidity problems and low production due to old equipment.
FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals India plans to set up white cement plant in Himachal Pradesh
07 August 2018India: FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals India Limited (FAGMIL) is preparing to build a 1000t/day white cement plant in Himachal Pradesh. The state-run company, under the control of the Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, has received a letter of intent from the state government of Himachal Pradesh granting it a mining lease to support building a white cement plant. This will be followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between FAGMIL and the state government.
The lease area is 108 hectares and it is located near Nohra Dhar Village, Tehsil Sangrah in the Sirmour District. Limestone from the site will be used to support a white cement plant. A pre-feasibility study has been completed by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials, Ballabgarh in Haryana and further planning activities are in progress.
Ethiopia falls short on cement export target
07 August 2018Ethiopia: Ethiopia has failed to meet its cement export target for the 2017 – 2018 financial year that ended on 7 July 2018. It planned to raise US$42m in revenue from cement exports, according to Cement and Related Industry Research Development Technology Director Simegn Degu, who was quoted by the Ethiopian Herald newspaper. However, its exports only rose by 47% year-on-year to US$25m from US$17m. Degu blamed the shortfall on shortages of input materials and a lack of foreign currency.