Displaying items by tag: Infrastructure

Bhutan: Dungsam Cement has reduced its loss in 2018 by increasing its production volumes. It reported a loss of US$0.43m in 2018 from US$10.3m in 2017, according to the Bhutan Broadcasting Service. Its cement production volume more than tripled to 0.63Mt in 2018 from 0.2Mt in 2014.

The plant at Nganglam has commissioned in 2014 and it has reportedly been making a loss since then due to a loan. The cement producer has suffered from a low production capacity utilisation rate, as the plant has a production capacity of 1.3Mt/yr and it has had problems exporting cement to India. However, sales to hydroelectric projects in the country have been increasing.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement’s sales rose by 5% year-on-year to US$8.36bn in the year to 31 March 2019 from US$7.95bn in the same period in 2018. Its net income grew by 12.8% to US$397m from US$352m. The group’s cement sales volumes rose by 3.5% to 15.4Mt. However, its exports fell by 18% to 3.5Mt. It noted that infrastructure projects for high-speed railway and the Tokyo Olympics had driven local demand for cement.

Germany: Dyckerhoff is supplying 12,000t of CEM III/A 32.5 N-LH cement to Frankfurt Airport for the production of underwater concrete. The airport is building a new terminal and the construction pit for the floor slab is deeper than the groundwater level, hence the floor slab must be concreted underwater.

The construction pit has a size of almost 66,000m² with excavation carried out in dry conditions to a depth of 5.5m to the groundwater table. Then a further 8 -11m was excavated in wet conditions using industrial divers. The excavation pit has been prepared in sections and then concreted by the divers resulting in short sections. The quantities of cement to be delivered by Dyckerhoff also fluctuate considerably, with sometimes 20 silo trucks/day leaving the Dyckerhoff plant in Wiesbaden. Deliveries started in March 2019.

Around 40,000m³ of concrete has been produced by Sehring Beton, using a mobile mixing plant directly on site. The construction work is being carried out by the Arge Ingenieurbau Baugrube T3, which consists of the two companies Adam Hörnig Bau and Bickhardt Bau.

Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia has resumed supplying cement to the East Coast Rail Link project. The cement producer has been asked to continue supplying the project until the end of 2019, according to the Star newspaper. The US$65m contract was originally agreed in March 2018 but then suspended in July 2018 when the government reviewed the project.

Bangladesh: Sayem Sobhan Anvir, the managing director of Bashundhara Group, has signed a cement supply agreement with Tao Jun, the project manager of the Padma Bridge Rail Link for China Railway Group. Bashundhara Group will supply over 0.7Mt of cement for the project, according to Daily Sun newspaper. The US$3bn train line will run for 225km between Dhaka and Jessore.

Uganda: Hima Cement, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, is a building materials partner for the on-going 600MW Karuma Hydropower project on the River Nile. The plant is being built by China’s SinoHydro Corporation at an estimated cost of around US$1.7bn. The project was started in 2013 and it is scheduled to be completed in December 2019.

Hima Cement has been one of two cement suppliers assisting it. It has provided a fine cement that maintains its early strength while requiring a lower water content. Over 114,000t of Powermax CEM II A-P 42.5N have been supplied to the project, chosen for its low heat requirements for hydration and its pozzolanic content which results in long-term durability. Delivery of this product has required a dedicated fleet of 60 bulk cement trucks when cement demand for the project was at its peak.

Indonesia: Indocement is aiming for 4% growth in sales year-on-year to around US$1.12bn in 2019 due to sluggish cement consumption. This compares to 5% growth in revenue in 2018. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement expects demand to increase in the second half of 2019 following elections, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper. It predicts that cement consumption will be driven by government infrastructure projects and the construction of residential projects and buildings. It plans to spend up to US$70m towards setting up a quarry in West Java and completing new cement terminals.

The cement producer is also preparing to increase its thermal substitution rate with alternative fuels like refuse-derived fuel (RDF). This follows a 50% rise in production costs due to coal in 2018. In September 2018 to agreed to buy 500t of RDF from the West Java government.

UK: Aggregate Industries, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has obtained PAS 2080 verification, a new Carbon Management in Infrastructure specification. PAS 2080 is the world’s first specification for managing whole-life carbon in infrastructure. Developed by the Construction Leadership Council’s Green Construction Board with the British Standards Institute (BSI), it provides a framework and guidance for measuring and managing carbon across the whole value chain.

“We can help designers at Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) stage to design lower carbon solutions. Our management systems (ISO 14001 and 50001) ensure consistent and reliable data collection, allowing our Carbon Managers to report embodied CO₂ to other members of the value chain. Baseline data made available to the value chain allows carbon targets to be set at design phase and for performance to be monitored against these targets during project delivery. This will result in infrastructure with lower embodied carbon,” said Paul McCaffrey, Sustainable Products Manager at Aggregate Industries.

UK: Aggregate Industries, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has achieved recommendation for ISO 44001 certification for Collaborative Business Relationship Management Systems, awarded by the British Standards Institute. The certification was awarded company-wide to Aggregate Industries for demonstrating relationship management across a variety of projects, which include a multitude of internal business areas and external partners.

“I am incredibly proud of achieving this certification. ISO 44001 is quickly becoming a prerequisite for highways, infrastructure and major projects which specify requirements for the effective identification, development and management of collaborative business relationships,” said Paddy Murphy, Managing Director of Contracting at Aggregate Industries.

Poland: Lafarge Poland delivered over 0.2Mm³ of ready-mix concrete (RMX) in 2018 for use in various infrastructure initiatives including road expansion projects. In 2019 the company plans to produce 0.32Mm² of concrete surfacing for a motorway extension. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim set up its LH Engineering business in 2017 to help implement infrastructure projects. It offers engineering services and the delivery of building materials, including RMX, aggregates and other products.