Displaying items by tag: Iraq

Iraq: Sinoma International Engineering, China's largest provider of cement engineering services, has secured a US$351.5m engineering procurement contract to build a 1000MW solar power plant in Iraq for Mass Renewable Energy Production, part of the Mass Group which also operates a 6Mt/yr cement plant in Bazian, Iraq.

The turnkey contract, to be built in Al-Kut, will take 21 months to build, leading to completion by the third quarter of 2026.

Iraq: Eggersmann Anlagenbau has expanded its refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production facility in Sulaymaniyah, operated by Ecocem Environmental Solution, part of the Faruk Investment Group. The expansion includes a new Eggersmann TEUTON ZS 55 single shaft shredder and four additional lanes for biological drying using the CONVAERO system. This system is integral to the Eggersmann RDF process, which converts municipal solid ‘waste’ into high calorific value RDF used by the regional cement producers Gasin Cement Company and Bazian Cement Company. The facility, which has a capacity of 1100t/day of RDF, will see an increase with the expansion. The Eggersmann FUEL process utilises biowaste in RDF production, improving both the quantity and quality of the fuel through biological drying in the CONVAERO system, relying on the natural warmth of the composting process. This method reduces methane emissions at landfill sites by integrating biomass into the fuel, according to the company.

Business development manager at Eggersmann, Eugen Becker, said "A particularly high quality substitute fuel is being produced with the Eggersmann FUEL process in Sulaymaniyah, whose net calorific value can be precisely tailored to the customer’s needs over the adjusting of the drying period. This quality makes a noticeable economic difference."

Iraq: Lafarge Iraq has appointed Farah Qahttan as Country Customer Service Manager. She has worked for the subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim since 2013 in a range of positions, becoming the company’s Country Packaging Manager in 2022. Qahttan is a graduate in chemical engineering from the University of Baghdad.

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq. Beginning on the night of 2 - 3 August 2014, ISIS displaced the entire Yazidi population from its homeland, amid a campaign of abductions and killings that claimed 12,000 victims.¹ A striking detail of this and other crimes of the self-proclaimed caliphate is the proximity of a Western corporate actor: cement producer Lafarge, whose subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria operated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in neighbouring northern Syria. On-going investigations have since helped uncover what may amount to complicity on the part of Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria in the form of payments dating back to August 2013.²

In a week that began with the abandoned Jalabiyeh cement plant ablaze following a drone strike,³ Lafarge learned that it will face trial in France over its alleged complicity in crimes against humanity committed by ISIS.⁴ On 16 January 2024, the French Court of Cassation upheld Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syrias' indictments on the charge. Also reportedly indicted are (all former) Lafarge CEOs Bruno Lafont and Eric Olsen, vice president Christian Herrault and security director Jean-Claude Veillard and Lafarge Cement Syria CEOs Bruno Pescheux and Frédéric Jolibois, along with an intermediary and a Jordan-based risk management consultant.^{5, 6} The collaboration in question includes monthly payments to ISIS and other armed groups worth US$15.5m, a lower French court found in May 2022. It may be more than another 20 months before the thorny mass of issues to be considered by the court resolves itself in convictions, or cleared names.

Another front in Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria's legal battle over what happened in Syria is the US civil court system. Activist and survivor Nadia Murad and 426 other Yazidis have filed an Anti-Terrorism Act claim for damages, based on the companies' previous guilty plea to the US Department of Justice to conspiracy to the tune of US$5.92m in October 2022. Murad and fellow claimants allege ‘far higher’ total payments, pointing to correspondence between Lafarge Cement Syria and its intermediary that references ‘[sic] ten millions that we pay directly to them, i.e. to ISIS.’ The DoJ estimates the total value of the conspiracy for all parties at US$80.5m.

On 6 August 2014 (the fourth day of the Yazidi genocide), Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria signalled their agreement to enter into a new long-term agreement to share their revenues with ISIS. On 15 August 2014, the UN Security Council issued Resolution 2170 condemning 'any engagement in direct or indirect trade' with the organisation.⁷ Lafarge and Lafarge Cement Syria allegedly concluded the revenue-sharing agreement, under new terms more beneficial to ISIS, on that same day.

Lafarge Cement Syria finally evacuated the Jalabiyeh cement plant in September 2014, whereupon ISIS added it to its own five-plant international cement network, with sales worth US$583m/yr. The US-led Coalition bombed the site in October 2019 and it was subsequently occupied by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forces. The strike on 14 January 2024 was part of a drone campaign by Turkish forces against Kurdish positions that the invaders say destroyed 23 targets.

It is conceivable that Turkish armed forces also had personal reasons for destroying this monument to Lafarge’s former presence in the region: on Lafarge’s stipulation, ISIS implemented a duty on Turkish cement entering its area of control, ostensibly charged at US$150/truck. As anyone familiar with the Turkish cement sector knows, one of the major investors in the industry happens to be the country’s military pension fund.

For the 400,000 Yazidis who have survived, the tragedy that began in August 2014 will not end soon. More than half remain in refugee camps. Among the missing are 2000 girls and women who the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism suspect ISIS may have 'further entrenched in human trafficking,' constituing a continuation of the genocide that has outlasted both the self-proclaimed caliphate and the French multinational that may have helped to bankroll it.⁸ Courts in different countries are helping bring to light a reign of terror that spanned international borders. In the US, some of its victims may find redress, while in France, justice may be closing in on anyone who might prove to have made common cause with the perpetrators.

References

1. RASHID, 'DESTROYING THE SOUL OF THE YAZIDIS,' Augut 2019, https://www.rashid-international.org/downloads/RASHID_Yazidi_Heritage_Destruction_Report_2019.pdf

2. Jenner & Block, 'IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK,' 14 December 2013, www.jenner.com/a/web/fy85Wd97fANx7fwBecn31r/23-9186-as-filed-complaint2.pdf

3. ANHA, 'Turkish occupation army targets former Lafarge site,' 14 January 2024, https://hawarnews.com/en/turkish-occupation-army-targets-former-lafarge-site?__cf_chl_tk=mSB3Ph6iU.3FEJ.Z3ywRvcu2n.tOahhpLnd.Fmqk0SU-1705415232-0-gaNycGzNDHs

4. Reuters, 'Lafarge can be charged with 'complicity in crimes against humanity' over Syria plant, French court says,' 16 January 2024, https://ca.news.yahoo.com/lafarge-charged-complicity-crimes-against-132904436.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANqF5SKpSZ7KB5rT5rjo_vFZ5LGdZ9bVkC5SeNw3iZGneLy5Tir2dsb1O3GQjITBRSF_xEs2GDBcSU94nKOocm-npnTznmbfhKB_FgOsBCg-9lO7ilPP2phHAcGahghG9yjmFoWVd24uU7xEwZ2RZqmmMaE2bSIIcTGRuh4LAlXD

5. Madeline Young, Lafarge's Case Cemented, 2021, https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=eilr-recent-developments

6. Le Télégramme, 'Complicité de crimes contre l’humanité : les poursuites contre Lafarge validées par la Cour de cassation?' 16 January 2023, www.letelegramme.fr/france/complicite-de-crimes-contre-lhumanite-les-poursuites-contre-lafarge-validees-par-la-cour-de-cassation-6505590.php

7. UN Security Council, 'Security Council Adopts Resolution 2170 (2014) Condemning Gross, Widespread Abuse of Human Rights by Extremist Groups in Iraq, Syria,' 15 August 2014, https://press.un.org/en/2014/sc11520.doc.htm#:~:text=Through%20the%20unanimous%20adoption%20of,as%20ISIS)%20and%20Al%2DNusra

8. Al-Dayel et al, ‘ISIS and Their Use of Slavery,’ 27 January 2020, https://www.icct.nl/publication/isis-and-their-use-slavery

France/Middle East: The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, has upheld Lafarge’s indictment on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity, Reuters has reported. A lower court previously concluded that the company had paid US$15.5m to armed groups in the Middle East, including ISIS, via its subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria. In its latest ruling, the Court of Cassation quashed another charge of endangering the lives of employees, on grounds that Lafarge’s foreign labour relations are not subject to French law. The group had reportedly not appealed a further charge of financing a terrorist enterprise.

Read the latest on Lafarge’s on-going trials in this week’s Global Cement analysis.

Iraq: Al-Riyadh Investment Companies Group subsidiary Al-Douh Iraqi Company for Cement Industries plans to expand its Al Douh cement plant’s capacity by 58% to 3Mt/yr. The expansion is part of an upgrade involving the installation of a new kiln, a gas-fired captive power plant and a new waste heat recovery (WHR) plant. The WHR plant will provide 30% of the plant’s energy. The US-based International Finance Corporation (IFC) has loaned Al-Douh Iraqi Company for Cement Industries US$130m on a long-term basis for the project.

The IFC says that it expects the Al Douh cement plant expansion to help boost economic diversification, spur sustainable growth in Iraq and generate 2700 new jobs in Muthanna Governorate.

Eastern Province Cement said this week that it had awarded a new production line project to Sinoma CDI. The subsidiary of China-based CNBM Group and Sinoma International Engineering has picked up the contract to build a 10,000t/day plant from design to installation at the cement producer’s Al Khursaniyah plant. Word on project finance is to follow later and the contract should be signed by the end of March 2024. The cement company last mentioned the project to the Saudi Exchange back in March 2023, when it suggested that it was focusing on upgrading existing lines at its Al Khursaniyah plant rather than building a brand new clinker plant at Najibiyah. The plans for the latter project date back to 2015. Eastern Province Cement holds limestone extraction licences in both locations.

It is worth noting that the last couple of new conventional production line projects announced in Saudi Arabia have been picked up by Sinoma International Engineering and related companies. Sinoma International Engineering won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build Southern Province Cement's upcoming Jizan cement plant in May 2023. This followed the awarding of a new 10,000t/day line by Yamama Cement, also to Sinoma International Engineering, in November 2022. However, Germany-based IBAU Hamburg was confirmed by Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies (HGCT) in September 2023 as being the company that would build a ‘clinker-free’ cement plant in Saudi Arabia in 2024. This will be a copy of HGCT’s H2 plant in France, which uses a combination of activated clay, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and gypsum to manufacture its products. HGCT has signed a deal with Shurfah Group to build several Hoffman plants under a 22-year exclusive licensing agreement.

Arguably though, despite all these new plant news stories, the bigger issue so far this year was Saudi Aramco's decision to raise its feedstock and fuel prices from the start of 2024. Several Saudi cement producers released warnings in response that production costs would rise and earnings would fall. Al Jouf Cement, Arabian Cement, Qassim Cement, Saudi Cement, Yamama Cement and Yanbu Cement each made statements to shareholders on the issue, saying that they were working out the impact, would announce what this might be when known and that it was likely to make a difference from the first quarter results onwards.

The timing of Aramco's price hike is poor given that after a tough year, with falling sales for some producers, demand was expected to pick up somewhat. Aljazira Capital, for example, in a cement sector report released in late December 2023, forecast a 3% year-on-year increase in cement sales volumes in 2024 following an estimated fall of 8% in 2023. Its reasoning was that the domestic housing construction market had declined in 2023, leading to high levels of competition in the central region of the country caused by high levels of company inventory. Looking ahead, the competition was expected to ease as more projects were generated outside the central region and demand from the country’s various large-scale infrastructure plans took off. We will have to wait for Aljazira Capital’s next report to find out how they think the market will cope with higher fuel costs, but it seems likely that business may remain tougher than expected for the cement producers in the short term at least.

Finally, one more story to consider is that Al Jouf Cement signed a deal with Rabou’ Al-Taybeh Company this week to export cement and clinker to Jordan. The initial period covers six months with the option for renewal. Up until 2022, at least, clinker exports from Saudi Arabia were growing most years since the export rules were relaxed in 2017. With a difficult market reported domestically in 2023, the appetite to focus on exports may be growing and this could be a sign of that. Another example this week of Saudi-based cement companies looking outside the domestic market could be detected when Northern Region Cement said it had sold a 49% stake in its Iraq business to Al-Diyar Al-Iraqia for Investments Company. The cement company said that the new strategic partnership would help it to further expand its investments in the promising market. It will use the proceeds of the deal to repay loans and for ‘external investments.’ It valued the transaction at just under US$44m. For more on what Northern Region Cement and others have been up to in Iraq, see Global Cement Weekly’s analysis from November 2023.

The steady stream of new clinker production lines suggests confidence in the cement sector in Saudi Arabia in the medium to long term. It is also fascinating to witness a secondary cementitious material plant like the one HGCT is planning on the way too. Unfortunately though, the recent fuel price rise looks like it might ruin the party in the short term for those hoping for better things in 2024.

The 26th Arab International Cement & Building Materials Conference and Exhibition takes place in Cairo on 15 - 17 January 2024. Visit Global Cement at stand N3

Iraq: Al-Diyar Al-Iraqia for Investments Company and Northern Region Cement have concluded a deal under which the former will acquire a 49% stake in the cement producer’s business in Iraq. Argaam News has reported the value of the deal as US$44m. Northern Region Cement said that the new strategic partnership would help it to further expand its investments in the promising market. It will use the proceeds of the deal to repay loans and for ‘external investments.’

Northern Region Cement plans to build a US$139m, 1.32Mt/yr integrated cement plant at an unspecified location in Iraq.

Iraq: A 1200m dry gas pipeline feeding the Najaf cement plant has been commissioned. The project was the first external assignment carried out by the Oil Pipelines Company, according to the National Iraqi News Agency. The plant is operated by the Southern Cement Company.

US/Iraq: Victims of ISIS brought a new claim for compensation against Lafarge on 14 December 2023 for its alleged complicity in crimes committed by the terrorist group in Iraq. A group of US citizens who belong to the Yazidi minority has sued the company, now part of Switzerland-based Holcim, in a US court. ISIS conducted a genocide against the Yazidi people in Sinjar, Iraq, beginning on 3 August 2014. The genocide involved 2100 – 4400 killings and 4200 – 10,800 abductions of girls and women, and displaced 500,000 people.

On 18 October 2023, Lafarge and Lafarge Syria pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and its ally al-Nusra Front by paying them approximately US$5.92m to continue operating during the Syrian Civil War.

Barrister Amal Clooney, representing the claimants in the latest case, said “It is shocking that a leading global corporation worked hand in hand with ISIS while ISIS was executing American civilians and committing genocide against Yazidis. We hope that this case will send a clear message that supporting terrorists cannot be ‘business as usual’ and that there will be justice for the victims.”