Displaying items by tag: Iraq

Iraq: Al Shumookh Lucky Investments, a subsidiary of Pakistan’s Lucky Cement, has ordered a power pant from Finland’s Wärtsilä for its Najmat Al-Samawa cement plant. The equipment is scheduled for delivery towards the end of 2019, and the plant is expected to become fully operational during the third quarter of 2020. No price for the order has been disclosed.

The power plant will operate on two Wärtsilä 32 engines running on locally-available heavy fuel oil (HFO) with diesel as a back-up fuel. The engine is designed to operate with reduced fuel and water consumption in hot climates.

Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has commissioned its new grinding plant in Basra. Civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on the unit was finished in January 2019.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) is preparing to export clinker, grey cement and white cement. Following the completion of its 5000t/day Plant 5, the company is considering targeting countries like Yemen and Iraq, according to the Qatar Tribune. The cement producer has a production capacity of 16,000t/day. In 2018 it produced 2.9Mt of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Sulphate Resistant Portland Cement (SRC). It also intends to add new cement products to its portfolio in 2019.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16.5% year-on-year to US$51.3m in the six months to 31 December 2018 from US$63.7m in the same period in 2017. The cement producer said that its cost of sales rose by 14.2% due to mounting packaging, coal and other fuel prices. Its revenue grew by 6.2% to US$250m from US$235m. It attributed this to higher export volumes of cement and clinker. Its local sales of cement and clinker fell by 8.4% to 2.99Mt from 3.27Mt. Exports more than doubled to 1.02Mt from 0.5Mt. Accordingly, overall sales volumes increased by 6.8% to 4.01Mt from 3.76Mt.

The company reported that levelling work at its Samawah 1.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant project in Iraq started in January 2019. Civil work is scheduled to start in March 2019 and commercial production at the unit planned to start in mid-2020.

Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has completed civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on its grinding plant at Basra. The unit is now ready for commissioning. The company is currently obtaining permission to import clinker. Once granted the company will start importing clinker and commence trial production at the plant. The producer first announced its intention to build the plant in 2013.

Iraq: Germany’s MAN Energy has commissioned six MAN 18V32/40 generator sets for Kairat Al Abar Iraqi’s new cement plant in Samawa. The engines will supply 54MW of electrical energy for the plant. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Iran: Abdul Reza Sheikhan, the secretary of the Cement Industry Association, has warned that an increase to maritime shipping rates is further restricting exports in conjunction with US-backed trade sanctions. He said that the country has a production capacity of 87.5Mt/yr, that 48Mt is consumed domestically and that less than 15% is exported, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. He also identified ‘negative’ competition between cement producers over exports has damaged the industry. To counter this, export teams in the east, west and south of the country have been formed.

The country exports cement to 17 countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, Bangladesh and countries in Africa. It is the sixth largest exporter in the world.

Iraq: China’s Sinoma International Engineering has signed a contract to build a 6000t/day clinker production line for Iraqi Cement near Samawah in the Al Muthanna Governorate. The deal has a value of US$246m. The contract includes the entire production process from quarry to finished packaging of cement products. Once the contract is finalised and the customer’s credit secured then the project is expected to take 37 months to be completed.

Iran: Cement exports grew by 4.6% year-on-year to 3.6Mt in the first quarter of the local financial year to 21 June 2018. It exported cement to 27 countries to including Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, according to the Trend News Agency. The country produced 54.7Mt in the previous reporting year, a decline of 1.5% year-on-year. The local cement industry has faced problems, including a recession in the construction sector, poor gas supplies and obstacles to its export markets.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 21.6% year-on-year to US$114m in the nine month of its financial year to the end of March 2018 from US$145m in the same period in 2016. It noted that its cost of sales rose by 16.9% due to rising coal and other fuel prices. Its gross revenue rose by 7.1% to US$439m from US$410m. Cement production rose by 11.1% to 5.79Mt from 5.2Mt.

The cement producer added that it is expanding production at its Pezu plant by 2.6Mt/yr due to delays with its expansion plans elsewhere in the north of the country. Approvals from the government have been secured. The US$152m upgrade project is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2019. It is also building a US$109m integrated cement plant at Samawah in Iraq. The joint-venture project with a local partner will have a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr when operational. Commercial production is currently scheduled for end of 2019.