Displaying items by tag: Iraq

Iran: As of 1 September 2014, each Iranian cement company can export 15,000t/yr cement into Iraq from the Shalamcheh, Chazzabeh and Mehran border terminals, according to Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi, the head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce. He noted that the new regulations have been adopted by Iraq's Trade Ministry.

Iran exports 8 – 10Mt/yr of cement to Iraq, supplying almost half of Iraq's total cement consumption. Iraq consumes 19Mt/yr of cement. Iran exported over 8Mt of cement to Iraq between 21 March 2014 and 21 August 2014.

Iran currently exports cement to 24 countries, including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Georgia, Oman, India and China. Iran has successfully started to use railroads to export cement to neighbouring and Central Asian countries. The main importers of Iranian cement are Iraq (63%), Azerbaijan (4%) and Turkmenistan (7%).

Iran: Iran stopped exporting cement to Tajikistan in June 2014 and its cement exports to Iraq are 'ambiguous', according to Ebrahim Gholamzadeh, managing director of Iran's Lamerd Cement Company. Gholamzadeh, who had his comments reported by Iranian media, added that no official has followed up the issue and that there is no organized management in exports of cement to Iraq.

Iran exported around 18Mt/yr of cement in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on 20 March 2014. In the past Iranian year, Iran exported cement to 24 countries, including Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Oman, India and China.

Iraq: Lafarge Iraq has launched a new version of Karasta, its multipurpose cement. In order to meet customer expectations and needs the formula of Karasta was revised to iprove its workability, decrease cracking and improve setting time and adhesion properties.

Karasta's new formula meets the Iraq specification 3868 and the international standards EN 197-1:2011 CEM II/A-L 42.5 R, which is similar to Lafarge products in other countries. Karasta is produced at Lafarge's Bazian and Tasluja plants located near Slemani, Kurdistan Region. It has launched in Erbil and is being sold initially in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Iraq: BASF has entered into a joint venture with Lafarge to set up a new plant for the production and marketing of construction chemicals in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan. BASF said that the new production site would mainly produce concrete admixtures and cement additives and that the products would be offered to the local market.

For BASF, the joint venture offers the opportunity to further tap into Iraq's growth market with a partner that is already well-established in the region. "This initiative clearly represents BASF's interest and commitment to the Middle East," said Dick Purchase, the head of BASF Construction Chemicals division in the Middle East, West Asia, CIS and Africa. "With this joint venture we are fulfilling our Master Builders Solutions promise of connectedness by being closer to our clients, providing our innovative and sustainable solutions and creating new job opportunities in the region," he added. Under the Master Builders Solutions brand, BASF bundles its advanced chemical solutions for new construction, maintenance, repair and renovation of structures.

Germany: Gebr. Pfeiffer has announced new orders for mills in Turkey, Iraq and Malaysia.

In Turkey, Bilim Makina has ordered four mills for a cement plant in Elazig. The order covers an MPS 250 BK roller mill with a drive power of 500kW for coal grinding and two safety shut-off dampers. The mill is designed to yield 35t/hr of petroleum coke, with the material being ground to a fineness of 3.5% R90 µm. A MPS 5000 B mill will be used for cement raw material grinding. The mill featuring a drive power of 3800kW will be capable of producing 470t/h of cement raw material ground to a fineness of 12% R 90µm. Two MPS 5000 BC vertical roller mills will be used for cement grinding. Each of the mills features a drive power of 4400kW and will grind 200t/h of Ordinary Portland Cement with a specific surface of 3400cm²/g acc to blaine. All four mills are scheduled to be delivered in the spring of 2015.

In Iraq, Sinoma Suzhou Construction, acting as general contractor, has ordered two MVR 6000 C-6 cement mills. The two MVR cement mills will come equipped with a conventional drive with an installed power of 6000kW. They will grind various cement qualities to the required fineness degrees between 3600 - 5500cm²/g depending on the product type, achieving capacities of 132 - 210t/hr. The cement mills are scheduled to be delivered at the end of 2014.

In Malaysia, Sinoma subsidiary Tianjin Cement Industry Design & Research Institute (TCDRI) has ordered one MPS 2800 BK coal mill for YTL Cement. Featuring an installed power of 700kW, the coal mill will be grinding 35t/hr of a sub-bituminous coal with a total moisture content of 25% to a product fineness of ≤10% R 90µm. The delivery of the mill is scheduled for the end of 2014.

Iraq: Lucky Cement has started production at a cement grinding plant in Basra, southern Iraq. The US$40m plant is a joint venture between Pakistan-based Lucky Cement and the Al-Shawy family. It has a production capacity of 3000t/day or 0.8Mt/yr. The plant is intended to supply cement for the southern Iraq market.

In comments reported by Mena Report Lucky Cement CEO Muhammad Ali Tabba said that the completed grinding plant is the first phase of development at the site. Lucky Cement may continue development at the plant investing US$125m to build an integrated cement production line with a capacity of 1.25Mt/yr.

Tabba added that Lucky Cement is also working on building a US$240m plant in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has a 50-50 agreement with the Rawji Group, a local company, to start production via a company called Nyumba Ya Akiba. When operational, the plant in DRC will produce 1.2Mt/yr of cement.

Iraq/Iran: Iraq has banned imports of Iranian white cement from the Iranian border towns of Shalamcheh and Chazabeh, according to Sadeq Sava'edi, the deputy head of Khuzestan's Cement Exporters Union. Iraq is still importing grey cement and other construction materials.

"Iran exports 8000t/day and 6000t/day respetively of construction materials from the Chazabeh and Shalamcheh borders areas to Iraq," said Savaedi to the ISNA news agency.

Previously Iraq banned imports of cement of Iran completely in June 2013 but trade resumed shortly afterwards. In January 2013 the Iran - Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Secretary General Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi said that the value of trade between the two countries was about US$10.7bn/yr. He added that Iraq is Iran's main trading partner for non-oil goods.

Iraq: ASEC Cement and Iraq's Qemmet El-Iraq have won a 14-year contract to renovate and manage the Muthanna Cement Plant in Muthanna Province, Iraq.

Abulla Hussein of Qemmet El-Iraq and ASEC Cement Chairman and CEO Giorgio Bodo attended a signing ceremony in Baghdad with Southern Cement, the state holding company that controls Muthanna Cement, on 28 August 2013. The value of the contract was not released.

"Iraq has embarked on a robust plan to rebuild and modernise its infrastructure and has launched major housing, industrial, and community projects. The rehabilitation of Muthanna is an important part of Iraq's investment in bridging the supply gap, particularly in the south," said Bodo.

Muthanna Cement is located in southern Iraq, between Najaf and Basra. Built in the 1980s, the plant has a total clinker production capacity of 1.92Mt/yr and 2Mt/yr of cement. Due to economic sanctions placed on Iraq in the 1990s, the company's current production capacity is around 20%. Work on the plant will start in the second quarter of 2014 with a plan to reach the plant's original cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr in August 2016.

Iraq: Sinoma (Suzhou) Construction has placed an order for an MPS 5000 B vertical roller mill for cement raw material grinding from Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE. The grinding plant will be located near Sulaymaniya in northern Iraq and is the fifth MPS 5000 B in a row which will be installed there.

The vertical roller mill sold is designed for a capacity of 500t/hr at a product fineness of 10% R 80 µm and will come equipped with a 4000kW gear unit.

In addition to the supply of the core components for the grinding plant, the order includes engineering services to enable the local manufacture of mill components and the supervision of manufacture at Chinese workshops.

Iraq/Iran: Following a similar move by Turkmenistan, Iraq will stop importing Iranian cements from 1 July 2013, according to Sadeq Sava'edi, the deputy head of Khuzestan's Cement Exporters Union in Iran. Iran currently exports 20,000-30,000t/day of cement to Iraq.

Sava'edi said that the move aims to boost Iraq's domestic cement production, according to the ISNA News Agency quoted. He further said that political and security issues were also influential in the decision.

The news from Iraq, which is Iran's largest destination for cement exports, came as Mohammad Fatemian, an official with the Iranian Industry, Mine, and Trade Ministry said that Iran plans to export 18.5Mt of cement in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on 20 March 2014. Iran's cement and clinker exports stood at 16.5Mt for the year to 20 March 2013, exporting 11.85Mt of cement and 1.79Mt of clinker.

Iran produced over 70Mt of cement in the past Iranian calendar year, according to cement industry officials. Capacity is expected to reach 110Mt/yr by 2015.

Iran exported cement to 24 countries including Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Oman, India and China in the past Iranian year.