Displaying items by tag: Iraq

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.

Iraq: Mondi has announced that it recently started full production at its new industrial bags plant in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq. Together with its local partner Kaso Group this greenfield project is set to strengthen Mondi's industrial bags business in the expanding Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The plant is the first industrial bags plant in Iraq and will serve the growing cement industry that is rebuilding the country.

"We are proud to announce the opening of our new greenfield plant in Sulaymaniah," said Issa Azar, regional manager (MENA) Mondi Industrial Bags.

"Iraq is now one of the Middle East's growing countries and the construction industry is helping to rebuild the rebuild the nation", explained Abdel Hafez Abki, managing director of Mondi Kaso Iraq. "The new plant further strengthens Mondi as a reliable industrial bags partner in the region."

As Omar Ismail, managing director of Mass Iraq Company for industrial investment illustrates, "We are pleased with the startup of Mondi's bags factory in Iraq and are looking forward to further constructive cooperation between both companies."

Rozhgar Barzan, procurement and sourcing manager at United Cement Company (Lafarge Iraq), said, "Having Mondi's industrial bags plant close to our cement factories strengthens our long-term business relationship and is important for good logistics and supply management."

Chinese and Iranian companies have released information on two new projects in Iraq. Chinese cement equipment provider Sinoma has signed a contract with the Faruk Investment Group to build a cement clinker production line and the Islamic Republic News Agency has reported Iran's intention to build a 2Mt/yr plant.

Sinoma's project seems targeted at the domestic market. It is based at Sulaymaniyah, at one of Faruk Group's two plants that it runs with Lafarge near the northern Kurdish city. Lafarge also runs a third plant in Kerbala that announced the arrangement of a US$70m loan for renovations in January 2013. Lafarge holds a cement production capacity of 6.5Mt/yr, 20% of Iraq's total installed capacity of 32.5Mt/yr. Although, following years of neglect installed capacity and actual cement produced can vary significantly. Faruk Group's decision to choose Sinoma marks a move away from the German firm ThyssenKruppPolysius whom they have used previously. The new line will be Sinoma's seventh in Iraq through its Nanjing subsidiary.

Meanwhile, the Iranian project carries more international motives because the clinker for the plant will come exclusively from Iran. The build is based in the southern Muthanna province and is being overseen by the Iranian Azar-Abadegan Khoy cement plant. As reported in late January 2013, clinker stocks rose in Iran due to a decline in cement demand in the country. Iraq is one of the countries Iran has been able to export cement to during the 2012 – 2013 Persian year. In this context expanding into Iraq makes a lot of sense to combat potential Iranian overcapacity.

In addition all the products made at this plant will carry Iranian branding. Given that this plant is in southern Iraq relatively near to the Saudi border this will complicate any plans to sell stock across the border. As we report this week in Global Cement Weekly, Saudi cement producers have been asked to build reserves of cement to manage the shortage better.

Both projects reveal some of the issues facing Iraq's cement industry, specifically Iraq's redevelopment and the pressures it faces lying between massive demand for cement in Saudi Arabia and overcapacity in Iran. After years of low capacity utilisation rates, Iraq is predicted to hit a production capacity of 22Mt/yr by the end of 2014 with demand expected to reach 35Mt/yr.

For more information on the Iraqi cement industry read Global Cement Magazine's article.

Iraq: Iran plants to build a 2Mt/yr cement plant in Iraq, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The project will cost around US$245m with an opening date set for 2015. Cement produced at the plant will be exported using Iranian brand names.

Iraq: Sinoma International Engineering's Nanjing subsidiary has signed an EPC contract with Iraq-based Faruk Investment Group to build a 5300t/day cement clinker production line. The project is the seventh cement production line to be built in Iraq by Sinoma's Nanjing subsidiary.

Iraq: International Finance Coporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a US$70m loan to help renovate a cement factory in Iraq.

The financing will allow Kerbala Cement Manufacturing (KCML), a subsidiary of Lafarge, to rehabilitate a state-owned plant near the city of Kerbala. KCML will undertake the work under a concession agreement with the government of Iraq. The financing is expected to aid Iraq's construction sector.

"This financing will help address the cement shortage that Iraq is facing and help the country meet supply gaps in its infrastructure," said Guy Ellena, IFC Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services in Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

KCML is a joint venture between Lafarge and MerchantBridge, a London-based private equity group. The financing is being supplemented by a US$20m loan from Proparco, a development financial institution funded by the French Development Agency and private shareholders.

Iraq: Sinoma (Suzhou) Construction Co has placed an order for an MPS 5000 B vertical roller mill for raw material grinding from Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer. The grinding plant will be set in GRD Cement Plant Company Tainall's 5000t/day cement plant located near the town of Sulaimaniah in northern Iraq. The MPS vertical roller mill on order is designed for a capacity of 450t/hour at a product fineness of 12 % R 90µm.