Displaying items by tag: Italcementi

France/Germany: KORFEZ ENG has signed a contract with Italcementi for the supply of a new second compartment mill shell lining for one of its cement plants in France. The system is intended for a 3.8m diameter two-compartment raw mill. A total grinding compartment of 7250mm will be equipped with a combination of lifter and sorting liners. The design work will be carried out in the technical sales office in Neubeckum, North Rhine-Westphalia. Operation is expected to start in the summer of 2015.

KORFEZ ENG has also received an order from a building materials group in Germany for a dip tube cast lining system for its pre-heater, cyclone stage 2. The dip tubes will be executed as a locked hanging segment system tailor-fit to the existing dip tube. KORFEZ ENG determined the optimum material alloy for the application, which is being used for the first time. Manufacturing will be completed in about two months and delivery is planned for April 2015.

Italy: Italcementi generated consolidated revenues of Euro4.16bn in 2014, down by 1.8% year-on-year at current exchange rates and down by 0.7% annually at constant exchange rates. In 2014, cement sales grew in all geographical areas, except from west-central Europe, where they fell by 0.7%. In the fourth quarter of 2014, Italcementi registered a 2.7% rise in cement sales, mainly due to growth in North America, Asia, Spain and Greece. As a result, revenues rose by 2.3% to Euro1.04bn in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Italy: Italcementi and Italian brake systems maker Brembo have joined forces in a project to produce cement-based brake pads with low ecological impact. The research is funded by the 'Life' programme of the European Union and is being conducted by Brembo, Italcementi and the Mario Negri Institute, which for many years has been committed to biomedical research and the impact of pollutants on the environment and health.

The 'Cobra' project was launched at the end of 2014. Some 41 researchers with varying skills and experience will work within the project in the next four years. The novel brake pad production technology will be based on an innovative hydraulic binder composition instead of phenolic resins, at comparable braking performance. State-of-the-art brake pads are constituted by thermosetting phenolic resins, which are suitable for friction and relatively high contact temperature applications. Moreover, reinforcing and filling constituents, about 90% in mass, are incorporated into the polymeric matrix.

The raw materials involved in the hydraulic binder production will allow less energy consumption (75 - 83MJ/kg phenolic resin compared to 3 - 9.4MJ/kg cement) and water consumption (94 - 282L/kg phenolic resin compared to 1.7 - 5.1L/kg cement). In addition, the technology will avoid the emission of aerosols and secondary ultrafine particulate, PM_0.1 in particular, generated by traditional phenolic-resin-made pads during braking.

Egypt: Titan Cement has ordered a vertical roller mill of the type MPS 2800 BK from Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, to be set up in production line no. 1 at its Beni Suef plant. The mill is designed for a finished product rate of 40t/hr and will grind coal with a Hardgrove grindability index of 45 to a product fineness of 12% residue 90µm, while simultaneously drying it from a maximum 12% feed moisture to a maximum 1% residual moisture by using hot gases from the cement process.

A couple of news stories this week from Myanmar present an opportunity to look at the country. Lafarge has opened a cement repacking plant in the Thilawa special economic zone (SEZ). Upcountry meanwhile, Anhui Conch has had a joint venture approved by the government for an upgrade to an existing cement plant in Kyaukse.

Towards the end of 2013 the government announced that 13 companies were to establish joint ventures with the local state-owned cement plants. In addition the Myanmar Investment Commission had approved the construction of nine new cement plants with an aim of a target cement production capacity of 10.53Mt/yr. Following this, Siam Cement Group's on-going investment in a 1.8Mt/yr plant is due for completion in 2016. Semen Indonesia have been pushing for a joint venture since mid-2014 although it was still trying to agree terms in September 2014, according to local media. Italcementi's chief executive Carlo Pesenti also expressed his company's interest in setting up a joint venture in early 2014.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) investment bank CIMB placed cement demand in Myanmar at 4Mt in 2012 and a local cement production capacity of 3Mt/yr. Cement consumption was placed at 76kg/capita for the country's population of 52.8 million. In contrast, Thai cement engineering supplier LV Technology reported demand of 6Mt in 2012. CIMB recorded Myanmar's capacity utilisation rate at 60%. Cement sales were broken down as 95% by bag and 5% by bulk.

This kind of supply-demand gap excites foreign investors. Neighbouring Thailand has a consumption of 515kg/capita, Myanmar imports cement from Thailand, Indonesia and India and the country's GDP growth rate is currently estimated to be around 8%.

Yet what's notable about Myanmar's industry are the high number of small, low production capacity cement plants. Many of them are wet process plants. Only one plant is reported as being capable of producing over 0.5Mt/yr with the Siam Cement plant project due to significantly bust this record when it is commissioned in 2016. Limited limestone deposits in the country may also make plants larger than 1.5Mt/yr unviable. Fuel is also an issue, with LV Technology advocating a wholesale industry conversion from state-subsidised gas to coal due to power shortages and impending competition issues.

In 2015 Myanmar is set to enact free trade tariffs from its ASEAN membership. Without protection or preparation, its cement plants could face serious consequences from cheaper imports from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. The move by the government to encourage joint ventures with foreign partners looks like one way to mitigate this. In a market report in 2013 CIMB described the situation for investors as 'high-growth, high-barrier.' This seems to be an apt description given the experiences of Semen Indonesia.

Italy: Italcementi has reported that in the third quarter of 2014 its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to Euro469m, down from Euro472m in the third quarter of 2013. Revenues fell by 3% year-on-year to Euro3.12bn. Italcementi confirmed that it still expects to report a higher recurring EBITDA for the full year.

Italy: Officers from Italy's market regulator Consob and the tax police visited the headquarters of Italcementi on 5 November 2014 as part of an investigation into alleged insider trading, sources close to the matter said, according to Reuters.

According to local media, the inspections, which were also carried out at the offices of Italcementi's main shareholder Italmobiliare, concerned a series of measures taken by the Italcementi group in March 2013 in a bid it made for its French unit Ciments Francais.

A spokesman for Italcementi said that the group hoped that the Consob inspections would not reveal deliberate intention to do wrong. "In the opposite case, the group's management will take firm initiatives to safeguard the interests of the company, which would be the injured party."

Italy: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi officially switched on the new kiln at the Italcementi cement plant in Rezzato on 5 November 2013. The 1Mt/yr plant has undergone an extensive production and environmental upgrade that cost Euro150m.

"The new Rezzato plant is the best expression of the Group's strategy: industrial development combined with a firm commitment to innovation and environmental performance," said Italcementi CEO Carlo Pesenti.

He added that the Rezzato upgrade was part of the Pact for the Environment signed by Italcementi and the Ministry in July 2009, which set out an investment programme for the renewal of our industrial network and attainment of ambitious environmental targets. Other targets include Italgen, the Italcementi Group company that produces energy entirely from renewable sources. The Italcementi investment plan has also seen a technical upgrade at the Matera cement plant.

Products manufactured in Rezzato include white cement and the basic material for a new biodynamic cement to be used to construct the external structure of Palazzo Italia at Expo 2015. The Rezzato production facility currently employs 118 people and provides work for an additional 160 people in ancillary industries.

Spain: Matteo Rozzanigo has been appointed as CEO of FYM, Italcementi's Spanish subsidiary. He is tasked with positioning the company in a cement market that is expected to stabilise and recover slowly after a prolonged crisis period. Rozzanigo replaces Mario Domenico Bracci, who held the post for the past three years and will now assume responsibilities for Ciments Maroc.

Rozzanigo holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy and has been with Italcementi for 11 years. In the past five years, he was employed as Italcementi's director for the Near East, effectively managing the operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Bulgaria: Italcementi has launched its upgraded cement plant in Bulgaria, which is operated by its subsidiary, Devnya Cement. The upgrades will allow Italcementi to meet domestic demand and export demand from Eastern Europe.

"The new plant will enable us to respond to demand from the domestic market and from the neighbouring areas in Eastern Europe," said Italcementi Group chief executive officer Carlo Pesenti in a statement.

The revamp of the cement plant, located near the port of Varna in eastern Bulgaria, began in April 2012 and invovled an overall investment of more than Euro160m. Once the current test and commissioning stage has been completed on all the systems, the cement plant will be fully operational in early 2015. The new facility can produce around 4000t/day of clinker and about 1.5Mt/yr of cement.

The completion of the project will allow the group to consolidate its operations in Bulgaria, where it also runs the Vulkan grinding center in Dimitrovgrad, and boost its export capacity thanks to its proximity to the port of Varna West, which gives access to all the countries on the Black Sea and on the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Italcementi Group entered the Bulgarian market in 1998 with the acquisition of Devnya Cement, followed in 1999 by the acquisition of Vulkan Cement. In 2013, the Group reported revenue of Euro59m in Bulgaria.