Displaying items by tag: Japan

Japan: Ube Group’s sales of cement have fallen by 7.2% year-on-year to US$1.05bn in the first half of its 2016 financial year that ended on 30 September 2016 from US$1.13bn in the same period in 2015. Its operating income fell by 24.5% to US$69.8m from US$93.8m. The company blamed this on sluggish demand for cement domestically and low market prices for exports despite buoyant volumes. Overall the group reported that its total new sales fell by 13.1% to US$2.69bn from US$3.09bn.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has revised down its forecast for its net sales by 2.3% for its financial year that ends on 31 March 2017. It now expects to make net sales of US$7.67bn from US$7.85bn as originally estimated in May 2016 due to falling cement sales volumes.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has been selected for the second consecutive year as a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia/Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific) in 2016. The cement producer was also selected for the DJSI Asia Pacific in 2015. This index is the Asia Pacific version of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and serves as one of the key benchmarks for socially responsible investment.

The DJSI are investment indices developed and offered cooperatively by the US-based S&P Dow Jones Indices and Switzerland-based RobecoSAM, which evaluate the sustainability of companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. The DJSI Asia Pacific has selected the top 146 regional sustainability leaders, including 68 Japanese companies out of about 600 leading companies, from developed markets in the Asia Pacific region.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement’s revenue has fallen by 16% year-on-year to US$1.73bn in its first fiscal quarter which ended on 30 June 2016, from US$2.07bn in the same period of 2015. Its net profit more than doubled to US$151m from US$64.7m.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to build a 75MW biomass plant at its Ofunato cement plant in Iwate prefecture. The new unit will burn both domestic and imported biomass fuel. The new power plant will replace units damaged at the site during the earthquake in 2011. As such Iwate prefecture has decided there would be no requirement for a new environmental assessment.

Sri Lanka: Tokyo Cement has resumed importing clinker from Japan. The clinker will be used to make the producer’s NIPPON-PRO branded cement.

"We at Tokyo Cement having identified the demand for a high performance cement tied up with a leading Japanese manufacturer to import clinker with high specifications," said Dashantha Udawatte, Group Marketing Manager at Tokyo Cement.

Tokyo Cement operates a 2.4Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Trincomalee.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement's operating profit rose by 14% year-on-year to US$83m in the April – September 2015 period, according to Reuters. Its sales rose by 3.7% to US$937m and its net profit rose by 84.8% to US$62.4m.

We report on development from Japan this week with the creation of a low-alkali cement for use at nuclear waste sites. Professor Katsuyoshi Kondo, Joining and Welding Research Institute at Osaka University, and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Cement Co have prepared a process that mixes silica dioxide extracted from rice chaff with cement.

As press reports explain, the team has developed technology to extract highly purified silica with numerous holes measuring 5 – 7nm in diameter by washing rice chaff with organic acid and burning it. The surface area of the silica extracted from rice chaff is 50,000 - 90,000 times larger than that contained in existing cements, enhancing the reaction between silica and calcium hydroxide and thus lowering the alkaline level.

The stated application for this new research is for underground nuclear waste disposal sites. At these locations extremely high durability is required for long periods of time, potentially for tens of thousands of years.

Normally the concern with alkali-silica reactivity is between alkali in the cement and a sensitive aggregate over a shorter time period. Under high moisture and high alkali content the resulting concrete can crack leading to reduced-performance. However, the issue with nuclear waste storage is that it has to be stored underground and for long periods of time. This means that the cement can potentially react with groundwater producing calcium hydroxide making the groundwater alkaline. This can then react with aggregates in the clay and bedrock at the storage site. Clearly this is undesirable for a long-term storage site of hazardous materials.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, this kind of development will be of high interest in Japan. It will also have applications around the world wherever radioactive waste sites are built.

One example of the demanding construction conditions facing builders in these environments is the original sarcophagus used to encase the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor in 1986. Building it used more than 7,000t of steel and 410,000m³ of concrete. Erected in a hurry under horrendous conditions, the container was never sealed properly and the structure was only given a design lifespan of 20 to 30 years. Currently a replacement, New Safe Confinement, is being built at a projected cost of Euro2bn for completion in 2017. The structure will be up to 100m tall and 165m long with a lifetime of at least 100 years.

One of the issues raised in the documentary film 'Into Eternity' is what exactly should one daub on the entrance to a long-term waste dump? Given that the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository in Finland is planning to stay sealed for 100,000 years, how should its planners communicate to people, who potentially rediscover it in the future, that they should stay away? One suggestion quoted here is to put Edvard Munch's The Scream on the door. However, we have difficulty today in reading and interpreting Ancient Egyptian writing and art from 5000 years ago. What this means for any of our descendants unlucky enough to stumble upon a buried nuclear waste site is anyone's guess. At the very least though using a low-alkali cement that will last as long as possible is a good start.

Japan: Osaka University and a cement company in Hokkaido have co-developed a low-alkaline cement that uses rice chaff to strengthen the durability of final nuclear waste disposal sites, according to Kyodo News.

The cement is essential for the construction of final nuclear waste disposal facilities that need a durability of up to 100,000 years to prevent harm from radioactive materials. In such repositories, nuclear waste is solidified with glass and placed in metallic containers before being covered with clay and buried underground. If normal cements are used underground, they react with groundwater to produce calcium hydroxide, making the groundwater highly alkaline. This causes cracks and deterioration in the clay and bedrock at the facility.

To lower the alkaline levels in cement, professor at Osaka University's Joining and Welding Research Institute, Katsuyoshi Kondo, and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Cement Co mixed silica dioxide extracted from rice chaff with cement. The silica reacts with calcium hydroxide and weakens alkaline.

The team has developed technology to extract highly purified silica with numerous holes measuring 5 – 7nm in diameter by washing rice chaff with organic acid and burning it. The surface area of the silica extracted from rice chaff is 50,000 - 90,000 times larger than that contained in existing cements, enhancing the reaction between silica and calcium hydroxide and thus lowering the alkaline level.

Japan is looking for a place to build a final repository for the highly-radioactive nuclear waste generated from power plants. In Finland, a disposal site for high-level radioactive waste is already under construction. "We aim to utilise the low-alkaline cement at facilities abroad after repeated tests to verify its performance," said a Nippon Steel & Sumikin Cement official.

Japan: In the April - June 2015 period, Sumitomo Osaka Cement's operating profit rose by 26.8% year-on-year to US$35.5m. Its sales rose by 6% to US$455m, according to Reuters.