Displaying items by tag: Lehigh

US: An on-going mechanical failure is to shut down the Lehigh Cement Redding plant in California for an estimated 14 weeks. The problem with a gearbox has reportedly been occurring since January 2016 and has persisted despite equipment replacements. The cement producer is currently waiting for further replacement parts, according to the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper.

39 workers will also be laid off at the plant. Lehigh previously laid off 40 employees workers at the plant in 2009 due to a fall in construction activity in the market.

US: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final order settling charges, following a public comment period, that the proposed US$4.2bn merger of German cement producer HeidelbergCement and Italian producer Italcementi would likely be anticompetitive. Under the order, first announced in June 2016, the companies are required to divest to an FTC-approved buyer an Essroc cement plant and quarry in Martinsburg, West Virginia; seven Essroc terminals in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; and a Lehigh terminal in Solvay, New York. At the buyer’s option, the order also requires the merged company to divest two additional Essroc terminals in Ohio.

US: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is working with Lehigh Cement to investigate a potential source of hexavalent chromium (chromium six) emissions from a cement terminal in Portland. The environmental agency suspects that cement dust may be a contributing source of chromium six that it has monitored since March 2016 in southeast Portland. The DEQ is working with the cement company to improve its dust-capturing efforts when unloading cement from railcars.

“We're concerned about the persistence of elevated levels of chromium,” said Pete Shepherd, interim DEQ director. “We are making every effort to bring those levels down.” The DEQ has also required a nearby glass manufacturer to clean its exhaust stacks to tackle the problem.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave HeidelbergCement permission to complete its acquisition of Italcementi assets in the US on 17 June 2016. This was the second and final major competition body that could have challenged the purchase, following approval by the European Commission in late May 2016. Although the FTC consent now faces a month for comment the deal is looking likely to complete towards the end of the summer.

HeidelbergCement and Italcementi have gotten away with having to sell just one cement plant and 11 terminals in the US. The Lafarge-Holcim merger in 2015 had it tougher. Those companies were forced to sell two cement plants, two slag grinding plant and a host of terminals. Admittedly LafargeHolcim is now the biggest cement producer in the US (and the world) but HeidelbergCement will hold more integrated cement plants in the US following its acquisition.

As predicted the FTC took exception with the proximity of the company’s assets in West Virginia and Pennsylvania following the acquisition. So the parties have agreed to sell the Essroc Martinsburg integrated cement plant in West Virginia. When Global Cement visited the plant in late 2013 the staff told us that cement from the plant was distributed from central Ohio eastwards to western Pennsylvania and south to southern Virginia. The plant also switched over to a FLSmidth dry production line in 2010 giving it a clinker production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr, making it one of the newer plants in the Essroc stable.

The FTC also flagged up competition concerns in five metropolitan areas: Baltimore-Washington, DC; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virginia; Syracuse, New York; and Indianapolis, Indiana. In light of this the proposed consent agreement requires the merged company to divest seven Essroc terminals in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania and a Lehigh terminal in Solvay, New York. Two additional Essroc terminals in Columbus and Middlebranch, Ohio are to be sold at the option of the buyer and subject to FTC approval. Finally, Essroc’s terminal in Indianapolis is to be sold to Cemex.

Funnily enough, the FTC took about a year to approve both the merger of Lafarge and Holcim and HeidelbergCement’s purchase of Italcementi. This compares to the European Commission which took nine months to approve the Lafarge-Holcim deal but which took 11 months to clear the HeidelbergCement-Italcementi one. Given the greater overlap of assets of the Lafarge-Holcim merger in both Europe and the US one might have thought that the approval process would have taken longer. Or maybe bureaucracy moves at a speed all of its own. Read into this what you will. The creation of the world’s second largest multinational cement producer draws closer.

US: FCT Combustion has announced new orders in the US. The Graymont lime plant in Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania has ordered two low NO_x Gyro-Therm MKII burning systems for coal, natural gas and solid alternative fuels firing. The Lehigh Cement plant in Redding, California has ordered a Turbujet burner for coal, petcoke, natural gas and solid wastes firing. No value for either order was released.

Canada: A fire broke out at a coal silo at the Lehigh Cement plant in Edmonton on 10 May 2016. Four fire fighters were sent to hospital to investigate potential carbon monoxide inhalation, according to Postmedia Breaking News. An investigation is now underway to discover the cause.

Lehigh Hanson health and safety director Gerry Sanderson said that the plant wasn't shut down or evacuated. He added that the fire had been contained and that damage to the facility appeared to be minimal.

US: Lehigh Cement Company, part of Heidelbergcement Group, has ordered a semi-mobile limestone crushing plant from Hazemag for its Union Bridge cement plant.

The plant will process up to 2500t/hour of limestone with a feed size of up to 2000mm. The material is discharged by means of a Hazemag apron feeder HAF 25160 from a 400t feed hopper. The fines in the feed material are screened at 100mm on a Hazemag roller screen HRS 2638.

The HAZEMAG primary impact crusher HPI 2230 crushes the material down to D99 < 125mm. The impact crusher is fitted with hydraulically adjustable impact aprons and grinding path that both retract in a controlled manner under excessive load. The system of the retractable grinding path is patented. The impact crusher HPI 2230 is also fitted with the automatic gap width control HAZtronic.

US: Residents close to Lehigh Cement's Union Bridge cement plant that had been concerned over proposed changes to the mining provisions of the county code have largely had their worries addressed by Lehigh Cement Co., which is looking to expand its quarry in the town and transport limestone via a conveyor belt to its plant in Union Bridge.

Concerns about what time of the day Lehigh would be allowed to store excavated materials and how far away reclamation piles would be from property lines and public roads initially had residents worried about the impacts of the changes sought by Lehigh, a cement manufacturer that employs many residents in the area.

However, after discussions with residents about the proposed changes, residents confirmed that Lehigh had addressed most of their issues.

"They listened, we listened and the relationship at this point in time is pretty decent," said Brian Mobley, chairman of the New Windsor Community Action Project, which was initially concerned about the changes proposed by Lehigh to the mining provisions. Residents had feared that noise and lights late at night could be a nuisance to those who live near the quarry.

US: Lehigh Northeast Cement has been fined US$50,000 by the state of New York for pollution violations relating to historic cement manufacturing at the company's plant in Cementon, also known as Smith's Landing in the state of New York. The site is currently a cement grinding plant.

In assessing the fine, the Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC) agreed to suspend US$10,000 from the total if Lehigh submits clean up and repair plans in the summer of 2013. In 2008, Lehigh was fined US$50,000 for similar problems with cement waste leaking through groundwater into the river from two other sites nearby. The company did not meet all clean-up goals set at that time.

Under a settlement with DEC signed on 8 April 2013 by DEC Regional Director Gene Kelly, Lehigh agreed to submit plans to clean up the sites and halt future leaks. The company also agreed to start using 'low-mercury' water treatment chemicals in its wastewater treatment system and also to begin checking its wastewater for acidity and lead levels.

In return, the company will have additional time to reach river pollution limits set in a DEC pollution permit issued in June 2011. Lehigh had initially contested those limits, but agreed under the settlement to drop its objections.

Lehigh said that historically some of the leaky sites had been capped, while others had not been using 'then-approved or accepted procedures.' The company added that it was working 'to contain and treat the leachate, under guidance and approval from DEC,' including installation of collection basins, and a pump-and-treat system to lower acidity of water before it reaches the river.

US: The Carroll County Board of Commissioners has unanimously approved plans by Lehigh Cement Co. that will allow it to build an underground conveyor system from the company's New Windsor quarry to the plant in Union Bridge, Maryland.

The conveyor transportation systems are now allowed to be built in both the county's industrial zoning districts and the agricultural district. Conveyor systems will be prohibited in residential districts and in all other zoning types they will be listed as a conditional use, which means they would have to be approved by the county board of zoning appeals. Lehigh Cement has said that a conveyor system is the favoured method for transporting limestone from its quarry to the plant in Union Bridge, about 6km away, compared to other options like using rail or trucks.

Once completed the conveyer will carry about 12,000t/day of stone from the quarry to the plant. Lehigh needs to get material from the new quarry after its quarry in Union Bridge ends production in 2020. Lehigh says the conveyor will be 3m to 20m underground.