Displaying items by tag: Licence

Sweden: Cementa says it is preparing to ration deliveries of cement in December 2021 due to uncertainty about whether it can renew the mining licence at its integrated Slite plant in Gotland beyond the end of October 2021. The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement has warned customers that it is preparing to implement quotas of cement products from its two plants and five terminals on a week-by-week basis. The quotas will be based on what level of cement customers have ordered previously over the past 36 months. It will also take into account whether there have been significant volume changes during the period.

Cementa says it submitted its application for an emergency permit in late September 2021. It needs approval from the government by mid-November 2021 to avoid a potential cement shortage. However, any such approval may be subject to an appeal leading to further delays in mining.

Sri Lanka: The government has adjusted the monopoly situation at Trincomalee Harbour to allow multiple industries to freely make use of land at the port. The policy aims to further boost the development of Indian Ocean trade.

Tokyo Cement (Lanka) operates a 2.4Mt/yr grinding plant at Tincomalee Harbour, and is in the process of establishing a new 1Mt/yr integrated cement plant at the port’s China Bay dock.

Kazakhstan: Korcem, a joint venture of International Cement Korday and Nurzhan Shakirov, plans to invest US$150m in the upcoming 1.5Mt/yr Korday cement plant in Zhambyl region. The company has a mining licence for 11ha of land in Korday district. International Cement Korday, a subsidiary of Singapore-based International Cement Group, holds 88% of shares in the venture. The plant is scheduled for commissioning in mid-2023.

Chair Ma Zhaoyang said “With our accumulated capabilities and experience in the cement industry in Central Asia, as well as Nurzhan Shakirov’s extensive local expertise in Kazakhstan, we are confident that this joint venture will be another success.”

India: Orient Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Adani Power Maharashtra for the establishment of a grinding plant on land belonging to the latter. The power company will secure a licence to sublet its land to Orient Cement and for the producer to use railway sidings at the site. Orient Cement plans to begin work on the project before April 2022.

Pakistan: The government of Punjab has granted no-objection certificates (NOCs) for 22 new cement plants. Pakistan Press International News has reported that 10 plants are currently under construction in the state.

India: KT Rama Rao, the Industries and IT Minister, has lobbied the central government to help reopen the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant at Adilabad in Telangana. In a letter sent to Mahendra Nath Pandey, the Minister of Heavy Industries, Rao noted that several previous attempts had been made to reopen the unit, according to the Hindu newspaper. He added that the plant continues to hold a mining lease for 48Mt of limestone locally, has a dedicated electricity supply and has water resources. The 4Mt/yr integrated plant was originally built in 1984. Operations stopped in 1996 due to a lack of funds and the site was formerly closed in 2008.

Sweden: Cementa says that the decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court to reject its renewal application to continue mining limestone at its quarries in Gotland will create a ‘crisis’ for consumers in the autumn of 2021. The quarries supply its integrated Slite cement plant. The producer said that the ‘majority’ of Swedish cement production could cease in November 2021 following the expiry of the current licence in October 2021.

“We are seriously concerned but also surprised by the court's ruling today,” said Magnus Ohlsson, the chief executive officer of Cementa. “Limestone has been mined in Slite for over 100 years, which has built up a huge knowledge bank about how the business affects the surrounding environment. Our application is solid and clearly shows that it is possible to conduct a continued sustainable limestone mining in the area. We must go through the decision carefully and then set up the strategy for how we will handle the situation,” He added, “For Sweden, our customers and for us and our employees, it is important that political decision-makers and authorities quickly draw up new guidelines for how the supply of critical building materials such as cement and concrete should work.”

The subsidiary of Germany-based HeidebergCement originally received clearance in 2020 to renew its mining operations at the site until 2041. However, this was subsequently challenged. The current decision by the Supreme Land and Environmental Court was reached as they said they had insufficient evidence to assess the environmental impact of the application.

Spain: The Balearic Environmental Commission has set more stringent environmental requirements than previously in its authorisation of Cemex’s Lloseta plant’s licence to operate. The Diario de Mallorca newspaper has reported that the authority has followed standards set out by European Commission decisions. The requirements cover emissions, dust and hazardous waste volumes.

India: The state government of Telangana has renewed The India Cements’ mining licence for two sites in Guntur district until 2037. These are the Pondugula and Pulipadu mines, which supply the company’s Vishnupuram cement plant in Nalgonda district. The Times of India has reported that the producer first received its licence for the mines in 2000 and applied for the recent extension a decade later.

China: China Concrete has appealed against the Environmental Protection Department’s decision to reject its application to renew its licence to operate the cement storage facility at its Yau Tong concrete plant in Hong Kong. The concrete producer said that the rejection was both unfounded and unconventional. The Harbour Times newspaper has reported that the company alleged that state-owned local property developers Minmetals Limited, Qingjian Realty and Yuexiu Property pressured the authority.

Managing director Bono Tsang said, “As early as May last year, we expressed to the government our willingness to relocate the plant despite a huge investment cost, and we proactively proposed tentative locations. Our idea is to build a high-tech, pollution-free and environmentally friendly indoor concrete plant. It will become a model for similar plants around the world.”