Displaying items by tag: Loesche

The old joke about buses only coming along in pairs might just apply to Angolan cement plants this week with the inauguration of Nova Cimangola’s new 2.4Mt/yr cement plant in Luanda. It follows the announcement of the start of an upgrade project to build a clinker kiln at Cimenfort’s grinding plant in Benguela. In cement industry terms for a country with a production capacity below 10Mt/yr these projects are right on top of each other!

Nova Cimangola’s new plant has been a well-publicised project internationally. Sinoma International Engineering coordinated the line for US$400m in 21 months using components from well-known suppliers. Loesche provided a number of raw material, cement and coal mills for the project, including the country’s first vertical roller mill, as well as other components and parts. Loesche’s Austrian subsidiary A Tec also got involved as an EPCM (Engineering, Procurement & Construction Management) partner.

Cimenfort’s clinker kiln project is the third phase of a process to turn its grinding plant at Catumbela in Benguela into a fully integrated unit since it opened in 2012. Earlier phases saw the grinding plant’s capacity increase to 1.4Mt/yr from 0.7Mt/yr by using a new roller press. Work on the kiln is now scheduled to start in January 2018 with completion scheduled for 2020.

If Cimenfort makes it to clinker production they will join the country’s three main producers: Nova Cimangola, Fabrica de Cimento do Kwanza Sul (FCKS) and the China International Fund. Getting that far is by no means certain as the Palanca Cement plant project demonstrates. That scheme was backed by Brazil’s Camargo Corrêa, the owners of InterCement, and local business group Gema. However, the regulators bailed out Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo, the financial backer of the project, in 2014 effectively killing it. Another project that has gone on the back burner is Portugal’s Secil’s plan to build a second plant next to its grinding plant in Lobito. Originally approved by the Angolan government in 2007 the project has been kicked around since then through various revisions to the local investment body. It was last reported as being under consideration by the president’s office of Angola in 2016.

Ministry of Industry figures place cement production capacity at 8.3Mt/yr compared to a consumption of 6Mt/yr. In contrast to this Secil’s parent company Semapa reported that the Angolan cement market contracted in 2016 by 25% to 3.9Mt in line with the poor state of the general economy, pushed down by poor oil prices. It blamed the decrease in cement consumption on a halt in public infrastructure spending and the negative effect that local currency devaluations had on clinker imports and other incoming raw materials. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasting economic growth to pick up for Angola in 2017, improvements in the construction and cement sector are expected by Semapa but they hadn’t been seen so far during the first quarter of the year.

The government’s keenness to describe its cement industry as ‘self-sufficient in cement’ mimics calls from other African countries like Nigeria. The Angolan government banned cement imports in 2015, with the exception of certain border provinces, and this has continued into 2017. However, the ban hasn’t stopped the country exporting cement to its neighbours. Earlier this year the head of Cimenterie de Lukala in the Democratic Republic of Congo blamed the closure of his company’s integrated plant on imports from Angola.

All of this leaves an enlarged local cement industry waiting for the good times to come again. In the meantime, exporting cement and clinker no doubt seems like a promising proposition. In the middle of this are projects like those from Cimenfort and Secil that are looking decidedly dicey in the current economic environment. These companies may have just missed the bus to make their upgrades happen. Still, if they wait around long enough, their chance may come again when the market revives.

Vietnam: Bim Son Cement has ordered a vertical roller mill to grind clinker and slag from Loesche for its 4Mt/yr plant in Thanh Hóa province. The new mill will have a throughput of 250t/hr and be able to grind input materials into Ordinary Portland Cement PCB 40. The order also includes a silo, blower, filter and a packing plant. The new mill is scheduled for commissioning in August 2017. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The subsidiary of Vietnam National Cement Corporation (VICEM) previously commissioned a mill from Loesche in 2000. This was followed by a raw mill and a coal mill in 2006.

Philippines: Eagle Cement has ordered a coal mill from Loesche for its Barangay cement plant in San Ildefonso. The vertical roller mill is intended for the third line at the plant and it is designed for grinding 54t/hr of mixed coal or 34t/hr of pet coke. The grist is ground to a fineness of 12% (coal) or 3% (pet coke) sieving residue with 90µm. The scope of supply also includes an LSKS-classifier and corresponding filters, blowers, an inertisation unit, the gas analysis and the main drives. All components are scheduled to be delivered before the end of 2017.

Egypt: Germany’s Loesche GmbH has been contracted to supply 18 new vertical roller mills to China’s Sinoma CDI, which is building a six line cement plant at Beni Suef on behalf of the Egyptian Ministry of Defence. Each line will have a capacity of 6000t/day (12.6Mt/yr), making the plant one of the largest in the world.

Six raw mills, each with a capacity of 500t/hr, will grind cement raw material to a fineness of 12% R 90μm, six powerful cement mills, each with a throughput of 350t/hr will grind clinker to a fineness of 3200 Blaine and six Loesche coal mills will grind coal to a fineness of 10% R 90μm.

It is anticipated that the mills will be delivered within 2017, putting high demands on the delivery time of the mill components. Thanks to their long-standing experiences from a variety of fast-track-projects Loesche was able to carry conviction to the Ministry of Defence and assure the expected quick market entry with an elaborated plan of delivery.

Bangladesh: Aman Group has opened its second cement grinding plant at its Narayanganj complex, located 20km south of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. The new plant has a production capacity of 10,000t/day (~3.5Mt/yr), which, along with its first grinding plant, comfortably makes Aman the largest cement producer in the country. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed inaugurated the plant at the International Convention Centre Bashundhara in Dhaka on 23 May 2017.

Germany’s Loesche GmbH supplied the LM 56.3+3 CS type mill, which can grind Portland or composite cement to a fineness of 3200 Blaine. It can also grind granulated blast furnace slag at 175t/hr to a fineness of 4500 Blaine. In addition to the mill, the scope of supply also included additional technical equipment for the grinding plant such as a rotary feeder, 2-way chute, metal detector and permanent magnet drum separator.

Germany: Loesche has merged its activities in the combustion systems and drying systems sector into a central location at their main centre under the name Loesche Thermal Applications. Alongside the established hot gas generators, the business incorporates combustion systems for solid, liquid and gaseous fuels as well as complete drying systems for a wide variety of industrial applications, including the cement industry.

By uniting the core competencies in the thermal applications sector, the Loesche group seeks to strengthen its market position. Pooling marketing, project management, purchasing, processing technology and proactive development together with an individual burner test facility at the in-house test centre are also intended to raise efficiency. The business reorganisation will also see the merger of Loesche with A Tec Greco Combustion Systems Europe, a subsidiary that is currently based in Austria.

Pakistan: Loesche has released details on its order to supply three grinding plants for DG Khan Cement for a new 9000t/day clinker production line at Hub in Balochistan. The contract, which was originally signed in September 2015, includes one 654t/hr raw meal, one 445t/hr Ordinary Portland Cement mill with a COPE drive and a 66t/hr coal mill. Loesche says that the raw mill with a nominal capacity of 1050t/hr will be the biggest raw material mill in the world. Loesche is responsible for the full mechanical equipment and together with Loesche Automation for the electrical engineering package along with all hardware supply from steel structure to electrical equipment and automation.

Algeria: Biskria Ciment has ordered five vertical rollers mills from Loesche. The contract includes two raw cement mills and three clinker mills for the plant at Biskra. With these mills raw cement meal can be ground to a fineness of 12% sieving residue with 90μm at a processing capacity of 500t/hr and the cement clinker to a fineness of 3,400 Blaine. The three new cement clinker mills have already been delivered and commissioning is planned for autumn 2017. The Chinese company CBMI Construction will act as contractor in this enterprise. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Myanmar: South Korea’s Yojin Construction & Engineering has placed an order for two cement mills from Loesche for installation in Myanmar. The order for a cement and slag mill is Loesche’s first in the country. The mills will be used at a grinding plant owned by Yojin Myanmar Engineering in Thilawa. They will each produce 75t/hr of cement with a fineness of 3300 Blaine. Operation is scheduled for mid-2017. Yojin is building its new grinding plant in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone south-east of Yangon. The site has an ambition to produce 1Mt/yr of cement.

Bangladesh: Loesche Shanghai has signed a contract with China National Heavy Machinery Corporation to supply two sets of 35MW thermal power hot gas generator systems to the Bangladesh market. It will also provide installation and technical services. No information on the price of the contract or the end user has been disclosed. Loesche’s Shanghai subsidiary has previously supplied a 32MW automated control hot gas generator system to the Yadong Cement plant.