Displaying items by tag: Mothball

US: The mayor of Dixon, Illinois says that he is 'optimistic' that the mothballed St. Marys cement plant in the city will reopen. Mayor Jim Burke told local press that representatives from St. Marys Cement approached him in mid-2014 to discuss the possibility of restarting operations at the plant. The mayor says that the city government is working with the company to see if there are incentives 'to make it all work.'

The plant has been idle since December 2008. When it closed about 90 people lost their jobs. At the same time the Environment Protection Agency fined the company and a co-owner for violations of the Clean Air Act. St. Marys Cement is owned by Brazilian-based cement producer Votorantim.

Kazakhstan: Yug Cement Stroi LLP has emerged as a new investor to help finish the previously mothballed 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl Region. The company, acting as a strategic partner, has borrowed US$29m for seven years from Bank RBK to finance the completion of the plant's construction. It is intended that the plant will reach full cement production capacity in the autumn of 2014.

The Khantau cement plant has a design capacity of 0.36Mt/yr of clinker and 0.5Mt/yr of Portland cement with grades M400 and M500. The Hengyuan International Engineering Group has supplied technology for the plant. Its raw materials are extracted from the Khantau limestone deposit, Khantau sand and gravel deposit and the Ulkensai clay deposit located near the plant.

In 2007, ACIG borrowed US$30m from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for the construction of this cement plant. At the time the plant was 85% complete and mothballed due to the shortage of funds. In 2013, the project was transferred from the Development Bank to the Investment Fund of Kazakhstan.

US: Lafarge US has announced that it has laid off 36 workers at its plant at Joppa, Illinois, representing about one-third of the plant's total workforce. The layoffs, which took place Thursday 15 March 2012, were cited as the result of the closure of one of the two kilns at the plant, which has a total installed capacity of 1.25Mt/yr.

The kiln has been mothballed due to consistent low cement demand, with Lafarge saying that local sales have fallen by 44% in recent years.

Bulgaria: Bulgarian cement maker Vulkan Cement has announced that it will temporarily shut down its kilns from the beginning of 2012 due to flagging demand and imports from neighbouring countries that are flooding the market. The move has been prompted by a continuous drop observed in the cement market during the last three years.

Vulkan Cement also cited Bulgaria's obligations as an EU member state stemming from CO₂ emissions regulations and from REACH, the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use, as key factors that directly affect cement production costs. It said that the temporary work stoppage would allow the company to cope with the economic downturn and properly secure its chances of a solid recovery.

The Vulkan Cement plant will continue operating as a grinding centre during the shutdown of its kilns and will receive clinker from its sister plant, Devnya Cement.