Displaying items by tag: Pakistan

Pakistan: Kohat Cement Company Ltd. has ordered four vertical roller mills (VRM) from Germany’s Loesche in order to expand its cement plant in Kohat, 160km west of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

The order comprises a 4-roller raw material mill with a material throughput of 500t/hr and two cement mills each with a grinding capacity of 210t/hr of Portland cement. The order is finally complemented by another vertical roller mill for grinding 50t/hr of anthracite. They will all be used on the same cement production line, which Kohat Cement is in the process of building. The lead time for the mills will be eight months.

The plant’s production capacity is currently around 2.8Mt/yr of Portland and white cement. When the new line enters production, the plant’s capacity will rise by 2.2Mt/yr to reach 5.0Mt/yr.

Pakistan: Cement exports by sea from Pakistan increased by 133.7% from 144,000t in July 2017 to 340,000t in July 2018. The increase in exports via sea offset a decrease in overland exports to Afghanistan and India. Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan and India decreased by around 44.9% and 44.4% respectively in July 2018. Hence, overall exports increased by 9.3% in July 2018 to 0.53Mt from 0.48Mt in July 2017.

Pakisan: Fauji Cement has approved plans to set up a 12.5MW captive solar plant. The company operates a 3.4Mt/yr cement plant near to Attock in Punjab Province.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s profit has fallen as its cost of sales including coal, other fuels and packing materials have risen. Its standalone profit after tax fell by 10.9% year-on-year to US$98.3m in the financial year that ended on 30 June 2018 from US$110m in the same period in 2017. Its gross sales rose by 9.4% to US$543m from US$497m. Cement and clinker sales volumes rose by 9.3% to 7.82Mt from 7.15Mt with increases in both local and export sales.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement, part of Nishat Group, has announced the official opening of its recently commissioned Hub plant in Balochistan, Pakistan. The company claims that the 9000t/day (2.9Mt/yr) plant is ‘Asia's most modern’ and is constructed entirely from European equipment. FLSmidth was the main supplier of the pyroprocessing equipment, with Loesche supplying three complete grinding plants, Haver & Boecker supplying packaging solutions and IBAU Hamburg supplying silos and loading technology. The plant was built in just 30 months.

Global Cement visited the Hub project when it was under construction in the March 2018 issue.

Earlier this year South Africa’s PPC commented on the drought facing Cape Town. It said that cement manufacturing was not water intensive, that its operations were ‘totally’ self-sufficient from its own surface water sources with capacity for several months and that it was working with the local government which viewed construction as an important economic sector. Point made!

Water conservation is an established part of the sustainability toolkit for cement producers. Yet recent weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere may also test how well companies are doing. Above average temperatures have been recorded this summer, in some places accompanied by unusually dry conditions. A news story this week about Cemex Colombia being fined for using water from a river shows one aspect of the problems that can face industrial users. Another story that we’ve covered previously has been the legal action taken against producers using water from a site near to the Katas Raj Temples in Pakistan.

Wet process cement manufacturing uses more water than dry process but even modern plants use water for cooling equipment and exhaust gases, in emission control systems such as wet scrubbers. In addition, quarrying and aggregate production may require water, and concrete production also needs water. Issues also arise with quarry dewatering and discharging water into rivers and the like. Global Cement Directory 2018 data indicates that, where known, about 10% of integrated cement plants still use a wet production method.

Graph 1: Specific water consumption by selected cement producers in 2017. Source: Corporate sustainability reports.

As Graph 1 shows there is some variation between the major cement producers with regards to how much water they use. They all operate with different types of equipment and production methods in different geographical locations so the difference between the companies is to be expected. A cement plant in northern Europe that normally experiences high levels of rainfall will have a different approach to water conservation than one, say, in a water stressed area like the Middle East. Incidentally, the definition used to define a water-stressed or scarce area is one where there is less than 1000m³/yr per person. One other point to note here is that each of the companies has a higher consumption figure than the 100 – 200L/t that the Cement Manufacturers' Association of the Philippines (CeMAP) reckoned that an average dry-process cement plant used when it was promoting water conservation back in 2013.

Looking at specific recent success stories, India’s UltraTech Cement reported a specific water consumption of 54L/t of clinker at its Star Cement plant in Dubai, UAE in 2016 – 2017 following a dedicated initiative at the site. An another milestone that UltraTech Cement was keen to point out in its last sustainability report was that three of 13 integrated plants had achieved water sufficiency though the use of the company’s 360° Water Management Model with its use of rainwater harvesting and recharging groundwater. These plants are not dependent on any groundwater or fresh water sources. The other larger cement producers all have similar water management schemes with reduction targets in place.

Climate change models generally predict hotter and wetter weather but changing weather patterns and growing populations are likely to impact upon water management and consumption. Given the integral nature of water in the cement production process, many cement producers have realised the importance of it and treat it as an input material like fuel or limestone. Hence the highlighting of water conservation in company sustainability reports over the last decade. The test for the success of these initiatives will be how producers cope in drought situations where they may be seen as being in competition with domestic users. Thankfully in PPC’s case, Cape Town avoided having to ration water to the general public, as the rains returned in the spring.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has won the Environment Excellence Award at the 15th Annual Environment Excellence Awards 2018. It received the award in recognition to its commitment towards sustainable development and contribution towards protecting the overall environment for a ‘greener’ Pakistan, according to the PPI news agency. The award was presented by the National Forum for Environment and Health, a non-government organisation that aims to promote environmental, healthcare and educational awareness.

"Implementation of sustainability into our core business operations has always been one of our main objectives. We follow a comprehensive Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan. The management strongly believes in preserving the ecosystem through the management of gaseous emissions, particulate matter, noise levels, effluents (sewage) and solid waste," said Amin Ganny, Chief Operating Officer, Lucky Cement.

Pakistan: Maple Leaf Cement’s new production line at its Iskanderabad cement plant is expected to start production by mid-2019. It is building a new 7300t/day line at the site to increase its total production capacity to 18,000t/day. The cost is US$206m. Denmark’s FLSmidth is building the line. Approximately 66% of civil work has been completed and 14% of plant erection work was reported complete at the end of June 2018.

Pakistan: The Supreme Court has stopped cement producers near Katas Raj from using drinking water supplies. The order follows a ruling in May 2018 to stop the producers using water linked to a pond near to a Hindu heritage site, according to the Pakistan Today newspaper. However, the ruling was not followed. The senior judge presiding over the hearing said that local plants had been using water without paying for it.

Pakistan: Cement despatches rose by 15% year-on-year to 23.7Mt in the first half of 2018 from 20.5Mt in the same period in 2017. All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers' Association (APCMA) data showed that despatches in the north of the country rose by 13% to 17.5Mt and in the south they grew by 7% to 3.8Mt. However, despatches in the south fell by 13% year-on-year to 4.2Mt in June 2018.