Displaying items by tag: Pakistan

Pakistan: The number of fatalities from an explosion at the Rohri Cement Plant in mid-September 2017 has risen to seven, following the death of journalist Lal Bux Kandhro. Four people died in the initial blast whilst defusing explosives, according to the Dawn newspaper. Seven other people were severely injured in the incident, of which three have subsequently died including Kandhro.

Pakistan: Cherat Cement has contracted Finland’s Wärtsilä to increase its power output at its Nowshera plant. It has ordered three Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both natural gas and heavy fuel oil (HFO). The total electrical output will be approximately 29MW. Wärtsilä will also provide advisors to oversee the installation and commissioning of the engines.

“We need to enlarge our facilities and this we must to do quickly on a tight schedule. Wärtsilä has supported this timetable by agreeing to deliver their generating sets on a very short timetable…” said Azam Faruque, chief executive officer of Cherat Cement. The Nowshera cement plant is also powered by Wärtsilä equipment, consisting of four Wärtsilä 32 engines.

The new generators are scheduled for delivery in March 2018 and the plant is expected to be fully operational by June 2018.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement’s profit after taxation has fallen by 6.3% year-on-year to US$74.5m in the financial year that ended on 30 June 2017 from US$79.5m in the same period in 2016. It blamed the decline on its expensive coal inventory, higher power costs and low prices, according to the News International newspaper. Despite this its sales revenue rose slightly to US$308m.

Pakistan: At least four people have been killed at the Rohri Cement plant in Sindh whilst deactivating explosives. The fatalities included two law enforcement officers, a member of the bomb disposal squad and a worker, according to the Express Tribune newspaper. At least eight other people were also injured in the blast.

The police say that the victims were attempting to defuse around 2000kg of explosive material when it detonated accidentally. The explosives, designated for use in the plant’s quarry, had been dumped near the plant by its previous management.

Pakistan: Germany’s Loesche has been awarded a contract for four vertical roller mills by China’s Chengdu Design & Research Institute for
Pakistan’s Pioneer Cement, which is expanding its production capacity to 8000t/day in the Chenki/Khusab district in Punjab Province. The contract includes a 630t/hr Loesche mill for grinding raw meal, two Loesche finish mills, each with a capacity of 235t/hr and a 60t/hr Loesche coal mill.

Loesche Dynamic Classifiers will be used to ensure the appropriate fineness. The patented Vortex Rectifier and an optimised flow characteristic produce significantly lower energy consumption and therefore lower operating costs.

Efficient dedusting of the raw material mill is carried out using two HURRICLON® systems from Loesche’s A TEC subsidiary. This gives the advantage of reducing the total energy requirement of the plant due to the low pressure loss and high degree of separation. It also creates savings in steel construction and installation due to the significantly lower weight compared to conventional cyclone technology.

Delivery is due by the autumn of 2018.

Pakistan: Thatta Cement’s sales revenue rose by 34% to US$36.3m in its financial year that ended on 30 June 2017, from US$27.1m in the same period in 2016. Its profit increased by 8.7% to US$6.8m from US$6.3m.

Pakistan: The cement sector in Pakistan recorded an all-time high single month sales in July 2017 as the commodity's sales and exports grew by 44% year-on-year to 3.38Mt. The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) said that sales and exports were 2.33Mt in July 2016. Domestic sales rose by 55% to 2.91Mt, while exports remained flat at 0.48Mt.

“The dispatch figures for July 2017 are most encouraging,” said an APCMA spokesman. “The industry has established a record for this month. Never before has the sector crossed the dispatch limit of 3Mt in July.” The spokesman added that the turnaround after a dismal performance in June 2017 had taken the industry by surprise and that the sharp increase in dispatches in July rekindled hopes for growth. “The dispatches were achieved despite political turmoil in the country and unprecedented rains throughout the country. This depicts the maturity of the construction sector in the country,” he said.
Exports to Afghanistan during the month increased by 40.3% year-on-year to 210,000t but this was off-set by a large fall in exports to India and elsewhere. Sales to India fell by 11.6% to 122,000t and to other countries sales fell by 19.0% to 144,000t.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s net sales rose by 5.7% to US$434m for the financial year that ended on 30 June 2017 from US$428m in the same period in 2016. Its cement sales volumes rose by 3.1% to 7.15Mt from 6.93Mt and its profit after tax rose by 5.8% to US$130m from US$123m. No reason for the good performance was presented in its financial results statement but that it said it was confident in the domestic market due to both resident and public sector construction markets and large scale infrastructure projects driven by the China-Pakistan Ecumenic Corridor initiative.

The cement producer also provided an update on new and on-going expansion projects. Its expansion plans at the Karachi Plant to add a 1.25Mt/yr production line are expected to reach commercial operations in December 2017. It is also in the process of obtaining approvals and authorisations from the state government of Punjab to build a new 2.3Mt/yr plant.

Pakistan: Loesche has provided an LM 56.3+3 CS vertical roller mill for cement grinding to Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACPL). The new mill will be used in the new line three of the cement plant in Hub Chowki in Pakistan, in the Lasbela/Baluchistan district, 20km north of Karachi. The mills will grind OPC cement with a fineness of 3300 Blaine at a capacity of 200t/hr or 2800 Blaine at a capacity of 240t/hr.

Alongside the delivery of the mill, the Loesche mandate also includes the monitoring and assembly as well as the commissioning, which is due to take place in mid-2017. The Chinese company Hefei Cement Research & Design Institute, with which Loesche has successfully delivered mills on a regular basis, will act as Loesche’s contractor and will assume overall responsibility for the new cement line.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement’s new plant at Hub in Balochistan will officially start production by December 2017. The 9000t/day plant is scheduled to complete civil engineering work by September 2017 and then start commissioning by the end of the year, according Shajar Capital in a reported covered by the Express Tribune newspaper. The new plant is expected to support infrastructure development near Gwadar and support residential schemes in Balochistan and Sindh.