Displaying items by tag: Pakistan

Pakistan: Sinoma Energy Conservation Company has signed an agreement with Fauji Cement to install a 7.6MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant. The agreement was signed by Sardar Mahmood Ali Khan, Director-General of Fauji Cement and officials of Sinoma in Rawalpindi, according to the Nation newspaper. The power plant will be installed by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Once the project is complete the cement producer will be able to produce 80% of electricity requirements from captive sources. Previously Fauji Cement installed a 12MW WHR plant in early 2015.

Pakistan: Fecto Cement plans to bid for the Hattar cement plant owned by Dewan Cement. Abdul Samad, Fecto Cement’s company secretary, said that the company would evaluate the information to be provided by the financial advisor of Dewan Cement for carrying out due diligence in relation to the prospective acquisition of the plant. He added that the sale would be subject to finalisation of commercial terms, completion of due diligence, execution of definitive agreement and receipt of regulatory approvals.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement plans to build a new 9000t/day cement plant at Hub in Balochistan. It has contracted Izhar Construction to conduct all civil work on the project, according to the Nation newspaper. The plant is being built to benefit from demand generated from infrastructure built via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Pakistan: Tax bodies are expecting to see a jump in revenue in the 2016 – 2017 financial year from cement producers as Chinese-funded infrastructure starts to be built. The Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) in Karachi, the largest revenue-collecting arm, estimates that it will tax producers US$114m in the 2016 – 2017 financial year, according to the News International newspaper. A study by the LUT said that growth would arise from increases in sales tax and federal excise duty following the start of projects worth US$46bn from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Cement sales have risen by 8.3% year-on-year to 8.98Mt in the first quarter of the local financial year. This follows a 17% rise in domestic sales to 33Mt in the 2015 – 2016 financial year.

Pakistan: The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) has expressed concern over the effect that rises in the price of coal have had on the cost of cement production. Coal prices have nearly doubled to US$105/t from US$54/t in May 2016, according to the Nation newspaper. The cost of coal contributes more than 30% to the total production cost of cement manufacture. Coal prices have been rising since May 2016 when China started to limit its coal mining capacity. This has since been compounded by stricter local rules on coal transportation in Pakistan. The APCMA has urged the government to focus on the residential sector to diversify the construction industry.

Pakistan: A second 4500t/day production line at the Cherat Cement plant started production on 31 October 2016. Construction of the new line started in 2014, a senior manager at the plant told the News International newspaper. The plant’s first production line, with a production capacity of 3200t/day, opened in 1985. Altogether the plant employs 1000 workers.

Pakistan: Fecto Cement has appealed to the Islamabad High Court to allow it to continue mining in the Margalla Hills. In August 2016 it had its mining lease cancelled by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and a fine was issued. This followed an order by the Supreme Court in March 2015 to stop all development and stone crushing activities, according to the Dawn newspaper. In 2013 the Islamabad Capital Territory issued a mining lease that allowed Fecto Cement to carry out stone crushing activities in the area until 2030.

Pakistan: Maple Leaf Power has submitted an application to National Electric Power Regulator Authority (NEPRA) for a power generation license for a 40MW coal-based thermal power plant. The plant will be used to supply power to the Maple Leaf Cement plant at Mianwali in Iskanderabad, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan. The project will cost US$52.5m and it expected to start operation in December 2017.

India: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban imports of cement from Pakistan in the interest of domestic industry and national security. He said that imports of cement without levy of customs duty were introduced in 2007 to augment supply in view of high demand, according to the Press Trust of India. However, he added that the situation has since changed, with the local industry now facing capacity utilisation of below 70%.

"I request you to ban import of cement into the country not only in the interest of growth and sustenance of domestic cement industry but also in keeping with the imperatives of national security. Ban of import from Pakistan will be in the interest of the country's security in the present juncture," Swamy said in a letter to Modi. He added that imports from Pakistan also carried the risk of smuggling of contraband materials like drugs and weapons.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Pakistan’s Lucky Cement is set to open its US$270m Nyumba Ya Akiba cement plant in Bas-Congo later in October 2016. The 1.2Mt/yr plant will be operated with Groupe Rawji, a local company, under the name CIMKO. It is financed by the African Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, EKF and by Habib Bank among others, according to Bloomberg.

“We will take care of everything that can hinder your production, unfair competition, fraudulent imports, we will take care of that,” said Prime Minister Matata Ponyo Mapon to CIMKO executives in a show of support for the project at a recent meeting.