Displaying items by tag: Plant

Mexico: Cemex's waste management subsidiary Regenera has signed a deal with the municipal council of Huajuapan de León to receive the latter's sorted non-recyclable municipal solid waste (MSW). Under the deal, Regenera will receive up to 6000t/yr of MSW, which it will supply to Cemex's Tepeaca cement plant in Puebla.

France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has commissioned its H2 plant, a 1000t/day clinker-free cement plant, adjacent to its existing H1 clinker-free cement plant in Bournezeau, Pays de la Loire. L'Usine Nouvelle News has reported that the new plant took 24 months to build and cost Euro22m. The main part of the plant consists of a 70m tower, where activated clay, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and gypsum are mixed to produce the cement. It is installed with solar panels capable of supplying 50% of its energy consumption. The producer says that its clinker-free cement has over 90% lower CO₂ emissions than cement produced with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). It aims to sell 24,000t of the product throughout 2023.

India: Ambuja Cements has placed orders with equipment suppliers for an 8Mt/yr clinker capacity expansion across two of its cement plants. The plants in question are the 2.9Mt/yr Bhatapara cement plant in Chhattisgarh and the 4.5Mt/yr Maratha cement plant in Maharashtra. Ambuja Cements will also build 42MW-worth of waste heat recovery (WHR) power capacity. The new cement capacity will be able to operate on renewable energy and use 50% alternative fuel (AF). As such, upon completion of the project, the plants will together produce 14Mt/yr of Ambuja Cements' reduced-CO₂ Blended Green Cement. The producer will fund the work through internal accruals, and expects to complete it in May 2025.

CEO Ajay Kapur said "These brownfield expansion projects are part of our strategy to double our production capacity over the next five years from the current capacity of 67.5Mt/yr. Our ongoing investments in capacity expansion and sustainability will enable us to achieve our long-term objectives, as we remain committed to delivering sustainable growth and value to our stakeholders."

Eagle Materials announced this week that it had completed the acquisition of Martin Marietta’s cement import business in the north of California. A key part of the deal includes the sale of a cement terminal at Stockton. No value for the transaction has been disclosed.

The agreement prompts discussion for two immediate reasons. Firstly, it continues the enlargement of Eagle Materials’ cement business with its second terminal in California. The company operates its cement business in a band running almost right across the US. It runs seven cement plants in seven different states and jointly operates, with Heidelberg Materials, a plant in Texas too. It also runs a network of 25 cement terminals, including the new acquisition, stretching from California in the west to Pennsylvania in the east.

Eagle Materials’ focus on the cement sector also harks back to its previous plans to separate its various businesses. In 2019 it approved a plan to split its heavy materials and light materials businesses into two publicly-traded entities. The decision was made in response to pressure by shareholder Sachem Head Capital Management to make the company, in its view, more valuable. A strategic portfolio review followed but the planned separation was subsequently delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and poor market conditions, amongst other reasons. The board of the company then cancelled the proposed separation in 2021 citing the financial benefits of a diversified business, opportunities for strategic growth and the divestment of its oil and gas proppants business.

The other talking point is that the Eagle Materials transaction follows a positive response by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in response to the abandonment of CalPortland’s attempt to buy the Tehachapi cement plant in southern California and two related terminals from Martin Marietta. CalPortland’s parent company Taiheiyo Cement said in late April 2023 that it had terminated the acquisition agreement originally announced in mid-2022 due to its inability to obtain approval from the FTC in a timely manner. Whilst the FTC did not say if it had directly tried to block the proposed deal it did say, “The abandonment is a victory for consumers and preserves competition for a key component of Southern California’s construction and infrastructure industries.”

The FTC argued that the transaction would have reduced the number of cement suppliers in Southern California from five to four, further concentrating an already concentrated market, and was “presumptively illegal.” It noted that the Tehachapi plant was only about 20km away from CalPortland’s Mojave cement plant. It went on to say that, if the deal had gone ahead, CalPortland was poised to own half of the cement plants serving the Southern California market. It added that it would have been well-placed to raise its prices and that, “the transaction would have also increased the likelihood for coordinated action between the remaining competitors in this concentrated market.”

The de-facto block by the FTC of the Tehachapi sale now opens up the question of who Martin Marietta might try to sell it to next. Cemex, Mitsubishi Cement and National Cement (Vicat) are the obvious contenders given that they each also run integrated plants in the state. Of course another company, especially one with some form of existing distribution network, may express interest. Given its enlarged presence in Northern California, Eagle Materials springs to mind. Other potential buyers are, of course, available.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has opened a bag manufacturing unit at its Ewekoro cement plant in Ogun State. It has a bag production capacity of 105m/yr. The company says it is the first of its kind in the country. It is intended to increase the availability of bags through large-scale production locally. The project is a joint-venture run with MDV Industries.

Khaled El Dokani, the country chief executive officer for Lafarge Africa, said “We are using the best technology that produces the most efficient and durable bag in Nigeria. It is a very great day for us at Lafarge Africa.”

US: Swede-based Bruks Siwertell has received a conveyor system order for use at the integrated Capitol Aggregates cement plant in San Antonio, Texas. The order has been placed by Borton, a construction company.
Three new conveyor systems will modify the site’s existing material transport system and the addition of a new storage silos. They are all standard widths of 91cm. The C-810 type conveyor will be 148m in length and will transfer clinker to a bucket elevator at a rated capacity of 150t/hr. The 84m long C-940 type conveyor will have a rated capacity of 200t/hr and will transfer clinker to the silo reclaim, while the C-975 type conveyor will be 40m long and connect to an existing conveyor. It will also have a rated capacity of 200t/hr.

The conveyors are being fabricated in Mexico and will be delivered to the operator later in 2023.

India: The state government of Assam signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) worth over US$974m on 9 May 2023. The MOUs include three new planned cement plant projects. Agreements have been signed with Calcom Cement India, Star Cement and Taj Cement Manufacturing.

The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the government said “There are another US$852 - 974m investment proposals in the pipeline. Investors are touring Upper and Lower Assam, scanning for locations for investment projects.”

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s sales totalled US$1.2bn during the first nine months of the 2023 financial year, a rise of 28% year-on-year from US$941m during the corresponding period in the 2022 financial year. The Balochistan Times newspaper has reported that Lucky Cement attributed the growth to the commencement of operations of its new subsidiary, utilities provider Lucky Electric Power. The company increased its profit after tax by 83%, to US$172m.

Lucky Cement commissioned its Pezu cement plant’s new Line 2 at the end of the second quarter of the 2023 financial year. This increased the company’s installed production capacity by 26% to 15.3Mt/yr. The producer also inaugurated a new 34MW solar power plant, and completed negotiations for another, 25MW, solar power plant at its Karachi cement plant. The latest solar power plant is scheduled for commissioning later in 2023.

Afghanistan: State-owned Jabal al-Saraj Cement has served eviction notices to 40 families living in company accommodation. Hasht e Subh News has reported that the occupants are the families of former Jabal al-Saraj Cement employees who worked at the company’s cement plant for a minimum of 30 years, as per a pre-existing agreement between the cement producer and employees.

Cement production at the Jabal al-Saraj cement plant has been suspended since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-2021.

Belgium: France-based Air Liquide has signed a memorandum of understanding with Holcim to supply and operate a Cryocap Oxy carbon capture unit for the forthcoming upgrade to the Obourg cement plant. The intention is that 95% of the CO₂ generated from the new production line will be captured and then transported via the Antwerp@C export terminal for under-sea sequestration. Air Liquide and Holcim have co-applied for the European Innovation Fund to support the project.

Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President at Air Liquide Group, said “The decarbonisation of the industry is at the heart of our Advance strategy. We are committed to accompany our customers through providing a wide range of innovative solutions. As an example, Air Liquide's proprietary Cryocap technology is particularly well suited to decarbonise the cement industry.”