Displaying items by tag: Plant

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) has officially inaugurated a second cement mill at its Villeta plant. The state-owned cement producer spent US$12m on the upgrade, according to the Agencia de Información Paraguaya. The new mill was built by China’s Sinoma. It has a cement production capacity of 80t/hr or be able to produce around 800,000 bags/month of cement. INC also plans to start operating a pozzolan drying unit at Villeta in September 2018.

US: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final order settling changes for Ireland’s CRH acquisition of Ash Grove Cement following a period for public comment. The FTC issued its consent for the transaction in June 2018 on the condition that CRH sell the Three Forks cement plant in Montana to Mexico’s Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC).

Also under the settlement, because the CRH cement plant in Montana currently sells a significant amount of cement into Canada through two CRH terminals in Alberta, GCC will have the option to use those terminals for three years. CRH also has agreed to purchase, at GCC’s option, cement produced at the plant for distribution in Canada for up to three years. The FTC also forced CRH to sell other assets in Montana, Nebraska and Kansas.

Poland: Lafarge Poland officially opened the Siekierki ash separation plant in July 2018. The unit was developed with local power generation company PGNiG Termika. The plant uses technology from the US’ Separation Technologies, using its proprietry electrostatic process.

The unit converts fly ash into two products: ProAsh containing less than 5% flammable parts and HiCarbon fuel containing about 30 - 50% flammable parts. ProAsh ash is used as a construction product used in cement production, ready-mix concrete and prefabricated construction. HiCarbon is used as a fuel because it contains significant amounts of unburnt carbon and so it can be reused in furnaces.

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFEP&WM) awarded the project a loan of around Euro9m. PGNiG Termika operates a 2078MW coal-power plant at Siekierki.

Italy: Cemitaly has been allowed to use slag and ash in cement production at its Taranto plant following an investigation, according to the Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper. The former Cementir unit was investigated in 2017 as part of an illegal waste probe that examined whether the Taranto plant purchased ‘illegal’ by-products from Enel and the ILVA steel plant to produce cement.

UAE: Lafarge Emirates has ordered a Jetflex Plus burner for its Fujairah cement plant from FLSmidth. Thierry Terriere, the plant manager, and Simon Jensen, head of FLSmidth Middle-East, signed the contract.

“As the business has shifted towards using low-cost fuels with high-quality clinker, we have made an ambitious decision and chosen the best option on the market – this next generation burner from FLSmidth," Sohail Qaiser, Process Manager at Lafarge Emirates Cement. He added that the company expects a ‘significant’ change in its fuel mix cost as well as a more sustainable kiln operation.

FLSmidth says that the Jetflex Plus burner is the first to be installed in the LafargeHolcim Group and that the company was selected for procurement and supervision of the installation of it. The burner product has rotatable jet air nozzles allowing for optimal adjustment of the flame as well as the low NOx emissions for various fuel types and operating conditions.

The relationship between the companies dates back to 2007 when FLSmidth built the 7500t/day Fujairah plant for Orascom.

Spain: Cemex España has submitted a proposal to the local government to extract a total of 15Mt of limestone from its Can Negret quarry near to its Lloseta cement plant in Majorca. The proposal will run until 2032, according to the Ultima Hora newspaper. The company was previously granted a concession at the quarry in 1982.

Myanmar: Three local activists have been arrested for protesting against a new cement plant being built at Patheingyi Township in Mandalay Region. In late July 2018 local residents marched on environmental grounds from Mandalay to Nay Pyi Taw in protest against the construction of a 5000t/yr coal-fired cement plant in Dahattaw Village-tract, Patheingyi Township, according to the Asia News Network. However, police intervened and started legal action against some of the protestors.

Germany: ThyssenKrupp has decreased its earnings forecast for its 2017 – 2018 financial year due to the poor performance of its Industrial Solutions division. The division is expected to report a negative adjusted earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) of Euro200m in the third quarter of the year due to higher expected total costs, particularly for a cement plant in Saudi Arabia and two other industrial projects. The group said that the number of major projects in the cement and fertiliser sector had decreased ‘considerably,’ partly due to the production overcapacity in the cement market.

"It is important to me to call it what it is. The results of our analysis at Industrial Solutions are anything but satisfying. The structure of plant construction must be adjusted to the changed market conditions in order to achieve a turnaround and finally become competitive again. We must act swiftly here," said Guido Kerkhoff, chairman of the executive board of ThyssenKupp. The group has proposed focusing its Industrial Solutions division on small and medium-sized projects and targeting plant construction on the higher-margin service business.

In mid-2017 the group announced plans to reorganised its Industrial Solutions division, including the decision to cut 1500 jobs in operational areas.

India: The Industries Department of Himachal Pradesh is preparing to allow construction work to start at a new cement plant at Sikridhar in the Chamba district in September 2018. The project is a long running scheme from the local government that was first mooted in 2002, according to the Times of India newspaper. The project has been linked to various companies previously including Jaiprakash Associates.

Philippines: Big Boss Cement is considering procuring a mill for its new US$215m plant project from European equipment manufacturers including Denmark’s FLSmdith, Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer and Germany’s Loesche. Ishmael Ordonez, vice-president of the cement producer, said that a vertical roller mill would take up less space than the horizontal mill it was currently using from a Chinese supplier, according to Inside International Industrials. The company is set to start production at a new plant in Porac in Pampanga in August 2018. However, it is planning to expand the production capacity at the unit based on anticipated demand.