Displaying items by tag: Plant

Egypt: Helwan Cement has received several preliminary non-bidding offers for its white cement plant located in Minya Governorate. The subsidiary of Suez Cement and HeidelbergCement is now conducting financial, legal and technical due-diligence on the offers, according to Reuters. No values or timescale for the sale have been disclosed.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement’s captive 5MWAC solar plant is preparing to start commercial operation by the end of June 2018. The unit is equipped with approximately 20,000 crystalline silicon modules mounted on a tracking system and an installed capacity of 6.5MWDC for an output of 5MWAC, according to the Daily Observer newspaper. Once it starts commercial operation it will provide an estimated 14GWhr/yr to the cement plant.

Investors have reached financial close in the project. The site has been developed and built by Germany’s SunEQ and its local partner Hungileni. Local financial partners also include Namibia Infrastructure Finance. Gildemeister Energy Solutions also worked on the project.

Spain: Cementos Molins has allocated Euro200m towards dismantling old production lines at its Sant Vicenç dels Horts plant near Barcelona. Kilns, towers, silos and obsolete buildings will be removed as part of the project, according to the La Vanguardia newspaper. The plant operates a single 1.4Mt/yr production line that was commissioned in 2010.

Nigeria: BUA Group is ready to commission a new 1.5Mt/yr cement production line at its Sokoto Cement plant in the northwest of the country. The upgrade will increase production at the unit to 0.5Mt/yr, according to the Vanguard newspaper. The company exports cement from the plant to neighbouring Niger. The new line will run on coal and natural gas. The cement producer also operates a 3.5Mt/yr plant at Okpella & Obu in Edo state in the mid-west of the country.

China: Austria’s Semperit has closed its Sempertrans Best (Shandong) Belting plant in Shandong. The decision was made as part of review of the group’s production footprint. The plant had a higher margin than other sites. The closure is also expected to reduce the complexity of operations at the group level. 120 employees will be affected and the shutdown is expected to burden the group’s earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) by Euro10m in 2018.

The groups subsidiary in Shandong was founded by Semperit as a joint venture with the state-owned energy company Wang Chao Coal & Electricity Group in 2010. The Chinese partner currently holds a 16.1% stake. The production site manufactures textile and steel cord belts and has served the export markets and the Chinese market so far.

US: The Federal Trade Commission has forced CRH to sell the Three Forks cement plant in Montana as part of its proposed acquisition of Ash Grove Cement. The plant and its quarry will be sold 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 commissions ruled that the acquisition would harm competition in Montana, Nebraska and Kansas. Other divestments the Irish building materials company has agreed to include selling two sand-and-gravel plants, one sand-and-gravel pit, three limestone quarries and two hot-mix asphalt plants.

Following the agreed divestments, the FTC has issued its consent for CRH’s proposed acquisition of Ash Grove Cement. No further regulatory approvals are now outstanding for the transaction. The acquisition is expected to complete in June 2018. Ireland’s CRH agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement for US$3.5bn in mid-2017.

Tunisia: Ciments de Bizerte is planning to upgrade the cement grinding capacity by 20% at its plant in Bizerte. Other anticipated upgrades include the installation of a new 10,000t cement silo and the contruction of a captive wind farm, according to the L'Economiste Maghrébin magazine.

Armenia: Hrazdan Cement has been purchased by GM Holding and is back in operation. According to local media reports the cement plant was bought by a company owned by Arsen Mikaelyan, the chairman of Armbusinessbank, in late 2017. The bankrupt cement producer was previously taken over by its creditor, the VTB Bank (Armenia).

Hrazdan Cement, originally known as Mika Cement, was built in 1970. The company was privatised in 2001 and has had financial problems since 2013. The cement plant has two production lines and a clinker production capacity of 1Mt/yr and a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr.

Spain: LafargeHolcim has chosen its Carboneras cement plant in Almeria as a refrence training centre for its European operations. The plant was selected due to its port and high level of staff expertise amongst other reasons. A group of LafargeHolcim engineers from Poland, France, the UK, Romania, Croatia, Greece and Serbia have all recently visited the site for a training course.

Russia: Yakutcement has started the third kiln at its plant at Mokhsogollokh in Khangalassky. The new production line has a clinker production capacity of 0.5Mt/yr, according to Sakha Life. Representatives of local government and the management of the cement plant’s owner’s Vostokcement attended the opening. Cement from the new line is intended to support local demand in the region.