Displaying items by tag: Plant
N+P Recycling celebrates 25th anniversary
07 July 2017Netherlands: Alternative fuels specialist N+P Recycling has celebrated its 25th anniversary and the opening of its new headquarters in Nieuw-Bergen, Limburg. Company chief executive officer (CEO) Karel Jennissen presided at the event and Manon Pelzer, the mayoress of Nieuw-Bergen, was also in attendance.
200 guests attended the opening that included a guided tour of the new premises. At a ceremony marking the anniversary Karel Jennissen, with his wife Karin, presented the history of the company. Their three sons Lars, Stijn and Jens then gave guests a personal insight into their own experiences with the firm. This was followed the next day by a general tour of the facility for the local community with around 1000 members of the public.
A full report will be published in the September 2017 edition of Global Cement Magazine, including a visit to the company’s 80,000t/yr Subcoal production facility in Farmsum.
Image 1: Karel Jennissen of N+P Recycling
Image 2: Karel Jennissen N+P Recycling with his sons Lars, Stijn and Jens
Bhutan: A broken gearbox at a coal mill at the Penden Cement Authority plant in Gomtu has reduced its production. The plant has had intermittent mechanical issues with the gearbox in one of its two coal grinding mills since April 2017 leading to a breakdown in May 2017, according to the Kuensel newspaper. Then in June 2017 a similar problem occurred with the main drive gear in its other coal mill. The plant has been producing cement using imported clinker since then although it shut down completely for several days in late June 2017.
So far the cement producer has been unable to procure replacement parts. It has also been reported that the company has had difficulty importing clinker from India following the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Pacific Cement resumes production in Fiji
06 July 2017Fiji: Pacific Cement has resumed operations at its cement plant. The plant originally stopped operation in late April 2017 due to mechanical failures, according to the Fiji Times newspaper. Chief executive Sowani Tuidrola said that the plant will run at 60% capacity until the end of July 2017 whilst it waits for a new gear. A new Trunnion Gear Assembly is scheduled to arrive in late July 2017 and it will be fitted during a two-week shutdown in late August 2017. Normal production levels are expected to resume from 1 September 2017.
UltraTech Cement seals the deal
05 July 2017Congratulations are due to India’s UltraTech Cement this week for finally completing its US$2.5bn asset purchase from Jaiprakash Associates. The deal has been around in some form or another since at least 2014 when UltraTech arranged to buy two cement plants in Madhya Pradesh for around US$750m. That deal, publicly at least, became a victim of the 2015 amendment to India’s Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act. The Bombay High Court eventually rejected it in early 2016 after a period of delays. However, the deal bounced back in a much larger form around the same time and since then everything has gone relatively smoothly.
As chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla put it in his letter to shareholders in the company’s 2016 – 2017 annual report the, “move is essentially for geographic market expansion.” He then went on to mention all the usual keywords like ‘synergy’ and ‘economies of scale’ that you expect from an acquisition. Quite rightly he finished with, “It is with great pride that I record, that UltraTech is the largest cement player in India and the fifth largest on the world stage.” On that last point he meant outside of China but UltraTech does have a small number of assets outside of India, notably in the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Bangladesh, hinting at an international future for the cement producer.
Map 1: UltraTech Cement’s plants in India. Source: UltraTech Cement Corporate Dossier, January 2017.
To give a scale of the deal, UltraTech has increased its number of integrated cement plants in India to 18 from 12 and its cement grinding plants to 21 from 16. Its overall cement production capacity will increase by nearly 40% to 91.4Mt/yr from 66.3Mt/yr. The new assets are in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The main regions that will benefit are the North, Central and South zones. In particular the Central Zone will see its capacity jump to 21.1Mt/yr from 6.2Mt/yr. This area also includes a new 3.5Mt/yr plant at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh that is scheduled for commercial production in late 2019.
The completion of the Jaiprakash Associates deal was followed by the introduction at the start of July 2017 of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a rationalisation of some of the country’s central and state taxes. UltraTech promptly said it had reduced its product prices by 2 – 3% in light of tax reductions under the new regime. Some producers were warning of a rise in cement prices in the run-up to the introduction of the GST and the Cement Manufactures’ Association said that the new tax rate was insufficient. However, UltraTech said that the new tax rate of 28% was better than 30 – 31% previously. Other Indian producers also reduced their prices this week following the introduction of the GST.
UltraTech’s expansion and the start of the new tax scheme auger well for the Indian cement industry in 2017. Demonetisation knocked cement production at the start of the year and it may have lowered UltraTech’s capacity utilisation rate as well as reducing domestic sales by cutting housing demand. However, sector rationalisation and a simpler tax approach should help to remedy this. Not all government interaction has been helpful to the cement industry in recent years as the MMDR amendment and demonetisation show but the signs are promising.
Roll on the next set of financial reports.
France: LafargeHolcim has launched a Euro100m upgrade to build a new clinker production line at its Martres cement plant in Tolosane. Construction work on the new line will start in the third quarter of 2018 and will be completed in mid-2020. A key feature of the upgrade will be a focus on using alternative fuels in the new kiln, particularly tyres. Following the project’s completion the plant will have a substitution rate of 80% from 30% at present.
The project, the largest investment made by the group in France for 40 years, is part of a wider package of Euro300m for France that the company announced in 2016. Tenders for the project at Martres will be issued in early 2018. LafargeHolcim has also made a point of saying that priority will be given to local, French and European companies. Previously the French media published concerns that the project might be awarded to a Chinese contractor.
Vietnam: Siam City Cement Vietnam plans to invest up to U$50m on its cement plants in the next six to 12 months. The Thai-owned cement producer purchased Holcim Vietnam in March 2017, according to the Saigon Times Daily newspaper. It operates plants in Kien Giang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai provinces and in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam: Trinh Dinh Dung, the Deputy Prime Minster, has inaugurated the second production line at the Thanh Thang Cement plant at Thanh Nghi, Ha Nam. The new line has a production capacity of 1.3Mt/yr and it will raise the plant’s total capacity to 1.75Mt/yr, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The company has invested US$220m in the upgrade project.
Trinh Dinh Dung also said at the event that the Ministry of Construction would have to review the master plan for the cement industry in the 2017 - 2025 period with a vision towards 2035, and the master plan for exploration, exploitation and use of minerals for cement production by 2025. He urged domestic cement manufacturers to comply with environmental protection requirements, and invest in new technology to improve the quality of their products and protect the environment.
Turkey: Brazil’s Votorantim is set to inaugurate a Euro140m upgrade project at its Sivas cement plant. The project has been part of the cement producer’s strategy to increase its revenue outside of Brazil, according to the Valor Economico newspaper. The upgrade has seen the plant’s cement production capacity rise to 1.8Mt/yr from 0.6Mt/yr. Prior to the investment the plant accounted for around 19% of Votorantim’s 3Mt/yr production in Turkey and once fully operational it will account for 42%. The plant will supply the market with CEM I and CEM II products.
Company president Walter Dissinger said that international sales account for 40% of group revenue. However it is hoped that this will recede to 30% once the Brazilian market starts to recover. The company is also building an upgrade at its Charlevoix plant in the US.
India: France’s Fives has receive an order from AMCL Machinery to supply a new FCB TSV Classifier 4500 THF. The classifier will be used by Ramco Cements at its R R Nagar Plant in Tamil Nadu. Previously the cement producer has installed FCB TSV classifiers at its grinding plants in Kolagat, Salem and Chengalpattu.
India: UltraTech Cement has completed its US$2.5bn acquisition of six integrated cement plants and five grinding plants from Jaiprakash Associates. The transfer was made effective at a meeting of the Scheme Implementation Committee of the board of directors of UltraTech Cement. The purchase includes plants in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh with a total production capacity of 21.2Mt/yr.
“This move is essentially for geographic market expansion, enabling UltraTech’s entry into the high growth markets of India where it needed greater reinforcement,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of UltraTech. He added that the acquisition would add synergies in manufacturing, distribution and logistics.
Following the purchase UltraTech holds 18 integrated plants, one standalone clinker production plant, 25 grinding plants and seven bulk terminals, increasing its Ordinary Portland Cement capacity to 93Mt/yr. UltraTech said that the new production units will make it the fourth largest cement producer in the world outside of China and that it confirms its place as the largest producer in India.