Displaying items by tag: Plant
Jordan: Lafarge Jordan has proposed a US$2.8bn plan to replace its Fuheis cement plant with an urban development, according to the Jordan Times. The company sent an official letter to the Investment Commission in October 2015 informing them about the plan but still has not received any response. The Fuheis cement plant has been non-operational since 2011 when it was converted to petcoke but the local community objected.
LafargeHolcim stops clinker production at Voskresenskcement plant
01 February 2016Russia: LafargeHolcim has permanently stopped clinker production at its Voskresenskcement plant in the Moscow region due to market constraction and oversupply. The decision is part of a reorganisation its cement production structure in the Central region of Russia to fight the impact of the recession in the construction sector. The new structure includes cement production at the Schurovo (Moscow region) and Ferzikovo (Kaluga region) plants, leveraging their competitive cost structure.
"With the reorganisation of its cement production structure in the Central region of Russia the company ensures its viability and is well positioned in the country to meet customer requirements and make a valuable contribution to the Group," said Guillermo Brusco, CEO of LafargeHolcim Russia.
Staff at Voskresenskcement will be transferred internally where possible. Current customers of Voskresenskcement will be offered products from the Schurovo and Ferzikovo plants.
Afghan Jabalo Saraj cement plant to reopen in 2017
01 February 2016Afghanistan: The Jabalo Saraj cement plant will reopen in early 2017 according to the ministry of mines and petroleum. A spokesman for the ministry said that the plant is being rebuilt to local media, reported by BBC Monitoring.
The Jabalo Saraj cement plant closed in 1996. The ministry of mines and petroleum has allocated US$1.5m for the reconstruction effort using local engineers.
At present only the Ghori cement plant is operational in the country. According to the ministry it produces up to 420,000t/yr and it only meets 6% of the country's demand.
Zambia: Lafarge Zambia has successfully commissioned a Cemengal Plug & Grind cement grinding plant in Ndola which will produce 100,000t/yr of cement and take the plant's total capacity to 500,000t/yr. It has been constructed on available land within the Ndola plant.
"This project has utilised very minimal amount of land. It is fitted with state-of-the art technology and has bag filters to aid environmental management," said Lafarge Zambia CEO, Emmanuel Rigaux. He added that the plant will produce Supaset Cement. This will be exported to the Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighbouring countries.
Also present at the event was the LafargeHolcim Group Area Manager for East Africa and Indian Ocean, Dominique Drouet who was on a three day visit to Zambia.
Cimpor's US$145m investment in Ponta Grossa plant postponed
19 January 2016Brazil: Intercement's Cimpor, part of the Camargo Corrêa group, has announced that its US$145m project to build a plant in Itaiacoca, Parana, is suspended. The decision was made due to the ongoing economic crisis in Brazil. The Ponta Grossa plant had been announced in 2011 and was set to have an initial production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr of cement and create 1000 jobs. The company has not disclosed any details about a new timetable for the project, but has confirmed that it is still in plans for expansion in the coming years.
Holcim plans rehabilitation of Westport cement plant
19 January 2016New Zealand: Plans for the future use of Holcim's Westport cement plant after it closes are still unknown. Holcim plans to close its Westport plant in 2016 in favour of importing cement from Japan, resulting in 105 staff and contractors losing their jobs.
The company announced in September 2015 that the Westport plant might close at the end of May 2016 and plans were under way for the plant to be demolished and the quarry site rehabilitated. Holcim owned more than 500 hectares of land around Westport, including the Cape Foulwind cement plant and quarry, 11 houses at Cape Foulwind and a rail siding near Westport.
General Manager Ross Pickworth said that no decisions had been made on the future of the company's land and assets in Westport. "The focus is on looking after our people and the work that needs to be done before plant closure. Preparatory and planning work is being carried out with a focus mainly on the plant site, quarry and houses," said Pickworth.
The company was investigating what work was needed on the 11 houses occupied by staff near Westport so that they could be sold after the plant closed. The Buller District Council was looking for new businesses to occupy the plant site and make use of the town's port. The council owned the port and transporting Holcim's cement was its main source of income. Council Business Development Facilitator, John Hill, had been investigating turning the plant into an eco-park, which could include making energy from rubbish incineration or turning waste timber into diesel.
Pickworth said that demolition work was unlikely to commence until late 2016, so any potential users had, "Quite some time to register interest in the site and any equipment that may be of use."
The council had been trying to attract new industries to Buller to increase employment opportunities in the region. "Holcim is supporting this process by promoting its Cape Foulwind site to see if there is interest from other potential users of the site," said Pickworth. "An advisor has been appointed to assist Holcim with demolition planning and project management. The cost of demolition will depend on what buildings and assets may be left on site and tenders will be called for such work closer to the time."
Orcem Americas’ plan to build cement mill meets opposition
13 January 2016US: Irish cement maker Ecocem's US subsidiary, Orcem Americas, has been accused of attempting to influence the planning process in Vallejo, California, where it wants to build a US$50m grinding mill. The mill would be the group's first venture in the US. However, the town's residents are objecting to the proposal on environmental grounds.
The company recently found itself at the centre of a row over its involvement with an unofficial economic committee of Vallejo's city council that some local politicians and campaigners say could potentially breach California law.
Orcem is represented on the Mare Island Straits Economic Development Committee, which is made up of local council members, state officials and private sector interests. Its involvement in the committee, alongside the city's Deputy Mayor, Jess Malgapo, at a time when it was seeking permission to build its facility at a sensitive site in Vallejo, sparked anger among the project's opponents. Some of them have claimed that its activities have potentially breached the Brown Act, a California law that guarantees the public's right to attend and take part in meetings of local councils and legislative bodies. However, the councillors involved, including Malgapo, deny the act was breached, saying that the committee was established to aid the city's economic development and not to pass legislation.
Pokot Cement Factory moves closer to construction phase
13 January 2016Kenya: The contractor for the US$117m, 1.2Mt/yr Pokot Cement Factory has finally begun to ship in material for the project. West Pokot Governor Simon Kachapin said that the project would start in a few months. The project was commissioned by then-Prime Minister Raila Odinga in 2010.
Contractors from Cemtech Sanghi Group visited the project site recently and met Kachapin. He said that the investors had bought land and have started to build housing for staff. "The project has not stalled. The investor is now assembling his requirements before proceeding with work at the site. It's not a small project and requires proper planning," said Kachapin.
Emami Cement orders third Gebr. Pfeiffer mill
11 January 2016India: Emami Cement Ltd has made three recent orders for mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer. The first Gebr. Pfieffer mill is for its greenfield cement plant in Chhattisgarh, which is currently under construction. The second is destined for a standalone grinding unit in West Bengal. This order is currently being processed.
The latest mill order is for a grinding plant in Odisha. The order covers a MVR 6000 C-6 mill with an installed drive power of 6700kW. This mill will be capable of producing 335t/hr of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The grinding plant will be designed in a way to allow fly ash cement and granulated blast-furnace slag to be ground to a fineness of 3800cm²/g and 4000cm²/g acc. to Blaine, respectively.
The MVR 6000 C-6 mill with is its six rollers has an actively redundant system. In case of an unplanned outage of one grinding roller, it allows the mill to continue in operation with four rollers while the roller swung out of the mill is being worked on outside of the mill. When it comes to cement grinding, where regular and planned maintenance works are scheduled for the regeneration of the grinding elements, this concept offers the customer the option to carry out maintenance works on two rollers outside the mill while at the same time cement can continue to be produced, albeit at a somewhat lower capacity.
Thanks to the modular design of the MVR mills, the essential components, such as bearings, seals of the grinding rollers and the tension system, as well as the gear units of the mill main drive, will be designed so as to be identical to the parts of the MVR mills that have been supplied to Emami Cement previously, i.e. an MVR 6000 R-6 and an MVR 6000 C-6. This will enable Emami Cement to manage with a small pool of strategic spare parts, which can be used with all the MVR mills.
Gebr. Pfeiffer SE will supply the core components of the mills and the gear units from Europe. Its Indian subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd., will provide components such as the housing of the mill and classifier, the steel foundation parts as well as all static and dynamic interior parts of the classifier and, in addition, supply some of the equipment required to complete the grinding plant. Moreover, the Indian subsidiary will do the plant layout and advise Emami Cement on the equipment it must procure itself.
Colombia: FLSmidth has signed a contract with Cementos Argos S.A. for a new OK 33-4 cement mill system to be installed at its cement plant in Sogamoso, Boyac, Colombia. This contract marks the fourth OK mill purchased by Cementos Argos. The mill system will include cement storage, Ventomatic packing plant, MAAG gear, Airtech filters and auxiliary equipment.