Displaying items by tag: Plant
China: Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China's national standard in 2014, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants, China Huaneng Group Corp's 845MW plant, in 2016.
Plants owned by Guohua Electric Power Corp and Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co were closed in March 2015. A fourth major power plant, owned by China Datang Corp, was shut in 2014. The plants will be replaced by four gas-fired stations with the capacity to supply 2.6 times more electricity than the coal plants.
The closures are part of a broader trend in China, which is the world's largest CO2 emitter. Beijing plans to cut its coal consumption by 13Mt/yr by 2017 from the 2012 level in a bid to slash pollutants. Shutting all the major coal power plants in the city, reducing coal use by 9.2Mt/yr, is estimated to cut CO2 emissions by 30Mt/yr according to analysts.
China planned to close more than 2000 smaller coal mines in 2013 - 2015, according to Song Yuanming, vice chief of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety. Closing coal-fired power plants is seen as a critical step in addressing pollution in China, which gets about 64% of its primary energy from coal.
Coal use is declining in China as policy makers encourage broader use of hydroelectric power, solar and wind. It is also pushing to restart its nuclear power programme in a bid to clear the skies. China's electricity consumption in 2014 grew at its slowest pace in 16 years, according to data from the China Electricity Council. Its CO2 emissions fell by 2% in 2014, the first decline since 2001, signalling that efforts to control pollution are gaining traction.
SCG to open Myanmar showroom
23 March 2015Myanmar: Siam Cement Group (SCG) will open its first showroom in Yangon, Myanmar in May 2015, according to country director Chana Poomee. It will showcase products to customers and partners. "SCG is committed to enhance the expertise of the dealer network and empower them for long-term competitiveness," said Poomee. SCG is currently expanding into Myanmar with the construction of a cement plant in Mawlamyine, Mon, which is expected to open in 2016.
UAE: Everest Industries' new US$16m plant is now expected to be operational by December 2015 or January 2016. The plant will produce cement boards and panel products and is Everest Industries' first overseas venture. The products will cater to the company's exports in West Asian and African nations.
"We are hopeful of making the overseas unit operational by December 2015 or January 2016. It will give us better access to the Middle Eastern and African markets," said Rahul Chopra senior vice president and head roofing business. According to Chopra, the Ras Al-Khaimah unit might bring down export costs. Currently, exports contribute around US$32m towards Everest Industries' turnover.
With three of its recent facilities coming on-stream in the last two years, Chopra said that Everest Industries is now planning to ramp up and consolidate domestic manufacturing across its various segments and improve its distribution network via the addition of a 'retail touch point' in all centres with a population of 5000 - 10,000.
Tokyo Cement plans expansion project
20 March 2015Sri Lanka: Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) plans to invest US$50m on 1Mt/yr of additional production capacity to meet local demand.
The extra capacity will be via a new plant under a new subsidiary, Tokyo Eastern Cement. The project is expected to be implemented in the next two years. It will receive a five-year tax holiday and a tax rate of 12%. The project will be funded through internal funds and loans.
In its 2014 financial year, Tokyo Cement's revenue grew by 6% year-on-year, while its operating profit rose by 65%. Its current market share in Sri Lanka is 35%.
JSW Cement puts Gulbarga plant on the back-burner
20 March 2015India: JSW Cement plans to shelve its plans to set up a 3Mt/yr clinker plant at Chittapur in Gulbarga temporarily as the company's short-term goal is to ensure that its Andhra Pradesh plant reaches full capacity, according to a company spokesperson.
In 2014 JSW Cement announced plans to pump around US$400 – 480m into its Gulbarga plant. JSW Cement currently runs three plants; the¬ 4.8Mt/yr Nandyal plant in Andhra Pradesh, the 0.7Mt/yr Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka and the 0.7Mt/yr Dolvi plant in Maharashtra. While its Vijayanagar and Dolvi plants are running at 100% capacity utilisation, its Nandyal plant is stuck at 50% capacity utilisation due to low cement demand.
"There is 50% capacity utilisation at our Nandyal plant. Since we already have around 2.5Mt/yr of unused capacity, we need to convert it into utilised capacity," said JSW Cement director and CEO Anil Kumar Pillai. "For that to happen, it will take another one to one and a half years. Until such time, there is no point in expanding," JSW Cement director and chief executive officer Anil Kumar Pillai told TOI. Pillai." He added the company will be firming up its plans to improve capacity as it has an internal target of producing 20Mt/yr by 2020."So we will be finalising our plans by September - October 2015. By that time we will have a picture of if we will be going ahead with Gulbarga or something else," said Pillai.
To reach its target of producing 20Mt/yr, JSW Cement is also open to taking the inorganic growth path and is evaluating various options, according to Pillai. He added that the company would prefer to acquire assets in the south of India.
Pillai said that, overall, the cement sector has seen no growth recently as the government has launched any big infrastructure expenditure. However, with some major announcements made in the Union budget towards pushing infrastructure growth, the second half of the next fiscal year could be a turning point for the cement industry.
Wonder Cement to double production
19 March 2015India: Rajasthan-based Wonder cement, part of the RK Marble Group, plans to double its cement production by the end of 2015. The company will increase the capacity of its cement plant in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan from 3.25Mt/yr to 6.75Mt/yr by investing US$256m in the project. The plant, which currently runs at full capacity, sells 180,000bags/day of cement.
New Chinese-led cement plant coming to Nepal
18 March 2015Nepal: Two private companies have signed an agreement of joint venture investment worth US$300m for cement production in Nepal. The investment, one of the biggest in Nepal's cement sector, has a 7:3 equity structure between Hongshi Holdings Limited of China and Nepal's Shiva Cement.
"This project will adopt a dry process with the use of 95% domestic raw materials," Xu Youyuan, Executive Vice President of the Chinese company said at the signing ceremony. He added that Hongshi had been attracted to Nepal's market by its booming cement industry in 2012.
Addressing the ceremony, Finance Minister of Nepal, Ram Sharan Mahat, said that the signing of this project was a landmark between the economic ties of the two neighbours and that he was happy to see that Chinese investors had shown confidence in Nepal. He even suggested that Nepal might become a net exporter of cement in the coming years.
India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned its third clinker line at Aditya Cement (AC), Shambhupura in Rajasthan. The plant, which has a 6000t/day kiln and a clinker capacity of 2Mt/yr, can use a wide variety of fuels.
Meanwhile, its greenfield grinding plant in Jhajjar, Haryana is likely to be commissioned in 2016. "With this commissioning, UltraTech Cement will further increase its capacity in the north region," said UltraTech in a statement. "Further, the new grinding plant coming up in Jhajjar will assist us in capturing the growing demand for cement in this region with timely and effective supplies to the customers."
MI Cement to add new unit soon
16 March 2015Bangladesh: MI Cement Factory Ltd plans to install new production unit soon to cater the growing demand for cement in the country.
"We have decided to set up another packing unit and a 1500t capacity cement silo to enhance the delivery capacity of our cement (Crown Cement)," said Mohammed Jahangir Alam, chairman of MI Cement. "This will also help maintain the quality of our cement and thus keep the pace of increasing revenue."
Bangladesh is preparing for development in public infrastructure, communication and housing facilities, said Alam. "The cement industry in Bangladesh is headed for a revolution," he said. High population densities in cities, unplanned urbanisation and rapid economic development are likely to expand cities vertically rather than horizontally to achieve maximum utilisation of available space and ensure future food security by not urbanising fertile land, he added.
Quoting a recent study, Alam said that the per capita cement consumption in Bangladesh was still low at 107kg, compared to 210kg in India, 265kg in Pakistan, 310kg in Sri Lanka and 570kg in Korea, indicating future growth of Bangladeshi cement consumption.
At present, MI Cement's total production capacity is 1.74Mt/yr. Alam said that in the fiscal year 2013 - 2014, the political unrest hampered MI Cement's day-to-day business activities and reduced its cement delivery to lower than expected. However, the company increased its revenue by 17% year-on-year to US$102m despite the political unrest. MI Cement sold US$86m of goods in the 2014 fiscal year, up from US$73.2m in 2013 in the previous fiscal year.
Semey cement plant expands production capacity
16 March 2015Kazakhstan: The Semey cement plant has been expanded to 1Mt/yr of cement production capacity. In the frame of the Nurly Zhol programme, the most of the cement will be utilised for road construction. The contracts for cement delivery have been already signed.