Displaying items by tag: Plant

Bulgaria: Italcementi has launched its upgraded cement plant in Bulgaria, which is operated by its subsidiary, Devnya Cement. The upgrades will allow Italcementi to meet domestic demand and export demand from Eastern Europe.

"The new plant will enable us to respond to demand from the domestic market and from the neighbouring areas in Eastern Europe," said Italcementi Group chief executive officer Carlo Pesenti in a statement.

The revamp of the cement plant, located near the port of Varna in eastern Bulgaria, began in April 2012 and invovled an overall investment of more than Euro160m. Once the current test and commissioning stage has been completed on all the systems, the cement plant will be fully operational in early 2015. The new facility can produce around 4000t/day of clinker and about 1.5Mt/yr of cement.

The completion of the project will allow the group to consolidate its operations in Bulgaria, where it also runs the Vulkan grinding center in Dimitrovgrad, and boost its export capacity thanks to its proximity to the port of Varna West, which gives access to all the countries on the Black Sea and on the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Italcementi Group entered the Bulgarian market in 1998 with the acquisition of Devnya Cement, followed in 1999 by the acquisition of Vulkan Cement. In 2013, the Group reported revenue of Euro59m in Bulgaria.

Saudi Arabia: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has received an order from Al Sawfa Cement Company, Saudi Arabia, to build a complete cement production line. The order is worth around Euro100m and commissioning is planned for 2016. The new 5300/day clinker production plant will be constructed parallel to the existing line in Jabal Farasan, approximately 150km north-east of Jeddah. The existing line, also supplied by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, has been in operation since 2009.

The main components are a 1700t/hr crushing facility, 40,000t of additive storage, a blending bed, a 390t/hr raw material grinding plant with ball mill and a POLYSIUS SEPOL separator and a 15,000t blending silo for raw meal.

The Polysius kiln line will consist of a five-stage preheater with PREPOL AS-CC, the POLRO rotary kiln and a POLYTRACK cooler with intermediate crusher. Cement grinding will take place in two ball mills with SEPOL high-efficiency separators. The plant will be rounded off with a 6000t cement silo as well as cement packing and loading facilities.

Lothar Jungemann, CEO of the Cement operating unit of the Process Technologies business unit of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, said, "This follow-up order shows that we are a reliable partner to our customers. With our leading technology and strong service focus, we support cement producers worldwide with their efforts to further expand capacities and increase operating efficiency."

Indonesia: Following its plan to build a cement plant in Papua, Semen Indonesia has said it will soon expand to the west and develop another cement plant in Aceh Province to fulfil increasing local demand.

Semen Indonesia finance director Ahyanizzam said that the company was considering developing a cement plant in Aceh, as well as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan, in addition to its plan to set up a plant in Papua. Each of the plants would have up to 3Mt/yr of cement production capacity. The investment would be around US$352m, which would be sourced from bank loans. He added that Semen Indonesia is currently looking for suitable locations for the plants. "We expect to start working on the Aceh project in 2015," said Ahyanizzam.

Semen Indonesia expects cement demand in the province to rise due to the construction of the Trans Sumatra highway, a 2700km toll road project that stretches from Aceh to Lampung in 24 sections, connecting major cities in Sumatra. Four sections of the toll road began construction in October 2014 and are expected to be completed in 16 months, absorbing US$4bn of investment. The four sections are designed to connect Medan to Binjai in North Sumatra, Pekanbaru to Dumai in Riau, Bakauheni to Bandar Lampung in Lampung and Palembang to Indralaya in South Sumatra.

Ahyanizzam added that the planned cement plants were also projected to help Semen Indonesia cope with rising cement demand from across the country. Demand is expected to grow by 4% in 2014 and by 6% in 2015.

Semen Indonesia produces 31.8Mt/yr of cement and has a 44% share of the country's cement market. The company plans to boost its cement production to 39.3Mt/yr by 2016 and to 40.8Mt/yr by 2017 with the help of its new plants.

UAE: Everest Industries, a leading Indian manufacturer of building solution products, plans to set up a fibre cement board plant in the UAE as part of its global expansion strategy. The new plant, which will produce about 72,000t/yr of fibre cement, will be set up through a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Everest Industries in Mauritius. Everest Industries has already won approval from its board of directors for the new UAE venture.

Egypt: Egypt's National Company for Construction and Development (NCCD) plans to build its own cement plant as the price of locally-produced cement is high, according to NCCD's chairman Mahmoud Hegazy. The new plant will cover the cement requirements of NCCD's subsidiaries. The state-run firm is currently evaluating the best timing for the project.

India: Jaiprakash Associates Limited is selling its 2.1Mt/yr capacity split grinding plant at Bhilai, Chattisgarh to Shree Cements Limited for an enterprise value of US$293.
The deal is expected to be completed in October 2014.

Bhilai Jaypee Cement Limited is a joint venture between Jaiprakash Associates, which holds 74% stake in the unit and the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), which holds 26%. The cement plant, which has revenues of US$130m/yr, has US$97.5m of debt. After adjusting for this, the equity value of the deal is US$179 – 195m.

Dominican Republic: Cemex has launched operations at a 1.5MW solar energy complex in the Dominican Republic in line with its commitment to sustainability. The facility will supply 2.2MkWhr/yr of energy to Cemex's cement plant in San Pedro de Macoris. It features 5040 panels with high-tech inverters. It is the first solar power plant owned by Cemex in the Caribbean. The company aims to continue to invest in sustainable energy solutions, such as marine and wind power.

Egypt: The military-run Al-Arish cement plant is building a new cement production line, which will be completed by the end of 2015, according to the head of the construction materials department at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce Ahmed El-Zeiny. After completion, the production line will double the plant's production from 3.5Mt/yr to 7Mt/yr. It is expected to cost up to US$112m.

"This is an attempt to fight the monopoly imposed by foreign cement facilities that sell cement at higher prices than the international standards," said El-Zeiny.

Angola: Cement production in Angola has reached 8Mt/yr, which was slightly more than the amount consumed, making Angola self-sufficient in terms of cement.

The China International Fund Ltd (CIF) plant is the country's newest cement facility. Production from the 4Mt/yr capacity cement plant enabled Angola to cease cement imports. The plant has two 5000t/day production lines, 145MW of power production capacity and three wind turbines.

Kenya: Savannah Cement, one of Kenya's newest market entrants, is set to build two new plants as it nears exhaustion of its current capacity, according to managing director Ronald Ndegwa. He said that Savannah Cement plans to invest US$250 – 350m for a clinker plant and a second mill to support its existing operations.

"We see ourselves running out of headroom in two to three years at our current mill, hence the new investment," said Ndegwa. "The clinker plant would use local limestone to make clinker."