Displaying items by tag: Plant

US: Holcim has broken ground on the two-year US$95m modernisation project of its Hagerstown, Maryland cement plant. The project is expected to reduce the plant's environmental footprint and create hundreds of construction jobs in the process.

In addition to creating between 200 and 300 construction jobs during peak construction, Hagerstown plant manager Fernando Valencia said that the plant modernisation will decrease NO_x emissions by an estimated 60% and SO₂ emissions by about 48%. The project includes shortening the plant's existing rotating kiln, installing a new preheater tower over the top of the remaining kiln and installing an energy-efficient clinker cooler to replace the existing one, according to Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo.

The project comes after Holcim was hit with federal Clean Air Act violations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2013. Holcim and the plant's former owner, St Lawrence Cement, agreed to a settlement with the EPA and planned to invest US$20m or more to upgrade the Hagerstown plant to significantly reduce NO_x and SO₂ emissions. The settlement, which was reached in July 2013, required Holcim to reduce SO₂ emissions by 230t/yr and NO_x emissions by 92t/yr by 9 September 2016. That would limit the SO₂ emissions to 655t/yr and 0.82kg (1.8lb) of NO_x per 0.89t (1 short ton) of clinker produced.

India: Maha Cement has announced that it plans to enter the Sri Lanka cement market with its joint venture company, My Home Industries Limited (MHIL), which is part-owned by Ireland's CRH. MHIL has 8.40Mt/yr of cement production capacity and plans to increase its capacity to 10Mt/yr by 2015. It plans to set up a cement plant in the east coast of Tamil Nadu, India, for import to nearby Sri Lanka.

Venezuela: Cemento Andino's Trujillo plant in Venezuela is set to undergo a US$240m capacity expansion. The plant currently produces around 600,000t/yr of cement. The construction of a new production line is expected to triple Cemento Andino's capacity. The project will take around two years to complete, generating around 500 direct and 1000 indirect jobs.

Turkey: Austria's A TEC Production & Services GmbH has been awarded a contract by Çimentaş Elaziğ for its plant in Elaziğ Province. The contract covers engineering for upgrades and efficiency optimisations of its preheater tower.

The scope of modifications comprises the redesign of all four cyclone stages, riser ducts and related equipment. The project target is to reduce the total preheater pressure drop by 25% and to increase production capacity by at least 8% on a sustainable basis.

The project will be executed in two phases. The first stage modifications were completed in May 2014, the second phase work is due to be completed shortly, while the third and fourth stages are due for completion in 2015. Phase one resulted in a sustainable production increase of 8% and a pressure drop reduction at the fan inlet by about 19%. Based on the phase one results, it is expected that the pressure drop before the fan will be reduced beyond the target figures after completion of phase two, which will allow higher production at less specific power consumption on the fan than initially targeted.

Turkey: Turkish cement producer Çimsa Çimento has agreed to take over Sançim Bilecik Çimento Madencilik Beton for Euro163m. Çimsa will purchase all 87.5 million shares of Sançim Bilecik Çimento from Turkish companies AUNDE Teknik Tekstil, E.N.A. Tekstil and six individual shareholders. Sançim Bilecik Çimento has 1.4Mt/yr of cement production capacity. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Nigeria: The board of directors of Ashaka Cement plc, with the support of parent company Lafarge, has agreed to fast track the expansion of its US$617m cement plant in Ashaka, Gombe State. The move became imperative in order to guarantee the future of Ashaka Cement, to enhance job creation and to deliver economic and social welfare to the immediate communities. Chairman of the board of Ashaka Cement, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga, confirmed the developments.

"Having secured sufficient limestone and coal reserves to support the existing plant as well as the new plant, the contracts have been signed with the main equipment and engineering suppliers," said Kwairanga. He added that credit facility lines of US$308m had been secured and signed in addition to internally generated cash flows to support the expansion project.

"Ashaka Cement has operated in harmony with all of its neighbouring communities to the mutual benefit of both parties," said Kwairanga. "In the last three years alone the company has spent US$2.47m on community-related projects and there is the opportunity for the company to do more as the partnership thrives."

India: OCL India, an associate company of Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd, has invested US$102m in the Bengal Cement Works plant in Paschim Medinipur Distict, West Bengal State.

Puneet Dalmia, director of OCL India, said that US$83.1m had already been spent on the project. According to Dalmia, construction of the 2Mt/yr capacity plant began in 2012 and had recently been completed. This was OCL's largest project outside Odisha State.

"This plant marks the initiation of the company's investment cycle in West Bengal,'' said Dalmia. OCL already has two cement plants at Cuttack and Rajgangpur in Odisha. The Bengal Cements Works will be the anchor investor at the Godapiasal Industrial Park.

India: Sagar Cements plans to sell its 47% stake in the joint venture company Vicat Sagar Cement to Vicat Group. Sagar Cement's board will consider the sale of its investment in the plant located at Chatrasal, Karnataka, at a meeting on 15 July 2014. Sagar Cements had invested US$14.3m in the first phase of the plant with 2.75Mt/yr capacity. Commercial production commenced in January 2013. France's Vicat is willing to acquire the stake to make Vicat Sagar Cement a completely-owned entity. Vicat is hoping to complete the entire transaction by September 2014.

Malaysia: Christian Pfeiffer has received the order to erect a turnkey cement grinding plant, including silos and packing facility, for Caha Mata Sarawak (CMS) in Kuching, Malaysia. The related contract was signed on 23 June 2014. The Euro36m order comprises engineering, fabrication and supply of the entire equipment including electrical and control equipment, installation and commissioning of the grinding plant as well as the complete construction work and layout of roads. The grinding plant has a designed capacity of 1Mt/yr of cement.

The delivery includes a two-chamber ball mill with slide shoe bearing, two 10,000t silos, two big bag loading stations and a packing and palletising installation for truck loading with a capacity of 3,000 bags/hr. One of the silos is equipped with a one-chamber system. The other one with a two-chamber system. The specific energy demand of the entire grinding plant is less than 40kW per tonne of cement. The construction work will start in July 2014 and completion and commissioning are scheduled for summer 2015.

Kazakhstan: Yug Cement Stroi LLP has emerged as a new investor to help finish the previously mothballed 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl Region. The company, acting as a strategic partner, has borrowed US$29m for seven years from Bank RBK to finance the completion of the plant's construction. It is intended that the plant will reach full cement production capacity in the autumn of 2014.

The Khantau cement plant has a design capacity of 0.36Mt/yr of clinker and 0.5Mt/yr of Portland cement with grades M400 and M500. The Hengyuan International Engineering Group has supplied technology for the plant. Its raw materials are extracted from the Khantau limestone deposit, Khantau sand and gravel deposit and the Ulkensai clay deposit located near the plant.

In 2007, ACIG borrowed US$30m from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for the construction of this cement plant. At the time the plant was 85% complete and mothballed due to the shortage of funds. In 2013, the project was transferred from the Development Bank to the Investment Fund of Kazakhstan.