![](/templates/proglobalmedia-main/images/globe-blue-whitebg.gif)
Displaying items by tag: Plant
Siam Cement to build US$370m plant in Laos
01 May 2014Laos: Siam Cement Group plan to build a US$370m cement plant in Laos. The 1.8Mt/yr plant is expected to start production in the second quarter of 2017.
"This plant is meant to serve the greater Mekong region," said President and CEO of Siam Cement, Kan Trakulhoo. Siam Cement intends to continue investing within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which is set to introduce a common market at the end of 2015.
Siam Cement's revenue for the first quarter of 2014 increased by 11% year-on-year to US$3.74bn. Kan added that political tension in Thailand has affected demand for cement in that country. Subsequently, the company is shifting its emphasis to exports.
Spain: Grupo Alfonso Gallardo has signed an agreement to sell its cement subsidiary, Cementos Balboa, and its paper subsidiaries to venture capital firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Under the terms of the deal, KKR will refinance a Euro500m loan to Grupo Alfonso Gallardo, which will concentrate on its core steel production activities.
The transaction led to the completion of the restructuring project launched by Grupo Alfonso Gallardo in 2012, destined to reinforce its financial position and refinance a debt worth Euro1.5bn.
Cementos Balboa runs a 1.6Mt/yr cement plant in Alconera, Badajoz. The plant started production in 2005.
Guangdong Tapai to build US$570m clinker line
23 April 2014China: Guangdong Tapai Group plans to invest about US$570m towards building a new clinker production line in Meizhou City in Guangdong Province. The line will include two 10,000t/day rotary kiln clinker production lines and two 20MW low-temperature waste heat power generation system. The project will produce 6Mt/yr of clinker and is pending government approval.
US: Gebr. Pfeiffer Inc., the US subsidiary of Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, has been contracted to supply a new raw material vertical roller mill for the Holcim (US) Hagerstown plant as part of a wider renovation project. The order was placed through KHD Humboldt Wedag, which is the engineering and equipment supplier for the Hagerstown plant modernisation. KHD has been contracted to modify the existing production line to increase the plant's potential production rate to approximately 2400t/day and to comply with the new NESHAP environmental regulations.
KHD's scope of supply begins with modifying the raw material feed system and continues through to the clinker handling system and storage hall. As part of the solution, a new raw material grinding mill, the MPS 3750 B, along with all related engineering services will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer, Inc. The raw material grinding mill includes a rotary air lock with drive, MPS 3750 B mill, an SLS 3150 B high efficiency classifier and includes Gebr. Pfeiffer's patented 'Lift and Swing' technology.
Commissioning for this project is planned for mid-2016.
Savannah Cement to invest US$200m in clinker production
22 April 2014Kenya: Savannah Cement plans to invest US$200m to develop a clinker plant. Currently, most of the major cement companies in Kenya rely on imported clinker.
Savannah Cement board chairman Benson Ndeta announced that the company, which currently has a production capacity of more than 1.5Mt/yr of cement, will develop the clinker plant to boost its market share. Ndeta said that the firm hopes to be a major competitor in the regional market in the supply of cement to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after satisfying its local market with cement.
Spain: French cement multinational Lafarge has reportedly withdrawn from talks that it was having regarding the acquisition of a Catalonian cement plant from the Spanish sector player Cementos Portland Valderrivas (CPV). The decision was attributed to Lafarge's merger project with Swiss cement maker Holcim, which will most probably lead to the sale of assets in European countries, including Spain.
Lafarge had been negotiating the acquisition of the Vallcarca plant for several months. The plant has a cement capacity of 1.3Mt/yr. Lafarge previously placed a Euro20m offer for the facility, which was rejected by CPV.
Tajikistan: Tajik President Emomali Rahmon was expected to give the green light for the construction of 0.5Mt/yr cement plant in Vahdat on Wednesday 16 April 2014. The Ministry of Industry and New technologies of Tajikistan (MoINT) says that an estimated budget for construction of the plant is US$81.5m. It will be built by China-based Beijing Uni-Construction Group, which will deliver the plant to Tajik firm Vahdat Cement on a turnkey basis.
Ambuja Cements to set up three new plants
15 April 2014India: Ambuja Cements will invest US$133m in 2014 from internal funds in order to partially finance its on-going capacity expansion projects.
"2014 will see capital expenditure worth US$133m, over and above the US$120m investment made in 2013. The entire proposed expenditure will be financed by internal funds," Ambuja Cements said in its annual report.
At present, Ambuja Cements has a cement production capacity of 27.25Mt/yr. It is setting up three 1.5Mt/yr capacity greenfield cement plants in Rajsthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Ambuja Cements is investing US$581m for setting up the three new plants. The company is also adding 0.8Mt/yr of clinker capacity in West Bengal and Rajasthan.
Shree Cement on expansion drive
15 April 2014India: Shree Cement plans to increase its cement production capacity to 20Mt/yr by 2015, up from 13.5Mt/yr in 2013.
Shree Cements will construct an integrated cement plant in Chhattisgarh for US$282m, a grinding plant in Bihar for US$82.9m and is increasing the cement production capacity at its plant in Rajasthan.
"The Chhattisgarh plant could be commissioned by April 2015, while the Bihar unit could be in operation as soon as May 2014. We are also on the verge of completing the expansion at Rajasthan," said H M Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement.
Vietnam: The Vietnamese government will no longer provide guarantees to foreign loans for cement projects, as domestic supply has surpassed real demand, according to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Local cement producers have been facing huge difficulties, including huge losses and high inventory due to the low domestic demand. While domestic demand has remained modest, the annual cement output continues to increase, reaching 70Mt in 2013. Cement sales remained low at 61Mt. Domestic cement production capacity is forecast to rise to 77Mt/yr due to the commissioning of five new cement plants with a combined production capacity of 7Mt/yr.
The Vietnamese government earlier guaranteed foreign loans worth US$1.36bn for 16 state-owned cement companies, including Dong Banh, Thai Nguyen, Tam Diep and Hoang Mai companies. According to an audit report in 2012 from the Ministry of Finance on cement projects using loans with the government acting as underwriter, 10 cement projects resulted in losses and some of them could not repay their loans.