Displaying items by tag: Plant

Kyrgyzstan: During the visit of Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Investment Tayirbek Sarpashev's to China, an agreement has been reached with Chinese investors to build a cement plant in Kemin.

The plant's capacity will be 1.8Mt/yr or 2500t/day. The construction period of the plant should take from one year to 18 months. Investments are expected of more than US$50m. It is planned that construction will begin in April 2012.

"It covers our volume and will lead to lower prices in the market and will substantially reduce the cost of construction in the north of Kyrgyzstan," said Sarpashev.

Nigeria: Nigeria's Dangote Cement re-opened its Gboko cement plant on 31 January 2013. The plant, which represents 20% of Dangote's production in the country due to its 4Mt/yr cement capacity was shut by the company in early December 2012, citing a glut in the market caused by imported cement from Asia.

"Since the shutdown of the Gboko Cement Plant, the government has been engaging local cement manufacturers in discussions and trying to find solutions to the challenges facing the industry," said Dangote in a statement. It added that the decision to re-open followed a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the firm's chairman Aliko Dangote.

At the end of December 2012, Dangote Cement said that it expected its first quarter pre-tax profit to rise by 39% year-on-year to around US$267.8m. Dangote has expanded aggressively in recent years, supplying a construction boom in Africa's second-biggest economy and most populous nation. It plans to grow its Nigerian production to 29Mt/yr by 2015 and is also building cement plants across Africa, although cheap imports from Asia are seen as a threat to margins.

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement Company has announced the start of commissioning of its third mill at its Jazan plant, which started on 27 January 2013. It is expected that commissioning will be completed by 15 March 2013.

Iran: Iran's Bank of Industry & Mine has allocated around Euro400m to complete 15 cement projects since 2010. The bank has financed 38% of Iran's cement projects, according to the IRNA News Agency.

The Bank of Industry and Mine is an Iranian government owned specialised bank located in Tehran, Iran. It aims to increase economic growth through the development of industry and mining. It is estimated that the bank has created some 4500 direct job opportunities.

In December 2012 Deputy Iranian Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister, Vajiollah Jafari, said that by reaching a cement production capacity of 115Mt/yr Iran will become world's third largest cement producer. Iran's cement output will reach 75Mt by the end of current Iranian calendar year on 19 March 2013. Iran plans to increase its cement output up to 85Mt by the end of the next Iranian Calendar year on 19 March 2014.

Iranian cement production surpassed 49Mt in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on 20 March 2012, an increase of 6% compared to the same period in 2011. Iran exported over 9.38Mt of cement and clinker in the same period, an increase of 30%. This comprised 8.25Mt of cement and 1.14Mt of clinker. Iraq, Central Asia, United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan were the main targets for the exported cement and clinker. Iran's cement production capacity is currently 86Mt/yr.

Zambia: Dangote Cement is set to open another US400m cement plant in Lusaka in 2014, bringing its total investment in Zambia to US$800m according to executive director Monica Musonda.

"The opening of the Dangote Ndola plant, which is situated in Masaiti, will make Dangote the biggest cement producer in the country producing 3000t/day," said Musonda. "The local cement production scenario will never be the same again with the coming of Dangote, which has now entered the Zambian market." She added that plans to open another 1.5Mt/yr capacity plant in the capital city after the completion of the Ndola plant in 2014 have reached an advanced stage.

China's Sinoma International Engineering has been hired to build the new Dangote plant. The chosen contractor would be announced once the construction process takes off. Musonda said, that like the Dangote Ndola plant, the Lusaka plant would be constructed using the latest, environmentally-friendly technologies that are commonly available in Europe and the United States.

Dangote's regional commercial manager Venkie Srinivasan said in an interview that his company expected a 40-45% share of the Zambian cement market after the opening of the Ndola plant in the third quarter of 2014. Srinivasan said that Dangote Industries in Zambia was set to meet the demand on the local construction and mining sector. He added that any excess cement would be able to compete favourably in the regional export market, including Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Elsewhere, Zambia's Southern Province permanent secretary Chileshe Mulenga announced that a consortium of Indian investors are planning to invest US$10bn in various industries in the region including the construction of a new cement plant.

India: Vicat Group, the French multinational cement producer, has announced the first line of commercial dispatch from its 2.75Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Chatrasala village, Gulbarga district, Karnataka. Cement from the plant will be marketed under the brand name of Bharathi Cement and targeted for domestic consumption in north Andhra Pradesh, north Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The Gulbarga plant is a joint-venture between Vicat and Sagar Cements. Vicat already has a joint venture, Bharathi Cement, in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, with a 5Mt/yr capacity which has been in operation since 2009. With the start of production at Gulbarga, Vicat's cement capacity in India has risen to 7.75Mt/yr, making it amongst the top cement producers in the south of India.

Vicat Group has close to 7400 employees working in three core divisions, cement, concrete and aggregates and other products and services, which generated consolidated sales of Euro2.27bn in 2011. The group operates in 11 countries: France, Switzerland, Italy, USA, Turkey, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Kazakhstan and India.

Nigeria: German vertical roller mill (VRM) producer Loesche GmbH has been awarded a contract for five new VRMs from China's Sinoma International Engineering, which is building a two kiln extension to the existing Dangote Cement Ibese plant. Loesche previously delivered equipment for the first and second lines at the same plant.

The five VRMs to be supplied are two 450t/hr Loesche Mill Type LM69.9 for raw material and three 310t/hr cement LM 63.3+3C cement mills. As with previous work at Ibese, the high moisture of the material of up to 20%, the sticky nature of the raw material and the low grindability of the raw material represent special challenges for the project.

In addition to the mills and the mill motors, Loesche will deliver metal detectors and hopper discharge feeders. The supply of the equipment will be split between Loesche, which is supplying key parts, and a Chinese-manufactured portion arranged by Sinoma International under supervision of Loesche. Delivery is scheduled at the end of 2013.

China: The chairman of West China Cement, Zhang Jimin, has said that West China's production capacity reached 23Mt/yr in 2012. Zhang added that the group plans to invest US$321m through mergers and acquisitions to increase production capacity to 30Mt/yr by 2015.

Hebei Province-based cement producer, Tangshan Jidong Cement has said that the company plans to set up a joint-venture (JV) with two cement firms in Mizhi County, Shaanxi-province. The JV will build a 2000t/day cement-clinker production line to expand the local cement market. Jidong Cement will pay US$15.7m for a 61% stake in the JV, which will have a registered capital of US$25.7m.

China Resources Cement Holdings, the largest cement producer in South China, said that its investment subsidiary will set up a JV with a local cement company in An'shun City, Guizhou province. The JV will have a registered capital of US$45m. China Resources Cement will invest US$28.1m in cash to hold a 62.5% stake in the JV while in the first phase, the An'shun company will take a 37.5% stake by providing properties and other assets worth US$17m. After completion, China Resources Cement will spend US$7.86m buying a 17.5% stake in the JV from the An'shun company, increasing its stake in the JV to 80%.

Azerbaijan: Norm has announced that the 2Mt/yr Gizildash cement plant will start operation in the last quarter of 2013.

"With a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr it will not only the largest in the region, but also the only plant producing API standard cement," said Norm's general director Hasan Yalcinkaya. Yalchinkaya added that the plant will hire 400 people, with another 100-150 people to be engaged in mining.

India: Reuters is reporting that the French cement giant Lafarge is in talks with private equity and financial firms to sell a 20-15% stake in its Indian unit, Lafarge India Pvt Ltd, which encompasses four cement plants, for about US$300m. It could also sell 100% of its Indian unit if a 'strategic' buyer is found.

With a capacity of 7.75Mt/yr across Lafarge India's plants, a US$1.2bn valuation of the assets gives an approximate asking price of US$154/t of installed capacity.

If Lafarge finds a buyer the move will continue a recent series of cement asset sales, notably in the US and the UK.