Displaying items by tag: Plant

Togo: HeidelbergCement has announced the construction of a new US$250m clinker plant with an annual capacity of 1.5Mt/yr in the town of Tabligbo, Togo. In addition, the company is building a new cement grinding facility with a capacity of 0.2Mt/yr in Dapaong.

"The construction of the new clinker plant and the cement grinding facility is part of our strategy to focus on expanding our clinker and cement capacities in growth markets. In addition to Asia and eastern Europe these include, in particular, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement.

"As west Africa possesses only relatively small limestone deposits, the clinker required in cement production often has to be imported at high cost. Our new clinker plant is of great strategic importance as it sources the limestone from its own deposits," added Scheifele.

The clinker will be processed to cement in HeidelbergCement's grinding mills in Togo as well as in the neighbouring countries of Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso. This will replace clinker that has previously been imported from overseas and thereby strengthen HeidelbergCement's competitiveness in Africa. HeidelbergCement said that the project will stimulate improvement in local infrastructure and housing and is expected to create around 1300 jobs locally, of which more than 200 will be at the plants.

The project is being conducted within the framework of a partnership between HeidelbergCement and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and its finance partners. Commissioning of the two new plants is scheduled for 2015. The capacity expansion in Togo is already included in HeidelbergCement's capital expenditure plan.

Philippines: Cemex has announced that it is planning to expand the cement production capacity of its APO plant in the Philippines by 1.5 Mt/yr. Through an investment of approximately US$65m, the company will increase production and strengthen its distribution network to better serve high-demand areas throughout the country. The increase is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2014.

With this new investment, Cemex says that it will keep pace with the Filipino market's rapid growth. The country registered a GDP growth of 6.1% in the first half of 2012, according to its National Statistical Coordination Board. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has begun multiple infrastructure projects as the country recovers from damage caused by extreme weather conditions.

"Infrastructure development has been one of the constant needs of the country and it has to be addressed with urgency," said Pedro Palomino, president of Cemex in the Philippines. "We are proud to be a part of the development of the Philippines and wish to be a long-term partner on its path to a prosperous, sustainable future."

Saudi Arabia: The management board of Saudi cement producer Qassim Cement (QC)has approved the installation of a new production line with a daily production capacity of 5500t/yr. The company said the move is in line with its efforts to meet growing demand. No financial details were made available.

QC, based in Buraida in eastern Saudi Arabia, was established in 1976 and is one of the eleven listed cement companies operating in the Kingdom.

India: Reliance Cement Company, a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, has started production at its first plant in Butibori, Nagpur. It is Reliance Group's entry into the cement market. The plant will service the Vidarbha region in eastern Maharashtra.

"The commissioning of the Butibori unit is a landmark event in the cement industry, marking the entry of one of the largest business groups of India into the sector. Reliance's foray in the cement industry is a natural extension of its interests in power and infrastructure businesses. Reliance Cement aspires to be amongst the top five cement companies in India in the next five years," said the vice chairman of Reliance Cement, Sumit Banerjee.

The company is currently commissioning two other plants with a total capacity of 10Mt/yr in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, costing US$1.08bn.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has ordered 110 air cannons from Martin Engineering to aid material flow in two new plants currently nearing completion in Brazil. The two new plants are part of a massive US$988m investment by Votorantim. They are expected to produce approximately 8500t/day of clinker when they come online later in 2012.

110 Martin Hurricane Supreme Air Cannons are to be installed in the plants in Cuiabá and Rio Branco, covering preheater towers, additive silos and cyclones. Benefits of specifying the new technology for air cannon networks include reduced energy costs, improved system performance and increased uptime, with greater availability of compressed air for other processes within the plant.

Burkina Faso: Burkina Faso is set to build a new cement factory, Cimburkina, the result of a partnership with HeidelbergCement. The new cement plant, with a production capacity of 0.65Mt/yr, will require an estimated investment of about US$47.2m.

The Cimburkina cement plant will be completed by December 2013, the culmination of a partnership between two domestic businessmen, Inoussa Kanazoe and Moussa Koanda and the German cement giant. It is expected that the plant will double its output to 1.3Mt/yr in 2014.

Nepal: Bishal Cement Industries (BCI) formally commenced operation on 28 July 2012. The factory based in Manahiya VDC-4 in the Rupandehi district, produces 300t/day of OPC and 400t/day of PPC brand cement.

"We are planning to use 70% and 30% of the total capacity to produce Pozzolanic Portland Cement (PPC) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)," said Jayendra Chudal, executive director of the company.

Costing over US$5.6m the factory has an inbuilt dust controller and six dust bag collectors to control the emissions. The company has been sourcing raw materials such as gypsum from India, Pakistan and Bhutan but using locally produced clinker. Direct employment opportunities have been provided to 150 skilled and semi-skilled workers.

With the opening of Bishal the number of cement factories operating along the Bhairawa-Lumbini Industrial corridor has reached 11. Producers estimate that Nepal has been importing 30% of its cement from India to meet its total domestic demand for 25Mt.

Vietnam: The state-run Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (VICEM) has announced that it made a pre-tax profit of US$15.9m in the first half of 2012, a 73% year-on-year rise compared to the first half of 2011 and 44% of its whole-year target. Howver, its revenues fell by 1.2% year-on-year to US$682m during the same period.

Vicem reports that it sold 9.71Mt of cement and clinker in the first half of 2012, a 1.4% drop compared to the same period of 2011. Of the total 0.65Mt was exported, a 1.5% increase. Vicem produced 7.45Mt/yr of cement and 7.08Mt/yr of clinker between January and June 2012.

Meanwhile, a city authority has called a halt to the construction of a new cement plant amid continued overcapacity in Vietnam. Kinh Bac City Development Share Holding Corp (KBC) has received approval from authorities from the central province of Nghe An to withdraw from a cement plant project worth of hundreds of millions of US Dollars.

Construction of the Saigon-Tan Ky plant, which was planned to have a designed capacity of 5Mt/yr, was started on 19 May 2010 and it was expected to be developed in two phases. The production capacity for the first phase was projected to be 2500t/day (0.95Mt/yr). Investment for the first phase was proposed at US$71.8m. Local media has reported that the support structures for the three kiln plant have not yet been completed.

Vietnam had around 2.8Mt of cement in inventories by the end of June 2012 but the figure is expected to rise to as much as 6Mt by the end of the year. Local media reports that the overcapacity has been brought about through the 'unplanned construction of cement plants' in recent years.

Switzerland: ABB, EKZ GETEC and Jura Cement have signed an agreement to install an ABB waste heat recovery (WHR) system at the Wildegg AG cement plant in Switzerland. The WHR is based on organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology, less common than the steam Rankine cycle, which currently dominates the waste heat recovery sector for cement plants. It is expected that Jura Cement will have to purchase about 20% less electricity from the grid for its operations at Wildegg as a result of the installation. EKZ GETEC is financing the system. It is also supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Energy within its 'Energy Switzerland' programme.

ABB has the expertise required to completely integrate the power plant into the cement production process. The turnkey power station order includes design, project management, delivery, installation and commissioning and is scheduled to be commissioned in November 2013.

Marcel Bieri, production manager at Jura Cement, said, "We will be able to generate 14,400MWh of electric power using ABB's waste heat recovery system. That's enough to satisfy the power demand of about 3600 Swiss households." Cement companies that use WHR technology benefit over the medium to long term because they are less exposed to rising energy prices. Payback times on the capital expenditure necessary for installing WHR plants vary but can be as little as two years in some cases.

US: Oakbio Inc, which develops speciality chemicals using novel microbial production processes, has announced that it has succeeded in producing bioplastic polymers by using only cement plant flue gas and electricity.

The company has developed bioreactors driven by non-toxic microbes that capture carbon dioxide emissions and turn them into sustainable products. Oakbio produced bioplastic polymers at Lehigh Southwest Cement Co's Permanente factory in Cupertino, California.

"Our carbon conversion process yields over 50% bioplastics in microbe biomass by dry weight from inputs of raw flue gas and electricity," explained chief scientist Brian Sefton, who pointed out that Oakbio's technology would help turn carbon dioxide into a feedstock for large-scale manufacturing processes.

According to the company, its process could support full-scale production of bio-chemicals without the use of petroleum or agricultural feedstock, help replace petroleum oil-derived plastics with bio-degradable ones and bolster capture of carbon dioxide to cut greenhouse gas accumulation.