Displaying items by tag: Plant
New Eurocement contact for KHD
02 May 2012Russia: The leading Russian cement producer Eurocement has placed an order worth more than Euro80m with KHD for a new cement plant to be built in Stavropol, Russia.
The contract between Stavropolsky Zavod Stroitelnih Materialov, a member of the Eurocement Group, and ZAB Zementanlagenbau GmbH Dessau, a subsidiary of KHD Humboldt Wedag International AG, is for a new cement plant with an annual output of 1.3Mt/yr.
KHD's scope will cover the supply of production equipment, starting from raw material crushing all the way up to cement loading and packing. KHD will also supply automation and control equipment for the new production line. In addition, the companies concluded a separate contract for erection and commissioning supervision services, which is part of the total order volume.
The project will be booked as order intake immediately upon receipt of a down payment.
Major Middle Eastern contract for FLS
30 April 2012Denmark: FLSmidth has signed a contract worth approximately Euro85m with a company in the Middle East to supply a complete 6000t/day cement production line. The country and precise location of the plant were not announced.
The contract comprises complete equipment supplies and includes a combined limestone and clay crusher, a gypsum crusher, a circular stacker and reclaimer store, a stacker and side scraper store for additives, an ATOX vertical raw mill, a CF silo, a double-string preheater tower, a ROTAX kiln, an FLSmidth Cross-Bar cooler, an OK mill and equipment for the packing and dispatch of cement. FLSmidth will also supply automation equipment.
"FLSmidth has a long history in the Middle East and is maintaining its leading role in serving the rapidly-expanding cement market," said Group CEO Jørgen Huno Rasmussen. "The growing economy and increasing infrastructure investment in the region continue to offer opportunities. This project confirms that the slowdown from the 'Arab Spring' is lifting."
The company added that the cement plant would feature state-of-the-art equipment including the latest technology to ensure an environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient production process.
Lucky Cement to build plant in Iraq
27 April 2012Iraq: The board of directors of Pakistan's Lucky Cement Company has decided to set up a greenfield cement grinding plant with a production capacity of 0.87Mt/yr in Iraq under a joint venture. The board also decided to invest US$15m in the cement plant, which is estimated to cost US$30m as 50% share of its equity. The technical and financial evaluation of the proposed project has already been carried out.
Too much cement in Nigeria?
25 April 2012Nigeria: This week has seen a major development in the Nigerian cement industry, with a call from domestic manufacturers to ban cement imports, three months ahead of the government's schedule for the ban. The call has been presented in some quarters as proof that the country, long blighted by high cement imports, has achieved President Goodluck Jonathan's bold target of making Nigeria a net exporter of cement before 2013. In the face of steadily diminishing oil revenues the government would like Nigeria to be known as the regional cement exporter, but what else might happen?
According to the Cement Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria (CMAN), the country's total cement capacity now stands at 22.5Mt/yr. Domestic consumption is estimated at 18.5Mt/yr, translating into a required capacity utilisation rate of 82%. It is bizarre, therefore, that cement producers feel the need to call for an import ban. Perhaps:
a) The producers know that they can't compete with the low cost of imports from outside Nigeria,
b) The producers want to recoup their plant investment costs as quickly as possible,
c) The producers know that they can't export if the country continues to import.
With notoriously poor transport links within Nigeria, option c may be a small factor. If road and rail links are poor, transport costs increase and exports become less desirable for both the supplier and the end-user. What is more likely however, is a combination of a and b. Producers need to recoup their investments but can't if China and India can undercut them from thousands of miles away. If the desire to recoup investments goes unchecked when the import ban comes in, there is a high potential for cartel-like behaviour to surface again in the country.
One does not have to look back far to the last major incident of apparent cement market cartelisation in Nigeria. In mid-2011 President Jonathan had to step in and personally call for a 25% price reduction. His target was hit within three months, but since then prices have slowly started to rise again, even with Dangote's Ibese 6Mt/yr plant coming online just three months ago! With four producers committed to setting up a 3Mt/yr plant each by 2015 in exchange for 2011 import licences, the supply of cement in Nigeria will continue to rise, making the temptation to collaborate even stronger.
Eurocement’s Voronezh plant on track for July 2012
25 April 2012Russia: Alexei Gordeev, governor of the Voronezh Region, has met with Mikhail Skorokhod, president of Eurocement, to discuss the ongoing construction of a new plant.
Skorokhod noted during the meeting that construction of the plant was in its final stage, with an expected completion date of construction in May 2012. The plant will have a clinker capacity of 6000t/day (2Mt/yr) and occupy an area of 33.4 hectares. By July 2012 the company expects production of the first tonne of cement. By August 2012 landscaping will be completed. In 2012 the new plant is expected to produce 0.5Mt, with full capacity met by 2014.
Gordeev and Skorokhod also discussed development of local transport infrastructure, including the reconstruction of the railway station. Eurocement offered to fund design works for the construction of an overpass and an adjacent road whilst the governor raised the possibility of including the cost of improving transport infrastructure in the region in the regional budget.
Cemex to build two waste recycling plants in UK
23 April 2012UK: Cemex is planning to start building two new waste recycling plants in the UK later in 2012. As part of the project up to 30 new jobs operating a site in Rugby, Warwickshire will be created.
Cemex is working with recycling management company Sita UK to produce the alternative fuel, Climafuel, which is made out of domestic, commercial and industrial waste. It plans to build two new waste recycling plants, one in Birmingham and the other in Malpass Farm, next to its existing Rugby cement plant. Work is due to start later in 2012 with an opening date set for 2014. The Birmingham plant is due to start operation later in 2012 and it will also provide fuel for the Rugby Cemex plant.
Together, the two plants will be able to produce and supply up to 250,000t of Climafuel to Rugby which is currently permitted to use up to 65% Climafuel in its fuel mix. A current application to the Environment Agency could see this increase to 80%.
Dan Panormo, Cemex's renewable energy manager, said "With the fuel coming from within a 30 mile radius of the cement plant from Birmingham and subsequently from Malpass Farm, it guarantees the environmental credentials of this alternative fuel."
Indonesia – How high can you go?
18 April 2012Indonesia: It seems that not a week goes past without a forecast, announcement or other report about the continued boom in the Indonesian cement industry. Similarly, there is a steady stream of expansion announcements to accommodate the future demand. In light of another round of impressive cement statistics, what's the story for Indonesia in 2012 and beyond?
In the three months to 31 March 2012 Indonesia produced 12.5Mt of cement, an 18% rise on the first quarter of 2011. In the whole of that year, the cement industry turned out a massive 17% more cement than in 2010. These headline increases are certainly impressive and show that if the first quarter of 2012 was repeated three more times throughout the rest of the year, Indonesia would hit its 53Mt production forecast. This is more than double the cement production of 1998 (22Mt/yr in the midst of the Asian banking crisis) and, while from a low base, the values represent incredible sustained year-on-year demand growth.
But what is the potential of the Indonesian cement industry? This can be assessed by looking one of Indonesia's neighbours, namely Malaysia, and doing a quick thought-experiment. What would the Indonesian cement industry look like if the country were to suddenly develop demands and cement consumption patterns like Malaysia does today? Indonesia has a population 8.3 times higher than Malaysia1 and a cement consumption/capita rate approximately 2.4 times lower.2 Assuming current Indonesian cement consumption to be 50Mt, if all of the people in Indonesia were to suddenly start using cement like Malaysia does today, the country's cement industry would have to be nearly 1000Mt/yr to support demand!
While this is clearly not the case today and is unlikely to be fully realised, Indonesia will continue to develop economically. As it does, the world's fourth most populous nation will need more cement. How much is open to debate, but even if a small percentage of that hypothetical 1000Mt can be realised, it will certainly justify the current rush to add extra capacity. This is now especially likely in light of the December 2011 relaxation of land acquisition rules, which will make it easier to build both cement projects and the large construction projects that need cement.
Click here for much more on the cement industries of Indonesia and Malaysia (as well as Vietnam) from the April 2012 issue of Global Cement Magazine.
1. CIA World Factbook website, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.
2. Cement consumption per capita data for Malaysia taken from Lafarge 2010 Annual Report. (http://www.lafarge.com/04112011-customers_activities-cement_market_2010-uk.pdf). Malaysia is a representative comparison for Indonesia based on its GDP to cement consumption ratio.
ACC to upgrade and consolidate
04 April 2012India: Associated Cement Companies Ltd (ACC) is reportedly planning to boost its capacity by 16% to 35Mt/yr from existing 30Mt/yr at present. The expansion will entail an investment of around US$650m, which would be funded entirely from internal accruals.
To achieve this, ACC plans to set up a 4Mt/yr cement unit and a 2.79Mt/yr clinker unit at Jamul in Chattisgarh. The company will also stop its existing production line at Jamul. Grinding units are also planned at Sindri in Jharkhand and Kharagpur in West Bengal. The company also proposes to develop four coal blocks in Madhya Pradesh and one in West Bengal for its raw material requirements.
Gorazdze to be number one in Europe
04 April 2012Poland: Gorazdze Cement is set to become the largest cement production site in Europe thanks to the installation of a new mill. The new investment will see the company's production capacity grow by 25% to 5.5Mt/yr. Company president Andrzej Balcerek said that within three or four years cement demand in Poland will exceed 20Mt/yr.
Devnya starts work on Euro160m upgrade
04 April 2012Bulgaria: Devnya Cement has announced that it has officially launched the construction phase of a Euro160m project to upgrade its production facilities. The company has signed up Chinese turnkey cement plant builder CBMI, a subsidiary of Sinoma International Engineering, as a general contractor for a new 1.5Mt/yr cement production line, which is set to begin operation in early 2015.
The upgrade represents a significant step up for the company, a subsidiary of Italy's Italcementi, which currently has a capacity of just 2Mt/yr.