Displaying items by tag: Plant

Egypt: ASEC Minya (formerly the Arab National Cement Company), part of ASEC Cement, has started the production of clinker at its 2Mt/yr cement plant in Minya. Cement production at the US$360m plant is expected to start by the end of June 2013.

"We are extremely proud to have been able to see this project through to completion despite the challenging operational environment," said ASEC Cement CEO Giorgio Bodo. "Security issues, fuel scarcity and a general environment of instability resulted in major setbacks and required us to come up with creative ways of ensuring that the project did not come to a halt." Construction on the plant began in December 2010 but work was interrupted by the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011.

ASEC Minya will produce Portland Grey cement using limestone in Minya governorate. The plant has created 400 direct and 800 indirect jobs in Minya.

ASEC Minya will be connected to the national grid via a 42km transmission line that connects the plant to the Samalloot power station. A slow regulatory approval process will not allow the plant to have a connection to the electrical grid until the end of 2013 but in the meantime ASEC Minya has come up with a temporary solution with rented generators to provide power to the plant.

ASEC Minya is the second greenfield cement plant to be launched by ASEC Cement in five years. The first was Takamol Cement in Sudan, a 1.6Mt/yr plant that began production in November 2010.

US: The Mexican multinational cement producer Cemex has announced that it plans to expand the production capacity at its Odessa, Texas cement plant by 0.345Mt/yr to nearly 0.9Mt/yr. The company will expand the plant in order to keep pace with rapidly growing demand in its West Texas market, which is led mainly by the oil and gas industry. By using existing assets and producing value-added products, the company expects to achieve strong returns on its investment.

"This expansion reinforces our longstanding history of serving West Texas and the oil and gas industry by providing superior products coupled with superior customer service," said Karl Watson, Jr, President of Cemex USA. "We look forward to remaining a top cement provider to the oil and gas industry as well as supporting the region's growth in infrastructure and residential construction."

The demand for specialty cement products used in well construction is growing as a result of the use of more efficient extraction technologies, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Oil wells using this technology typically reach depths of thousands of meters. Specialty well cement is required for the complex application and extreme conditions to which the wells are exposed. The expansion will use state-of-the-art production technology to achieve higher fuel efficiency and improved productivity. The expansion will also include an improved higher capacity load out system, allowing for a more efficient truck loading process to accommodate the region's growing demand for cement.

Thailand: German steel and engineering group ThyssenKrupp has won a Euro150m contract to build a cement plant in Saraburi near Bangkok for TPI Polene. The plant will have a cement production capacity of 10,000t/day and is scheduled to start production in 2015.

"With domestic cement demand expected to reach 45Mt/yr by 2015, Thailand is an important market and production location in Southeast Asia," commented ThyssenKrupp.

Tanzania: Dangote Cement has started construction of a US$500m cement plant in Mtwara, Tanzania. The 3Mt/yr plant is expected to be completed by March 2015. Company president Aliko Dangote said commencement of the Tanzania plant is part of the strategy of the group's strategy to increase its cement production capacity to at least 29Mt/yr by 2015.

"Our investment in this sector, which is outside the traditional mining sector, is to take advantage of the abundance of limestone in the country and work towards making Tanzania self-sufficient in cement production. We must commend the government and people of Tanzania for recent public sector and banking reforms as well as revamped and new legislative frameworks, which have spurred private sector-driven investment," said Dangote.

Philippines: Lafarge Republic has set aside US$47m for capital expenditure in the Philippines in 2013 to increase cement production capacity to meet demand. President Renato Sunico made the announcement at the company's annual stockholders' meeting in response to a profit of US$23.6m in the first quarter of 2013, a 35% increase year-on-year from US$17.5m in 2012. He added that the industry expects total demand for cement to increase by 6 to 8% in 2013.

Lafarge Republic is increasing its capital expenditure for a new mill at its plant located in Teresa, Rizal which will have a capacity to produce 850,000t/yr from 2015 onwards. It is also automating the processes of some of its plants, including that in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Sunico added that various productivity improvement projects are also expected to deliver additional capacity to supply the rising cement consumption. He noted that the company is planning to add an additional 2.3Mt/yr in cement milling capacity by 2015 to its current capacity of 6Mt/yr.

"We are predominantly strong in Luzon because all our four plants are here. We wanted a national footprint so we are moving to Davao, Iloilo, Batangas and mostly to Cagayan," said Sunico. He added the company is relying on the growth of high-rise real estate projects, increasing remittances of overseas Filipino workers and increases in the call centre industry to boost cement demand.

In 2012 Lafarge Republic spent US$35.3m on improvements at its cement plant in Danao City, for its Iligan City pre-heater project and the construction of the feeding system for refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at its Bulacan plant.

Sri Lanka: Nepali entrepreneur Binod Chaudhary has submitted a US$75m proposal to the Sri Lanka government to build a cement plant on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. According to Daily News, a Sri Lankan online news portal, Chaudhary has invested an estimated US$200m in several projects in Sri Lanka. He has been investing substantially in Sri Lanka ever since he acquired a substantial stake in the Taj Lanka Hotels of the island nation in 2000.

US: Texas Industries (TXI) has announced that the second kiln at its Hunter cement plant has achieved operational status. The 1.4Mt/yr kiln line started in November 2012 and has realised its design performance capabilities and is producing efficiently.

"The success of this process is the direct result of the hard work of a dedicated team. The challenges faced when starting up a new kiln line are many and the teamwork and communication of our people made all the difference," said Jamie Rogers, TXI's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

The company also announced that it will accelerate maintenance and upgrade projects on the original production line, Kiln 1. Pending successful completion of plant maintenance and equipment upgrades, TXI expects to bring Kiln 1 back online during the first quarter of 2014. Combined with the newly-added capacity of Kiln 2, the upgrades will double TXI Hunter's cement production capacity to 2.3Mt/yr.

TXI is the largest producer of cement in Texas and a major cement producer in California. TXI is also a major supplier of construction aggregate, ready-mix concrete and concrete products.

South Africa:PPC (Pretoria Portland Cement Company) plans to build a 1Mt/yr plant costing US$200m in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to its chief executive in an interview with Reuters. The South African cement producer aims to make at least 40% of its sales outside of South Africa by 2016.

"By the last quarter of 2015 we should begin cement production almost simultaneously in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the DRC. Zimbabwe will probably be six to nine months later," said chief executive Ketso Gordhan. He added that PPC is also looking at opportunities in Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi.

PPC reported its interim results for the half-year ending on 31 March 2013 on 16 May 2013. Profit fell by 20% year-on-year to US434.8m but total revenue rose by 8% to US$409m. Gordhan added that rising cement sales volumes for the half-year had been tempered by low sales in Botswana.

Mongolia: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed an agreement to provide a US$20m equity investment to Senj Sant, which will build and operate a 1Mt/yr green-field cement plant in Mongolia. This equity investment is part of a financing package that also includes a loan of up to US$130m. Half of the loan will be syndicated to other lenders.

"This investment marks a milestone in our activities in Mongolia. Not only is the volume of funds we are providing significant but it also signifies an important step in the diversification of the local economy," said EBRD First Vice President Phil Bennett.

Mongolia's economy grew by 17% in 2011. The new Senj Sant plant will be located in southern Mongolia about 450km from the capital Ulaanbaatar in a strategic location to supply cement and clinker to nearby large mining projects. Mongolia's Monpolymet Group owns Senj Sant.

Ghana: Stanbic Bank Ghana has closed a US$20.2m loan deal with Western Diamond Cement Limited, a company in the West African Cement SA (WACEM) Group, to build a 1Mt/yr cement plant in Egyam Bokro, near Takoradi. Production will start in 2014.

WACEM has two associate companies currently operating in Ghana, namely, Savanna Diamond Cement Limited (SDCL) in the Northern Region, and Diamond Cement Ghana Limited (DCGL) in the Volta Region. Stanbic Bank's relationship with the WACEM Group started in 2011. WACEM has cement plants in West Africa including Niger and Burkina Faso, and with project stage plants in Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire. It has recently commissioned a plant in Mali.

The current cement production capacity in Ghana is 5.2Mt/yr. The project raises the number of cement plants Ghana to four, with the addition of a bagging plant that processes imported cement.