Displaying items by tag: Plant

Indonesia: Heidelberg Materials subsidiary Indocement has bought the 1.8Mt/yr integrated Grobogan cement plant in Central Java from Semen Grobogan. The plant commands sufficient limestone reserves for the next 50 years and has 700,000t/yr of additional cement grinding capacity.

Heidelberg Materials chair Dominik von Achten said “As part of our ongoing portfolio optimisation, we are making an exciting step in the growth market of Indonesia. Heidelberg Materials has been active in Indonesia for more than 20 years. With this investment, we are now strengthening our presence in one of the most populated regions in Indonesia, where we expect further market growth driven by the growing retail market, developing industrial areas and major infrastructure projects. As frontrunners of decarbonisation in emerging markets, we continue to drive our ambitious CO₂ reduction targets at all our sites in Indonesia, including the new cement plant.”

Bulgaria: Heidelberg Materials subsidiary Devnya Cement has commenced construction of the ANRAV.beta carbon capture pilot unit at its Devnya cement plant near Varna. Construction will take ‘a few months,’ followed by a pilot trial lasting 12 – 24 months. The ANRAV system will rely on OxyCal oxygen-enriched burner technology to eventually capture 800,000t/yr of CO₂ from 3Mt/yr of plant flue emissions. The project has Euro190m in grants from the EU Innovation Fund and is scheduled for delivery in 2028.

Heidelberg Materials’ Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia regional director Ernest Jelito said “The OxyCal technology we will be trialling in Devnya is a crucial addition to our portfolio of capture technologies. Obtaining solid operational data from industrial pilots like this is essential to ensure the successful implementation of projects under our comprehensive CCUS investment programme. At the same time, we can demonstrate an economically feasible way to decarbonise carbon-intensive industries in Eastern Europe.”

India: Dalmia Bharat has announced a planned investment of US$10.9m in a grinding unit expansion at its 1Mt/yr Banjari cement plant in Bihar. The expansion will raise the plant’s capacity by 500,000t/yr and conclude before 31 March 2025.

Afghanistan: Qatar-based Al-Falah Global and International Task Group has won a government contract to expand Jabal Siraj cement plant. Local engineering firm Awfi Bahram will also collaborate on the project. BBC Monitoring South Asia has reported that the work will increase the plant’s capacity by a factor of 50 to 1.5Mt/yr from 30,000t/yr. The total cost of the project is US$220m.

The Indian corporate rumour mill ramped up this week with speculation that UltraTech Cement and Adani Group might possibly be interested in buying Heidelberg Materials' assets in India. This follows the story broken by the Economist newspaper last week that JSW Cement had made an unsolicited offer to buy them. However, when HeidelbergCement India was asked by the Bombay Stock Exchange what exactly was going on, it replied that it was unaware of any such development and that it did not comment on market speculation.

A week later though and now another related story has popped up. In this case it is unclear exactly what the Hindu newspaper actually knew. The country’s two largest cement producers are locked in a battle for capacity expansion and any opportunity is likely to be of interest to them both. Yet the newspaper did quote a source who said that any divestment by HeidelbergCement India (HCI) would involve a “full-fledged bidding process,” implying that something may be going on.

Germany-based Heidelberg Materials operates four main subsidiaries in India: Gulbarga Cement; HC Trading (India); HCI; and Zuari Cement. HCI and Zuari Cement are the main two in terms of cement production. Heidelberg Materials entered the market in 2006 via a number of purchases and a joint-venture. It then acquired Zuari Cement via its takeover of Italcementi in 2016. Between them the two subsidiaries operate four integrated plants, three grinding plants and one terminal in Central and Southern India. Altogether the company says it has a total cement production capacity of 14Mt/yr. Gulbarga Cement, meanwhile, is a long running project via Zuari Cement to build a new integrated plant at Gulbarga in Karnataka. As of mid-2021 at least the company was still finalising planning and permitting requirements.

HCI’s income fell by 3% year-on-year to US$275m in the financial year to the end of March 2023 from US$282m in the same period that ended in 2022. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped by 39% to US$35.4m from US$58.2m, its lowest figure since at least its 2017 financial year. The company blamed this on higher fuel prices, although it has been trying to offset this by optimising its fuel and power mix. Unfortunately, it was not able to pass these costs on to its customers through price rises due to competition and new cement plants being commissioned in its market areas. Its revenue and profits improved somewhat in the quarter to July 2023. Recent financial data on Zuari Cement appears to be unavailable, possibly in part due to the company changing the dates of its financial year in 2020. However, it reported revenue of US$249m in its 2021 financial year, a broadly comparable figure to HCI’s. When asked during the company’s earnings call in July 2023, HCI’s managing director Joydeep Mukherjee did confirm that the company was looking at a potential merger with Zuari Cement. However, the company was waiting for the right time before it would consider actually doing it.

The Indian cement market has been consolidating in recent years. Companies have been increasing their production capacity, competition has been intensifying and the spike in fuel prices in 2022 battered profits. Adani Group’s acquisition of Holcim’s businesses in 2022 has probably been the most visible example of this trend towards mergers and acquisitions. It follows UltraTech Cement’s acquisition of Jaiprakash Associates in 2017. Heidelberg Materials has been steadily selling off bits and pieces of its cement business since the mid 2010s but at a slower pace than Holcim. Selected sales have occurred in Italy, Spain, Georgia, Ukraine and various countries in Africa, but the biggest was the sale of its US West region to Martin Marietta Materials for US$2.3bn in 2021. It reinforced this process with its ‘Beyond 2020’ strategy with the stated aim to simplify its country portfolio and prioritise its strongest market positions. A large-scale divestment of its operations in India would certainly fit with this plan. Whether the current reporting is accurate or not, Heidelberg Materials’ intentions for its Indian operations are certainly worth keeping an eye on.

India: The Odisha State Pollution Control Board has granted Shiva Cement consent to operate its Sundergarh cement plant up to production volumes of 1.5Mt/yr, Reuters has reported. The producer commissioned the plant’s 1.36Mt/yr-capacity clinker line in June 2023. At that time, the plant had consent to operate with clinker production volumes of up to 660,000t/yr.

El Salvador: Holcim El Salvador says that its first electric cement truck will enter operation at its El Ronco cement plant later in 2023. Local press has reported that this will reduce the plant’s carbon footprint by 560t/yr. The El Ronco plant is the subject of an investment in renewable energy infrastructure to cover 21% of its electricity consumption. The company is also investing in circular economic practices with a view to achieving net zero CO₂ emissions.

Holcim El Salvador chief executive officer Rodrigo Gallardo said "We are building more with less, incorporating recycled materials into our production processes, giving them a second life in order to use only what is necessary and thus contribute to preserving our planet." He added “We are building progress for people and the planet, with the vision of making sustainable construction affordable for everyone. The future of construction in El Salvador is being transformed, and we are proud to be leading the way, as we have done for the past 74 years."

US: Ash Grove Cement plans to build a new cement mill at its cement plant in Durkee, Oregon. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024. The upgrade is intended to allow the plant to manufacture low-carbon cement products.

Serge Schmidt, the president of Ash Grove Cement, said "The transition to low carbon cement production and reducing our environmental footprint is a top priority for Ash Grove Cement. We are always seeking new ways to improve our sustainability performance while providing high-quality cement solutions to our customers. This state-of-the-art finish mill at our Durkee plant will strengthen Ash Grove's position as a leader in low-carbon cement across the Western US."

Australia: Boral has been halting production at its various production plants when the cost of electricity becomes too high. “At a certain point during the day, when the price goes up to a certain level, our manufacturing stops,” Chief executive officer Vik Bansal told the Australian Financial Review energy and climate summit. He added that the company had assessed that it was cheaper to have “thousands of people waiting idle for the prices to come down than actually do the work.” Additional reporting by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper revealed that Boral’s staff had been working overtime and in night shifts to manage energy costs and to maintain the supply of building material products to its customers. Bansal told the summit that the company’s electricity costs rose by 54% in the 12 months to the end of June 2023.

However, Bansal was not clear whether all or just some of Boral’s plants have been stopping production temporarily due to peak daily electricity prices. The company produces cement, lime, concrete, asphalt and aggregates at 360 locations.

Boral has signed a fixed-price, 10-year power purchase agreement that will cover 19% of its renewable electricity needs to 2035, but is reportedly struggling to find other cost-effective options. In August 2023 it also reduced its emissions reduction target to 2025 from 2019 figures to up to 14% from 19% previously. It blamed this on “external factors” such as delays in securing the required regulatory approvals for the next phases of an alternative fuel program.

Algeria: Amouda Cement plans to start exporting cement to the European Union (EU) by end of 2023. It obtained a certificate of conformity to EU standards in March 2023, according to the Algeria Press Service. Djarmoun Fatimé, the cement producer’s Marketing and Communications Director, made the announcement at the Batiwest 2023 trade show taking place in Oran. The company has exported nearly 200,000t of cement and clinker to Mali and Niger since 2021. It is also hoping to target countries in West Africa such as Mauritania and Senegal.

The company operates a 2.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant with two production lines at El Beïda in Laghouat province.