Displaying items by tag: Raw Materials

India: JSW Group says that it will cease US$400m/yr worth of imports of Chinese equipment and materials due to Chinese military activities on the Sino-Indian border in Kashmir. Managing director Parth Jindal said, “The unprovoked attack by the Chinese on Indian soil, on our brave jawaans has been a huge wakeup call and a clarion call for action.”

US: CalPortland has awarded a supply contract to FLSmidth for a new raw mill at its integrated Mojave plant in California. The scope of supply includes engineering, equipment and installation of a new OK 48-4 Raw Mill with a Condition Monitoring System and an ECS/ProcessExpert system. The mill is scheduled to be in operation in late 2021. No value for the current order has been disclosed.

“The new OK Raw Mill from FLSmidth will increase reliability and efficiency at our Mojave plant," said Bruce E Shafer, Senior Vice President for Cement Operations at CalPortland. It follows the purchase of a FLSmidth OK Cement Mill at the same plant in 2004. FLSmidth added that as both OK mills at the plant will share the same gearbox design, the unit will be able to streamline maintenance and manage inventory costs by sharing the one spare FLSmidth MAAG WPU-200 assembly.

Canada: Haver & Boecker Niagara has launched a new service programme. Called PROcheck, the programme conducts operational analysis of screens used in raw materials processing. PROcheck reports to Haver & Boecker, which is then able to recommend to producers the best practices for raw materials processing proficiency. Haver & Boecker Niagara North America and Australia president Karen Thompson said, “By partnering with our customers through the PROcheck service programme, we are monitoring the efficiency of their screening process to identify potential problems early on.”

Thompson said, “We are experts at looking at the big picture,” “We engineer and manufacture both vibrating screens and screen media, and this gives us the insight to offer valuable advice producers won’t find elsewhere.”

Germany: Vecoplan has said that it will host 360-Degree Days, an exclusive live presentation from its technology centre, from 27 - 29 May 2020. It says that the event is aimed at filling the void left by the cancellation of IFAT 2020, which would have covered waste and raw materials management, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Vecoplan said, “Participants will learn all about recycling and processing technology, subdivided into several topic areas. Details on the content will be announced closer to the time.”

Austria: RHI Magnesita has published a trading update in which it says that ‘the difficult market environment of the second half of 2019 continued into the first quarter of 2020, with limited impact from the COVID-19 outbreak.’ Demand remained consistent year-on-year, with its industrial division continuing to perform well, particularly in cement.” The company noted lower raw material costs due to ‘reduction in overall demand and uninterrupted supply from China.’ RHI Magnesita has increased its focus on cost management, temporarily closing one Mexican and three European plants, introducing short-time working and deferring at least Euro45.0m of capital expenditure in 2020.

In the second quarter 2020, RHI Magnesita said, “The trading environment has become increasingly challenging” as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, which caused a drop in ‘customer activity and order book levels.’ In spite of this, cement sector sales ‘remained relatively resilient,’ with some producers ‘accelerating maintenance work in shutdowns,’ partially offsetting the effects of project postponements.

Colombia: Cementos Argos owner Grupo Argos has announced a raft of cuts to investments and expenses worth a total of US$245m in response to the impacts of Covid-19. Noticias Financieras News has reported that US$61.2m of the cuts will be to planned investments in expansion projects and raw materials inventory restocking, including to some in the cement business. Group Argos President Jorge Mario Velasquez said that the measures would, “give additional currency for the different sources, cash and funding that the organization has access to and give us relative peace of mind in our cash structure.”

Grupo Argos said it would stick to its US$3.67bn five-year investment plan.

India: Several cement producers have responded to the coronavirus pandemic with plant closures. Reuters has reported that India Cements has temporarily closed all of its plants. JK Lakshmi Cement has suspended cement production at its 4.2Mt/yr integrated plant in Jaykaypuram, Rajasthan and at three grinding plants. JK Lakshmi subsidiary Udaipur Cement Works has shut its 1.6Mt/yr integrated Udaipur plant, also in Rajasthan.

Dalmia Bharat refractory production subsidiary Dalmia-OCL’s CEO Sameer Dagpaal told the Business Standard newspaper that he expected the virus’ impact on the company to be ‘relatively limited,’ with a slowdown in demand from the cement sector lasting at most ‘a couple of months.’ He noted that there had been ‘some minor supply-side disruptions relating to a shortage of raw materials from China.’

On 24 March 2020 the all-India total number of coronavirus cases crossed 500, with nine dead, according to Al Jazeera. 200 cases are in the western states of Maharashtra and Kerala.

China: Hebei province-based Tangshan Jidong Cement’s net 2019 profit was US$298m, up by 42% year-on-year from US$210m in 2018. Cement and clinker sales remained flat. Tangshan Jidong Cement attributed the growth to increased prices due to a 9.9% year-on-year increase in infrastructure spending to US$1.86tn. Throughout the year, the company said, it completed energy-saving optimisation and upgrades to improve efficiency, implemented strategic marketing and reduced the cost of material procurement.

Philippines: Cemex Holdings Philippines has announced that production of will continue as normal at all its plants in spite of the global coronavirus pandemic. Reuters has reported that the company has activated rapid response teams throughout operations to reduce the disease’s impacts. Cemex Holdings Philippines has said that there will be no material disruption in its ability to transport products or receive raw materials and equipment.

France: Hoffman Green Cement Technologies, a pioneer in low-carbon cement production, has announced the publication of its Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) in the INIES database, France’s national reference database for environmental and health performance in the construction sector.

The LCI published by Hoffmann Green summarises all incoming and outgoing flows of raw materials and energy resources used to manufacture its H-UKR and H-EVA cements to allow an assessment of the environmental impacts. They will serve as input data for the software that carries out the life cycle analysis of a construction product, often comprising several materials.

H-UKR is a binder that is based on alkali-activated blast furnace slag, which is sold into the precast concrete, ready-mix concrete and bagged cement markets. H-EVA is a high ettringite binder that is used in the mortar, coatings, road binder and ready-mixed concrete markets.

Julien Blanchard and David Hoffmann, the company’s founder’s stated, "The publication of the LCI of our cements is a first in France and is part of our determined ambition to decarbonise the construction sector and be fully transparent vis-à-vis all our stakeholders. It also illustrates our commitment in the face of the climate change emergency and the need to reconcile cement and the environment.”