Displaying items by tag: Togo

Togo: Four people were killed when a fuel tank exploded at the West African Cement (WACEM) plant in Tabligbo, the country's security minister has announced.

"Six workers were carrying out welding work on the roof of the tank when the tragedy happened. A total of four people died," said Colonel Yark Damehame to AFP. The explosion left one worker seriously injured and in intensive care. Another worker, an Indian national, is missing and a search is underway according to local media. A staff representative at the plant, Emmanuel Montcho, said that the Indian national was the foreman and that 13 workers in total had been working to repair the tank before the explosion.

HeidelbergCement has been reportedly showing interest in South Africa and Mozambique this week following the opening of new production capacity in West Africa. The Germany-based cement producer has beefed up its presence in the region with the inauguration of a 1.5Mt/yr clinker plant in in Togo and a 0.7Mt/yr grinding plant in neighbouring Burkina Faso. An additional 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant in the north of Togo is also planned for commissioning in late 2016. Other new projects in Africa include a new 0.8Mt/yr grinding plant in Tanzania that was commissioned in October 2014 and a new 0.8Mt/yr grinding mill at the Takoradi grinding plant in Ghana.

HeidelbergCement has repeatedly stated that it is considering production capacity expansions in other African countries. It currently operates in Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mostly it's a network of grinding plants with actual clinker producing plants in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Togo. Its presence covers a band across central sub-Saharan Africa. Moving out of this zone into southern Africa would start to give HeidelbergCement a truly continental presence. However, from Dangote to PPC to Lafarge Africa other players are hard at work building their own cement empires.

The wild card here is how involved Chinese firms are in this process. Chinese companies like Jidong Development are building their own cement plants like the Mamba Cement plant in South Africa or Gweru in Zimbabwe, where upgrades are currently taking place. More commonly though Chinese companies like Sinoma are building new African cement plants such as a new PPC cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo or a new United Cement Company of Nigeria Limited (Unicem) cement line in Nigeria or several Dangote projects.

As part of the commissioning process for HeidelbergCement's new clinker plant in Togo, the Chengdu Design and Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI, part of Sinoma) has emphasised that it will transfer the maintenance responsibility to local Togolese workers. The fact that the CDI's chairman made a point of saying this underlines tensions about both existing and changing international business influences in the region. Contrast this with the more sympathetic way in which Dangote's expansions in Africa that are portrayed by local media. Or look at this week's announcement by Egypt's ASEC Engineering and Management to help run a cement plant in Ethiopia. There is no need for calming statements from ASEC.

Finally, after all the discussion of the effect of oil prices on alternative fuels usage by cement producers it is worth noting what HeidelbergCement stated in its February 2015 trading statement. Principally, a drop in the price of oil is expected to present a positive impact on costs and market demand for the group. HeidelbergCement generates 86% of group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in net oil importing countries. In these places lower oil prices means potentially faster GDP growth and greater infrastructure spending. It is also worth considering the impact lower oil prices might have on the group's total oil and diesel bull of Euro250m/yr.

HeidelbergCement's full annual results for 2014 are due to be published on 19 March 2015. Maybe they will be more forthcoming about its intentions in Africa then.

Burkina Faso: HeidelbergCement has started production at its 0.7Mt/yr CimBurkina grinding plant in Kossodo, Burkina Faso. The plant will be supplied with clinker from HeidelbergCement's new 1.5Mt/yr plant in Tabligbo, Togo, which is currently under construction. The Cimburkina plant is a partnership with two local businesses.

HeidelbergCement's CimBurkina plant means that Burkina Faso now has three cement producers. India's Diamond Cement is the market leader with a 60% share while Morocco's CIMAF also has a considerable share. "Our goal is to capture 25% of the market and create a healthy competitive environment for balancing supply and demand," said CimBurkina's CEO Eric Goulignac.

HeidelbergCement is also considering entering South Africa and Mozambique to tap growing African demand.

Togo: China's Chengdu Design and Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI) will transfer the maintenance responsibility of HeidelbergCement's 5000t/day clinker plant to the Togolese people, according to CDI's chairman. The plant is part of a US$250m cement production industrial complex. Delivered three months in advance, it was inaugurated on 6 March 2015 with a two-year period warrant.

"Over the two-year period, CDI will train the Togolese to conduct care and maintenance of the plant after the contract has ended," said CDI chairman of the board Jiao Feng. The plant is in Yoto, about 90km northeast of Lomé. "We must underline that twice as many Togolese than Chinese were used for the construction and the outcome is the endeavour of both parties," said Jiao.

Togo: Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry, which belongs to the Chinese Sinoma Group and acting as General Contractor for a new cement production line in Togo, has ordered an MPS 5000 B vertical roller mill from Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE for raw material grinding. The grinding plant will be set up in a greenfield 5000t/day cement production line owned by Scantogo, a member of HeidelbergCement.

The MPS raw mill sold will have a rated capacity of 410t/hr and has been specially designed to cope with the possibility that raw material with a high moisture content of 15% may be ground.

Apart from the supply of the core components for the grinding plant, the order includes the supply of workshop drawings to enable the local manufacture of mill components and the supervision of manufacture at Chinese workshops. Moreover, erection and commissioning on site will be supervised by staff from Gebr. Pfeiffer.

The mill is scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of 2013.

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.