Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
South Africa: The Congress of South African Trade Unions, a federation of unions, has publicly complained about government permission granted to China’s CBMI Construction to bring workers into the country. CBMI Construction was awarded a tender for a US$90m upgrade project at PPC’s Slurry plant in 2015 and the union says it was allowed to import 242 Chinese workers to work on it. It is alleged that these workers have been working in the country since October 2015 and will continue to do so until 2018. The federation has asked the Department of Labour to look into the issue.
Egypt: Misr Beni Suef Cement has delayed the installation of a coal mill at its Beni Suef plant to the third quarter of 2017. Farouk Mostafa, managing director of the company, said that the delay has been caused by a shortage of US Dollars needed to pay to import the mill and its spare parts and general currency variations with the Egyptian Pound that has raised prices, according to Daily News Egypt. The mill was originally planned for December 2016.
Filter system to be upgraded at Vencemos’ Pertigalete plant
24 January 2017Venezuela: The filter system at the Venezolana de Cementos (Vencemos) plant in Pertigalete is to be upgraded. The plant has reportedly had a capacity utilisation rate of 20% due to its filters, according to the Nueva Prensa newspaper. The state-owned company lacks the funding to import new equipment so the work will be conducted locally with a budget of US$25m. The upgrade is expected to be completed by the end of February 2017.
Following inspections at the plant, managers denied that the plant was operating at 20% of its capacity, despite the comments of workers at the plant. However, they did agree that its was operating below full capacity due to faulty equipment at the Planta I unit. Workers protested in mid-January 2017 over high levels of emissions at the plant
The Pertigalete plant reportedly produced 45% of all cement in the country in 2016 and it has a target of 66% in 2017.
Cherat Cement to build new production line at Nowshera plant
24 January 2017Pakistan: Cherat Cement has announced plants to build a third production line at its plant at Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The new line will have a cement production capacity of 7100t/day, according to the Express Tribune newspaper. The upgrade will increase the company’s production capacity to 4.5Mt/yr.
The cement producer opened at second production line at the site in late 2016. It is also planning to build a waste heat recovery unit.
Arif Habib Group to expand production at Power Cement plant
19 January 2017Pakistan: Arif Habib Group plans to spend US$235m on upgrading its Power Cement plant in Nooriabad to 3.37Mt/yr from 0.9Mt/yr. The upgrade will be completed by the end of 2019, according to the Express Tribune newspaper. Company chairman Nasim Beg said that he was hoping to take advantage of growing cement demand in the country as the effects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor heighten.
Power Cement has also completed a US$3.4m upgrade to its filter bag house equipment by installing new equipment to reduce dust emissions. Company officials say the plant is now capable of reducing dust emissions to just 17mg/m3. This is below the 300mg/m3 level set by the Environment Quality Standards in Pakistan and the World Bank’s limit of 100mg/m3 for old cement plants.
Funding released for PPC to build new line at Slurry plant
19 January 2017South Africa: PPC has completed the components of its 2008 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) transaction, releasing US$74m in funding in mid-December 2016. Strategic black partners and community service groups subscribed for 15.6 million shares as part of earlier agreements. The funding will be used to reduce company debts and pay for a new production line at its Slurry cement plant in Lichtenburg.
UK: Hanson is spending Euro29m on upgrades at its Ribblesdale cement plant in a seven-year project to improve production efficiency and emissions. In the first six months nearly Euro13m will be spent on improvements and maintenance to enable the plant to meet new dust emission regulations. This is the biggest investment programme at the site since the 1990s and includes a Euro2m replacement of the filters on two cement mills.
“The permitted dust level is being reduced by 66% in April 2017, from 30mg/m2 to 10 - the new equipment will perform better than this,” said plant manager Terry Reynolds. He added that the filters will run well below the new maximum dust emission levels after the installation
The plant will spend Euro7.5m, its largest investment, towards replacing its wet gas scrubber in March 2017. In addition, 75m of ducts have been replaced at a cost of Euro440,000 during a shutdown in January 2017 as part of a five-year improvement plan for the site’s exhaust gas handling system.
Ribblesdale employs 116 people and is supplied by two on-site quarries worked by an 11-person team and a team of contractors managing the loading and hauling of quarry materials. The cement plant has produced cement for projects including the Manchester International Airport, Heysham nuclear power station, Manchester United football stadium, Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral and also now for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
US: The CalPortland Rillito cement plant in Arizona has received an energy efficiency rebate of US$71,213 from Tucson Electric Power (TEP) as part of a programme providing incentive funds for energy efficiency projects. The cement plant installed an upgrade to its clinker cooler using funding from the TEP Commercial Energy Solutions program. To date, this is the construction materials producers largest rebate in the state of Arizona.
Industria Nacional del Cemento’s production rises in 2016
17 January 2017Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) production rose by 8% year-on-year to 13.2 million bags of cement in 2016 from 12.3 million bags in 2015. It also reported an operating profit of US$1.5m, according to La Nación newspaper. Company president Jorge Mendez said that the state-run cement producer produces 55,000bag/day of cement at its plants at Villeta and Vallemi, holding about 55% of the domestic market.
INC is completing a US$3.9m dryer upgrade at its Villeta plant with local contractor Engineering. Changes to the fuel used at its Vallemi plant are also on-going to cut energy costs.
Sibirskiy Cement spent US$17.8m on upgrades in 2016
11 January 2017Russia: Sibirskiy Cement spent a total of US$17.8m towards upgrading its cement plants in 2016. It spent US$5.2m towards modernising and automating production and about US$12.6m on the repair and maintenance of equipment, according to local media. Installing automated control systems was a priority of the upgrade work. Notably, the cement producer’s Topkinskiy plant received upgrades to its grinding and finished products units. Upgrade work will continue in 2017 with purchases of both domestic and foreign equipment.