Displaying items by tag: Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan: Eurocement plans to build a new 2.4Mt/yr cement plant in Uzbekistan worth US$128m. Commissioning is expected in 2016. The company has signed a contract with China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd for the supply of equipment, design, installation supervision and training for construction of the cement plant in the Tashkent Region.

Uzbekistan: Uzbek media has reported the launch of a criminal investigation and financial audit of Akhangarancement, a cement plant that is 84% owned by Russia's Eurocement in Akhangaran, Tashkent province.

State investigators are focused on alleged tax evasion, theft of assets, reporting irregularities and illegal activities of managers. Akhangarancement's general director Denis Dotsenko has reportedly left the country.

According to local media, the investigation was motivated by illegal cement exports for the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power plant and associated dam in neighbouring Tajikistan. The Rogun plant would significantly reduce water supply from the Syrdarya River, which is of vital importance for Uzbekistan's cotton production, its major export earner.

Uzbekistan: A new cement plant has been commissioned in the Zafarabad district of Jizzakh Province. Operating within the Almalyk Mining and Metal Plant open joint stock company, the enterprise is projected to produce 350,000t/yr of white cement and 760,000t/yr of Portland cement. 70% of the white cement produced is intended for export.

A 1400m railway is laid in the territory of the enterprise and 10 trucks, two excavators and other modern machinery has been procured. All of the production processes are automated.

The availability of major deposits of limestone has served as the basis for the plant construction. Gypsum is brought in from the Bukhara region, quartz is transported from Navoi region, kaolin and iron-containing additives are procured from the Tashkent region and loess is mined in Jizzakh Province.

Our spotlight is on Uzbekistan this week following an update on the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine's (AMMC) plans to build a new cement plant in the south of the country. The news emerged in the wake of the completion of the AMMC's cement grinding plant, in the Jizzakh region, which was finished in late March 2014. Meanwhile, Eurocement announced that its subsidiary in Uzbekistan, the Akhangarancement plant, had received a limestone and marl quarrying licence.

Previous to the new AMMC grinding plant, Uzbekistan had five cement plants with a total cement production capacity of nearly 6Mt/yr. Only one of these was a dry production process plant, the 2.5Mt/yr Krzylkumcement plant, in the south-western Bukhara province. Cement consumption in the country was estimated to be around the same, also at 6Mt/yr.

Back in 2011 the government of Uzbekistan planned to invest US$6.94bn to develop infrastructure, transport and communication construction from 2011 - 2015. This investment has now been followed up with a direct financial injection into the cement industry.

In late February 2014, local building materials company JSC Uzbuildmaterials announced government plans to invest US$49.1m into the local cement industry. The programme includes nine projects for the three largest cement plants in the country: the Kyzylkumcement plant, the Ahangarancement plant and the Bekabadcement plant. Kyzylkumcement will receive the majority of the investment, US$39.6m to spend over three years on a new cement mill, upgrades to the clinker production lines and construction of a 220/10kV main substation. Ahangarantcement and Bekabadcement will replace 'out-dated' equipment and will upgrade their production lines.

Mineral-rich Uzbekistan is relatively undeveloped but this is changing. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was reported to be US$51bn in 2012 by the World Bank, having seen steady growth since 2002, and its population was just over 30m in 2013. Its cement consumption is 300kg/capita, a figure below the global average (estimated at 536kg/capita in a forthcoming Global Cement Magazine report on 'Cement consumption versus Gross Domestic Product'). This places Uzbekistan in a favourable position for future development on a graph of GDP per capita against cement consumption per capita. The latest investment programme suggests that the Uzbek government are hoping that this is the case.

Uzbekistan: The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) is planning to build a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in the Surkhandarya region of southern Uzbekistan in 2015. The contract is being negotiated with Turkey's Dal Teknik Makina with a completion date set for 2015, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The US$250m project will be financed by equity funds of the AMMC, credits from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan and local Uzbek banks.

In late March 2014 the AMMC completed construction of a cement plant in Jizzakh region with a value of US$114m. The plant has a production capacity of 0.75Mt/yr of grey OPC and 0.35Mt/yr of white cement. The general contractor of the project was also Dal Teknik Makina.

Uzbekistan: OJSC Akhangarancement, a subsidiary of Russia's CJSC Eurocement Group, has received a limestone and marl production license for the Shavazsay field in the Almalyk region of Uzbekistan. A special commission of the Uzbekistan government issued the license, which covers the extraction of non-ore mineral resources.

The Shavazsay field, which was opened in 1974, has resources of 36.4Mt of limestone. Preliminary data shows that these resources will last for 25 years given Akhangarancement's current capacity.

Akhangarancement is one of the largest cement producers in Uzbekistan, with a 30% share of the market. It exports mainly to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The company is projected to produce 1.99Mt of cement in 2014. Cement production increased by 6% in 2013, while clinker production increased by 13% in the same period. The company's mountain division produced 1.64Mt of limestone in 2013, up by 19% on 2012.

Uzbekistan: The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (AMMP) plans to build a US$250m cement plant in the Surkhandarya region in southern Uzbekistan. The Government of Uzbekistan has instructed AMMP to start negotiations with Turkey's Dal Teknik Makina on the project's implementation. The plant will have a cement production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr and should be completed by 2017.

The project will be financed by AMMP with loans from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan and Uzbek banks. Previously the plant was to be built by the national oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz but it failed to attract foreign partners to the project.

AMMP and Dal Teknik Makina are also collaborating on a cement plant in the Jizakh region of Uzbekistan. The plant is due to be built by the end of 2014.

Uzbekistan: A new cement plant build in the Jizakh region of Uzbekistan plans to install its mill by early 2013. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.35Mt/yr of white cement and 0.76Mt/yr of grey OPC.

The project was initiated in July 2012 when Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC) and Turkey's Dal Teknik Makina signed a contract worth US$114m. Finance came from a US$74.2m loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan and AMMC contributed of US$40m. In June 2013 Dal Teknik Makina placed an order with Gebr. Pfeiffer SE for a Pfeiffer MPS 3350 B vertical roller mill.

Uzbekistan: The Turkish turnkey cement plant solutions provider DAL Teknik Makina has placed an order with Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE for a Pfeiffer MPS 3350 B vertical roller mill for raw meal. It will be used for the manufacture of grey and white cement in Uzbekistan.

The grinding plant is scheduled to go on stream as early as 2014. The mill is guaranteed to achieve a raw meal capacity of 200t/hr for the production of grey cement. When it comes to white cement, the mill will be capable of processing 160t/hr of raw material. The installed power of the mill will be 1700kW.

The company said that the order is proof of its good cooperation with Turkish companies and that it strengthens its Pfeiffer's position in Central Asia.