Displaying items by tag: Vietnam

Sri Lanka: Insee Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to protect limestone hills in the company’s quarrying sites in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ultimate goal of the partnership is to turn the limestone quarrying sites into forests through rehabilitation programmes.

In Sri Lanka, the agreement is intended to strengthen Insee Cement’s capacity to rescue and release threatened wildlife, prepare mine restoration guidelines and carry out annual ecological monitoring of restored mines in Insee Cement’s quarry sites in Aruwakkalu and Puttalam.

“In Sri Lanka we have worked with IUCN since 2007 to ensure conservation in quarry sites, as the partnership is focused on delivering practical solutions which protect Sri Lankan ecosystem. We take pride in meeting the expectations of our local stakeholders and join hands with our group and OpCo’s on the dedicated commitment to enhance forestry and quarry management in Asia,” said Nandana Ekanayak, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Insee Cement.

Vietnam: Xie Guozhen, the head of the Vietnam office of Nanjing C-HOPE Cement Engineering Group, says that the company is planning to build a new production line at the Lien Khe plant in Haiphong. The Chinese engineering firm has previously built five cement production lines in the country, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper.

Vietnam: Data from the Vietnam Cement Association (VNCA) shows that the country’s export volumes of cement rose by 55% year-on-year to 31.7Mt in 2018. Producers generated an estimated US$1.2bn from exports, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The VNCA’s Chairman Nguyen Quang Cung attributed growing exports to decreased production in China, where production lines have been closed due to pollution.

The Ministry of Construction has attributed growing exports to better performance in the construction sector. Domestic cement consumption grew by 9% to 65.1Mt in 2018. It estimates that consumption will rise by up to 8% in 2019 to around 99Mt, comprising 69Mt for the local market and 30Mt for export. The main export markets in 2019 are expected to be the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan and Peru.

Indonesia: Semen Indonesia has signed a sales and purchase agreement worth US$917m to buy a 80.6% share of Holcim Indonesia. The acquisition gives Semen Indonesia a production capacity of 53Mt/yr making it the largest cement producer in south-east Asia, according to the Antara news agency. Prior to the purchase it had a capacity of 38.2Mt/yr and Holcim Indonesia had a capacity of 14.8Mt/yr.

Sigit Wahono, the temporary head of the Semen Indonesia Communication Department, said that the company is planning to increase its exports from 10% of total sales at present. It exported 860,060t in 2017. To the end of October in 2018 it had exported 2.3Mt, comprising 1.25Mt of cement and 1.1Mt of semi-finished cement. Its main targets are Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with the majority of imports coming from Indonesia but 0.7Mt coming from the group’s subsidiary in Vietnam.

Vietnam: Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved an upgrade to the Long Son cement plant in Thanh Hoa province. The plant will have two new production lines with a total production capacity of 2.3Mt/yr, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. The new lines will also include waste treatment systems. Line 3 is expected to begin operation in 2020 and line 4 in 2021. The Ministry of Construction has been assigned to work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the provincial People’s Committee to supervise the project.

Vietnam: The Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked the Ministry of Construction and VICEM to report on the country’s excess cement capacity, which is set to reach 25-36Mt/yr by 2020.

The latest statistics from the Ministry of Construction’s Building Material Department show that cement consumption was approximately 45Mt in the first half of 2018, a rise of 30% year-on-year compared to the same period of 2017, and more than 50% of the year’s plan.

The sector’s capacity is 110Mt/yr, including the volume from plants expected to be built in 2018. Aside from that, existing plants have kept improving technology so their production capacity might reach 120-130Mt/yr by 2020.

Three large projects with the total capacity of 10Mt/yr were put into operation in the past 12 months. In 2019 many more projects are expected to come into operation, with a total new capacity of 12Mt/yr coming online.

Vietnam: Associate Professor Dinh Trong Thinh, of the Academy of Finance – part of the Ministry of Finance, has conceded that exported cement from the country has a low price due to the poorer quality of some of its product. In an interview with the ministry’s press service, Vietnam Economic News, he said that some smaller and medium-sized cement producers use old technology such as shaft kilns, according to Việt Nam News newspaper. He added that local producers were forced to export cement at lower prices than it is sold domestically to reduce inventory. He noted that this was not sustainable in the long run due to production costs and overseas competition.

Vietnam: Ha Thanh Cement has been blocked from building a 0.5Mt/yr grinding plant in the Tran De Industrial Park in Soc Trang province. The Ministry of Construction said it did not conform to current regulations, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. The ministry added that the company could not set up the grinding plant as there was no clinker line with the same output capacity in the region. It cited Planning 1488 on Vietnam’s cement development for the 2011 - 2020 period, with vision until 2030. Existing regulations require all cement grinding plants to accompany clinker production lines and do not allow for any standalone grinding plants.

Vietnam: China has become the largest importer of clinker and cement from Vietnam in the first nine months of 2018. It imported 6.56Mt with a value of US$235m, according to the Việt Nam News newspaper. The Philippines, Bangladesh and Taiwan were the next largest importers with 4.75Mt, 5.64Mt and 1.23Mt respectively.

Vietnam: Tan Thang Cement has ordered additional integrated digital automation and electrical equipment from Switzerland’s ABB for a new 2Mt/yr plant it is building in Nghe An province. The order is a follow- up order to the initial automation and electrical systems delivery from ABB for this site, which is currently under construction.

The follow-up order includes a 110kV AIS Substation (Air Insulated Substation), with a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system based on ABB Ability System 800xA for Power Control, as well as telecommunications, and High Voltage primary and secondary equipment to support the electrical infrastructure. ABB will also deliver power transformers, distribution transformers, an Intelligent Motor Control Centre, Auxiliary Control Centre, Emergency Diesel Generator, DC power supply, various field devices and related commissioning services.

ABB’s initial delivery included ABB Ability System 800xA DCS (Distributed Control System) to integrate control, electrical and communication systems for optimal visibility into all processes for stable production and efficient use of raw materials and energy. It also included ABB Ability Knowledge Manager and Expert Optimizer software, as well as basic communication and electrical system infrastructure and equipment.

The project is scheduled to be commissioned in late 2019.