Displaying items by tag: data

Spain: Oficemen has blamed falling exports of cement on high electricity prices. The cement association reports that exports fell by around 25% year-on-year to 3.76Mt for the first eight months of 2022 from over 5Mt in the same period in 2021. Local consumption of cement slowed to an increase of just 0.2% to 9.88Mt from 9.86Mt.

Aniceto Zaragoza, the general director of Oficemen, said “Electricity costs in our sector have increased by 400% in the last two years, a situation that worsens every day due to the energy crisis we are suffering. Without competitive electricity costs, it is impossible for our industry, which for many years has led the cement export market, to continue competing with other producers in the Mediterranean area that pay much less for their energy inputs, such as Algeria, Turkey or Egypt.”

Argentina: Total despatches of cement grew by 11% year-on-year to 8.54Mt in the first eight months of 2022 from 7.67Mt in the same period of 2021. Data from the Asociación de Fabricantes de Cemento Portland (AFCP) shows that local despatches increased by 11.5% to 8.47Mt but exports fell by 10% to 67,800t.

Chile: Despatches of cement fell by 10% year-on-year to 2.25Mt in the first seven months of 2022 from 2.51Mt in the same period in 2021. Data from the Cámara Chilena de la Construcción (CCHC) shows that cumulative annual despatches have been falling month-on-month since January 2022.

US: Total US cement shipments grew by 4% to 52.4Mt in the first half of 2022 from 50.4Mt in the same period in 2021. Data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows that local shipments and imports rose by 3.5% to 44.1Mt and 7% to 8.31Mt respectively. The largest sources of imports of cement and clinker were Turkey at 4.57Mt, Canada at 2.19Mt, Mexico at 1.28Mt, Greece at 1.23Mt and Vietnam at 0.94Mt. The largest cement producing states in the reporting period, in descending order, were Texas, California and Missouri.

Pakistan: Cement sales fell by 24% year-on-year in Pakistan in August 2022, due to increased energy, fuel and transport costs. Total despatches for the month came to 3.3Mt, against 4.3Mt a year earlier, according to data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). Local shipments for August 2022 came to 2.9Mt against 3.8Mt in August 2021, a fall of 24%. Exports fell by 26% to 0.39Mt from 0.52Mt in August 2021.

APCMA officials are of the view that the government needs to generate a viable policy for the construction industry, keeping in view the huge damage to national infrastructure after unprecedented recent flooding.

Senegal: Data from the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) indicates that cement exports fell by 34% month-on-month in June 2022, although local sales rose by 4%. Overall cement production fell by 2% as manufacturers battle the economic impacts of the war in Ukraine.

Tajikistan: Cement production fell by 7% year-on-year to 2Mt in the first half of 2022 from 2.16Mt in the same period in 2021. The Avesta News Agency reports no reason for the decline but it noted that the construction sector had grown so far in 2022. The country’s cement industry exports around 1.5Mt/yr to neighbouring countries including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Congratulations are due to the National Cement Company of Alabama and Vicat for the inauguration of the new production line at the Ragland cement plant in Alabama. The event took place on 21 July 2022.

The US$300m project was originally announced in late 2019. It then took two years to build with construction starting in January 2020. Key features include a raw vertical grinding mill, a new roller mill, a five stage preheater tower, an automatic clay storage system, a 78m tall homogenisation silo, an alternative fuels storage area for tyre-derived fuel, sawdust and wood chips, a laboratory and a new control room. The new kiln was previously reported to have a clinker production capacity of 5000t/day and it will add up to 2Mt/yr of cement production capacity to the plant. ThyssenKrupp signed up as the principal equipment supplier in 2019 and H&M was the main contractor. The production line is expected to reduce energy consumption by one third. Further change is scheduled with a switch to production of Portland limestone cement (PLC) from Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by the start of 2023.

Vicat has repeatedly noted its affection for the plant as it was the first cement plant the group purchased outside of France, back in 1974. Indeed, Vicat’s group chair and chief executive officer Guy Sidos personally managed the Ragland plant in 2001. However, rather more prosaic reasons may also have been behind the decision to expand Ragland. According to United States Geological Survey (USGS) data, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee’s cement shipments grew by nearly 5% year-on-year to 7.1Mt in 2019 from 6.8Mt in 2018. Shipments are up by 3% year-on-year to 2.5Mt in the first four months of 2022 and the three states were the fifth largest region in the US for cement shipments in April 2022. A shortage of cement was also reported in Alabama in April 2022.

The other big US-based cement plant expansion is Lehigh Hanson’s US$600m upgrade to its Mitchell plant in Indiana. It also celebrated a milestone this week with a ‘topping out’ ceremony to mark the placement of the final section of steel for the stack. Another recent achievement here was the completion of a 169,000t storage dome supplied by Dome Technologies. The supplier says that the 67m diameter and 48m tall dome is the second largest clinker storage facility in Europe and North America, after one it previous built in Romania in 2008.

The Mitchell K4 project was announced in mid-2018 and then ground breaking began in late 2019. However, the start of the coronavirus pandemic delayed construction in early 2020 before it restarted in September 2020. The revised commissioning date was then moved back about half a year to early 2023. The key part of this project is that it will replace the plant’s three current kilns with just one. The new production line will increase the site’s production capacity, reduce energy usage and decrease CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement. It was reported by local press back in 2018 that the project would increase the plant’s cement production capacity to 2.8Mt/yr. The project has been linked to supplier KHD with CCC Group as the contractor.

It’s fascinating to see two major new upgrades to cement plants emerging in a mature market like the US and during an unprecedented event like the emergence of coronavirus. No doubt compelling tales will emerge of how both teams coped with managing nine-figure capital expansion projects as a global public health emergency unfolded. The US market has been on a roll in recent years, despite all the uncertainty in the world, and so far it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. With luck both of the projects feature above have timed their opening right.

Spain: Cement consumption grew by 2.5% year-on-year to 7.49Mt in the first half of 2022. Data from the Spanish cement association Oficemen also shows that exports fell by 21% to 2.91Mt. It said that this is the first time since 2011 that Spanish cement exports have fallen below 3Mt in the first half of the year. The association has warned of potential threats to the sector such as inflation and a recession in the second half of 2022.

Aniceto Zaragoza, the general manager of Oficemen, said “Since the Iberian Mechanism began to be applied, there has been a drop in the average price of electricity for industry, although much less significant than expected. The mechanism is capable of moderating the price of the wholesale market, but the lack of wind generation caused by the heat wave and the consequent increase in the use of combined cycles, together with the increase in the price of gas, makes a global reform necessary of the European electricity market.”

Brazil: Sales of cement fell by 2.7% year-on-year to 30.8Mt in the first half of 2022 from 31.6Mt in the same period in 2021. Data from the Brazilian National Cement Industry Association (SNIC) shows that domestic sales and exports decreased by 2.7% to 30.6Mt and by 8.5% to 0.19Mt respectively.

Paulo Camillo Penna, president of SNIC said, “Throughout the year, with the successive worsening of the economic environment, high interest rates, inflation and commodity prices added to geopolitical instability, caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have impacted the economy and the entire Brazilian industrial sector. In view of this scenario, the cement industry's expectation of ensuring the gains obtained from 2019 to 2021 is heading towards an undesirable frustration.”