Displaying items by tag: efficiency

India: Dalmia Bharat’s consolidated cement sales in the first half of the 2022 financial year were 5.1Mt, up by 6.2% year-on-year from 4.8Mt in the first half of the 2021 financial year. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 1.6% to US$178m from US$176m. The company recorded a net profit of US$67.1m during the period, up by 19% from US$56.3m. During the second quarter of the year, which ended on 30 September 2021, Dalmia Bharat commissioned a second line at its Cuttack, Odisha, cement plant and began trial production at its newly acquired Murli cement plant in Maharashtra.

The Orissa Diary newspaper has reported that managing director Puneet Dalmia said "We are pleased with our performance during the quarter. In spite of unprecedented costs related headwinds across all regions, our razor sharp focus on operational efficiencies and execution has helped us contain our costs and deliver an industry-leading performance. We have made considerable progress on our immediate priorities, including expanding our capacity, driving organisational transformation, reinforcing our brand and redefining our corporate governance framework. Looking ahead, we remain focused on further strengthening our momentum to drive sustainable and profitable growth and generate top-tier returns for our stakeholders.” He continued “As India's economy continues to rebound from the lows of last year, we expect the demand and pricing environment for the sector to improve for the rest of the 2022 financial year."

UK: Cemex has joined its subsidiary Cemex Ventures and Taronga Ventures in investing in construction logistics digital platform developer Voyage Control. The group said that the supplier’s product can reduce delays, waste and cost overruns through optimised delivery scheduling, and provide an overview of all transactions in real time. It currently helps to coordinate 6 million deliveries annually at 200 sites across North America, Europe and Asia.

Cemex Ventures director Gonzalo Galindo said “Cemex Ventures seeks to integrate Voyage Control with Cemex's digital assets, which will allow us to provide a better and more complete service to our clients. Now, we can collect more information, continue to promote operational efficiency and sustainable reporting and improve our health and safety criteria to reduce risks.”

World: Forty cement and concrete producers, representing 80% of concrete production outside of China in 2020, have together affirmed their commitment to the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA)’s Roadmap to Net Zero concrete decarbonisation strategy. The roadmap’s seven-point plan consists of increased cement plant efficiency, which should eliminate 22% of emissions, increased concrete production efficiency (11%), adjustments to cement and binders (9%), decarbonisation of raw materials (11%), carbon capture and storage (CCS) (36%), a transition to renewable energy (5%) and the natural recarbonation of concrete (6%).

Besides full decarbonisation by 2050, the strategy provides for a 25% reduction in the global concrete sector’s CO₂ emissions by 2030 and the elimination of 4.9Bnt of CO₂ emissions by 2030 alone. The GCCA called the new commitment a ‘significant acceleration’ of cement and concrete producers’ on-going decarbonisation efforts, and said that it represented ‘the biggest global commitment by any industry’ to carbon neutrality. Acknowledging the burden on cement producers, the GCCA called on downstream companies and governments to support the industry’s transition.

GCCA member China National Building Material (CNBM) CEO Cao Jianglin said “This is a landmark for industry co-operation in decarbonisation. As part of a global industry, it will need collaboration across our sector to achieve it. As one of the leading cement and concrete producers in China, we will play our part in decarbonising the industry.”

Oman: Oman Cement Company will spend US$300m on the new 10,000t/day Line 4 as part of the upcoming upgrade and expansion of its Rusayl cement plant in Muscat governorate. The Oman Observer newspaper has reported that Switzerland-based PEG Resources will carry out the work. Oman Cement Company CEO Salem bin Abdullah al Hajri said that the new line will help Oman to achieve cement self-sufficiency by 2024.

The company said “The new 10,000t/day production line will be the largest in Oman and will have more cost-effective production, for the company to sustain its success and competitiveness in the local and international cement markets in a long run.” It added “The company will focus on utilising state-of-the-art production technology resulting in lower power consumption, potential for waste heat recovery (WHR), higher fuel efficiency, realisable use of alternative fuels (AF), improved productivity and the best environmental standards.”

Oman Cement Company is also expanding the Rusayl plant’s Line 3 by 25% to 5000t/day from 4000t/day, prior to decommissioning its other two lines.

Morocco: LafargeHolcim’s Settat plant has been ranked as the second most efficient integrated cement plant in LafargeHolcim Group. The classification is based on industrial performance criteria in terms of efficiency, cost and sustainable development covering 129 of the group’s integrated plants around the world. Five of the six plants operated by LafargeHolcim Morocco are also reported to be in the Top 20 of this list. The 1.7Mt/yr Settat plant has also become a pilot in the group’s ‘plant of tomorrow" initiative whereby automation technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence and predictive maintenance will be used to improve its production efficiency further still.

India: UltraTech Cement says it has beaten its goal of doubling its energy productivity ahead of its deadline. It joined the EP100 initiative in 2018 and agreed to double its energy productivity from the base year of 2010 with the target year of 2035. It has achieved this by investing in energy efficiency measures such as upgrading clinker coolers, implementing variable frequency drives to manage electricity flow, and introducing new waste heat recovery systems. The company says it is focusing on new technologies, changes in product and energy mix, digitisation and carbon pricing. It foresees the digitisation of its energy performance as a key enabler for identifying the best opportunities to save energy.

"UltraTech firmly believes that companies in the building material sector can come together to step up climate action for meeting the global 1.5-degree ambition. Joining like-minded companies in EP100 gave us an opportunity to accelerate and scale-up levers to double energy productivity and also drive the decarbonisation agenda,” said Kailash Jhanwar, the managing director of UltraTech Cement.

EP100 is a global business initiative consisting of a group of companies committed to improving their energy productivity. EP100 is led by the Climate Group, an international non-profit organisation, in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy.

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has started using Michibiki, a Japanese satellite positioning system, as part of a demonstration project by its limestone mining operations to improve efficiency. At present the company uses so-called ‘internet of things’ technology such as yard inventory management by drone and rough stone quality management by heavy equipment, including loaders and dump trucks, equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) tablet terminals. The group operates eight limestone mines in Japan and it mines 20Mt/yr.

Saudi Arabia: Denmark-based FLSmidth has announced that it has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Yanbu Cement for a ‘massive’ efficiency-increasing upgrade to reduce the heat and power consumption of the 5.9Mt/yr integrated Yanbu cement plant in Al Madinah Province.

FLSmidth previously supplied the Yanbu cement plant with an automation upgrade and burner system retrofit in 2018. It concluded a service agreement with Yanbu Cement in 2019.

Germany: Currax and Siemens have announced their collaboration on a mill operations digitisation pilot project involving the Simotics Connect 400 motor data collector and transmitter. They hope that analysis of data processed via the Simotics 400 will better enable the remote operating of mills ‘to increase efficiency and component life’ and speeding the shift towards automation and production that is resilient to crises such as the coronavirus outbreak.

China: Hebei province-based Tangshan Jidong Cement’s net 2019 profit was US$298m, up by 42% year-on-year from US$210m in 2018. Cement and clinker sales remained flat. Tangshan Jidong Cement attributed the growth to increased prices due to a 9.9% year-on-year increase in infrastructure spending to US$1.86tn. Throughout the year, the company said, it completed energy-saving optimisation and upgrades to improve efficiency, implemented strategic marketing and reduced the cost of material procurement.