Displaying items by tag: lime

US: Mississippi Lime has declared a force majeure event due to flooding by the Mississippi River caused by ‘significant’ precipitation in the central US. The flooding has impacted the lime producer’s distribution and supply capabilities. This is expected to cause delays in supplying products to customers and will incur additional costs that it will pass through as a surcharge. The company added that, despite this, the flooding has not affected production.

Flooding on the Mississippi River forced the closure of Mississippi Lime’s barge loading facilities in early May 2019 and an alternate barge loading facility later in the month. The company does not anticipate re-opening its facility until the flood waters recede to a safe level, possibly in late June 2019. In the meantime the closure of flood gates near the company’s Ste Genevieve, Missouri unit has forced the company to use an alternate rail route with reduced shipment capacity, additional transit time and higher cost for both inbound and outbound shipments. Mississippi Lime anticipates resuming rail shipments in late June 2019, depending on weather conditions.

Vietnam: Italy’s Bedeschi has signed a contract to supply a double roller crushing unit and relevant control panels for the Quicklime Plant being built in Hoa Binh, Northern Vietnam. The unit is being built by a local cement producer. Start-up is scheduled by mid-2020.

Spain: Cementos Tudela Veguín has purchased a full stake in Caleras de San Cucao, a lime producer based in Asturias, according to the La Nueva España newspaper. No value for the acquisition has been disclosed. The company operates a lime plant at Llanera and it runs two lime quarries at Agüera and Las Regueras. Cementos Tudela Veguín has a lime production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr from its Tudela Veguín plant in Oviedo.

UK: The British Lime Association (BLA) has published its 2018 Sustainable Development Report. The UK lime sector has responded to improved conditions in the domestic market, and the increased demand from the iron and steel sector in 2017. Exports of lime by BLA Members have increased by 30% since 2006 and made up 26% of sales in 2017. Following the launch of the MPA Charter in 2017, the BLA Sustainable Development Report is now set out to align with the seven MPA strategic priorities.

US: Mississippi Lime Company plans to ‘significantly’ increase enhanced hydrated lime capacities at its Weirton, West Virginia and Verona, Kentucky plants. It also manufactures hydrated lime products from its Ste Genevieve, Missouri, Vicksburg, Mississippi and Chester, South Carolina operations. The company produces high calcium quicklime, hydrated lime and calcium carbonate.

Denmark: Dankalk is upgrading the lime hydrator at its Aggersund plant. A new KLV 02/630-4.0 type lime hydrator is being supplied by Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. It is being replaced from a previous Gebr. Pfeiffer model installed in the 1980s due to tighter emission limits. Commissioning of the new lime hydrator is scheduled for mid-2019.

Peru: Higher sales to the self-construction sector, medium-sized companies and the public sector have driven sales growth for Cementos Pacasmayo. Its sales grew by 3.1% year-on-year to US$274m in the first nine month of 2018 from US$266m in the same period in 2017. Its consolidated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 5.1% to US$83m from US$79m.

Cement and clinker production grew by 2.4% to 1.69Mt and 14.7% to 1.30Mt respectively. The building materials producer also reported that quicklime production fell by 23.6% to 97,400t at its Pacasmayo plant due to reduced demand.

Peru: Cal & Cemento Sur (Calcesur) plans to add a sixth production line to its cement and lime plant in Puno at the end of October 2018. The upgrade will increase the unit’s production capacity to 1Mt/yr from 0.63Mt/yr, according to the Gestion newspaper. The company says that following the expansion the site will be the largest lime plant in Latin America.

The subsidiary of Gloria Group has targeted a 12% year-on-year growth in sales in 2019. It plans to sell lime to the mining sector in northern Chile and it is also focusing on Ecuador and Bolivia. The company plans to launch lime-sand bricks in 2019 for local demand and in Chile.

The cement and lime producer also plans to launch its Tipo LH cement product at the end of October 2018 and to sell cement in 25kg bags. At present, the company sells 42.5kg bags.

US/China: The Office of the US Trade Representative has started implementing a 10% tariff on mineral and other products from China, including cement, following a consultation period. Mineral products affected by the proposed tariffs of interest to the cement industry include limestone flux, quicklime, slaked lime, gypsum, anhydrite, clinkers of Portland, aluminous, slag, supersulphate and similar hydraulic cements, white Portland cement, Portland cement, aluminous cement, slag cement, refractory cements, additives for cement, cement based building materials and more.

The latest tariff list follows an earlier decision by the US government to tax imports from China worth US$34bn that came into force in early July 2018.

UK: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita says that its cement and lime segment was ‘flat’ in the first half of 2018. It blamed this on on-going low capacity utilisation in China and Brazil and ‘some’ market share losses due to its prices. The adjusted sales revenue of its Industrial Division, including cement and lime, rose by 14.3% year-on-year to Euro413m in the first half of 2018 from Euro362m in the same period of 2017. Overall, the company reported a 24.6% increase in revenue to Euro1.51bn from Euro1.21bn.

In a separate release RHI Magnesita subsidiary Magnesita said that the company’s revenue rose by 81.6% to US$133m. This was attributed to sales to the cement business in North America and higher deliveries in Europe in 2018. However, Magnesita’s services business suffered from a poor cement market in Brazil.