Displaying items by tag: petcoke

Egypt: Arabian Cement has signed a 0.3Mt/yr petcoke supply deal with the Egyptian Refining Company. Sergio Alcantarilla, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Arabian Cement said that the agreement was part of the company’s plans to reduce its production costs and improve operational performance by diversifying its energy sources, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The company operates a 5Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Ain Sokhna in the Suez Governorate.

India/Singapore: Shree Cement has closed down Shree Global, its subsidiary in Singapore. It said it had struck the company off the Registrar of Companies in early March 2019. Previously, the cement producer said that the subsidiary was being used to trade coal, petcoke, minerals, bags and other commodities.

India: JK Lakshmi improved its fuel consumption to 702kCal/kg of clinker in the October – December 2018 quarter from 705kCal/kg of clinker in the same period in 2017. Its revenue rose by 3.5% year-on-year to US$380m in the nine months to 31 December 2018 from US$368m in the same period in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 8% to US$45.4m from US$49.4m. The company said that it had been ‘facing pressure’ from increased petcoke and diesel prices. It also said that a 20MW thermal power plant and its Orissa grinding plant project were on schedule and are expected to be commissioned by March 2019.

Paraguay: Local press is querying why state-owned cement company Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) has signed a petcoke contract with Sanfil-GT consortium. A delivery of 12,000t of petcoke has been delayed for logistic reasons, according to the ABC newspaper. The consignment is part of a US$6.5m contract to supply 24,000t of petcoke. In 2018 INC awarded a tender to buy US$6m of Turkish-produced clinker from Sanfil-GT Scientific. However, the manufacturer, Cemco Cement Trading, later warned that neither Sanfil SA nor GT Scientific SA were authorised to market the commodity.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant has been paralysed by a coke shortage. All operations at the unit’s clinker kiln have been suspended, according to the Ultima Hora newspaper. The producer is still making cement deliveries but its clinker stocks have fallen to below 30,000t. The company reportedly only has fuel oil left for one day and sufficient coke for one day of full operation. It is awaiting the arrival of a 6000t consignment of coke.

Mexico: Germany’s Loesche has sold two coal or petcoke grinding mills to Cruz Azul. Both will be used on new production lines at cement plants in Hidalgo and Oaxaca respectively. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

Each mill will have a capacity of 65t/hr. Loesche will be supplying complete plant equipment, including process gas filters, mill fans, inerting units, explosion protection valves, kiln gas cyclone separators, feed screw and drag chain conveyors as well as the complete electrotechnical equipment. The scope of supply also includes engineering for steel and concrete construction.

Loesche previously delivered a LM 46.2+2 CS type mill to Cruz Azul’s Tepezalá cement plant, operated under the Cycna subsidiary, at the end of 2016.

Paraguay: President Horacio Cartes has inaugurated a kiln upgrade to Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant. The project has converted the unit’s third production line to petcoke usage from fuel oil, according to La Nación newspaper. The upgrade work cost US$45m. The plant has three production lines but only one is used.

India: The Supreme Court has been informed that the government is considering a ban on the use of petcoke by various industries. Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, representing the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, told the court that a decision on the matter could be made within one month, according to the New Indian Express newspaper.

At present it is unclear whether the cement industry would be affected. However, if it was included in the ban, this potentially could be a problem for Shree Cement, which uses 100% petcoke in its fuels mix, according to India Infoline News Service. Additionally, UltraTech Cement, JK Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement and Mangalam Cement have petcoke usages in the range of 75 - 85% and would also be negatively affected.

India: Wonder Cement has ordered two vertical mills from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Nardana plant in Rajasthan. The order includes a MVR 6000 C-6 mill for grinding slag cement and a MPS 3070 BK mill for grinding fuel. Delivery is scheduled for early 2019 and mid-2019 respectively.

The MVR mill will feature a total drive power of 5820kW. Mixed cements will be be ground to a fineness of up to 5% R 45µm. The grinding plant will be designed to process granulated blast-furnace slag with a target fineness of approximately 4500 cm²/g Blaine and blast-furnace cements with different proportions of granulated blast-furnace slag, fly ash and gypsum and different product fineness degree. Wonder Cement has requested the option to grind relatively hot clinker in the mill while at the same time being able to reduce the cement temperature, and alternatively to use cold clinker from stockpiles.

The core components such as the tension system and the grinding rollers will come from Gebr. Pfeiffer in Germany. The grinding bowl and the gearboxes for the mill and classifier will also be delivered from Europe. Gebr. Pfeiffer’s subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer India, will provide the housing parts, the foundation parts and supports of the rollers as well as almost the entire high-efficiency classifier type SLS 5600 BC. Gebr. Pfeiffer India scope of supply will incorporate most of the equipment to complete the grinding plant including the plant fan.

The MPS mill will grind petcoke with a capacity of 40t/hr to a product fineness of 2% R 90µm. It will come with a SLS BK classifier, allowing both coal and petcoke to be ground in the mill, dried with process gases and then classified in the integrated classifier. Due to the high abrasiveness of Indian coal, the mill will be designed with appropriate wear protection.

Most components of the coal mill will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer India. The housing and foundation parts, the grinding bowl and a large part of the power-transmitting parts will be manufactured in India. Setting up the new MPS mill is planned to coincide with the commissioning of the entire kin line.

India: The price of imported petcoke has hit a multi-year high in March 2018. Increased demand and a shortage due to maintenance work at refineries has caused the rise in price, according to the Mint newspaper. In November, the Indian Supreme Court temporarily banned the use of petcoke in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The import duty of the fuel was then raised to 10% from 2.5%.

Deepak Kannan, managing editor of Asia Thermal Coal at S&P Global Platts, said that local demand for petcoke is around 23 – 24Mt/yr but that local supply is only 14Mt/yr. Much of the country imported petcoke comes from the US or Saudi Arabia. Petcoke prices are expected to relax in April 2018 as refineries return to normal operation.