Displaying items by tag: railway

China: Anhui Conch Cement has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Railway Materials Trading, a subsidiary of China Railway Group. Yu Shui, the assistant general manager of Anhui Conch, and Xiao Song, deputy general manager of China Railway Materials Trade Group, signed the agreement. Anhui Conch plans to establish a supply chain agreement with the state-owned company.

Zambia: A contract with LafageHolcim has boosted Zambia Railways freight rate by 28% year-on-year to 318,000t in the first half of 2017 from 247,000t in the same period of 2016. The railway company attributed the increase to a new contract with LafargeHolcim, according to the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper. It also cited rising coal imports from Zimbabwe for ‘booming’ cement production in Zambia, as well as more business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

India: The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) says that the local cement industry has 100Mt/yr of excess production capacity out of a total 425Mt/yr. The sector is sitting on over US$9.4bn of ‘sunk investment in surplus capacities’ but the CMA expects infrastructure schemes including railway projects to increase demand, according to the Press Trust of India. CMA President Shailendra Chouksey added that initiatives such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train could raise cement consumption by 3 – 5Mt/yr.

In separate comments M P Rawal, the company administrator of JK Cements, confirmed the CMA’s assessment of the sector by saying that a slowdown in the construction industry in 2016 had led to a 70% utilisation rate of the country’s cement plants. He expected the same situation to persist in 2017. However, he warned that one bullet train project was unlikely to have a big impact on the situation.

Namibia: Ohorongo Cement has opened a US$0.3m terminal at Ondangwa in the north of the country. Clemens H Kashuupulwa, the governor of Oshana Region, officiated at the event. The depot is intended to target the four northern regions in Namibia as well as export cement to southern Angola. The site follows a Private Public Partnership agreement with TransNamib to lease land at Ondangwa railway station, and is part of the Northern Railway Extension project that extends from Tsumeb to Oshikango. It will distribute various cement types, including CEM II 42.5 N, CEM I 42.5 R, CEM II 32.5 N B-LL for the local market. It will also ship CEM II 42.5 N with Portuguese labelling for Angola.

Romania: Holcim Romania has opened a Euro0.5m cement terminal in the town of Roman in Neamț County. The new unit will mainly supply cement to customers in the Moldovan region of the country. The 13,120m2 terminal has a railway connection and loading equipment for both bulk and bagged cement.

UK: It is hoped that a Euro23m upgrade project at Hanson’s Padeswood cement plant will be completed in early 2019. A planning application will be submitted to the local government in the summer of 2017 following consultation with local residents. The plant intends to install a new vertical roller mill to grind cement and to build a new rail loading facilities at the site.

“The plan is to mothball three of the old mills and install a new vertical roller mill capable of grinding up to 0.65Mt/yr of clinker. The new mill will be fully enclosed in a building, minimising noise and reducing the potential for escape of cement dust,” said plant manager Steve Hall. The project also includes construction of new cement silos alongside the existing railway line to load trains for delivery. At present the rail link is used to bring in coal to fire the kilns. In future, three trains a week will be despatched to Hanson’s depots in London, Bristol and Scotland or around 15% of total cement production.

Canada: Plans by the state government of Quebec to rebuild the Gaspésie railway between Matapédia and Gaspé will allow McInnis Cement to increase its distribution of cement by rail significantly. Once the line has been restored the cement producer says the number of wagons it uses could rise to 2000/yr from 300/yr.

”The flexibility of the railway combined with our maritime distribution mode allows us to improve our logistics chain and reach certain markets more efficiently, in all seasons,” said McInnis Cement chief executive officer Herve Mallet.

In December 2016 McInnis Cement confirmed its use of the rail for a volume of approximately 28,000t/yr over five years, through a transshipment facility in New Richmond, fed by truck from Port-Daniel–Gascons. Railway repairs are expected to result in the transport of at least 200,000t/yr of cement by rail.

UK: Hanson is considering spending around Euro23m on building a new clinker mill and other improvements at its Padeswood Cement plant. At present the site use four mills that are only able to grind about 40% of the kiln’s output, according to the Daily Post. A second phase of the upgrade project, dependent on production levels being increased, is planned to rebuild a railway link to the plant.