Tunisia: United Cement Investor will start building a new 1.5Mt/yr cement plant at Bir Thlathin in southern Tataouine in March 2019. The project has a cost of around US$320m, according to the Agency Tunis Afrique Press. Local investment will total around US$95m. The project is expected to create 419 direct jobs and 600 indirect jobs.

ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (France) has been involved with the project. Investment is coming from local, UAE-based and German financiers.

Bangladesh: Chhatak Cement plans to spend US$106m on building a new dry production line at its plant near Dhaka. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2021, according to the Financial Express newspaper. The subsidiary of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) plans to finance the upgrade with a US$63m loan from the government. The plant is currently using equipment that is up to 80 years old. At present it has a production capacity of 70,000t/yr despite upgrades in the 1980s and 2000.

Pakistan: Shariq Siddiqui, chief executive officer (CEO) of Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT), forecasts that coal imports for cement producers will rise to 10Mt/yr in 2020 from 8Mt/yr at present. This growth will be driven by new cement production capacity that is being commissioned, according to the News International newspaper. Overall, total coal imports are expected to grow to 30Mt/yr in 2020 driven by new coal-fired power stations.

Iran: Jafar Sarqeini, the Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade for Mining Affairs, says that US-backed trade sanctions have not slowed cement exports. He added that the embargo has only placed some obstacles in the way of financial transactions and return of money to the country, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The official said that the local industry can export up to 20Mt/yr of cement. Local production capacity is forecast to reach 120Mt/yr by 2025. However, a recession in the mining sector has kept production behind capacity.

Sri Lanka: Insee Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to protect limestone hills in the company’s quarrying sites in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ultimate goal of the partnership is to turn the limestone quarrying sites into forests through rehabilitation programmes.

In Sri Lanka, the agreement is intended to strengthen Insee Cement’s capacity to rescue and release threatened wildlife, prepare mine restoration guidelines and carry out annual ecological monitoring of restored mines in Insee Cement’s quarry sites in Aruwakkalu and Puttalam.

“In Sri Lanka we have worked with IUCN since 2007 to ensure conservation in quarry sites, as the partnership is focused on delivering practical solutions which protect Sri Lankan ecosystem. We take pride in meeting the expectations of our local stakeholders and join hands with our group and OpCo’s on the dedicated commitment to enhance forestry and quarry management in Asia,” said Nandana Ekanayak, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Insee Cement.

India: UltraTech Cement and local truck companies have ended a dispute over the size of payloads in Himachal Pradesh after mediation from the state government. The disagreement over increasing the size of truckloads to 12t started in late December 2018, according to the United News of India agency.

US: Charah Solutions has installed its MP618 thermal beneficiation technology at its terminal in Sulphur, Louisiana. The upgrade is intended to improve the quality of fly ash and to increase its supply of marketable fly ash to concrete producers. The proprietary process reduces loss on ignition, ammonia, activated carbon and moisture in fly ash.

The company hopes to provides concrete product producers and builders with a source of Class F fly ash to support a growing number of construction projects in the greater Lake Charles and Sulphur region. The Sulphur terminal is Charah Solutions’ second barge-supplied location in southern Louisiana. Its LaPlace, Louisiana terminal currently serves customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

US: Continental Cement’s Hannibal plant has been awarded Energy Star certification by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To qualify for the certification the cement producer was required to perform in the top 25% of cement plants nationwide for total energy efficiency (thermal and electrical) and meet environmental performance levels set by the EPA.

“Continental Cement Company is pleased to accept EPA’s Energy Star certification in recognition of our energy efficiency efforts,” said Matt Helms, plant manager at the unit.

To earn the Energy Star certification Continental Cement established an energy management policy, it identified operating characteristics and energy usage, it promoted energy efficiency and it followed the Energy Star guidelines for energy management.

Paraguay: Denmark’s FLSmidth has been awarded a contract to deliver equipment for a new cement plant. The contract has a value of over US$54m. The expected plant start-up is within 24 months and the plant is expected to be fully operational in 2021. The plant will have a capacity of 2500t/day and will mainly supply cement to its local market.

FLSmidth will design and engineer the production line and will deliver equipment for the entire production line, from crushing to packing, while the customer will be in charge of the civil design and construction of the plant.

"The customer needed a state-of-the-art solution to meet the steady demand for cement in this developing region. This contract reinforces our position as the leading supplier of the most productive and energy-efficient equipment and technology for customers in the cement industry who focus on productivity, reliability and sustainability," says Jan Kjaersgaard, President, Cement, FLSmidth.

Chile: FCT Combustion has been awarded a kiln conversion project by an unnamed cement company. The project is a conversion of an existing direct-fired rotary kiln into a state of the art indirect-fired kiln using pulverised coal. Delivery for material is scheduled by April 2019 and for it to be commissioned by October 2019.

FCT is responsible for the complete engineering and procurement supply, including the following main equipment: coal bag filter; process ID fan; fire and explosion detection and suppression; coal dosing; multi fuel burner for coal, natural gas and fuel oil; motorised burner trolley; coal pneumatic conveying; primary air fan; emergency cooling; automatic ignition; flame monitoring; and fuel oil pumps and valve train. The project targets are low NOx emissions, better kiln operation and stability and improved fuel consumption.