Global Cement News

Iran: President Hassan Rouhani has inaugurated the Mond-Dashti Cement plant. He made the inauguration remotely by video link, according to the Tehran Times newspaper. The unit had an investment of around US$90m and a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr. It has created over 170 jobs.

Australia: Wagners Cement has suspended its supply of cement products to Boral for six months. Wagners has a cement supply agreement with Boral where it supplies cement on an annual basis for a fixed price. However, Boral issued a notice to Wagners saying that it has found cheaper cement from a ‘long established’ supplier in South East Queensland.

As per the agreement Wagners can either match the lower price or suspend its supply. Wagners has decided to suspend its supply to Boral pending a resolution of the issue. It said that the potential financial impact of the pricing notice is US$14m.

Germany: Siemens will be hosting a mining media talk at the Bauma construction machinery trade fair in April 2019. Roland Ehrl, Minerals Executive Vice President, will be showcasing Siemens' portfolio of products, systems and solutions for the global mining industry. Dan Fodor, Head of Application Management and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Minerals, Christian Dirscherl, Vice President Mining Excavation and Transport Minerals, and Zeng Yun, Director Business Development Minerals, will be highlighting digital topics like Siemens' SmartMining, Autonomous Stockyard Management and Minerals Operation Management Solution.

The ‘Siemens Mining Media Round Table’ will take place on 9 April 2019 at the event in Munich. Registration is required to attend.

Netherlands: Malvern Panalytical has launched a next version of Epsilon 1 X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. The upgrade has reduced the product’s size to 0.15m². Its precision has been improved by integrating a high-power X-ray tube and a new detector.

“With the new generation of our compact Epsilon 1 benchtop XRF spectrometers, you can take a small yet powerful lab directly to your sample for fast product screening and process control”, said Lieven Kempenaers, Malvern Panalytical Product Manager for benchtop XRF systems.

The Epsilon 1 product is available in a number of versions tailored for difference applications. The Epsilon 1 Lube Oil delivers ASTM 6481-compliant elemental analysis of unused lubricating oils; the Epsilon 1 Sulfur in Fuels quantifies sulphur content in fuels according to ASTM D4294-10 and ISO 20847; the Epsilon 1 Academia enables characterisation of unidentified samples, using Omnian software for standardless analysis; and the integrated camera in the Epsilon 1 for Small Spot Analysis simplifies the investigation of very small objects, inclusions or inhomogeneities.

China: Tianrui Cement sales revenue rose by 19.5% year-on-year to US$1.5bn in 2018 from US$1.25bn in 2017. It attributed the growth to a 15% increase in the price of cement. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 15.3% to US$573m from US$497m. Its sales volumes of cement remained stable at 29.4Mt compared to 29.3Mt in 2017.