Global Cement News

France: Worker’s at LafargeHolcim’s Martres-Tolosane cement plant have gone on strike over salary negotiations. A coalition of unions says that the company has refused to increase salaries despite a recovery in the cement market, according to France Info radio. The plant employs 110 workers. In mid-2017 LafargeHolcim announced that it was spending Euro100m on building a new clinker production line at the site.

Iran: Iranian cement producers are planning to export cement to Africa in the next Iranian financial year. Farhad Nikkhah, from the Saveh Cement Company, told the Trend News Agency that his company was going to sell Ordinary Portland Cement to the region from 20 March 2018. Although he said that the transport costs would be a serious factor. He added that new restrictions in certain Central Asian countries had caused a rise in the costs of exports to those countries.

UK: Claudius Peters has released information about an upgrade project at Breedon Group’s Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire. The work included upgrading and replacing the existing kiln feed equipment built with the plant in the 1970s, and increasing the accuracy and capacity of the system to 200t/hr of raw meal for Kiln 1, Kiln 2, and a standby unit. The contact was signed in October 2014 and completed in May 2017. It is one the largest capital expenditure projects undertaken at the site in recent years.

A key challenge on this project was installing new equipment while the plant remained in operation. Claudius Peters supplied and commissioned: three 300 screw pumps complete with pump inlet hoppers with de-dusting filters and modified pipelines; modifications to existing compressors; and three cyclone filters with collection hoppers transport and material transport to pre-heater inlet via rotary feeders.

Spain: Oficemen, the Spanish Cement Association, says that cement consumption grew by 11% year-on-year to 12.3Mt in 2017. The association expects it to rise by 12% to 13.7Mt in 2018. However, the cement consumed in 2017 is well below the high recorded in 2007. This has been due, in part, to a decrease in the amount of cement used in infrastructure projects. Cement used in civil works decreased by 75% to 5Mt in 2017 from 19Mt in 2008.

Exports of cement fell by 10% to below 9Mt, mainly due to a ‘loss of competiveness’ caused by growing local electricity prices. The association added that Spain is the largest exporter in the European Union and the eighth largest exporter of cement worldwide.

Nepal: Palpa Cement Industries has ordered a MVR 3350 C-4 mill from Gebr. Pfeiffer for its plant at Sunwal, in the district of Nawalparasi. The vertical roller mill has a drive power of 2150kW and is designed to grind 130t/hr of cement at 3000 Blaine and 100t/hr of blast-furnace cement at 3800 Blaine. Commissioning of the mill is planned for mid-2019. It is the fourth vertical roller mill order from Nepal for Gebr. Pfeiffer over the last year.