Global Cement News

Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement’s Gazakh cement plant plans to export its fifth batch of clinker to Georgia. Further export operations are also planned in December 2019, according to the Trend News Agency. The integrated plant exported over 500t of clinker to Georgia during the first 11 months of 2019 and it plans to export up to 700t in 2020. The unit is aiming for a production volume of 1.2Mt in 2019 and then 1.5Mt in 2020. Turkey’s Dal Teknik Makina started work on an upgrade project at the plant in mid-2019.

Mexico: France’s Fives has issued an update on the two raw meal grinding plants it is supplying to Cruz Azul’s Hidalgo and Oaxaca Lagunas cement plants.

Construction work at the Oaxaca Lagunas plant started in August 2018. Mechanical erection of the raw materials feeding workshop and the FCB Horomill grinding circuit started in July 2019. Electrical installation is currently under progress. The raw meal grinding workshop is scheduled to be operational by the end of March 2020.

Construction work at the Hidalgo plant started in December 2018. Mechanical erection started at the end of August 2019, electrical erection works will start in December 2019. First raw meal date is scheduled by the end of May 2020.

Both orders were finalised in November 2017. The Hidalgo plant ordered a 280t/hr grinding unit and the Oaxaca Lagunas plant has ordered a 300t/hr grinding unit. Each raw grinding plant features an FCB Horomill 4000mm grinding mill, a FCB TSV Classifier 6500 mm and a FCB Aerodecantor.

Mali: Diamond Cement Mali (DCM) has signed a deal with La Société Malienne de Cartonnerie (SCS MDC) to procure 50kg bags to hold cement. DCM operates two plants in the country with a production capacity of 1Mt/yr, according to local press. It requires over 20 million bags per year. SCS MDC became operational locally in 2019. It runs a plant at Kamalé near Bamako. Moussa Silvain Diakité, the chief executive oficer (CEO) of SCS MDC described the contract as the company’s first ‘big’ deal.

Rwanda/Tanzania: Edenville Energy says it has signed a new contract to supply 6000t/month of washed coal from its Rukwa Coal Project to an end user that is expected to be a cement producer based in Rwanda. The deal has been agreed with Tara Group, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tanzanian company, Kitanyoe Group Company, which currently supplies coal, gypsum, limestone and calcite to industrial users.

The contract is of note to the development of Edenville Energy because it has the potential to open up a new transport route for the company’s coal on Lake Tanganyika to both Rwanda and Burundi. However, the proposed supply arrangement is dependent on the company securing sufficient operating capital to fund production. Edenville Energy operates a coal mine in western Tanzania.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, has called on the European Union’s (EU) Green Deal to incentivise investment in low-carbon technologies, provide long-term legal certainty and foster the industry’s global competitiveness. It said that the new proposal to tackle climate change showed ‘great promise’ and ‘ambitious vision’ but that this needed to be converted into action to support a successful industrial transformation.

The association is concerned about a new carbon border adjustment mechanism. In its view, “the replacement of the existing carbon leakage measures by an untested mechanism would create considerable uncertainty and risks.” Instead it called on the EU to look at a design that complements the existing carbon leakage measures and is fair for third country importers and EU producers.

Aspects of the European Green Deal that the association praised included the recognition that the cement industry is ‘indispensible’ to the European economy. It also liked the European Commission’s (EC) emphasis on the circular economy that fits with work the sector is doing already from alternative fuels usage to recycling concrete.

"The European Green Deal is our new growth strategy – for a growth that gives back more than it takes away. It shows how to transform our way of living and working, of producing and consuming so that we live healthier and make our businesses innovative. We can all be involved in the transition and we can all benefit from the opportunities,” said EC president Ursula von der Leyen in relation to the new policy proposal.

The EC published its recommendations on how to help energy-intensive industries meet the EU’s 2050 climate target in late November 2019. Its key suggestions were to create markets for climate-neutral and circular products, develop large-scale pilot projects on clean technologies and switch to alternative climate-neutral energy and feedstock sources. It added that the pilot projects should be supported by EU funds and given easier access to private financing. These recommendations will be presented to the EU member states, the EU Competitiveness Council and the European Parliament in early 2020.