Global Cement News

China/France: Song Zhi Ping, president of China National Building Material Company (CNBM), and Frédéric Sanchez, chairman of Fives, have signed strategic agreement towards climate change and cooperation in third countries. This agreement develops the collaboration plans drawn up in January 2019 between cement plant manufacturer CNBM the engineering group Fives. It forecasts a volume of business of at least Euro600m over three years, and forms part of CNBM’s stated strategy of developing in partnership with western companies. The agreement was signed at the Elysée Palace in Paris during a state visit to France by China’s President Xi Jinping.

The agreement focuses on upgrading CNBM’s cement plants in China, building new plants outside of China and creating a Joint Engineering Centre to implement these projects and share information. The Joint Engineering Centre was inaugurated on 28 February 2019 in Shanghai. With regards to modernising its cement production lines in China, Fives said that its technologies, in grinding in particular, would ‘significantly’ improve performance and return on investment with regards to modernising CNBM’s domestic cement production lines. Fives said that the agreement is in full alignment with the Paris Agreement. It added that the agreement also shows the ‘mutual trust’ between the two companies with respect to intellectual property.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has ordered power monitoring equipment from CMR Philippines for its 2.3Mt/yr Lugait cement plant in Misamis Oriental. It includes the development, delivery, installation, testing and networking of the electrical installation at the unit. Current and voltage transformers are to be supplied as part of a package of engineering support that also sees CMR completing the integration and connection of plant wide power monitoring to Siemens PCS 7 process control technology.

“Winning the Holcim contract reflects the expertise we can bring to successfully delivering complex and technologically advanced industrial projects,” said Rojel Rivera, general manager at CMR Philippines.

CMR Philippines is part of the CMR Group, which designs, manufactures and commissions automation, control system and turnkey project solutions for global industrial and renewable energy sectors, alongside specialist instrumentation for high power diesel engines.

Nepal: IME Group plans to build a US$90m cement plant at Chormara of Nawalparasi. The unit is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2024, according to the Kathmandu Post newspaper. This will follow one year of preliminary work, one year for fund raising and the next two years for construction. The plant will mine limestone from a quarry in the Madanpur and Sisdi Rural Municipalities of Palpa district. The quarry will be 25km from the designated plant site. The mine has 18.7Mt of limestone according to a report by Investment Board Nepal.

Nepal: Dhruba Raj Thapa, president of Cement Manufacturer Association of Nepal (CMAN), has warned that the industry is worried about new investments in cement production given that the country has become self sufficient in the commodity. Clinker imports have stopped due to increased domestic production, according to the Republica newspaper. He added that cement produced locally is sufficient to meet local demand until 2029. He then warned that if investment in the sector continues producers might have to reduce their production capacity by half.

Data from the Department of Industries shows that 114 cement factories, both government-owned and private, have been registered so far with an estimated investment of over US$1.8bn. However, Tara Prasad Pokharel, the general secretary of CMAN, said that only 68 registered industries are currently in operation.

India: Penna Cement has signed a five years freight tariff deal with South Central Railway (SCR). As part of the agreement the rate will remain fixed for one year, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. The contract also offers incentives including discounts if the freight volume exceeds the previous year’s amount. Penna Cement is the eighth company to sign such an agreement with the SCR.