Global Cement News

Ghana: Diamond Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to build a port at Kedzi in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region. The site is being developed to help the cement producer import raw materials, according to the Ghanaian Times. At present it uses the port of Lome in Togo.

Paraguay: Edgar Acosta, the general manager of Yguazu Cementos, has called for a law banning imports of clinker to be lifted. Acosta, the former president of Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), argues that the legislation is ‘unfair competition’ as it was introduced in 2006 when INC was the only cement producer in the country, according to the ABC newspaper. However, at present INC imports large volumes of clinker despite owning large reserves of limestone in the country. Of the 550,000t of cement produced by INC in 2017, more than 50% was made with imported clinker. INC imports clinker from Uruguay, Spain and Greece.

India: Commissioning of the new 3000t/day production line at Tancem’s Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2018. Construction work is reported as almost complete. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the lead contractor on the project with Denmark’s FLSmidth hired by L&T to provide the design, engineering, manufacturing and supply of all equipment. FLSmidth’s scope of supply includes providing key components for the line including raw material crushing equipment, limestone storage, raw and coal grinding, single-string ILC pyro processing system with cooler, cement grinding and packing and loading systems.

Algeria: LafargeHolcim Algeria has conducted its fourth cement export operation to West Africa. Nearly 8500t of Ordinary Portland Cement were despatched from the port of Arzew in Oran, according to the Algeria Press Service. It follows previous batches in December 2017, March 2018 and the start of April 2018.

The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim aims to increase its cement and clinker exports to West Africa to 5Mt by 2020. In Algeria the company runs two cement plants at M'Sila and Oggaz in Mascara. It also operates a plant at Biskra as a joint-venture with Souakri Group and it manages SCMI’s Meftah's plant in a partnership.

Philippines: Phinma Group plans to buy a cement plant in Mariveles in Bataan and use it as a terminal to discharges exports from Vietnam. President and chief executive officer Ramon del Rosario, Jr added that the site will be operational by May 2019, according to GMA News. The site will be used to import and process 2mt/yr of cement. A deep water port at Mariveles is anticipated to allow Panamax size ships to discharge cement.