Global Cement News

India: France’s Vicat plans to spend Euro223m towards upgrading a cement plant and building a new one in India. Group chairman Guy Sidos signed two memoranda of understanding on a recent French business delegation to India, according to the Economic Times newspaper. Vicat’s local subsidiary, Kalburgi Cement, plans to spend Euro140 on an upgrade to its Karnataka cement plant. The upgrade will add 2.25Mt/yr of cement capacity and will be completed by the first quarter of 2023. It also plans to invest Euro60m towards building a new 1.75Mt/yr plant in the Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. The new plant is scheduled for completion in mid-2022. Once both projects are completed Kalburgi Cement will have a total cement production capacity of 6.75Mt/yr from two units.

India: The government of Haryana is investigating the transfer of around 122 acres belonging to the Associated Cement Companies’ (ACC) closed Bhupendra Cement plant to a Mumbai-based builder. According to Kalka MLA Latika Sharma, the land’s lease said it could only be used for industrial use, according to the Times of India newspaper. However, the builder it has been transferred to intends to build a town. Education minister Ram Bilas Sharma Sharma told the state congress that the Haryana Police had gathered ‘strong’ material on alleged irregularities in the entire issue and the government had decided to get the matter probed by the state vigilance bureau. The Bhupendra Cement plant at Surajpur near Pinjore was originally built in 1937. It was closed in 1997 on environmental grounds.

Cambodia: Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem says that a new 1.7Mt/yr cement plant in Battambang province is set to start production in mid-march 2017. Although the minister did not specify which plant was due to open, the only unit with that production capacity is Battambang Conch Cement, a joint venture between China’s Conch International Holdings and local cement firm Battambang KT Cement, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. Construction at the site started in late 2016 with an investment of around US$230m. With the completion of this latest plant the country is now expected to be able to meet its own domestic demand with local supply.

Ivory Coast: Intercem has received an order for a ship-unloading project for Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) and has completed a project for Cim Ivoire. Both projects were received from Sea Invest on behalf of the end clients.

The CIMAF project for a cement grinding plant in San Pedro was agreed in February 2018. The order is an expansion of an existing ship unloading system. The contract was agreed by the Vice President of CIMAF in San Pedro, Melik Sefrioui, and Intercem’s General Manager, Olaf Michelswirth. The order includes a 3D scan of the existing system to ensure planning security. Intercem will perform the engineering, the foundation works, the deliveries, the assembly and the commissioning. Completion of the order is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The order for Cim Ivoire was first received in late 2016. It included the delivery of trough belt conveyors as well as all related components and the transfer tower on an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) base: from the piling, the foundation works, the steel construction, the cladding of the building, the roofing of the belt bridges, the necessary filters and chutes to the electrical equipment.

The ship unloading system includes two belts with a length of 100m and a capacity of 1200t/hr. The first belt can be charged with material from a hopper over its entire length. Two towers were built, one with a height of about 8m and one of about 34m of height. A generator situated in the lower part of the transfer tower two assures the emergency power supply.

The ship unloading system is connected to two 50,000t clinker silos and the raw material shed for Cim Ivoire. Thus a truck-free unloading of clinker and raw material will be achieved to suit the new regulations of the port authorities in Abidjan.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that shipments of Ordinary Portland and blended cement rose by 2.4% year-on-year to 95.5Mt in 2017 from 93.3Mt in 2016. Increases of over 5% were reported in Arizona and New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Washington. However, shipments fell by 14% in Illinois. Imports rose by 5.6% to 11.3Mt. Clinker production increased by 1.4% to 76.8Mt from 75.8Mt. Major importers of cement into the US were Canada with 4.4Mt, Greece with 2.3Mt and China with 2Mt.