Global Cement News

India: Dalmia Bharat Cement will invest US$492m in projects to expand its cement production capacity by 8Mt/yr to 34Mt/yr from 26Mt/yr. The sum includes a consolidated investment of US$422m in brownfield developments in Eastern India to increase integrated capacity at its Rajgangpur plant in Odisha by 3.0Mt/yr, and at its Kasba plant in West Bengal by 2.7Mt/yr, to 6.6Mt/yr and 4.0Mt/yr respectively. The expansion is scheduled for completion by March 2020.

Croatia: Holcim Croatia has purchased Readymix Croatia for an undisclosed sum. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim said that the acquisition would allow it to invest in a fourth quarry in the local market located at Vranje near Lupoglav, Istria. Its aggregates business started operating in 2006 in Ocura in Varaždin County, then in 2007 in Plovanija and in 2008 in Šumber in Istria County. The building materials company operates one integrated cement plant in the country at Koromančnoa and two ready-mixed concrete plants.

UK: GyroMetric Systems has signed an agreement to install digital monitoring equipment on a 11kV raw mill drive at Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant in Derbyshire. Measured digital parameters will include dynamic torque across the coupling, radial displacement of the shaft (and therefore misalignment), and torsional vibrations of the drive system. The data will also provide information on the condition of the gearbox. GyroMetric Systems is controlled by Remote Monitored Systems. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, has expressed caution about growing cement sales so far in 2019. Data from SNIC shows that cement sales grew by 3% year-on-year to 40.5Mt in the first nine months of 2019 from 39.4Mt in the same period in 2018. Growth was driven by central and southern regions of the country, particularly in São Paulo. Exports grew by 22% to 90,000t from 74,000t. However, Paulo Camillo said that apparent growth in 2019 was partly due to a truckers strike in May 2018 that overly depressed the year’s sales. Despite this, he added that a survey of the construction industry released by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) was showing slow but steady improvement.

US: Cemex USA’s Miami and Brooksville South cement plants in Florida have been awarded Energy Star certification for 2019 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for work on energy efficiency and sustainability. The current year’s recognition marks nine consecutive years of Energy Star certification for the Miami plant and the Brooksville South plant has achieved the certification seven out of the last eight years.

“Cemex is committed to delivering world-class products and services to its clients across the US and the globe while maintaining the highest sustainability standards in our industry,” said Cemex USA president Jaime Muguiro.
To earn the recognition, operations at each plant followed energy-efficiency principles established by the EPA’s Energy Star guidelines and implemented energy conservation technologies along with energy-reduction projects. The recognised facilities were among the top 25% of similar US facilities for energy conservation and met the Energy Star Plant Energy Performance Indicators.