Global Cement News

Guinea: Guinee Industries Ciments (GIC) has awarded KHD Humboldt Wedag a contract to upgrade its cement grinding plant located in Conakry. GIC will integrate a Comflex system into GIC’s existing ball mills. The system will be the third Comflex system with roller press technology that has been installed in West Africa. The new system is expected to double the production capacity of the grinding line.

KHD’s scope includes the engineering and delivery of mechanical and electrical equipment, as well as the supervision of erection and commissioning for the new Comflex SC16-3500. The core equipment includes a RPS 16-170/180 roller press with Rolcox system for control and monitoring, a VS 620 cascade separator as a static classifier, a SKS-VC 3500 Sepmaster separator as a dynamic classifier and a HKSK 212-275 system fan. Commissioning of the Comflex system is scheduled for the end of 2017.

China: Huaxin Cement’s sales revenue rose by 1.9% to US$1.96bn in 2016 from US$1.93bn in 2015. Its cement and clinker sales rose by 5% to 52.7Mt and its net profit rose sharply to US$65.6m from US$14.9m. It attributed its result to following government-promoted supply side reforms such as cutting production costs. The cement producer noted that its had increased its usage of alternative fuels in the second half of the year following an increase in the cost of coal.

During the reporting period Huaxin Cement put its 3000t/day Tajikistan Sughd clinker production line into operation. It also purchased 15 cement plants from LafargeHolcim, including four grinding plants, located in Yunnan, Chongqing and Guizhou provinces. Altogether the new cement and clinker production capacity is expected to reach 10Mt and 15Mt respectively. The company also added that it had 25 alternative fuels co-processing projects operating or under construction with a capacity of 5Mt/yr.

China: Anhui Conch returned to rising sales revenue and profit in 2016 after a problematic year in 2015 beset by a poor market for cement. Its revenue rose by 9.7% year-on-year to US$8.12bn in 2016 from US$7.40bn in 2015. Its sales volumes of cement and clinker rose by 8% to 277Mt. Its net profit rose by 14% to US$1.24bn from US$1.09bn. The group says that its adoption of a flexible marketing strategy for different regions and plants and a focus on lowering production costs delivered sales growth and operating savings. However, its full year results are in contrast to its ones for the first nine months of 2016, in which it reported small declines in its revenue and net profit.

During the year the cement producer finished building six clinker production lines at Yingjiangyunhan Cement and Yiyang Conch Cement and it completed 18 cement grinding plants at Wenshan Conch Cement and Ganzhou Conch Cement. In addition to purchased the assets of Anhui Chaodong Cement. Outside of China the group completed lines in Indonesia and Myanmar, started buildings projects in Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos and started early work on new projects in Russia and Myanmar. At the end of 2016 the group says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 244Mt/yr and 313Mt/yr respectively. It also reported that it had completed 15 waste treatment projects by the end of the year to feed cement plant kilns with domestic waste.

Austria: Starlinger is targeting its Ad*Star block bottom valve sacks for the Chinese market based on their environmental performance. The packaging manufacturer says that a recent life cycle analysis study compared Ad*Star cement sacks favourable against cement sacks from sewn sacks made of recycled woven polypropylene tape fabric from China and paper sacks from Saudi Arabia. Starlinger also hopes that widespread adoption of its products in China would aid the automation of the entire chain of cement filling and transport processes, further modernising the sector. The company is preparing to exhibit at a Chinese plastic and rubber exhibition in May 2017.

India: Emami Cement has commissioned a 2Mt/yr cement grinding plant at the Panagarh Industrial Park in the Burdwan district of West Bengal. The project cost US$76m, according to the Hindu newspaper. The plant will produce Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Pozzolana Cement and Portland Slag Cement products under the ‘Emami Double Bull’ brand. The new plant joins Emami Cement’s integrated plant at Risda in Chattisgarh. It is also building another 1.8Mt/yr grinding plant in Odisha.