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Al Khalij Cement Company adds new cement line 02 December 2015
Qatar: Al Khalij Cement Company has added a duplicate production line to take its total cement production capacity to 15,500t/day, which will help Qatar meet rising cement demand in view of the strategic infrastructure projects being undertaken ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
"We can say that we are now the largest producer of Ordinary Portland Cement in Qatar," said Al Khalij Cement Company's Managing Director Faisal bin Abdullah al-Mana. Highlighting that the estimated total cement demand in Qatar is 20,000 - 22,000t/day, al-Mana said that, with the addition of production capacity from Al Khalij, the country will be able to meet the growing demand domestically.
In 2013, Denmark's FLSmidth won a US$95.9m order for the supply of a complete cement production line for Al Khalij's plant in Umm Bab. The production line is identical to the existing line, which was supplied by FLSmidth in 2007. The strategy to have identical production lines, according to al-Mana, will make the maintenance and sourcing of spare parts easier.
Harsha Cabral celebrates second year as Tokyo Cement Company Lanka Director
Written by Global Cement staff
02 December 2015
Sri Lanka: Harsha Cabral was appointed as the Director of Tokyo Cement Company Lanka one year ago on 1 December 2014. Cabral was appointed to the Board in March 2009
LafargeHolcim says Australasian business is not up for sale 01 December 2015
Australasia: LafargeHolcim has said that, despite what has been reported recently in the media, its Australian and New Zealand operations are not for sale.
LafargeHolcim recently announced a plan to divest almost US$5bn of assets in 2016 after posting unexpectedly weak third-quarter results. Speculation had emerged that it might exit from the Australasia region.
However, according to local media, an internal email sent to staff on 30 November 2015, Holcim Australia Chief Executive Mark Campbell said the company was 'not currently being sold,' but could not rule out an exit in the long term.
"I have checked whether the LafargeHolcim group had made a decision to sell the businesses in Australia and New Zealand and started a sale process without my knowledge and the answer I have received is 'no,'" said Campbell. "That said, organisations change focus over time and it is impossible to say that we will always be part of the LafargeHolcim group."
Australian-listed rivals, including Boral, Fletcher Building and Adelaide Brighton, are seen as potential acquirers, should the multinational giant choose to sell off its local arm. Ireland's CRH may also be interested. However, Morgan Stanley said that many of LafargeHolcim's local competitors might run into competition issues, given that the market is concentrated among several large players. "Should Adelaide Brighton fully participate, we cannot rule out that the 50% share in Cement Australia would be divested due to Australian regulations, given Adelaide Brighton's already strong share in cement," said Morgan Stanley Analyst James Rutledge. "While we think Fletcher Building is unlikely to be in a position to participate in industry consolidation, a change in owner that was less integrated into the region may be a positive for Fletcher Building at the margin," said Rutledge. "Given Boral's strong share in aggregates and the concrete market, we believe it will be difficult to participate in industry consolidation."
While Lafarge has a limited local presence in Australia and New Zealand, Holcim bought a string of Australian assets from Mexico's Cemex in 2009 for US$2bn and now boasts more than 350 sites nationwide.
Romania: Holcim Romania, part of LafargeHolcim, has initiated a national road safety programme to raise awareness of the importance of appropriate driving behaviour across the supply chain.
The three-year programme consists of series of valuable projects mainly aimed at reducing the number of human casualties and the number of critical incidents on the roads in Romania.
At global level, every year, road accidents kill over 1.3 million people and injure 20 - 25 million people, with injuries caused by traffic accidents being the main death cause among people between 15 and 29.
The national road safety programme launched by Holcim in Romania will comprise four main action directions, which will take place simultaneously and in which the company has invested over Euro100,000:
1. An education and involvement programme in the local communities;
2. A programme for raising awareness and training the companies providing transport services to Holcim Romania;
3. A series of focus groups for professional drivers;
4. An integrated journey management programme.
As part of the project dedicated to local communities, Holcim Romania introduced the educational project 'Safe Road – the ABC of the road' in 12 schools from four counties (Arges, Bihor, Cluj and Dambovita). The project is based on the road education curriculum developed in 2015 by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research and helps pupils from the primary level to understand the traffic rules and how they can prevent road accidents.
The team in charge of managing the fleet providing transport services to Holcim Romania will also communicate directly on the importance of road safety, through a training programme that sets to align the road safety standards between Holcim Romania and the partner transport companies, starting from the statistics concerning the road incidents provided by the World Health Organisation.
The third project included in the road safety programme consists in focus groups with 550 professional drivers (employees of the companies that provide transport services for Holcim Romania), in order to encourage their involvement in raising awareness on the importance of road safety. The conclusions will be further processed by Holcim Health and Safety team and will be implemented in the fleet companies.
Through the fourth direction of action of the road safety programme, Holcim Romania aims to implement, in a sustainable manner, several viable measurement tools, which allow for an efficient management and for the diminution of road accidents which can occur in our supply chain.
"Holcim Romania permanently seeks to improve and develop the Health and Safety standards and culture among its employees. This supports our 'Zero harm' vision in all processes and activities. One of our major concerns is to comply with the traffic rules and we wish to contribute with this road safety programme to decreasing the number of fatal and critical accidents. We can do this only by changing the drivers' mentality and raising their awareness with regard to the traffic risks," said François Petry, CEO of Holcim Romania.
Turkmenistan produces over 3Mt of cement 30 November 2015
Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan has produced around 3.3Mt of cement since early 2015, in part due to the completion of a 1.4Mt/yr plant was put into operation by Turkish Polimeks in Lebap. The plant produces portland cement, oil well cement and sulphate-resistant cement used in hydraulic units. Polimeks also put into operation a similar plant in Balkan.