Global Cement News

UK/Lativa: Recycling and resource management company, SITA UK, has signed a three-year contract to supply 180,000t of solid recovered fuel (SRF) to Cemex in Latvia. The fuel will be produced by processing residual commercial waste in a purpose-built facility at Ridham Docks in Kent. Once processed, the SRF material will be used as a fossil-fuel replacement at a Cemex plant in Broceni, southern Latvia.

"We have invested over Euro7.53m developing a new processing facility to produce and bale SRF at Ridham. This brand new, purpose-built facility was commissioned in August 2012 and we are sending our first shipment to Latvia in September 2012," said Andy Hill, head of organics and alternative fuels, at SITA UK.

SITA UK uses residual commercial waste, which has a higher calorific value and lower moisture content than municipal waste. Its facility in Ridham can process up to 50t/hr. The company has a one year trans-frontier shipment permit to export the SRF to Cemex in Latvia.

Earlier in April 2012, SITA UK and Cemex announced their intention to develop two waste recycling plants to produce alternative fuel for Cemex's Rugby plant in Warwickshire. SITA UK, a subsidiary of Suez Environment, is a recycling and resource management company employing over 6000 staff with a turnover in excess of Euro879m/yr.

India: An inter-ministerial panel has recommended the de-allocation of two coal blocks held by five companies, including Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Grasim Industries and Lafarge India, bringing the total number of such blocks to 13. The Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) has completed the review of 29 coal blocks held by private companies and recommended cancellation of licences for blocks holding an estimated 2.6Bnt of coal, affecting 28 private companies.

The affected blocks include the Bhaskarapara block in Chhattisgarh and Dahegaon Makardhokra IV in Maharashtra. The Dahegaon Makardhokra IV coal block, with 132Mt of reserves was allocated to IST Steel & Power, Gujarat Ambuja Cement and Lafarge India in 2009. The Bhaskarapara block with 48Mt of reserves was allotted to Electrotherm (India) Ltd and Grasim Industries Ltd in 2008. The coal ministry has not decided yet how it will re-allocate the 13 blocks.

A senior coal ministry official said the coal blocks would be auctioned to private firms or given to government companies at the reserve price if the ministry does not want to allocate them to Coal India. The ministry has already identified 54 coal blocks for three types of allotments: to government companies, to power companies and to private firms through auction.

"If we decide that Coal India has enough blocks, we may give it to other companies through the auction route. Whatever the route is, no block will be given free of cost and even Coal India will pay a reserve price," the official said.

The de-allocation recommendation follows a probe into the so-called 'coalgate' scam, concerning the allocation of coal mines to private firms since 1993. The practice of granting captive coal blocks to private power, steel and cement companies began in 1993, following an amendment to the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act. India's main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has accused the government of using the probe for alleged vested political interests.

Italy: Two Italcementi workers have protested against company layoffs by occupying the bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Sassari, Sardinia. The workers climbed up on 19 September 2012 in what they described as a 'sit-in prayer'. Union representative Simone Testoni said that workers to be laid off in November 2012 still haven't been told what the company's next move will be.

Italcementi reached a deal in 2008 with the regional government in which it pledged that while consolidating all its operations on the island, it would transfer existing employees rather than lay them off. Yet in May 2010 the factory closed. Italcementi blamed the economic crisis.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Qassim Cement has posted a net profit of US$82m for the first half of 2012, a rise of 5.4% from US$77.8m in the same period in 2011. The company attributed the increase to a rise in sales but did not provide any exact sales figures. It reported an operating profit of US$84.1m for the first six months of 2012, a rise of 6.1% from US$79.3m in 2011.

Namibia: Hans-Wilhelm Schutte, the managing director of Ohorongo Cement, has warned that the Namibian cement industry faces a serious challenge from foreign imports if existing import tariffs are lifted. Schutte made the statement in an affidavit filed with the High Court in Windhoek in the latest stage of a case in which a Chinese-owned cement importer wants to have the cement import duty declared invalid.

"The absence of infant industry protection will jeopardise (Ohorongo Cement's) entire operations in Namibia and may result in the need to retrench employees and down-scale (or totally halt) operations," Schutte has claimed.

Ohorongo Cement has filed an application with the High Court in which it is asking to be allowed to join the case in which a cement importer, Jack's Trading CC, has sued the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner of Customs and Excise in connection with the tariffs which have been levied on cement imports into Namibia since 27 July 2012.

According to Schutte, infant industry protection, which is allowed under the 2002 Southern African Customs Union agreement, was a precondition for the decision to establish Ohorongo Cement's plant in Namibia. Yet in his latest affidavit filed with the court, the majority member of Jack's Trading CC Yuequan Jack Huang, stated that he had signed a four-year contract to import 180,000t/yr of cement into Namibia.

Ohorongo Cement has set up a cement plant between Otavi and Tsumeb and invested about US$275m in the country. Ohorongo Cement has produced cement since February 2011. It has a capacity of capacity of 0.7Mt/yr and employs 316 people.

Finance Minister, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, imposed an import duty of 60% on cement with effect from 27 July 2012. Currently the 60% rate will remain in force until 2014 whereupon it will decrease annually to 12% in 2018. Namibia's domestic demand for cement is currently estimated to be about 0.5Mt/yr.