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Solid Cement spills 2000L of bunker oil into Rizal River 10 September 2015
Philippines: A leak in Solid Cement's fuel storage tank in Antipolo is suspected of releasing an estimated 2000L of bunker fuel into a river system in Rizal, raising concerns that it may reach Laguna Lake.
"Initial investigation showed that the leak was from a fuel storage tank located at the Solid Cement Plant in Antipolo. It appears that the strong gusts of wind and heavy downpour caused the leak to reach the Kaynaog Creek leading to the Tagbak River," said Chito Maniago, Solid Cement's communications director.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported that its Laguna de Bay Station received a call from Jerome Mateo of the Morong local government on 8 September 2015 to report an oil spill in the vicinity of the Teresa River. The PCG said that its team, along with representatives from the Marine Environmental Protection, discovered that approximately 2000L (10 drums) of bunker oil had been spilled at the river.
The initial investigation showed that the spill came from Solid Cement, located at Sitio Tagbac, Barangay San Jose in Antipolo. The PCG team was also informed that traces of the oil spill was found on the Morong River in Barangay Poblacion, Morong, which it later confirmed. The team took oil samples from both sites and the cement plant as part of its investigation.
The PCG said that it advised Solid Cement to lay out oil spill booms at the villages that reported traces of oil in their part of the river; Barangay May-iba and Barangay Poblacion along the Morong River. The company has duly deployed three oil spill booms to date and will put in place additional oil spill booms at the mouth of Morong River leading to Laguna Lake.
"The safety of the community and the environment remain our priority. We assure everyone that we are on top of the situation to immediately resolve this incident. Our investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of this leakage. We will provide updates as soon as available," said a Solid Cement spokesperson.
Shonhiwa joins Dangote Group
Written by Global Cement staff
10 September 2015
Nigeria: Former Lafarge Zimbabwe chairman Johnathan Shonhiwa has joined Dangote Group. Shonhiwa, who resigned from Lafarge Zimbabwe recently, was chairman for almost two years after having taken over from Muchadeyi Masunda in January 2014. Prior to that, he was managing director of Lafarge Zimbabwe for six years, finance director for four and a half years and finance manager for two years.
From brownfield to leftfield: what happens to closed cement plants?
Written by David Perilli, Global Cement
09 September 2015
Plans for the former Shoreham cement plant on the south coast of England took an exciting turn towards the end of 2014. Zero carbon design firm Zedfactory announced its plans to regenerate the brownfield site into an eco-resort featuring holiday homes, performance space, affordable homes, a hotel and conference centre, a watersports venue, wildlife preserves and more. Or, ' hobbit homes' as the Daily Mail put it when it covered the story six months later.
This raises the question of what happens to cement plants when they close?
In the UK, where a housing shortage in certain areas collide with NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitudes and strict planning regulations, former industrial or brownfield sites are prime sites for new housing developments. Subsequently, old cement plants are attractive to builders to build houses. Two examples of current sites heading this way include the former Cemex plant in Barrington, Cambridgeshire and the former Lafarge Eastgate plant in County Durham. Both sites have gained planning permission and were still in the pre-building stage according to local press reports in mid-2015. Dylan Moore's website 'Cement Plants and Kilns in Britain and Ireland' provides a good resource on former plants in the UK and Ireland.
One of the jokes about classic UK science-fiction television series Dr Who was that during the 1970s it was either filmed on cheap studio sets or in quarries. Endless encounters with alien beings took place in cement plant quarries including Lafarge Northfleet (alien in spacesuits), Lafarge Aberthaw (tentacle faced aliens), Hanson Ketton (Arthurian knights who may in fact be aliens...) and many more. Indeed, one of the conditions of the proposed Lafarge Eastgate sale in March 2015 was that a television production company could continue to use the quarry to film an adaptation of Beowulf for five years!
On the more imaginative side of what to do with old plants, La Fabrica near Barcelona is a spectacular example. Architect Ricardo Bofill converted a 19th century plant into his firm's head office, La Fabrica, and his own personal residence. As Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura's website puts it, "Eight silos remained, which became offices, a models laboratory, archives, a library, a projections room and a gigantic space known as 'The Cathedral', used for exhibitions, concerts and a whole range of cultural functions linked to the professional activities of the architect." Architecturally the project refers to Catalan Civic Gothic style with surrealist elements.
This sense of entertainment from industrial architecture was continued by sculptor Bob Cassilly in St Louis, USA who decided to build Cementland. Cassilly purchased the former plant and slowly assembled his clinker-themed version of Disneyland. Unfortunately he died in 2001 following an accident with a bulldozer at the site before he finished.
More and more former cement plants will be seeking new purposes as Europe rationalises its cement industries and excess capacity is eliminated. China too faces similar issues as it consolidates its industry. Most will probably lie fallow before eventually being knocked down and then turned into something following the cheapest economic path forward. With luck though, some will follow the dreams of Zedfactory and people like Ricardo Bofill and Bob Cassilly.
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Cementos Argos launches brand in Puerto Rico 09 September 2015
Puerto Rico: Colombia's Cementos Argos has launched its brand in Puerto Rica following the purchase of a cement terminal in May 2015.
"Through this new receipt, storage and distribution terminal, we are making all of our experience, knowledge and innovation available to the local market. All of these elements together, in combination with our personalised technical advice and industrial professionalisation programmes, make up Argos' value promise: Support and accompaniment," says Mauricio Ossa, the vice president for Cementos Argos' Caribbean and Central American regional division.
On 1 May 2015 Argos took over the management of the terminal and began an integration to efficiently align the new operation with its existing structure and thus ensure unification processes and services. The terminal boosts the creation of synergies with the company's existing operations, further driving trading activities that were already on the rise.
"Puerto Rico complements our existing logistics platform, allowing us to efficiently interconnect strategic production assets with our main markets, providing us with an enhanced level of operational flexibility that fits in perfectly with our strategy," said Ossa.
Lucky Cement reports US$119m net profit for 2015 09 September 2015
Pakistan: Lucky Cement has reported a net profit of US$119m for the year that ended on 30 June 2015, some 9.6% higher than in the prior year. On a consolidated basis, Lucky Cement's net profit grew by 15.7% to US$132m for the year that ended on 30 June 2015.
Its net sales revenue improved by 3.9% to US$429m. The increase in net sales revenue was attributed mainly to an increase in sales volumes. Local sales volumes grew by 7% to 4.42Mt, while export sales fell by 4.5% to 2.37Mt.
Lucky Cement has also reported progress on its key foreign and local projects, including its integrated cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a 660MW supercritical coal-based power project, a 50MW wind farm, the electricity supply to PESCO and a waste heat recovery project at PEZU power plant.