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Koshal Cement abandons mini grinding plant in Odisha 31 March 2015
India: Koshal Cement has abandoned a 45,000t/yr mini grinding plant in Nagaon, Bargarh, Odisha. The plant was intended to produce 50% Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) and 50% Portland slag cement (PSC) using a ball mill.
Penna Cement plans grinding plant in Maharashtra 31 March 2015
India: Penna Cement Industries plans to set up a 700,000t/yr capacity grinding plant in Daund, Pune, Maharashtra. The plant will be set up on 93,077m2 of land and is estimated to cost US$31.9m. Gannon Dunkerley Co will be the contractor and Walchandnagar Industries will be machinery supplier.
Dalmia Cement starts trial production in Karnataka plant 31 March 2015
India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has commenced trial production at its 2.5Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Karnataka. When commissioned, the plant will take the group's capacity to 24Mt/yr. "Dalmia Cement, a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Ltd, has commenced trial production at its new cement plant in Belgaum, Karnataka on 23 March 2015," said Dalmia Cement in a statement.
Seruji buys 60% stake in Savannah Cement 31 March 2015
Kenya: Mauritian company Seruji has acquired a 60% stake in Athi River-based Savannah Cement following approval from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CA).
Seruji completed the buyout from China's Wan Ho International, which held 40% and Acme Wanji, which owned 20%. Savannah Heights has retained a minority stake in Savannah Cement. The shareholding shake-up makes Savannah Cement Kenya's first fully-owned cement producer, as both Seruji and Savannah are owned by Savannah Cement founder Benson Ndeta.
The buyout comes ahead of a planned US$250m clinker plant project in Athi River by Savannah Cement, which aims to reduce its operating costs by eliminating clinker imports. Cement demand has risen steeply over the past two years in tandem with a host of several large projects in both the public and private sectors. The US$1.88bn Lamu coal power plant and the US$3.23bn standard gauge railway are among the projects that have increased domestic cement demand.
Domestic cement consumption grew by nearly 20% to hit a record 5Mt in 2014, driven mainly by robust growth in property development. However, Kenya's cement producers have been producing more cement than the market can absorb. In 2014 production hit 5.7Mt, up from 5.05Mt in 2013. The Standard Investment Bank has forecast that production will rise to 6.3Mt in 2015 and 6.7Mt in 2016.
Senegal/Cameroon: Dangote Cement's new plants in Senegal and Cameroon have commenced operations. Dangote Cement plants in Ethiopia and Zambia are expected to start production in April 2015.
The new Senegalese plant in Pout has a total production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr. With the new plant, Dangote Cement hopes to meet local demand and serve the export market demand of 2Mt/yr.
Country head of Dangote Industries Senegal, Luk Haelterman, disclosed that the group has invested about US$300m in the cement plant. He added that production and sales started on 10 January 2015. "Senegal is a market with overcapacity of cement, because it had two cement plants already. Dangote has become the biggest and best because we produce only 42.5R grade cement, which is better than 32.5R grade cement product there," said Haelterman.