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Holtec wins tender for first cement plant in a Palestinian Territory 20 February 2014
West Bank: India's Holtec has won a tender to carry out a feasibility study for The Palestinian Commercial Services Company (PCSC) regarding the establishment of the first cement plant in a Palestinian Territory.
The new facility, which will be located in the West Bank, is expected to take four years to complete. The US$300m plant will have a capacity of 5000t/day, which would be doubled after three years. The cement produced will help to meet demand in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At present, PCSC imports over 80% of local cement from Israel's Nesher Cement, with the remainder imported from Egypt or Jordan.
Holtec will prepare the feasibility over the next six months. This will cover factors such as location, geological tests, raw materials, production process technology and technical and logistical requirements.
Bamburi signs partnership for solid waste treatment 20 February 2014
Kenya: Bamburi Cement and the Mombasa County Government have entered into a US$55.6m partnership to develop a solid waste management system for the Mombasa county.
The deal will see Bamburi finance a feasibility study and provide equipment to boost the Mombasa waste management capacity. Most of the waste will be used to generate alternative fuel for the manufacture of cement.
HP cabinet cancels allotment of cement plant to Jaypee 20 February 2014
India: The Himachal Pradesh cabinet has cancelled the allotment of a cement plant to Jaypee in Chamba district as the company failed to meet the extended deadline to start production.
Official sources said that the government was not satisfied with Jaypee's reply to a show cause notice. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the cancelled project was signed in February 2007.
The US$128m project with a proposed production capacity of 2Mt/yr was due to begin operations within five years after receiving clearance from the Environment Ministry. The plant was expected to provide direct employment to over 1000 people.
Can the Egyptian cement industry secure its fuel supplies?
Written by Global Cement staff
19 February 2014
Suez Cement and Italcementi's first waste treatment plant in Egypt was inaugurated this week. The project uses 45,000t of household waste to produce 35,000t of alternative fuel annually. Given Egypt's on-going fuel concerns the project will be watched closely.
Italcementi has much riding on the success of the project. It has five integrated cement plants in the country. As reported in early February 2014, the cement producer suffered reduced production capacity in Egypt despite 'potential' domestic demand due to limited energy availability. Cement sales volumes in Egypt for Italcementi have continually fallen since 2011, accelerating from a 5.4% year-on-year reduction in 2011 to a 17.6% year-on-year reduction in 2013. Yet, despite this, rebounding domestic demand was reported in 2012 and 2013.
It must be extremely frustrating for Italcementi. It has the production capacity, it has demand but it doesn't have the fuel to power its lines. Any additional fuel will be welcome. At a rough and conservative rate of 200kg of fuel per tonne of cement produced, Italcementi and Suez Cement's new alternative fuel stream could help to produce 175,000t of cement or about 1.5% of the cement producer's clinker production capacity of 12Mt/yr.
Lafarge, with its mega 10.6Mt/yr cement plant outside of Cairo, hadn't suffered (publicly) as much as Italcementi from fuel shortages until the publication of its financial results for 2013. Although sales had decreased year-on-year since 2009, this has been blamed on competition. Now it has been announced that cement volumes decreased by 30% in the first half of 2013 due to shortages of gas. This was mitigated through fuel substitution to a 19% drop in the third quarter and a 7% drop in the fourth quarter.
However, Lafarge's strategy for fuel security may be threatened as the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs ordered the producer to stop preparations to build storage units for petcoke in February 2014 citing environmental and economic reasons. What happening here is unclear given that the Egyptian government has been encouraging cement producers to move away from using natural gas.
The examples above show the reactions two multinational cement producers, Italcementi and Lafarge, have made to secure their fuel supplies. The outcomes remain uncertain.
In other news, Shijiazhuang in Hebei province in China has started the demolition of 17 (!) more cement plants. This follows 18 plants that were demolished in December 2013. In total, 18.5Mt/yr of cement production capacity has been torn down.
This is more than the cement production output of most European countries or any single US state! Where was this cement going previously? What were the effects on the price of cement in China? Who is taking the loss for the destruction of this industrial production capacity? BBC News Business Editor Robert Peston has some ideas.
Albert Scheuer appointed chairman at HeidelbergCement Bangladesh
Written by Global Cement staff
19 February 2014
Bangladesh: HeidelbergCement Bangladesh has appointed Albert Scheuer as its chairman. Scheuer is a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement Group with responsibility for Asia-Oceania and worldwide co-ordination of the Heidelberg Technology Centre. Before this, he was chief operating officer of HeidelbergCement's operation in China and served as managing director of HeidelbergCement Technology Centre in European Cement Plants of the group from 1998 to 2005.