Global Cement News

Nigeria: The United Cement Company of Nigeria Limited (Unicem) is investing US$510m in an additional 2.5Mt/yr state-of-the-art cement line to double its existing capacity to 5Mt/yr by 2016.

Sinoma Group is constructing the 2.5Mt/yr new cement line. The project includes the construction of a new 45MW captive power plant by Wärtsilä Nigeria Limited. Work on the project has already started.

Managing director of Unicem, Olivier Leonir, said that cement demand had continued to grow nationally and regionally, especially within the south and south-east regions, with demand currently growing at about 12%/yr.

Leonir said that the project has a lot of economic and social benefits to the people of Cross River state and its neighbouring communities, adding that, "Unicem has a strong commitment to develop local capacity through various initiatives such as the Unicem Community Development Initiative (UCID) and the Graduate Trainee Scheme. We have been enlisting and training young people from the community as mechanical technicians and training young graduate engineers to fill the local manpower gap."

Leonir said that Unicem is also building a US$30.4m 20km cement road infrastructure to cater for the expected traffic increase and to reduce the movement of articulated vehicles within Calabar when the project is completed.

India: Gebr. Pfeiffer SE and its Indian subsidiary Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd have won a contract with Kolkata-based Emami Cement Ltd, which includes four of the latest design of the MVR mill and an MPS mill for coal grinding.

Emami Cement, an enterprise of the private Emami Group of companies, is a newcomer to the Indian cement industry. It operates in many fields of the consumer goods sector and the decision to set up a greenfield cement works in Chhattisgarh and various grinding plants in east India was preceded by a detailed analysis of the market situation.

The order covers an MVR 6000 R-6 roller mill with an installed drive power of 6700kW for raw material grinding. The mill is designed to yield 610t/hr of raw meal, with the difficult-to-grind material being ground to a fineness of 15% R 90µm.

Three mills of the type MVR 6000 C-6, which is Gebr. Pfeiffer's current top seller, will be used for cement grinding. Each of the mills features an installed drive power of 6700kW and will be capable of producing 335t/hr of ordinary portland cement (OPC). The grinding plants will also be designed to allow fly ash cement and granulated blast-furnace slag to be ground to a fineness of 3800cm²/g according to Blaine and 4000 cm²/g according to Blaine, respectively.

Emami Cement has selected an MPS 3350 BK vertical roller mill for fuel grinding. It will produce 80t/hr of hard coal ground to a fineness of 15% R 90µm.

While Gebr. Pfeiffer SE will supply the core components of the mills and the gear units from Europe, its Indian subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd, will provide components such as housing of the mills and classifiers, the steel foundation parts as well as the interior parts of the classifiers. In addition, the Indian subsidiary will design the plant layout and advise the customer on the equipment.

This order brings the number of MVR mills sold to the Indian market to 10, increasing the number of MVR mills ordered worldwide to 16.

Myanmar: Thailand's Siam Cement Group (SCG) aims to produce nearly 2Mt/yr of cement at its new plant in Myanmar once the US$400m plant starts operations in 2016.

"Our new plant in the country is expected to produce 5000t/day, which is about 2Mt/yr," said Chana Poomee, country director of SCG in Myanmar. "We see a lot of potential in Myanmar because we consider it an Asean 'mid-land.' There are very good opportunities here. We believe in the future of Myanmar, so we've decided to invest," he said. He noted that construction had progressed well, with full support from the government and Mon State.

A new 20km road is being constructed while the company repairs many roads in the state. The SCG country director also emphasised that the company had launched a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to improve the lives of people in Myanmar, which include public health and medical programmes, educational support for students and community-building activities. The firm's CSR activities also include building new schools near the plant, mobile clinics that will provide medical services to the people and renovation of pagodas in Mon State.

"We hope to be able to improve the livelihoods of people in Myanmar through economic, social and environmental development, just as SCG is doing in the other markets that it operates in," Chana said.

He added that the local residents were satisfied with the implementation of the new cement plant. "It took a long time for us to discuss the project with the government and the people. I am sure the local people will be satisfied with our plant thanks to our community-building programmes, which will be beneficial to all of them," said Chana.

In recent months, the firm has begun engaging with the communities around the plant site to inform them about the planned developments. "We will introduce environmentally friendly technology such as waste-heat power generation and greenhouse-gas reduction. It may be better than our plant in Thailand because of the up-to-date technology that will be used in this plant," Chana said.

Vietnam: Prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a proposal from the Ministry of Construction to expand the production capacity of Xuan Thanh cement plant in the northern province of Ha Nam to 4.5Mt/yr from the current 2.3Mt/yr.

The prime minister asked the ministry to review the planning of the cement industry, to remove low capacity cement projects from planning and to report to the government in June 2014. The government leader earlier added Xuan Thanh cement plant to the list of projects slated for operation before 2015.

Australia: The Federal Court in Brisbane has found five cement producers guilty of anti-competitive practices in relation to contracts entered into between 2002 and 2006 to acquire flyash from various power stations in South East Queensland.

The case was brought to the court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which cited five corporate respondents including Cement Australia, Cement Australia Holdings, Cement Australia Queensland, Pozzolanic Enterprises and Pozzolanic Industries. Findings were made against all but Cement Australia Holdings.

Justice Greenwood found that the respondents had purposely prevented competitors from entering the market. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said, "Anticompetitive conduct remains an enforcement priority for the ACCC. The ACCC took action in this matter originally due to its concern that a dominant player in a market appeared to be foreclosing and preventing competition. The declarations and findings made by the court demonstrate that this concern was warranted." Penalties will be determined at a later date.