Global Cement News

Canada: Lafarge Canada Inc. have temporarily laid off 31 of its 50 unionised workers for December 2013 at its Brookfield cement plant as a seasonal cost-cutting measure.

"These workers will be back on the job early in the new year," said plant manager Scarth MacDonnell, who added that the temporary layoff is consistent with the seasonal nature of the business. "It is an unfortunate reality given the weather-related impact of the construction industry."

The future of the plant is solid as it continues to service Lafarge customers throughout Canada and the US. "Lafarge is firmly committed to its Brookfield plant for the long term and we will make the necessary investments to secure our future in Nova Scotia," said MacDonnell.

The Brookfield Lafarge plant received US$631,000 from the ecoNova Scotia Fund for Clean Air and Climate Change in 2010 to gear up for production of a new variety of low-carbon cement. The environmentally friendly cement is set to be in production at the plant by 2015.

Australia: Wyanga Holdings, Australian quarry specialists, has settled out of court after it was taken before the Land and Environment Court for exceeding its extraction limits.

Wyanga Holdings, the New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services Department (RMA) and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) were set to appear before Justice Sheahan at the NSW Land and Environment Court on 27 November 2013. However, Wyanga Holdings withdrew its appeal on the day over its Corindi Quarry licence issues and agreed to pay costs to the EPA and RMS in the appeal.

In August 2013 the EPA suspended Wyanga Holdings' licence for the quarry for seriously breaching the extraction limits on its license. Wyanga had extracted more than 368,000t of aggregate despite the extraction limit of 50,000t/yr.

Wyanga Holdings will now have to lodge a development application with Coffs Harbour City Council for consent to operate the quarry in excess of its original licence. The council rejected an earlier application.

Qatar: FLSmidth has signed a Letter of Intent with the Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) for the supply of a cement plant in Qatar. FLSmidth has confirmed that if and when the contract is finalised and becomes binding, the market shall be immediately informed. To be considered binding the contracts, down payments and guarantees must be signed and exchanged.

Germany/India: The exclusive Cooperation Agreement will enable MVW Lechtenberg & Partner (Germany) and Tridiagonal Solutions (India) to combine activities in the worldwide cement and lime industry to utilise Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models to develop, design and troubleshoot combustion processes.

CFD is the computer-aided solution technique to describe and simulate flow-related physical phenomena such as fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion. CFD has proven itself as a powerful technique to solve flow-related problems across a range of industries. Various cement, lime and power plant applications that can be analysed using CFD include kilns and boilers, flue gas cleaning systems, bag filters, bypass systems, NO_x reduction systems, heat recovery steam generators and related equipment.

"With recent advances in the understanding of combustion, multi-phase, turbulent reacting flows and computational resources, it is now possible to develop and use computational models to simulate the performance of cement and lime plant equipment with our huge database on alternative fuels and raw materials and their influence on processes. With the outstanding experience of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling professionals from Tridiagonal Solutions we can now provide a reliable and cost effective process modeling solution to the industry," said Dirk Lechtenberg, managing director and founder of MVW Lechtenberg & Partner.

Besides CFD Modeling, the cooperation also offers a powerful framework for state-of-the-art technology services that include process engineering and consulting (including manufacturing of pilot plants), experimental fluid flow modeling, discrete element modeling (DEM), granular dynamics consulting (EDEM - CFD coupled simulations) and simulation software development.

"Tridiagonal has been delivering process performance enhancement and product development solutions to leading companies from chemicals and process, oil and gas, power generation, pharmaceuticals, and the automotive industry. We are excited to partner with MVW and bring our expertise to the cement and lime industry. The synergy between Tridiagonal and MVW's expertise will lead to new insights and innovative solutions in the cement and lime industry worldwide" said Sandeepak Natu, Head-India Europe Business Unit of Tridiagonal Solutions.

Both Dangote Cement and PPC have reminded the world about their development plans for sub-Saharan Africa. In the wake of PPC's yearly results on 19 November 2013 came a spotlight on the South Africa-based cement producer's international ambitions. Not to be outdone, Nigeria's Dangote Cement then put out a press release detailing all of its big development projects.

Dangote and PPC are set to go into direct competition when the Dangote subsidiary, Sephakhu Cement, opens its 3Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Aganang, North West province in early 2014. It will be the first time the Nigerian cement giant will be producing cement in the same country as its competitor in sub-Saharan Africa, PPC. The encounter will set the tone for the producers' next clash when they both open cement plants in Ethiopia in 2015.

Both the African cement producers are targeting a swathe of south to east sub-Saharan Africa from South African to Ethiopia. PPC, based in South Africa, has a presence in neighbouring Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It has bought stakes in cement producers in Rwanda, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has new cement plants on the way in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In contrast to PPC's more 'organic' growth strategy from an established base, Dangote, with its existing presence in west Africa is about to enter this region. It has new projects planned in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as in Ethiopia and South Africa.

To compare the financing behind each company's expansion, Dangote reported that it had committed US$884m for acquisitions in 2012. PPC intends to spend US$276m on capital expenditure in its 2014 financial year. If these figures from financial reports are correct, Dangote is spending three times as much as PPC on expansion. Dangote may have more money for expansion but PPC has long-standing presences in the region or has recently acquired them.

Dangote reported an 18% rise year-on-year in turnover to US$1.8bn in 2012. The same year its sales volumes increased to 10.4Mt from 8.66Mt in 2012. The company's installed cement production capacity was reported as 19.25Mt from three plants in Nigeria. In comparison, PPC reported a 13% rise in revenue to US$820m for its financial year to the end of September 2013. No exact cement productions figures were released but PPC said that cement sales increased by 7% in the period.

How Dangote and PPC spar in South Africa remains to be seen but one area where they may agree will be on imports. In its final results for 2013, PPC again highlighted the continuing threat of imports from Pakistan, mainly via Durban. Imports comprised 7.6% of national demand as of June 2013. In Nigeria in 2012 Dangote led successfully a campaign to cut foreign imports. Irrespective of increasing demand for cement, adding Dangote to the anti-cement import lobby in South Africa might well make space for a new producer.