Displaying items by tag: Egypt
Minya plant aims for full production in 2013
30 May 2012Egypt: ASEC Cement expects full production from the Arab National Cement Company (ANCC) in Minya to begin by the first quarter of 2013, creating 400 direct jobs and 1500 indirect jobs.
ASEC Cement has confirmed that it is on track to start commissioning at the US$335m ANCC plant , its 1.9Mt/yr clinker greenfield plant in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, in the final months of 2012. ASEC Cement is the largest shareholder in ANCC with a 45% stake in the project.
Civil engineering work on site was completed by the end of 2011 but construction delays occurred due to the national political situation. ANCC and ARESCO, the contractor responsible for the steel fabrication and mechanical erection of the plant, and an ASEC Holding portfolio company are now implementing a recovery plan to complete mechanical and steel installation by the third quarter of 2012.
ANCC is one of Egypt's biggest project finance deals. In September 2010 ANCC signed an US$182m loan to finance the construction of its plant in Minya. The syndicated loan agreement involves a consortium of seven leading Egyptian and regional banks, which will cover 52% of the US$335m investment with the balance financed by the equity of ANCC. Other shareholders in ANCC include Misr Qena Cement (13.9%), Safari Investments (30.7%), IFU/FLS (9.2%) and other shareholders (1.1%).
Italcementi faces Egyptian strikes
21 March 2012Egypt: Italcementi subsidiary Suez Cement has announced that workers at two of its factories in Suez and Katamiya started a strike on 14 March 2012. The strike has halted shipping at these plants although production has not been affected. In a separate statement Suez Cement said that strike action at its Tourah plant ended on 20 March 2012.
Chinese workers kidnapped in Sinai
01 February 2012Egypt: Bedouin in Egypt's Sinai Peninsulas kidnapped 25 mostly Chinese cement factory workers on 31 January 2012. They demanded that authorities free fellow tribesmen from prison, sources from the tribe said.
"We will not release the Chinese until our demand for the release of these sons of Sinai are met," said one of the Bedouin who wanted to remain anonymous.
The workers were kidnapped on their way to a Sinai Cement plant and were being held in a tent near a road that the Bedouin had blocked for the past three days to press their demand, the sources said. They said their jailed tribesmen were arrested between 2004 and 2006 as part of an investigation into bombings at the Taba resort on Sinai's Red Sea coast in which 31 people were killed.
Egypt announces 12 new cement plant licences
09 September 2011Egypt: The Egyptian Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has announced that it will issue 12 cement licences in the second half of October 2011 to lure new firms into the Egyptian market and boost the sector's competitiveness.
"The authority aims to offer 18Mt/yr, 1.5Mt/yr per licence," said IDA head, Ismail El-Nagdy, who added that the licences will be awarded to new producers rather than existing ones in order to offer alternatives to consumers.
The popular uprising that ousted long-time President Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt in February 2011 has forced the government to slash its short-term economic growth forecast and deepened a crisis in the once-booming real estate sector, a major cement consumer. The IDA says that new entrants into the cement market are needed to meet an expected longer-term rise in construction, especially as the Housing Ministry builds more housing units to meet the needs of Egypt's growing population.
Suez launches alternative fuel operations
15 August 2011Egypt: In collaboration with the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) Suez Cement Group of Companies (SCGC) has begun the implementation of a new integrated alternative fuel (AF) system at its Kattameya plant in New Cairo.
"As part of the activities to enhance our sustainability, this project will realise environmental returns through the application of advanced technologies for using AFs in cement production operations, a matter which will maximise our competitiveness and reduce the use of traditional energy sources thus helping the country," said Carlo Foroni, technical director of the SCGC. "This will also relieve the community from the need to treat their waste materials and will also limit CO2 emissions," Foroni added.
According to Mohamed Aymen, SGCC environment affairs manager, following EEAA's 2009 approval of burning agricultural and municipal wastes at the company's Kattameya and Helwan plants, industrial testing started at Kattameya through a pilot feeding line. "All of these products will be recycled and used as an alternative fuel by being safely burnt at cement kilns," said Aymen.
While the environmental impact assessment for using alternative fuel systems at the Suez plant is underway, the project's feeding line will already be applied as planned at the company's Helwan plant later in 2011.