19 April 2017
Qatar: France’s Fives has released further information about its work on the 5000t/day cement production line for Qatar National Cement Company. Fives installed the 6.6MW FCB B-mill of the raw meal grinding plant in March 2017. Installation of the raw mill shell was completed on 29 March 2017. The shell weighs 198t, has a length of 17.2m and a diameter of 6.4m. It was moved and erected using a self-propelled modular transporter. This project step followed the commissioning of the two FCB B-mills at the cement grinding plant in January and February 2017, and the signature of the related provisional acceptance in April 2017.
Ambo Gnemer in talks to build cement plant in Ethiopia 19 April 2017
Ethiopia: The Oromia state government has started negotiations with Ambo Gnemer about building a US$44m cement plant. The company owns land in the state and it intends to develop a site at Ambo, according to the Addis Fortune newspaper. Previous attempts to develop the plant failed due to a lack of capital.
Algeria to produce surplus of cement in 2017 19 April 2017
Algeria: Abdesslem Bouchouareb, the Minister of Industry and Mines, has said that Algeria will report a surplus in cement production later in 2017. The minister said that the country is expecting to produce 30Mt of cement due to newly commissioned plants, according to the Algeria Press Service. He added that a ‘disturbance’ in the cement market had been caused by speculation and that the government was determined protect the local economy. The minister previously announced the commissioning of new plants at Adrar and in Biskra in April 2017.
Russia: Soyuzcement, a cement manufacturing union, predicts that cement production could rise by up to 3% to 57Mt in 2017. In the short-term cement production is expected to benefit from infrastructure investment to local government municipalities from the federal budget and from a reduction to the mortgage rate by the banks. In the longer term the union expects that housing development and concrete road construction will drive the industry, according to Interfax. However, cement production fell in the first two months of 2017 and remained stable in March 2017. Soyuzcement has also prepared a negative forecast that stated that production could fall by 4% in 2017.