05 June 2017
Al Safwa signs ash co-operation deal with utility 05 June 2017
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed a co-operation agreement with Al Safwa Cement Company to reuse carbon ash and oil residues byproducts that result from the burning of heavy fuel in power generation plants. They will be used as an alternative source of energy at the cement plant, instead of being landfilled.
Khalid Bin Abdulrahman Al Tuaimi, the executive vice president for the generation at SEC, pointed out that SEC was the first company to adopt this policy. "This will reduce the dependence of the cement plant on heavy fuel, thereby reducing dependence on oil, which is a key element of the Kingdom Vision 2030 to restructure the national economy," he said.
Irish financier reported to have stake in Ecocem 05 June 2017
Ireland: The Times has reported that financier Dermot Desmond is believed to have taken a stake in Ecocem Materials, the fast-growing low-carbon cement maker founded by Irishman Donal O'Riain and backed by French construction materials giant Saint-Gobain. It is understood that IIU, Desmond's private equity company, moved in recent weeks to acquire as much as 11% of the company.
Founded in 2003, Ecocem manufactures cement from granulated blast-furnace slag, a byproduct of steel production. The company had sales of Euro63m in 2015, according to its most recent accounts.
Ada completes US$100m upgrade 05 June 2017
US: The Holcim US Ada plant in Oklahoma, a member of LafargeHolcim, has seen the completion of its three-year, US$100m new kiln and modernisation project. The project has boosted the plant’s capacity by 20%, raising its clinker capacity to 0.68Mt/yr from 0.62Mt/yr. The upgrades allow the plant to conform to the US National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) regulations.
Mike Langan, Ada plant manager, said, "NESHAP is one performance standard that's fairly restrictive. New Source Performance Standards are the most restrictive environmental regulations in our industry and this plant meets that. So it is much cleaner environmentally (than before)."
The upgrades made it possible for the plant to increase its use of fuel derived from scrap tires, replacing at least 20% of the fossil fuel used in the new kiln line. That change will make the operation cleaner and more efficient, supporting LafargeHolcim's sustainable-development goals.
Pakistan’s exports fall, while domestic sales rise 05 June 2017
Pakistan: Cement exports have continued to decline year-on-year for the fourth consecutive month in May 2017, registering a fall of 44.6% according to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA). The decline follows a 45.7% year-on-year fall in exports in February 2017, a 60.4% year-on-year fall in March 2017 and a 50.8% year-on-year fall in April 2017.
However domestic sales were up by 10.9% year-on-year for May 2017, reaching 3.4Mt, as compared to 3.1Mt in May 2016. Total dispatches during May 2017 were 3.7Mt, as compared to 3.6Mt in May 2016, an increase of 2.4%.
So far in Pakistan’s fiscal year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June, domestic cement consumption has increased by a healthy 10.8% to 37.6Mt against 35.5Mt for 1 July 2015 to 31 May 2016. Over the same period exports have declined by 21.3% to 4.3Mt. A year earlier the figure was 5.5Mt. Exports to Afghanistan more than halved from 206,000t in May 2016 to 97,000t in May 2017. Exports to India also declined, from 135,000t in May 2016 to 114,000t in May 2017.
Industry experts have appealed to the government to take steps to boost housing, as the sector is currently dependent on infrastructure projects. They said that sustained growth in housing construction is essential to absorb the additional capacities that will come online in the next two years.