12 September 2017
SNIC predicts Brazilian cement industry recovery from 2018 12 September 2017
Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of the Brazilian cement association SNIC, predicts that the local industry will start to recover in 2018. His comments follow the publication of data for August 2017, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. He added that the country would need four or five years of growth to resume the levels of 2014, the last year sales increased reaching 71Mt. Sales of cement have been falling less steeply than previously but are still projected to end 2017 with a decrease of 7%. Sales are then forecast to grow by 1% in 2018 with a more rapid recovery expected to begin in 2019.
Vietnam: Ha Tien 1 Cement has warned that a local government scheme in Ho Chi Minh City to replace cement grinding plants with distribution terminals could cost US$62m. The cement producer made the comments as part of a discussion on the development of building materials in the city, according to the Saigon Times newspaper. The government plans to shut down the cement pants on environmental grounds and to move them out of the city.
At present Ho Chi Minh City has 10 cement grinding plants and terminals with a capacity of over 10Mt/yr but this is below the city’s requirements. By 2020, the city may have a shortfall of 3.3Mt/yr. The city plans to build three terminals with a capacity of 1.2Mt/yr each. However, Ha Tien 1 Cement said that transport and loading fees would be huge as the city will require ships to transport cement from northern ports. In addition, the city will have to build special ports to receive bulk cement shipments from the north as the majority of the ports have no facilities for bulk cement.
Sanghi Cements to build floating terminal at Kochi Port 12 September 2017
India: Gujarat’s Sanghi Cements is preparing to build a floating terminal at Kochi Port in Kerala. The plan is intended to targeted markets in the south of India, according to The Hindu newspaper. The floating terminal will consist of a berthed ship with a bagging plant on-board and it will have a capacity of 0.3Mt/yr.
“Once the project becomes operational, Kochi Port will be the first major port in the country to have a floating cement terminal,” said AV Ramana, Deputy Chairman of the port. He added that Sanghi Cements has similar facilities in the minor ports of Kutch and Navlakhi in Gujarat and Dharamtar in Maharashtra.
The port is also commissioning more automated cement bagging plants. Ambuja Cement, UltraTech Cement and Zuari Cements each operate units at the port and Penna Cement and Malabar Cements will set up bagging plants in November 2017 and March 2019 respectively. The total capacity of the five units is estimated to be around 3Mt/yr.
Butra HeidelbergCement launches slag cement 12 September 2017
Brunei Darussalam: Butra HeidelbergCement has launched 52.5 Brunei Cement, a new slag cement in its product range. German ambassador Peter Wolff and Legislative Council member YB Ong Tiong Oh attended the launch event.
Fives becomes founding member of the Centre for Technologies, Minerals and Recycled Materials of the Future 12 September 2017
France: Fives Group has revealed its membership of the Centre for Technologies, Minerals and Recycled Materials of the Future, a new association that aims to develop industrial recycling of minerals for the construction and public works sectors. Fives’ Innovation Department and its subsidiary Fives FCB joined Team2 to found the associate in May 2017.
The centre plans to set up a base to coordinate and test by-product valorisation, as well as the use of raw materials recovered from recycling, at a former cement plant owned by EQIOM group in Dannes, Pas-de-Calais. Fives contribution to the research will include its technologies in crushing, grinding, classifying and pyro processing in the minerals industry.