20 March 2018
India: UltraTech Cement has made a new US$1.11bn bid directly to Binani Cement in order to buy it. Binani’s parent company Binani Industries is independently seeking to stop the insolvency proceedings of its cement subsidiary using the money offered by UltraTech Cement in a so called ‘comfort letter.’ In a statement UltraTech Cement said it had in principle agreed to buy 98.5% of the shares of Binani Cement.
However, a consortium led by Dalmia Bharat won an auction for Binani Cement with a bid of US$974m in early March 2018. The auction was run by the National Company Law Tribunal under insolvency proceedings. Binani Cement has since complained that the bidding process was not run on a transparent process, according to the Economic Times newspaper. It added that the ‘shortcomings’ in the insolvency process had prompted the company to look at other options. The on-going struggle by UltraTech Cement and Dalmia Bharat is expected to test local bankruptcy law.
India: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued a show cause notice to Parasakti Cement for processing hazardous waste like battery scrap and operating without permission. The CPCB also noted that the particulate matter emissions from clinker rollers and cement mill exceeded the revised standards, according to the Times of India newspaper. The cement plant, based at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, has been given 15 days to remedy the situation. Previously in 2016 the company said it was complying with the emissions regulations.
Clinker ship sinks on river in Bangladesh 20 March 2018
Bangladesh: A cargo vessel carrying 1035t of clinker has sunk on the Rupsha River. Local police said that water started to enter the ship, MV-BB 134, whilst in the middle of the river when a crack opened in its hull, according to the United News of Bangladesh news agency. The vessel sank within an hour. No casualties have been reported.
Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia has won a US$68.9m contract from China Communications Construction to supply cement for the East Coast Rail Link project. The contract will run until the end of 2019 with options for renewal by a further two years.
Turkish clinker exports jump by 32.4% to 4.93Mt in 2017 20 March 2018
Turkey: Data from the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TCMA) shows that clinker exports rose by 32.4% year-on-year to 4.93Mt in 2017 from 3.72Mt in 2016. Cement production rose by 6.8% to 80.6Mt from 75.4Mt. Production rose in all regions with the exception of the Aegean and Mediterranean.
FCT Combustion to launch Turbu-Flex burner in April 2018 20 March 2018
Australia: FCT Combustion plans to launch its Turbu-Flex burner in April 2018. The pyro-processing engineering company says that the product will enable operators to switch between different fuels and optimise for each with the one burner. Switching between alternative and refuse derived fuels is intended to allow cement and other industrial plants to lower fuel costs and improve kiln performance. The burner also offers reduced maintenance, as it no moving parts are needed to change the air supply.
“We’ve now proven the burner’s benefits and ease of use in the field. Under testing for almost one year, and operating with over 80% fuel replacement using refuse-derived fuel (RDF), the results are very pleasing for the plant operator and FCT,” said Con Manias, the Managing Director of FCT International. He added that the company also focused on building its footprint in South East Asia.
The company says that it has projects running in six continents due to a ‘surge’ in burner orders. FCT Combustion is currently working on projects in the US, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Poland, France, Egypt, Belgium, Italy, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Algeria, Oman, Belgium, France, Ukraine, Turkey and Australia.
US: Mississippi Lime Company has upgraded its Wierton plant in West Virginia to produce high reactivity hydrated lime (HRH). The product is used in the Dry Sorbent Injection industry for control of acidic gases at coal-fired boilers and other industrial processes that generate acidic gases as by-products. Mississippi Lime also produces HRH at its plants in Ste Genevieve in Missouri, Verona in Kentucky and Chester in South Carolina.