Displaying items by tag: Nigeria
Nigerian growth drives Dangote Cement in 2018
28 February 2019Nigeria: Domestic sales growth drove Dangote Cement’s financial results in 2018. Its local cement sales volumes grew by 11.4% year-on-year to 14.2Mt in 2019 from 12.7Mt in 2018. Sales in the rest of Africa remained stable at 9.4Mt. Sales revenue grew by 11.9% to US$1.71bn in Nigeria and by 9.6% to US$784m in the rest of Africa. Overall revenue grew by 11.9% to US$2.49bn from US$2.23bn. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 12.1% to US$1.20bn from US$1.07bn.
“This is a record financial performance by Dangote Cement, driven by a strong increase in our home market, Nigeria, despite heavy rains and uncertainties about the election,” said Joe Makoju, group chief executive officer. He added that, although Pan-African volumes were unchanged in 2018, he was confident that the group would see an increase in 2019, driven by higher volumes in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Congo and Sierra Leone. Elsewhere in Africa the cement producer said that plant shutdowns in Tanzania due to delays to a gas turbine installation, civil unrest in Ethiopia and a reduction of imports from Nigeria to Ghana had reduced its sales.
Unitherm Cemcon wins burner order from Trinidad Cement
25 February 2019Trinidad: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has been awarded the contract for a rotary kiln burner for kiln 3 at Trinidad Cement’s 1230t/day plant. The burner for the wet process unit will be designed for natural gas and liquid alternative fuel. No value for the order has been disclosed.
The scope of supply includes: one MAS/5/EGSO model rotary kiln burner; a flame monitoring device for the rotary kiln burner; a gas electric ignition burner with control box and touch screen; kiln burner trolley engineering and main components for local manufacturing; primary air fan with sound protection housing; and an emergency cooling air fan.
Other recent projects from Unitherm Cemcon include the commissioning of a firing system for BUA Cement’s new plant in Edo State, Nigeria and delivery of firing equipment for a project in Argentina in late 2018.
Nigeria: Dangote Cement has appointed Guillaume Moyen as its chief financial officer (CFO) for operations. He was the CFO of UAE-based OLA Energy from 2014 to early 2019, according to Bloomberg. He will report to group CFO Brian Egan.
Ashaka to build 16MW captive power plant
18 February 2019Nigeria: Ashaka Cement, a subsidiary of Lafarge Africa, is set to inaugurate a 16MW power plant project in a bid to improve the reliablilty of its energy supply. Managing Director Rabiu Abdullah Umar said that the company would invest US$30.5m in the project. “We are helping to remove ourselves from the (national) demand for energy and providing our own solution,” he said. “This means a minimum of 16MW of electricity will now become available to the public grid for the people in the region to enjoy.”
Olusegun Olusanya resigns from board of Dangote Cement
06 February 2019Nigeria: Olusegun Olusanya has resigned from the board of Dangote Cement. He was appointed as an independent non-executive director in late 2010. Prior to this, Olusanya held a number of management positions at banks, including Savannah Bank Nigeria, Afribank Nigeria, Union Bank and the National Bank of Nigeria. He is an accountant who holds a BSc in Accounting from the London School of Economics and an MSc in Economics & Finance.
Aumund to supply equipment for Dangote Cement projects
16 January 2019Nigeria/Senegal: Aumund Group will supply equipment for projects managed by China’s Sinoma for Dangote Cement projects in Nigeria and Senegal.
For Dangote’s Obajana Line 5 and Okpella 6000t/day plants, Aumund will supply three belt bucket elevators with a capacity of 660t/hr to convey raw meal and to feed raw meal to the preheater towers at 520t/hr. Three further Aumund belt bucket elevators with a capacity of 480t/hr will convey cement to the silos. An Aumund pan conveyor with a weighing scale mechanism and a capacity of 500t/hr, running from the coolers to the clinker silos, and three further Aumund pan conveyors under the clinker silo, round off this machinery package.
Schade Lagertechnik, a subsidiary of Aumund, will also supply equipment for these plants. This includes a stacker with a capacity of 3500t/hr for Obajana and another at 2160t/hr for Okpella, as well as a portal reclaimer to operate at 800t/hr in the limestone storage of each plant. Additional stockyard equipment completes the supply package.
For Dangote’s Apapa and Onne terminal projects, Aumund Beijing will supply a double bucket elevator to convey clinker to the silos at a capacity of 1200t/hr, and several other chain bucket elevators. Elevators to convey gypsum to the bunkers will have a capacity of 720t/hr at Apapa and 480t/hr at Onne. Two 1600 Series Samson material feeders with a handling capacity of 400t/hr of clinker, two Aumund telescopic chutes and two truck loaders for clinker will also be supplied to each terminal.
Aumund has also received an order to supply a belt bucket elevator with a capacity of 300t/hr to convey cement to the new silo at the Dangote Cement Senegal Expansion Project.
Workers jailed in Dangote Cement truck fraud
15 January 2019Nigeria: Four workers of Dangote Cement have been jailed for stealing cement worth over US$40,000. The defendants diverted nine cement trucks, bound for Togo, using fake identity cards and truck number plates, according to the Punch newspaper. Adewale Dalmeida, a fleet analyst, at the Ibese Plant, worked with the chief driver of the company, Ibrahim Lawal, and a Ghanaian driver, Lukman Adam, and Afeez Olaniba, who worked as an agent at the Nigerian-Benin border. The prison sentences imposed range from a 18 months to five years.
CCNN merges with Kalambaina Cement
10 January 2019Nigeria: The Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) has successfully merged with Kalambaina Cement. Abdul Samad Rabiu, the chairman of CCNN, said that the merger would boost efficiency, productivity, output and the financial returns of the company, according to the Eagle newspaper. The merger plans were publicly announced in mid-2018.
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s Nigerian operations have won the inaugural Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards of LafargeHolcim for the Middle East and Africa. The country won the overall award after beating 35 other countries in two of the four award categories, according to the Vanguard newspaper. It won gold for its CSR initiatives in the Education and Employment category ahead of Egypt (silver) and Kenya (bronze). Nigeria also won gold in the Shelter and Infrastructure category ahead of Morocco (silver) and Cote d’Ivoire (bronze).
Lafarge Africa runs its ‘Easy Home’ initiative in Nigeria, to help individuals build decent houses on a low budget. In 2016 over 30,000 people benefited from the initiative. In 2017, Lafarge Africa created the Cement Professionals Training Program, to help young people in the fields of technology, engineering, cement manufacturing, instrumentation and automation. The company made investments in social investment programs and initiatives in 2017 in its host communities across the country, directly impacting more than 450,000 beneficiaries. Lafarge Africa also complements the local government’s efforts to improve primary school education through the Lafarge Africa National Literacy Competition.
BUA Group orders new production line from CBMI
07 January 2019Nigeria: BUA Group has ordered a 3Mt/yr production line from China’s CBMI for its Kalambaina cement plant in Sokoto State. It follows the commissioning of a 1.5Mt/yr line at the site in mid-2018, according to the This Day newspaper. The company also completed a new line at its Obu plant at Okpella in Edo State in late 2018. BUA Group will have a production capacity of 11Mt/yr once the new project is completed. BUA Group is also in the process of merging with the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN).