Displaying items by tag: Plant
India starts to build cement capacity again
09 December 2020Manoj Kumar Rustagi was on hand yesterday to discuss JSW Cement’s operations in the UAE at the Virtual Middle Eastern Cement Conference. At the event, jointly organised by Global Cement Magazine and the Arab Union for Cement and Building Materials (AUCBM), Rustagi mainly stuck to the development of the producer’s new integrated plant in the Fujairah Free Zone but he also gave an overview of JSW Cement’s presence in India. For example, as part of an industrial conglomerate, JSW Group, the cement producer benefits from links to steel production by JSW Steel that enables it to use blast furnace slag. Notably, JSW Cement’s Shiva Cement subsidiary announced plans at the end of November 2020 to spend around US$200m on a new 1.4Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Sundergarh district, Odisha with the clinker production line supplied by ThyssenKrupp Industries India.
JSW Cement is not alone in ordering new production capacity. This week, UltraTech Cement approved a planned increase of 12.87Mt/yr for around US$740m. This is in addition to new capacity projects of 6.7Mt/yr that are currently underway. All of these new projects are scheduled to be commissioned in a phased manner by the end of the 2023 Indian financial year (by March 2023). It is unclear at present how exactly these projects are distributed but they are centred in the Northern, Central and Western Zones of the country, and the new tranche includes the previously announced Pali plant in Rajasthan. At this price the inference is that the much of the new capacity will be in the form of grinding plants and/or upgrades to existing clinker lines. Around the same time as this, LafargeHolcim said it wants to spend US$112m on waste heat recovery (WHR) plants for six of its cement plants in India by the end of 2022.
Graph 1: Change in Indian cement production year-on-year (%). Source: Office of the Economic Adviser.
These three projects by major producers suggest that the Indian cement sector is recovering from the effects of the coronavirus lockdown in late March 2020. Graph 1 above shows the sector finally recovering in October 2020, with growth of 3% year-on-year to 26.9Mt. Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of Aditya Birla Group, credited the economic situation with the Indian government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat stimulus program for his decision to commit to UltraTech Cement’s spending spree. This outlook gels with that of Fitch Ratings. The credit ratings agency has forecast in a recent report that ‘strong’ margins during the first half of the 2021 financial year (April – September 2020) are going to limit the financial risks to the larger Indian cement companies despite the lower cement sales volumes due to coronavirus. Pent-up demand helped the industry recover after the lockdown and this was further aided by lower energy/fuel costs and general cost cutting.
Needless to say all of the above is good news for the Indian cement industry after the year it has had. One thought to consider from all of this is who might UltraTech Cement order its mills and clinker lines from? Atmanirbhar, the name of the Indian stimulus plan, has been described as ‘self-reliance’ or ‘self-sufficiency’ in the local press. Unfortunately, relations have been poor between India and China in 2020 due to armed skirmishes along the Line of Actual Control on the border, amongst other issues. Ordering a new clinker production line from, say China-based Sinoma, may not look especially ‘self-sufficient’ in the current climate.
Punjab government approves five cement plant plans
09 December 2020Pakistan: The government of Punjab Province has approved five cement plant plans worth a total of US$1.25bn. The Frontier Post newspaper has reported that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar chaired a cabinet meeting in which No Objection Certificates (NOCs) were issued to five planned cement plant projects.
Madukkarai Cement fined US$61,000 for fugitive cement dust
07 December 2020India: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has fined ACC subsidiary Madukkarai Cement US$61,000 for fugitive emissions of clinker and cement dust in mid-2020. The Hindu newspaper has reported that inspections found dust in the village Kurumbapalayam, Coimbatore District, located on the eastern side of the cement plant. An ambient air quality survey in September 2020 revealed higher-than-prescribed particulate volumes.
In addition to paying the fine, the producer must comply with 19 instructions of the TNPCB for air pollution control and monitoring by 7 January 2021.
Loma Negra suspends production at Olavarría plant
07 December 2020Argentina: A dispute between a supplier and its union has caused Loma Negra to switch off two kilns at its Olavarría cement plant. The Clarín newspaper has reported that the argument is between Minerar, which provides the plant’s raw limestone, and the Asociación Minera Obrera Argentina (AOMA), which represents miners’ interests. The union says that miners are underpaid. They receive US$245/yr less than cement plant workers.
The producer said, “It is the leading Argentine cement company, with approximately 45% of total sales in the country. This shortage will impact the country's economy, which had been recovering after the pandemic." The union rejected a mandatory conciliation on 3 December 2020. Negotiations began in October 2020.
UltraTech Cement targets 12.8Mt/yr additional cement capacity
04 December 2020India: The board of directors of Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement has approved a planned increase in cement production capacity of 12.87Mt/yr. This will increase its capacity to 136Mt/yr from 123Mt/yr, at a cost of US$743m. The company says that the expansion will consist of new plants and upgrades to existing plants in the ‘fast-growing markets of the east, central and north regions of the country.’ This includes the upcoming Pali integrated cement plant in Rajasthan and capacity expansions at plants in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, that are due for completion in the 2022 financial year (1 April 2021 - 31 March 2022).
The producer said, “Given the company’s history of setting up capacities in record time, commercial production from the new capacities is expected to go on stream in a phased manner, by early 2023. This capacity addition will not impact the on-going deleveraging programme, which is on track to make UltraTech debt-free by the time the expansion program is completed.”
Aditya Birla group chair Kumar Mangalam Birla said, “This significant investment in a core infrastructure sector will accelerate the wheels of economic activity and aid the kick-start of the private investment cycle. The capital outlay, given the current economic backdrop, is aligned with the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat programme. It is also a marker of UltraTech’s ascent from being India’s No.1 cement player to a national champion. The cement industry has been witnessing healthy volumes post-relaxation of lockdown, on the back of the government’s thrust on infrastructure, underlying demand from the rural economy and individual home builders. Given its pan-India presence, which will be further strengthened by the capacity expansion, UltraTech will be well-positioned to support the rising demand for cement in the country.”
LafargeHolcim unveils Indian waste heat recovery plans
03 December 2020India: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim plans to invest US$112m in implementing waste heat recovery (WHR) plants across six of its cement plants in India by the end of 2022. The group has estimated a net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction of 0.5Mt/yr as a result of the installations, towards its target of a 65% total reduction between 2018 and 2030.
Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Magali Anderson said, "On our net zero journey, we set ourselves an ambitious scope-two target. I am very excited to see India leading the way by investing US$112m in WHR. This major step forward builds on our procurement teams’ work in renewable energy."
When commissioned, the new plants will double the group’s WHR power generation capacity in India.
Cementos Cosmos plans 6.2MW solar power plant
03 December 2020Spain: Cementos Cosmos has partnered with France-based EDF energy to establish a 6.2MW solar power plant in Toral de los Vados, León, at a cost of Euro4m. The Diario de León newspaper has reported that the plant intends to use 9.0GWhr/yr of energy from the new unit. This will provide 15% of the electrical power requirements at the cement plant. The 14,000-panel project is scheduled for completion in mid-2021.
Jörgen Staflund appointed as plant manager of Cementa’s Skövde plant
02 December 2020Sweden: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Cementa has appointed Jörgen Staflund as the plant manager of its integrated Skövde cement plant with effect from the start of 2021. He succeeds Matilda Hoffstedt, who has been in the post since 2010. She has been appointed to the role of Technical Support Manager within HeidelbergCement Group.
Staflund started his career working for Volvo in Skövde before becoming the maintenance manager for Cementa at the Skövde plant. He later worked as the Senior Technical Advisor Cement Operations Northern Europe before becoming the plant manager of Cementa’s Degerhamn plant in 2018 and 2019. He was recently been working on setting up a new concrete plant in Norway.
Opterra Karsdorf cement plant awarded Concrete Sustainability Council Gold certificate
02 December 2020Germany: CRH subsidiary Opterra’s Karsdorf cement plant has been awarded a Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) Gold certificate for ecologically, socially and economically responsible cement production, including in its supply chains. The company says that it achieved top marks across 96% of audited areas.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Danilo Buscaglia said, “The CSC certification leads to a continuous increase in the sustainable management of the cement and concrete industry. With this in mind, the Karsdorf plant has provided evidence of responsible behaviour in an extensive auditing process. We are proud that we have achieved gold certification status. At the same time, the good results are an incentive for us to continue working on improvements in the manufacturing process and in product development.”
Mondi to open paper bags plant in Colombia in January 2021
02 December 2020Colombia: Austria-based Mondi Group plans to open its first South American paper bags plant in Cartagena in January 2021. The unit will start with one production line with a capacity of approximately 50m bags/yr. The bags will be targeted at the cement, chemical and food industries. The group said that the plant is located in a free-trade zone with good access to ports in Panama, the east coast of the US, the Gulf of Mexico and other Caribbean ports.
"Our global network already includes 39 plants across 22 countries. We are excited to be expanding our footprint to Colombia, helping us to provide innovative, sustainable and customer-focused paper packaging solutions to customers in South America who share our commitment to quality," said Claudio Fedalto, Chief Operating Officer Paper Bags, Mondi.