Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
Turkmenistan: Aumund has won a contract to equip Baherden Cement’s Ahal cement plant with three 300t/hr belt bucket elevators, three 450t/hr bucket elevators with central chain, a 1030t/hr double chain bucket elevator, two 200t/hr pan conveyors and 11 silo discharge gates. The equipment will serve raw materials preparation through to clinker grinding operations at the plant’s upcoming 1Mt/yr new line. Turkey-based cement plant builder Bilim Makina will receive the order.
Schwenk Latvija commissions Broceni grinding plant
08 July 2022Latvia: Germany-based Christian Pfeiffer says that it has successfully commissioned the new Broceni grinding plant for Schwenk Latvija. The supplier said that the plant is able to produce cement up to a fineness of 5600 Blaine and is one of the most sustainable grinding plants in Europe.
Schwenk Latvija previously announced a planned investment of Euro34m in a new 170t/day mill and a 12,500t silo at the site of its former Broceni integrated cement plant.
Asia: FLSmidth says that it has won a contract to supply its low-NOx ILC preheater, an OK raw mill, an OK cement mill and other equipment to a cement plant in Asia. FLSmidth will deliver the equipment in 2023. The total value of the deal is US$56.1m.
FLSmidth’s cement industry president Carsten Riisberg Lund said "This project showcases FLSmidth’s ability to deliver energy efficient technologies across the full cement flowsheet, and thereby support our customers in both increasing capacity and their sustainability efforts.”
Dal Machinery & Design delivers new mill and drive to Holcim Azerbaijan’s Garadagh cement plant
04 July 2022Azerbaijan: Turkey-based Dal Machinery & Design has successfully delivered a ball mill and drive set to Holcim Azerbaijan’s Garadagh cement plant. The supplier says that the equipment will serve cement grinding operations at the plant.
Germany: Zement- und Kalkwerke Otterbein plans to invest Euro10m in upgrades to its Otterbein cement plant to increase the sustainability of cement production there. The new equipment will include a hot gas filter SCR catalytic converter system. The producer says that this will install the facility as one of the lowest-CO2 cement plants in the world. Local press has reported that, after commissioning the new system, the company plans to increase its approved substitution of biomass as fuel to 100% from 60%.
Korra Energi awarded contract to build waste heat recovery unit at Suez Cement’s Helwan plant
29 June 2022Egypt: Korra Energi has been awarded a contract to build a 20MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at Suez Cement’s Helwan plant. The WHR unit will serve both of the plant’s two production lines. Korra Energi says it will be the first WHR project for a cement company in the country. Korra Energi is an Egypt-based engineering company and a subsidiary of conglomerate Korra.
Uzbekistan: QuvasoyCement has installed Denair Energy Saving Technology (Shanghai)’s DV 315 compressors at its Fergana cement plant. The cement producer says that the new compressors increase performance by 95% compared to previous equipment. It predicts cost savings of US$25,100/yr as a result of the upgrade.
Kant Cement installs lining on kiln
17 June 2022Kyrgyzstan: United Cement Group (UCG) subsidiary Kant Cement has begun installation of a lining on its Kant cement plant’s rotary kiln in order to reduce losses and improve the efficiency of the plant. The producer expects the lining to raise its kiln’s temperatures by 100°C. It consists of wear-resistent RMAG–H2 bricks and HALBOR–400 refractory bricks.
UCG said “Energy efficiency and energy saving are among the most important factors for the successful implementation of ongoing economic and social reforms.”
India: Shree Digvijay Cement plans to more than double the capacity of its Digvijaygram cement plant in Gujarat’s Jamnagar District to 3Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr. Projects Today News has reported that the project will begin by mid-2023, and will also include the establishment of a waste heat recovery (WHR) plant.
The battle of the cement billionaires
08 June 2022We return to India to discuss a potential fight that may be brewing in the cement sector. Competition between UltraTech Cement and Adani Group started when the latter won the race to buy Holcim’s cement assets in the country in May 2022. However, the rivalry stepped up a notch this week when UltraTech Cement responded by approving a US$1.7bn investment for expansion.
The leading Indian producer announced that it was committing the funds towards increasing its cement production capacity by 22.6Mt/yr. This will include a mixture of expansions to existing sites and building new plants such as new integrated units, new grinding units and new terminals. UltraTech Cement currently has a previous round of expansion that is set to be completed by the end of the 2023 financial year. Commercial production at the newly announced projects is forecast to start by the end of the 2025 financial year. The company finished off by saying that the upgrade projects would maintain its position as the third largest cement producer outside of China, with its total production capacity rising to 159Mt/yr.
Unusually for these kinds of press releases though, UltraTech Cement made of point of doing the calculation for any readers who might want to know how much this new capacity might cost. It is US$76/t. Adani Group didn’t do this when it said it had agreed to buy Ambuja Cements and ACC from Holcim but, unsurprisingly, it cost more, at least US$94/t based on the cash figure Holcim released for the deal. Note that Adani Group has valued the acquisition at US$10.5bn, which would put the capacity cost up to US$150/t. Other zingers in the press release included Kumar Mangalam Birla’s quote that his company held, “... a deep and nuanced understanding of the market dynamics of the cement industry.” Both of these additions to the statement suggest that UltraTech Cement is making a point about its new competitor.
Bloomberg has framed the actions of UltraTech Cement and Adani Group in the cement sector as a brewing corporate battle between old and new money. Both Kumar Mangalam Birla, chair of Aditya Birla Group - the owner of UltraTech Cement, and Gautam Adani were in the top 10 of the Forbes list of the richest people in India in 2021. Birla comes from inherited wealth, although he has undeniably expanded UltraTech Cement greatly during his tenure as chair. Adani is self-made. Cement is just part of the empires of both men but one risk to UltraTech Cement is just how fast an expansion-driven competitor with concerns in power generation and logistics might decide to try to shake up the cement sector.
It is interesting at this early stage to glimpse part of the potential strategies both cement companies may be employing. Adani Group is in the process of buying its way into the cement sector at a relatively high price for capacity. UltraTech Cement is responding by building new capacity at a lower price. Research by Kotak Institutional Equities cited in the Bloomberg article suggests that Adani Group could increase its 70Mt/yr capacity up to 100Mt/yr at US$80 – 90/t. This would cost up to around US$2.5bn but it’s not impossible. Kotak also reckons UltraTech Cement can eke out around US$3 – 4/t more in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) compared to the existing Ambuja Cements and ACC assets. Adani Group might be able to cut this gap down through creating synergies by further merging the two companies.
This adds to the feeling that UltraTech Cement is in a stronger position as the incumbent market leader. Yet risks abound in the current inflationary conditions and even less is certain if Adani Group is prepared to invest heavily enough. After all, UltraTech Cement had a production capacity of only 23Mt/yr in 2010. Less than a decade later it became India’s largest cement producer. It is now Adani Group’s next move in the battle of the cement billionaires.