Displaying items by tag: Expansion

Philippines: Shera is investing US$36m to establish its first production hub in the Philippines. Announced by Thunnop Jumpasri, president and country head for Philippines and Malaysia, the move marks a significant expansion in response to the robust growth in the local construction sector.

The new facility, located in Pampanga, commenced initial operations in 2023 and is anticipated to be fully operational by October 2024. With an initial capacity of 100,000t/yr, expected to double in the coming years, the plant will create 150 jobs. After 15 years of supplying fibre cement boards from Thailand and achieving US$27m in Philippine sales last year, Shera aims for 10-15% growth in 2024.

Thunnop Jumpasri said "This will be our first plant outside of Thailand. We plan to export to other countries from the Philippines to Taiwan, Korea and some parts of China, but we prioritise the Philippines first for now."

India: Kaushalya Logistics Limited (KLL) has initiated operations of a hub depot in Varanasi for JK Cement. The depot, operational since 1 March 2024, is a significant expansion for KLL, enabling it to cater to the entire Bihar region and reinforcing its presence in the cement industry. KLL has also announced the decision to begin operations of a depot for Adani Cement in Madhya Pradesh. This is expected to commence in early to mid-2024.

Uddhav Poddar, Managing Director of KLL, said "KLL has reached notable milestones, commencing operations at a new Hub depot in Varanasi exclusively for JK Cement, effective 1 March 2024. This move signifies a significant stride in KLL's commitment to excellence and strategic expansion within the cement logistics sector.”

India: Adani Group will invest US$603m in the construction of a 4Mt/yr clinker plant at Chorgadi and grinding plants in Dewas and Bhopal. The combined capacity will be 8Mt/yr. The move is part of a US$9bn investment which the company says will create 15,000 jobs across various sectors.

France: Eqiom plans to expand its Lumbres cement plant by 57% from 700,000t/yr to 1.1Mt/yr by 2026. The project involves the installation of a new kiln and aims to reduce the plant's CO₂ emissions by 20%, its fuel consumption by 35% and its NO_x and SO₂ emissions by 40% and 80% respectively. The producer plans to invest €300m, including €40m from France Relance funds.

India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned 1.8Mt/yr of new cement capacity at its Kotputli cement plant in Rajasthan. The expanded plant will help the producer to serve markets in Rajasthan and the National Capital Region. Projects Today News has reported that the expansion is part of a 22.6Mt/yr capacity growth drive, first announced in June 2022. The latest commissioning has raised UltraTech Cement’s all-India capacity by 1.3% to 137Mt/yr, and that in Rajasthan by 11% to 18.9Mt/yr.

India: The Ramco Cements plans to more than double the clinker capacity of its Kalavatala cement plant in Andhra Pradesh to 6.3Mt/yr at a cost of US$151m. The new Line 2 will be equipped with a 15MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit. The line will raise the producer’s installed cement capacity to 26Mt/yr and its clinker capacity to 19Mt/yr with commissioned scheduled by early 2026. The Ramco Cements plans to source the funds through internal accruals and bank borrowings.

At the same time, the company will invest US$18.4m in the construction of a 10MW WHR plant at its Ramasamy Raja Nagar cement plant in Tamil Nadu, scheduled for commissioning by March 2025. Both WHR projects will raise The Ramco Cements’ total WHR capacity by 58% to 68MW.

The Ramco Cements said that Kalavatala plant is currently operating at full capacity utilisation. It added that it decided to expand the plant in response to this and further ‘demand potential.’ In the current, fourth quarter of the 2024 financial year (1 January – 31 March 2024), the company expects to make capital expenditure (capex) investments of US$47m, followed by US$205m in the upcoming 2025 financial year.

Tanzania: Huaxin Cement Tanzania Maweni Company has commissioned a new 4000t/day clinker line at its Mavini cement plant, after completing the Phase 2 of the plant’s construction. China Industrial and Economic Information Database has reported that this phase of construction commenced in August 2022. The new line is equipped with a 15MW biomass-fired power plant.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021 – 2025), Huaxin Cement aims to quadruple its production capacity outside of China to 16.5Mt/yr. 6.07Mt/yr-worth of this will come online in 2024 and 2025. The company says that its strategy partly reflects the slowing of its domestic market since 2022.

Brazil: Secil subsidiary Supremo Secil Cimentos will invest US$20.3m in an upcoming expansion of its Adrianópolis cement plant. Commencing in July 2024, the expansion will raise the plant’s clinker capacity by 10% and enable it to increase its alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate from 25 – 30% to 40%, and eventually to 50% by 2030. To date, AF use at the plant has reduced its cumulative consumption of petcoke by 100,000t.

CEO Paulo Nascentes highlighted the transformative impact of the Adrianópolis plant on its host community, with its initial investment of US$176m and a subsequent US$41.7m in previous upgrades to date. "One of the reasons why the Paraná government allowed the plant was because Adrianópolis was very neglected. The arrival of Supremo transformed the city," he said.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos plans to invest US$1bn in expanding its Brazilian operations in the period up to the end of 2028. US$304m-worth of the investments are already underway at the start of 2024. Reuters has reported that the investments include cement plant projects to raise Votorantim Cimentos’ Brazilian cement production capacity by 8.8% to 37Mt/yr. These include a US$162m investment in a 20% capacity expansion to its Votorantim cement plant and a US$60.8m, 1Mt/yr expansion to its Salto de Pirapora plant. Further aims are to ensure structural competitiveness, raise energy efficiency and digitise operations, including applying artificial intelligence (AI) to freight. The producer expects its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) to eventually rise by US$263/yr between 2023 and 2028 as a result.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has hired China National Building Material subsidiary Sinoma Overseas Development to upgrade a production line it is moving from its old plant site south of Riyadh to its new site at Northern Halal in Al-Kharj governorate. The 10,000t/day line will be enhanced to a 12,500t/day line as part of the project. Sinoma Overseas Development general manager Yang Lei re-emphasised the company’s commitment to leveraging its technical strengths in both of its on-going projects with Yamama Cement.

The cement company commissioned two production lines supplied by Germany-based ThyssenKrupp with a total production capacity of 20,000t/day in late 2022 at its new plant location to the east of Riyadh. Once the production line from the older Riyadh plant has been moved and upgraded, the Northern Halal plant is expected to have a production capacity of 32,500t/day. Yamama Cement previously shut down five of its older production lines at the Riyadh site in 2017 before saying it was going to sell them in 2019.