Najran Cement Company (NCC) was established in 2005 as a Saudi Closed Joint Stock Company with a paid up capital of US$306m. The objective was to be a main supplier of cement in the southern region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and be an important exporter to Yemen. It was anticipated that locating the plant and facilities close to Najran city would greatly contribute to the fast development of the region. The company has a quarry license from the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals for an area of 30km2 that is endowed with huge deposits of limestone, clay, sandstone and gypsum - sufficient for more than 100 years.
NCC was initially planned as a single integrated unit of 6000t/day of clinker at Sultana, around 240km north east of Najran at the tip of the Empty Quarter desert. As the project moved along a decision was taken to expand the clinker plant to 9000t/day by adding one more line of 3000t/day at Sultana to make full use of the vast raw material deposits. This was supplemented by a standalone grinding unit of 2.0Mt/yr at Aakfa, 70km to the west of Najran on the main highway to Asir region.
NCC has its own captive power plants, water treatment plants and housing complexes at both facilities. The technical setup represents the most prudent mix of technology, dependability and accreditation. It has the following certifications:
- ISO 9001: 2008 for Quality Management System Certified by TÜV NORD,
- ISO 14001: 2004 for Environmental
Management System Certified by TÜV NORD,
- Accreditation by Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation (SASO) for Quality Products.
Mission
The company's mission is to enhance its position in its immediate markets by providing high quality products with reliability and adherence to the effective commercial practices in a way that maximises the economic benefits for all relevant parties while capitalising on high demand in promising markets.
Strategy
NCC has identified three measures of success: capaciousness, commitment and reliability.
Capaciousness relates to the optimal level of productivity at all work levels, commitment relates to quality, environmental conscience, social responsibility and the possibility of exchanging benefits between all parties. Reliability is the degree of sustainability which ensures that capaciousness and commitments are results-oriented.
These three success factors define the business strategy of Najran Cement through a participatory approach of serving the markets by the effective mobilisation of its resource base to deliver products that are compliance originated, demand based and customer oriented.
The resource base is driven by an operating model that economises business obligations with all parties into strategic relationships. The availability and quality of the products emanate from a balanced production function being outsourced to an expert group responsible for the operation and maintenance of the production facilities. Therefore, adequate and appropriate frameworks are in place to ensure that productivity is not delivered at the cost of maintenance. A supervision team works to ensure sustained economies of scale and to maintain the highest standards for environmental and safety compliance, economies of scope (demand based) and the related product quality parameters (customer oriented).
The result is that orientation is made possible by a supply chain that involves international manufacturers of spare parts and qualified local cement distributors to achieve mutual benefits through the management of the company's talent pool.
Products
NCC currently manufactures and markets two types of cement: Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), and Sulphate Resistant Cement (SRC).
The main features of its products are high and stable strength, softness and high flexibility during mixing and usage, a setting period that suits multiple uses and ingredients that help to prevent cracking when its cement is used in concrete applications.
Existing production lines
NCC has a cement plant with a capacity of 9000t/day that manufactures various types of cements in the Sultanah area of Najran Province in the KSA. At present the plant consists of two production lines, one grinding unit (GU) and a captive power plant (CPP) as described below:
- Line 1: 6000t/day clinker line with cement grinding and packing. Commissioned 2007.
- Line 2: 3000t/day clinker line. Commissioned 2008.
- CCP: 56MW CCP based on heavy fuel oil (HFO).
- GU: Located 70km from the city of Najran with two 145t/hr cement mills, each with roller press. Commissioned in 2009.
Brownfield project
To capitalise on the future market situation in KSA, NCC has now planned to expand its production capacity by installing a third production line with a clinker production capacity of 7000t/day:
- Line 3: 7000t/day clinker line with cement grinding and packing. Under construction.
NCC has appointed Holtec Consulting Pvt. Ltd., India as its engineering consultant for the implementation of the project, which will be located parallel to Line 1 and Line 2 cement units at Sultana. It will have a cement grinding system with a capacity of 400t/hr
(2 x 200t/hr) roller presses.
NCC has also planned to expand the power generation capacity of its CPP by adding two additional diesel generation (DG) sets (2 x 7 MW) in the existing power generation unit.
The above units are being executed on a turnkey basis by Nesma & Partners Contracting Company Limited (NESMA) of KSA as the main turnkey contractor and China Electronics Import & Export Company (CEIEC) of China as its sub-contractor.
| Equipment | Capacity | Supplier |
| Limestone crusher | 1200t/hr | Hazemag |
| Limestone stacker | 1500t/hr | Jiaxing Yijan Machinery Co Ltd |
| Limestone reclaimer | 600t/hr | Jiaxing Yijan Machinery Co Ltd |
| Raw mill (Vertical roller mill) | 500t/hr | Gebr. Pfeiffer SE |
| Preheater | 6500t/hr | NJLK |
| Kiln | 6500t/hr | Sichuan Mining Machinery Group |
| Cooler | 6500t/hr | Claudius Peters |
| Roll press | 530-721t/hr | Chendu Leejun Industrial Co Ltd |
| Ball mill | 200t/hr | Sichuan Mining Machinery Group |
| Packing plant | Automatic bag applicator and truck loader (to replace existing manual tuck loaders). | Ventomatic |
| Engine generator set | 2 x 7MW | Wärtsila |
Table 1: Capacities and suppliers of major equipment to be installed on Najran Cement's Line 3 at Sultana in the south of KSA.
Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) power project
In addition to the Line 3 cement project and CPP, NCC intends to play a pivotal role in KSA by reducing CO2 emissions, optimising cement plant operation to improve energy efficiency and set a benchmark for the cement process industry in KSA by setting up a waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant with a power generation capacity of 27.1MW.
The WHR power project is to be set in the existing cement plant premises and is being executed by China's Sinoma Energy Conservation Limited (Sinoma). Sinoma has broad experience of execution of WHR power project in this power range in China and on the international market.
Najran Cement Company has signed a contract with Sinoma for the WHR project on a turnkey basis and construction will begin shortly. The WHR project is scheduled to be completed in 19 months. The total projected cost of the WHR project is just under US$45m.
WHR - Technology
The WHR system consists of five WHR pre-heater boilers equipped with evaporators and super heaters, three air-quenched condenser WHR boilers equipped with economisers, evaporators and super-heaters and 10 DG WHR boilers with condensers.
The operation, control, monitoring and data logging for the system will be undertaken in the control room for integrated process control. Necessary synchronous device and interlock systems will be provided for parallel operation with the DG-based power plant.
| No. of boilers | 1 boiler each for air quenching cooler (AQC) for Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3. | 2 PH boilers for line 1, 1 PH boiler for line 2, 2 PH boilers for line 3. | 10 DG boilers for 10 DG sets. |
| Turbine generator set | 2 x 15MW | ||
| Air-cooled condenser | 2 (Turbine back pressure as 0.22atm(A) at 45°C). | ||
Benefits of WHR
Since the majority of the plant's electricity is generated from the DG sets, the benefits from an environmental point of view are large. The project will be able to replace the electricity generated by the DG based power plant thus save approximately 37,200t/yr of HFO. This is pertinent considering that the availability of HFO is becoming constrained due to a demand and supply gap and immense predicted growth within KSA.
The electricity generated from the project will also help to reduce CO2 emissions by 145,000t/yr as well as reduce other pollution that would otherwise have been emitted. Awareness of environmental protection therefore takes a 'front seat' in the installation of the WHR power unit.
Biggest WHR plant
By installing the WHR power plant with a generation unit boasting a capacity of 27.1MW, NCC will have the highest-capacity WHR power generation unit in the entire global cement industry. The project also represents the first time in the history of KSA that a WHR power plant is being installed.
