- Written by Dr Peter Edwards, Global Cement Magazine
Iraq has a troubled past that has adversely affected its development for decades. The country now needs foreign investment to (re)develop its cities and wider infrastructure that have seen under-investment for years. Subject to an increasingly stable political situation, the country is likely to be a hot-bed of development, with oil reserves among the highest in the world. Now that the last US military personnel have left the country, has the time come for Iraq to fully exploit its development potential? The cement industry will have a major role to play if it does.
The Republic of Iraq has never been far from the news headlines in the past 30 years. Under the Ba'athist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein it waged war against its neighbour Iran (1980-88) before invading Kuwait in 1990, sparking the original Gulf War (1990-1991).
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Hussein increasingly taunted the international governments that claimed the country was developing 'weapons of mass destruction' (WMD). UN weapons inspectors were finally admitted to the country in 1998, the same year that 'regime change' for Iraq became official US foreign policy.
The election of George W Bush as US President in 2000 caused another escalation in international hostility to Iraq, especially post 9-11, and in 2003 the US, the UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq, decisively toppling Hussein in just 21 days. Ultimately the inspectors found no indication of supposed WMD.
- Written by Dr Anton Eichinger, Austroplan Austrian Engineering GmbH
The contract for the construction of the Sinjar Cement Plant, located near to Mosul in Ninevah Governate in northern Iraq, was signed between the government of Iraq and the Romanian company Uzine Exportimport in 1981. The project endured a long period of construction and work was not completed until 1990. Despite being designed with two dry-process 3200t/day OPC clinker production lines, (giving it a capacity of 2Mt/yr), its contractual production capacity was never acheived. The original Gulf War (1990-91) caused production at the plant to be stopped almost as soon as it had begun in 1990.
No cement was produced again at the site until 1993. In 1994 the Northern State Company of Cement started to improve the plant. It operated it at reduced production capacity for the best part of a decade before suffering damage and being the subject of sabotage during the US-led invasion in April 2003. Following the damage it underwent limited repair and maintenance work. Its electrical power supply was limited to 10MW and between 1995 and 2006 it only produced an average of 0.23Mt/yr, around a tenth of its capacity.
- Written by Edwin A Trout, Cement Industry Supplier’s Forum
The price of cement is the subject of questions often asked but seldom answered satisfactorily. Manufacturers, certainly in the UK, tend not to publicise anything other than an aspirational percentage increase from time to time and the government issues figures that reveal only trends against an index. Market commentary generally confines itself to comparative statements, rather than identifying absolute prices.
In seeking accurate cement prices, there are several variables to consider. The price will alter according to the specification of the cement, white is traditionally about three times the price of grey for instance and will be subject to commercial negotiation and discounts based on the level of business a customer can provide. In some markets prices are quoted with transport cost included, others excluded. Bagged cement prices are always different from the price of cement in bulk.
The practice in the UK is to cite the price of a tonne of cement in bulk, excluding transport and discounts. Any price of this sort is, therefore, a conventional one. It therefore needs to be seen as such; suitable to identify trends and perhaps adequate to incorporate into construction estimates, but not reliable enough to be used as the basis of a commercial decision. Individual series are compiled from different sources of data. While these are consistent with themselves over time, they cannot often be compared to each another.
- Written by Dr Peter Edwards, Global Cement Magazine
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a constitutional monarchy located on the Arabian Peninsular. It is sandwiched between Saudi Arabia to its south east, Israel to the west and Syria to the north. It also shares a short border with Iraq to the north east. It covers an area of 89,342km2, around half of which is covered by the Arabian Desert.1 In the west, however, the land is fertile and is used for farming, with some forested areas.
History
Jordan gained its full independence from the United Kingdom on 25 May 1946. In 1955 it became a member of the United Nations and in March 1957 it severed ties with the UK completely when King Hussein prematurely ended the 1948 Anglo-Jordanian Treaty. Popular protests in the capital, Amman, had called for the King to act against the treaty, with many saying that it was an insult to Jordanian independence.2
In the second half of the 20th century, Jordan was involved in two international conflicts, both with its immediate neighbour, Israel. In 1967, Jordan and Egypt went to war with Israel in the Six Day War.3 The confrontation was reignited in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War4 in which Jordan acted as part of the Arab League, of which it is a founder member.5 In 1994
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty after a series of protracted discussions that were overseen by US President Bill Clinton.6
Recently, Jordan has retained peaceful relationships with all of its immediate neighbours. This is not entirely unrelated to its dependence on other countries for the supply of oil and water, both of which it lacks. Indeed, Jordan is one of the most water-poor nations in the world.7
Unlike many of the surrounding nations, Jordan's oil production is very low, producing an average of only 88 barrels a day in 2010.8 This places it third from bottom in a list of countries that produced any oil at all in that year.
- Written by Tom Day & Dr Robert McCaffrey, Global Cement Magazine
To coincide with the 7th Global Slag Conference in Helsinki, Global Cement here discusses the trouble with 'slag' as a name. Is it a problem or not? You decide!
What's in a name? Well, quite a lot actually. If you have children (and even if you don't) then you'll know that choosing a child's name is never a trivial decision. It may be easy - for example, tradition or expectation dictating the child is named after a parent or grand-parent. It may be a protracted affair, with the prospective parents scouring reference books for inspiration and drawing up and re-drawing short lists of potential candidates. However, it is never something that should treated lightly.
A child's name is more than a label: it says something about the heritage and values of the parents that named it, which is why we take the responsibility so seriously. Names can communicate family or community traditions, ethnic or religious ties, even social class. Some names can appeal because they are old-fashioned or distinctive, others for precisely the opposite reason.
Aspiring actors and musicians know better than most the value of a good name - and conversely the drawbacks of a poor one. One of the most famous and successful actors in the history of Hollywood,
Archibald Leach, knew that talent and good looks alone were not enough: sounding like a follicly-challenged bloodsucker was not good for business. So he changed his name to Cary Grant.
