September 2024
Central African Republic: Cameroon’s Quiferou has signed a deal with the government to produce cement. Quiferou plans to produce 0.35Mt/yr of cement locally, according to the African Press Agency. The project will be situated at Bomoko in the south west of the country.
Germany/Pakistan: Germany’s Loesche says it has sold over 400 vertical roller mills for cement and ground granulated blast furnace slag, following a sale to Kohat Cement. Two LM 53.3+3 CS type mills has been sold to the Pakistani cement producer. The plant will produce 210t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement at a fineness of 9% R 45 μm. No value for the deal has been disclosed.
The first Loesche LM type mill was put into operation at Fos sur Mer in France in 1994. Sales of the mill type for cement and slag markets have accelerated since 2006. The engineering company sold 50 LM mills in the 10 years to 2004. It then sold another 50 mills to 2006. However, from 2006 to 2014 it sold 200 mills. It then sold a further 100 mills after 2014.
Suhar Cement back on track after delays 12 June 2018
Oman: Suhar Cement, the Sultanate's third cement plant after Oman Cement and Raysut Cement, will come into operation later in 2018, helping add to domestic production capacity and reduce the nation's dependence on imports.
The new facility, featuring a cement-grinding unit with a capacity of around 240t/hr, is being developed by a partnership between Sohar Cement (70% of the equity) and UAE-based Fujairah Cement Company (30%). Construction work on the plant is nearing completion at a site located within Phase 7 of Suhar Industrial Estate, one of several industrial parks administered by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) around Oman.
The original plans to bring the new cement plant into operation by the first quarter of 2018 have been hamstrung by two key factors: 1. The absence of a paved road to provide suitable access to the site of the plant, and; 2. A lack of power supply to the site. Both impediments are being addressed by the relevant government agencies following the intervention of the Implementation Support and Follow-up Unit (ISFU) - a special task force of the Diwan of Royal Court overseeing the timely execution of a number of proposals and initiatives designed to spur the nation's economic diversification.
Significantly, the new Suhar Cement plant, along with a flurry of other cement plant projects planned in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Duqm, will go a long way in ramping up Oman's domestic cement production by 2021. By that year, and assuming all of the project proposals have progressed through to implementation and commissioning, Oman is projected to be self-sufficient in meeting its domestic cement requirements. At present, Oman is dependent on imports for just over half of its cement demand.
Trucker strike hits Votorantim in May 2018 12 June 2018
Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos, Brazil's largest producer of cement and other construction materials, is still evaluating its production loss after a recent 11 day truck drivers' strike, as well as calculating the impact of minimum freight prices. Brazil’s cement sector is highly dependent on road transport, with 96% of total shipments leaving plants by road, around 54Mt/yr.
"(The strike) will certainly impact the company's annual production," Walter Dissinger, Votorantim Cimentos president said. He added that Votorantim’s cement sales fell nearly 20% in May.
CRC profit to increase 12 June 2018
China: China Resources Cement (CRC) has said that it expects its profit attributable to the owners for the six months ending 30 June 2018 to significantly increase compared to the corresponding period of 2017. The expected growth was primarily attributable to the higher selling prices of cement products during the period, which rose by 33.4% year-on-year.
Council reverses decision to buy Westport assets 12 June 2018
New Zealand: The Buller District Council has backed out of plans to buy Holcim Cement’s former Westport plant assets and land on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, including a water supply and treatment plant, a quarry, land, silos and a packing plant.
Buller District Mayor Garry Howard said that the council has been negotiating for over a year on US$3.5m deal, but concerns over the Cape Foulwind site led to it abandoning its plans. He said that buying the former cement plant site could have made the council liable for remediation of the land. Howard says the council had been keen to get the quarry as a source of rock for river and coastal protection.
Westport lost over 100 jobs when Holcim closed the cement plant in 2016, after 58 years of operation.
Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan intends to become self sufficient in all building materials, according to the country’s Deputy Minister of Economy Niyazi Safarov, who was speaking during the recent Azerbaijan-EU Business Forum in Baku.
"Today, Azerbaijan is fully self-sufficient in many types of building materials, for example cement and brick,” said Safarov. "The development of the construction sector allows the creation of new jobs, attracts investment and increases demand in other sectors of the economy.”
Pakistan: Business activity slowed during the month of Ramadan in Pakistan, with cement demand also affected. In May 2018, domestic cement sales were the slowest seen in the current fiscal year, which runs until the end of June 2018, yet they still rose by 2.4%. When exports, which rose by 41.8%, are also included, the year-on-year change rises to 5.7%.
The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers’ Association (APCMA) reported that 3.92Mt of cement was sold in May 2018 compared to 3.71Mt in May 2017. Sales in the country's northern region stood at 2.81Mt, compared to 2.8Mt in May 2017. In the south, sales came to 0.67Mt in May 2017, as opposed to 0.59Mt in May 2017. Exports from the northern region were 0.224Mt in May 2018 compared to 0.219Mt in May 2017. From the southern region, exports totalled 0.215Mt compared to just 0.09Mt in May 2017.
Total cement sales in the first 11 months of the 2018 Fiscal Year hit a record high, with 42.92Mt sold, a 14.2% rise year-on-year compared to 37.6Mt in the first 11 months of the 2017 Fiscal Year. The APCMA reported that the national capacity utilisation rate over the 11 months period was 94.7%, beating the previous 93.6% record from 1992-1993.
An APCMA spokesperson said the association anticipated that domestic cement consumption would once again rise after Ramadan, while a continued increase in exports was a welcome sign for the industry. However, he said the major factor behind the rise in exports had been the decline in the value of the Pakistani Rupee against the US Dollar, which greatly improved the competitiveness of cement manufacturers in global markets.
Chile: Cementos Bicentenario (BSA) has signed a deal with energy company Engie to supply its Quilicura grinding plant near Santiago with renewable energy. All of the energy supplied to the plant will come from renewable sources including solar and hydroelectric. The contract, equivalent to 35GWh, will see the plant achieve the I-REC certification.
Akkord Cement to increase production by a third 08 June 2018
Azerbaijan: Akkord Cement plans to increase production at its Gazakh plant to 1.3Mt/yr from 1Mt/yr. It is working with an unnamed German company on the investment for the project, according to the Trend News Agency. The cement producer mostly sells its cement locally, with some export sales to Georgia.