September 2024
Cambodian government to cap cement production licences 13 September 2017
Cambodia: The Cambodian government is planning to cap the number of cement production licences after the opening of two new cement plants that are expected to start operations by the end of 2017, according to Hort Pheng, director of the Industrial Affairs Department at the Ministry of Industry. Pheng made his comments to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper in relation to Chip Mong Insee, a joint venture between Chip Mong Group and Thailand’s Siam Cement Group, and Battambang Conch Cement, a joint venture between Battambang KT Cement and China’s Anhui Conch. The new plants will join the country’s three existing plants operated by Kampot Cement, Cambodia Cement Chakrey Ting and Thai Boon Roong in Kampot province.
“Despite investors coming to ask us for potential locations for cement plants, the ones in Kampot and Battambang are enough. The other provinces lack the quality of limestone needed for cement production,” said Pheng. He added that, once all five plants were operational, they would produce almost enough cement to meet local demand. However, the local construction industry is expected to still need to import cement. Cement plants will be allowed to expand to meet this excess demand.
The 5000t/day Chip Mong Insee cement plant in Kampot is scheduled to open in October 2017. It had a budget of US$262m. The 5000t/day Battambang Conch Cement plant in Battambang has reportedly encountered delays in its construction and it is uncertain whether it will be completed by December 2017. Once open the plant plans to supply the domestic market first, before considering exports to Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
LG International trials production at cement plant in Myanmar 13 September 2017
Myanmar: South Korea’s LG International has started test production at its plant in Myanmar. The plant is a run as a joint venture operation with local company Blue Diamond, according to the Korea Economic Daily newspaper. LG International spent US$40m to buy a 51% stake in the business in 2015.
Emami Cement to commission Jaipur grinding plant by March 2018 13 September 2017
India: Emami Cement plans to commission it 2Mt/yr Jaipur grinding plant in Odisha by March 2018. It has spent US$94m on the unit. Once completed the new plant will bring the company’s cement production capacity to 6Mt/yr, according to the Press Trust of India. It operates an integrated plant at Risda in Chhattisgarh and a grinding plant at Panagarh in West Bengal. The company also plans to increase the market share of its Emami Double Bull Cement product by 10% in all the regions of its operations by March 2019.
Public Investment Corporation backs Fairfax offer for PPC 13 September 2017
South Africa: PPC’s largest shareholder, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), has supported an offer from Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings and local cement producer AfriSam. PIC views the bid as an opportunity to build a larger cement producer in sub-Saharan Africa, according to sources quoted by the Cape Argus newspaper. The investment body also hopes to make cost savings from the merger. PIC owns about 11% of PPC and it is the biggest shareholder of AfriSam with a 60% stake.
SNIC predicts Brazilian cement industry recovery from 2018 12 September 2017
Brazil: Paulo Camillo Penna, the president of the Brazilian cement association SNIC, predicts that the local industry will start to recover in 2018. His comments follow the publication of data for August 2017, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. He added that the country would need four or five years of growth to resume the levels of 2014, the last year sales increased reaching 71Mt. Sales of cement have been falling less steeply than previously but are still projected to end 2017 with a decrease of 7%. Sales are then forecast to grow by 1% in 2018 with a more rapid recovery expected to begin in 2019.
Vietnam: Ha Tien 1 Cement has warned that a local government scheme in Ho Chi Minh City to replace cement grinding plants with distribution terminals could cost US$62m. The cement producer made the comments as part of a discussion on the development of building materials in the city, according to the Saigon Times newspaper. The government plans to shut down the cement pants on environmental grounds and to move them out of the city.
At present Ho Chi Minh City has 10 cement grinding plants and terminals with a capacity of over 10Mt/yr but this is below the city’s requirements. By 2020, the city may have a shortfall of 3.3Mt/yr. The city plans to build three terminals with a capacity of 1.2Mt/yr each. However, Ha Tien 1 Cement said that transport and loading fees would be huge as the city will require ships to transport cement from northern ports. In addition, the city will have to build special ports to receive bulk cement shipments from the north as the majority of the ports have no facilities for bulk cement.
Sanghi Cements to build floating terminal at Kochi Port 12 September 2017
India: Gujarat’s Sanghi Cements is preparing to build a floating terminal at Kochi Port in Kerala. The plan is intended to targeted markets in the south of India, according to The Hindu newspaper. The floating terminal will consist of a berthed ship with a bagging plant on-board and it will have a capacity of 0.3Mt/yr.
“Once the project becomes operational, Kochi Port will be the first major port in the country to have a floating cement terminal,” said AV Ramana, Deputy Chairman of the port. He added that Sanghi Cements has similar facilities in the minor ports of Kutch and Navlakhi in Gujarat and Dharamtar in Maharashtra.
The port is also commissioning more automated cement bagging plants. Ambuja Cement, UltraTech Cement and Zuari Cements each operate units at the port and Penna Cement and Malabar Cements will set up bagging plants in November 2017 and March 2019 respectively. The total capacity of the five units is estimated to be around 3Mt/yr.
Butra HeidelbergCement launches slag cement 12 September 2017
Brunei Darussalam: Butra HeidelbergCement has launched 52.5 Brunei Cement, a new slag cement in its product range. German ambassador Peter Wolff and Legislative Council member YB Ong Tiong Oh attended the launch event.
Fives becomes founding member of the Centre for Technologies, Minerals and Recycled Materials of the Future 12 September 2017
France: Fives Group has revealed its membership of the Centre for Technologies, Minerals and Recycled Materials of the Future, a new association that aims to develop industrial recycling of minerals for the construction and public works sectors. Fives’ Innovation Department and its subsidiary Fives FCB joined Team2 to found the associate in May 2017.
The centre plans to set up a base to coordinate and test by-product valorisation, as well as the use of raw materials recovered from recycling, at a former cement plant owned by EQIOM group in Dannes, Pas-de-Calais. Fives contribution to the research will include its technologies in crushing, grinding, classifying and pyro processing in the minerals industry.
CNBM and Sinoma enter into merger agreement 11 September 2017
China: China National Building Material (CNBM) and China National Materials Company (Sinoma) have entered into a merger agreement. The exchange ratio has been set at 1 Sinoma share to exchange for 0.85 CNBM share. After the merger is completed Sinoma will be absorbed into CNBM. Merger preparations for the two state-owned companies have been on going since mid-2016 when the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission announced the move.
CNBM is the largest cement company in the country with a reported total production capacity of around 409Mt/yr. Sinoma is a cement engineering company and the fourth largest cement producer in China with a total production capacity of approximately 112Mt/yr. The merger is part of the government’s plans to consolidate production domestically and refocus its industries internationally as part of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.