September 2024
Corporacion Socialista de Cemento workers seek collective contract 01 December 2016
Venezuela: Union representatives from the Corporacion Socialista de Cemento have met with their counterparts from the aluminium industry to discuss how to obtain a collective contract for workers in the cement industry. The Cement Union Coalition (Coalicion de los Sindicatos Cementeros), comprising unions such as Sintracemex, Sintraboica, Sutracompeblo, Invecem and Sintracea, is seeking to sign a national unified agreement for cement workers to unify worker benefits, according to the Nueva Prensa newspaper. At present there are over 20 collective contracts in the cement sector with variations in wages and working conditions. The union has compiled a draft collective contract that will be revised before being passed to the government for negotiation.
Annual cement sales up by 8.15% so far in Dominican Republic 01 December 2016
Dominican Republic: Adocem, the cement association for the Dominican Republic, has reported that sales have risen by 8.15% year-on-year to 4.3Mt so far in 2016, according to the Listin Diario newspaper. Association president Gabriel Ballestas commented that the industry has benefited from government efforts and other local industries.
India: LafargeHolcim has received environment clearance to raise the production capacity of its Nongtrai limestone mine in Meghalaya to 5Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr for US$28m. The mine is operated by Lafarge Umiam Mining, a subsidiary of Lafarge Surma Cement, according to the Press Trust of India. Limestone from the mine is transported across the border to Lafarge Surma Cement’s plant in Bangladesh. The increased limestone is expected to increase the production capacity at the plant to 5.5Mt/yr from 2.2Mt/yr.
The mine expansion project is subject to final outcomes of cases pending before Supreme Court, High Court and National Green Tribunal. LafargeHolcim’s subsidiaries have also been asked to obtain clearance from the National Board of Wildlife and the State Pollution Control Board.
US: HeidelbergCement has completed the sale of its Martinsburg, West Virginia cement plant and eight related terminals to Cementos Argos. With the finalisation of the sale the group has now met all the obligations with regards to its acquisition of Italcementi.
“With the disposal of the US assets we fulfil the obligation of the Federal Trade Commission and improve the net financial position of HeidelbergCement after the acquisition of Italcementi,” said Bernd Scheifele, chief executive officer of HeidelbergCement.
HeidelbergCement and Cementos Argos announced the sale in August 2016. The transaction purchase price was US$660m on a cash and debt-free basis. The FTC approved the agreement in November 2016.
Morocco moves ahead 30 November 2016
Morocco’s Directorate of Financial Studies and Forecasting has reported that cement sales rose by 8.4% year-on-year in October 2016. It's good news for a local cement industry that saw its sales fall from 16.1Mt in 2011 to a low of 14.1Mt in 2014. Sales picked up slightly in 2015 and it looks like the same is going to happen again in 2016. Data from the Moroccan Cement Association (APC) support this with consumption of cement very slightly higher for the first nine month for 2016. Good sales figures in October can only help.
Graph 1: Cement consumption for the first nine months of the year, 2013 – 2016. Source: L’Association Professionnelle des Cimentiers du Maroc.
2016 has also been an interesting time for the Moroccan cement industry due to consequences of the merger and acquisition activity by the multinational producers that operate there. In March 2016, amidst a slew of divestments, LafargeHolcim made a point of announcing that it was holding on to its cement businesses under Lafarge Maroc and Holcim Maroc and enlarging them with its local partner SNI to form LaafrgeHolcim Maroc. The deconsolidation of Holcim Maroc picked up a net gain before taxes of Euro219m for a total consideration of Euro463m, which should considerably add to the group’s cash proceeds.
It managed to avoid being forced to sell off assets by the local competition body when it merged in 2014 due to its relatively low stakes in its companies. Today it has a production capacity of 13.2Mt/yr from seven integrated cement plants or over half the country’s production capacity. In its annual report for 2015 LafargeHolcim said that its cement business saw its results improve, mitigating problems in its aggregate and ready-mix concrete markets. This was followed by good results in the first half of 2016. New projects in the pipeline include plans to build a cement plant in Agadir and a grinding plant in Laâyoune in Western Sahara.
2016 has also seen the acquisition of Morocco’s second largest cement producer, Ciments du Maroc, by HeidelbergCement as part of its purchase of Italcementi. It’s too soon for HeidelbergCement to have reported upon the territory in its first integrated quarterly financial report following the takeover but it did describe Morocco as a having a ‘high growth potential.’ How these assets fit into the wide portfolio of HeidelbergCement’s new production base will be interesting. Ciments de l’Atlas’ (CIMAT), the country’s third largest and local producer, saw its sales fall slightly to Euro124m in the first half of 2016. However, its net profit rose by 13% year-on-year to Euro30m.
The other story of note in recent months in Morocco has been the public outcry against a shipment of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from Italy in June 2016 destined for a cement plant in Casablanca. The subsequent protests saw waste imports to be suspended, leading Hakima al-Haiti, the government minister at the heart of the affair, to describe the furore as causing damage to the country’s economy in the aftermath. However her opponents rallied under the phrase “Nous ne sommes pas une poubelle” or ‘We are not a trash can.’ Despite this setback for the secondary fuels market, LafargeHolcim highlighted the work its Ecoval waste processing subsidiary has been conducting producing RDF at its Oum Azza site ahead of the Climate Change Conference of the Parties held in Marrakech in mid-November 2016. Although the key difference here is that Ecoval is generating RDF from local waste streams not importing them.
Perhaps as a sign of the growth potential Morocco may hold, this week, a non-cement producer was revealed to be planning to build a cement plant at Tarfaya. Previously the company, Global Oil Shale, had intended to develop shale oil resources at the site but it has switched its plan to constructing a 1.6Mt/yr cement plant instead and hired Luis Verde, a former technical director at Cemex who has also worked for Dangote. Together with the Lafarge project in Laâyoune and the Ciement Sud (CIMSUD) plant also in Western Sahara due to open in mid-2017 it suggest that the investors smell opportunity.
A Tec commissions Rocket Mill in Wiener Neustadt 30 November 2016
Austria: A Tec has commissioned a Rocket Mill RM 2.50 for ASA at its waste treatment plant in Wiener Neustadt. The mill has a capacity of 7 – 40t/hr and is equipped with two grinding chambers, which can be independently loaded. Each one has a main drive with 315kW. Due to the grinding technology, it also has an additional drying effect of approximately 10%. The mill is designed to produce refuse-derived fuels (RDF) with an output size of 5 - 80mm from pre-sorted and shredded household and commercial waste. It was principally built at A Tec’s plant in Eberstein.
Loesche reports on Unicem Calabar cement plant order 30 November 2016
Nigeria: Loesche has released details on its order for the United Cement Company of Nigeria (Unicem) cement plant at Mfamosing, near Calabar in Cross River State, which was commissioned in September 2016. The order was for two vertical roller mills (VRM): one type LM 60.4 for grinding cement raw material and one LM 70.4+4 CS, the biggest Loesche VRM built for grinding cement clinker.
Loesche worked with Renk to develop the Compact Planetary Electrical (COPE) drive due to the high power requirements of the LM 70.4+4 CS mill. This mill was designed for a capacity of more than 370t/hr to a fineness of 4700 Blaine that required a drive system that could power it up to 8800kW. So the COPE system was designed for mill drive powers ranging from 4000 – 15,000kW. The COPE gearbox is also equipped with eight individual drive units, which are each designed for a capacity of 8800kW, allowing for redundancy in case of unit failure.
Other notable highlights of the installation that Loesche have highlighted include the equal size as standard drive units for VRMs that allow for the exchange of conventional gearboxes with the setup. The installation is also the first usage of an eight-drive unit in a VRM gearbox and the first time a multiple drive in a VRM can operate with or without a variable frequency drive.
Delivery of the order started in October 2015. First production of cement on the new production line began in September 2016. The new line increased the plant’s cement production capacity to over 5.5Mt/yr from 2.5Mt/yr. It was built by China’s CBMI Construction.
Dangote Cement defends temporary production shutdown in Tanzania 30 November 2016
Tanzania: Dangote Cement has clarified that a temporary production shutdown at its Mtwara plant has been made due to technical problems. Country chief executive officer Harpreet Duggal made the announcement in response to claims that the stoppage was due to high production costs in the country, according to the Tanzania Daily News newspaper. The plant is expected to resume production in a few days.
Duggal described operating costs in Tanzania as ‘high’ due to the producer’s dependence on diesel generators. He also cited high transport costs due to the plant’s distance from its key markets.
Colombia: Cemex Latam, the Latin American subsidiary of Cemex, intends to enter dialogue with the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Antioquia (Corantioquia) to revoke its environmental permit for Maceo cement plant project. Corantioquia has requested that the permit from Central de Mezclas, a subsidiary of CHL, be returned to the CI Calizas y Minerales, according to the El Colombiano newspaper. The government agency has removed the clearance on procedural grounds and over the mining rights in the area.
Tarmac opens rail facility at Aberthaw Cement Plant 30 November 2016
UK: Tarmac’s Aberthaw Cement Plant has opened a rail facility to despatch bulk cement. The rail depot will mean that trains will be used to transport cement in Wales for the first time in over 20 years. The yard is expected to replace 2500 annual truck movements on the local roads. Jane Hutt, the Welsh Assembly Member for Vale of Glamorgan, officially opened the facility.
“Reducing our road movements by 25% is a significant achievement and it puts us in an even better position to supply materials to our customers across Wales and the south west of England in a more sustainable way. The plant has been in operation for over 100 years and we employ 109 people, the majority of whom live within 10 miles of the site, so this development demonstrates our commitment to the Vale of Glamorgan,” said Aberthaw Cement Plant manager, Chris Bradbury.