September 2024
Colombia: FLSmidth has signed a contract with Cementos Argos S.A. for a new OK 33-4 cement mill system to be installed at its cement plant in Sogamoso, Boyac, Colombia. This contract marks the fourth OK mill purchased by Cementos Argos. The mill system will include cement storage, Ventomatic packing plant, MAAG gear, Airtech filters and auxiliary equipment.
Qassim Cement’s profit grew by 4% in 2015 11 January 2016
Saudi Arabia: Qassim Cement Co's quarterly net profit during the fourth quarter of 2015 amounted to US$37.4m, up by 4.69% from US$35.7m for the same quarter of 2014.
The main reasons for the net profit increase were higher sales volume and value, lower general and administrative expenses and higher other income. Gross profit during the fourth quarter of 2015 was US$42.3m, some 0.83% higher than the US$41.8m in the same period of 2014. Its operating profit increased by 7.96% to US$40.6m during the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to US$37.6m in the same quarter of 2014.
The company's net profit in 2015 grew by 4.05% year-on-year to US$156m and its gross profit grew by 2.33% to US$168m. Its operating profit grew by 4.49% to US$160m during 2015.
CRH spent Euro8bn on acquisitions in 2015 11 January 2016
Ireland: Irish building materials group CRH spent Euro8bn on acquisitions and disposed of Euro1bn worth of assets in 2015.
In a development strategy update, the company said that it made Euro430m from the sale of its clay and concrete products operations in the UK and its clay business in the US in 2015. It also gained about Euro530m through several additional divestments across Europe and the Americas. These included the sale of its 45% stake in French builders' merchant Doras and its 25% stake in Israeli cement producer Mashav. CRH had come under fire from some shareholders for retaining its stake in Mashav, as the company's cement has been used for a widely condemned security wall that divides Palestine and Israel.
During 2015, CRH completed 20 bolt-on acquisition and investment transactions. The company said that these deals, along with the acquisition of assets from Lafarge and Holcim, the CR Laurence acquisition and net deferred consideration payments, brought its development spend for 2015 to about Euro8bn.
"We are pleased with our progress in 2015, which brought cumulative proceeds from our multiyear divestment programme to almost Euro1.4bn, while our targeted bolt-on investments strengthened our existing businesses and complemented the major acquisition activity, which saw total acquisition spend of approximately Euro8bn in 2015," said CRH Chief Executive Albert Manifold. "Portfolio management, and in particular the reallocation of capital from lower growth areas into core businesses for growth, is a cornerstone of our value creation model."
Emami Cement orders third Gebr. Pfeiffer mill 11 January 2016
India: Emami Cement Ltd has made three recent orders for mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer. The first Gebr. Pfieffer mill is for its greenfield cement plant in Chhattisgarh, which is currently under construction. The second is destined for a standalone grinding unit in West Bengal. This order is currently being processed.
The latest mill order is for a grinding plant in Odisha. The order covers a MVR 6000 C-6 mill with an installed drive power of 6700kW. This mill will be capable of producing 335t/hr of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The grinding plant will be designed in a way to allow fly ash cement and granulated blast-furnace slag to be ground to a fineness of 3800cm²/g and 4000cm²/g acc. to Blaine, respectively.
The MVR 6000 C-6 mill with is its six rollers has an actively redundant system. In case of an unplanned outage of one grinding roller, it allows the mill to continue in operation with four rollers while the roller swung out of the mill is being worked on outside of the mill. When it comes to cement grinding, where regular and planned maintenance works are scheduled for the regeneration of the grinding elements, this concept offers the customer the option to carry out maintenance works on two rollers outside the mill while at the same time cement can continue to be produced, albeit at a somewhat lower capacity.
Thanks to the modular design of the MVR mills, the essential components, such as bearings, seals of the grinding rollers and the tension system, as well as the gear units of the mill main drive, will be designed so as to be identical to the parts of the MVR mills that have been supplied to Emami Cement previously, i.e. an MVR 6000 R-6 and an MVR 6000 C-6. This will enable Emami Cement to manage with a small pool of strategic spare parts, which can be used with all the MVR mills.
Gebr. Pfeiffer SE will supply the core components of the mills and the gear units from Europe. Its Indian subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd., will provide components such as the housing of the mill and classifier, the steel foundation parts as well as all static and dynamic interior parts of the classifier and, in addition, supply some of the equipment required to complete the grinding plant. Moreover, the Indian subsidiary will do the plant layout and advise Emami Cement on the equipment it must procure itself.
Kakatiya Cement's Chairman and Managing Director passes away 11 January 2016
India: Kakatiya Cement Sugar & Industries' Chairman and Managing Director, Shri. P Venkateswarlu, passed away on 11 January 2016.
Solid recovered fuel plant breaks ground in the USA 08 January 2016
US: A waste-to-solid-fuel plant has broken ground in West Virginia. Its developers say it is the US' first resource recovery facility that employs mechanical biological treatment (MBT).
The waste-to-solid-fuel plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia, called Entsorga WV, is expected to be operational in early 2017. Entsorga WV is a joint venture between Apple Valley Waste Technologies, Entsorga USA and Chemtex International.
By utilising the HEBioT MBT system, Entsorga WV will recover biomass, plastics and other carbon based materials from the mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) stream and convert them into an alternative fuel. When processing the MSW, Entsorga WV will remove other recyclable commodities such as ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The MSW received will be converted to solid recovered (SRF), which will be used as an alternative or supplement to fossil fuels.
The plant will be able to produce about 50,000t/yr of SRF, which will be delivered to the Essroc Cement Plant and used in conjunction with coal. The companies have entered into a long-term contract for the provision and acceptance of the SRF.
The reduction of waste that will be disposed of in landfills as a result of the Entsorga facility will result in a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 28,000t/yr of carbon dioxide equivalent. There are currently more than 330 MBT plants in operation throughout Europe, processing more than 30Mt/yr of municipal solid waste.
bauma establishes Charity Alliance 08 January 2016
Germany: bauma has launched the new bauma Charity Alliance, which is intended to highlight the fact that companies in the construction and construction machinery sector are actively engaged both in combating hunger and poverty and in promoting education and the environment in the Third World, in addition to their day-to-day business. The launch will be held at bauma 2016, held in Munich, Germany from 11 – 17 April 2016.
Internationally orientated companies have become increasingly involved in developing and emerging countries, however many companies are interested not just in pure profit maximisation and expansion, but are also actively involved worldwide in social projects of every description.
"Corporate societal and social commitment is no contradiction. On the contrary, long-term success requires both factors to go hand-in-hand. Many bauma exhibitors have long since taken this on board and are acting accordingly," said Klaus Dittrich, Chairman and CEO of Messe München GmbH.
Inspired by the Pilosio Building Peace Award, bauma has set up the bauma Charity Alliance to coincide with the forthcoming event. The intention is to create a strong network and presentation platform to draw attention to social commitment by companies within the construction machinery industry. The network intends to promote dialog between members on the implementation of social projects and to attract additional interested parties to become actively involved in the bauma Charity Alliance.
Applications are restricted to companies exhibiting at bauma 2016, who are carrying on projects in the fields of education, nutrition, health, social integration or the environment and which bring about a lasting improvement in the living conditions of people in need living in, or hailing from, crisis areas, emerging or developing countries. To date, Atlas Copco, AUMUND Fördertechnik, MAN, Pilosio, Terex Latin America, Wirtgen, Volvo Construction Equipment, Zeppelin Baumaschinen and ZF Friedrichshafen have notified their projects to the bauma Charity Alliance.
JSW Group to invest US$1.49bn in West Bengal 08 January 2016
India: JSW Group plans to invest US$1.49bn over the next 5 - 7 years at Salboni in West Bengal. The investment would involve setting up a 1320MW coal-based power plant, a 4.8Mt/yr cement plant and a paints factory.
The projects are due to come up in phases on 4300 acres of land acquired by the company for a proposed 10Mt/yr steel project way back in 2007. The steel project is in cold storage since JSW failed to secure iron ore linkage. Sajjan Jindal Chairman and Managing Director of JSW Steel said that JSW Cement will start construction of a 2.4Mt/yr cement plant at Salboni shortly.
"Bengal is likely to emerge as a bastion of JSW Group. We are drawing up plans to double the capacity of the Salboni plant. This is part of JSW Cement's larger plans to add another 10Mt/yr of capacity in next two years for US$300m. We entered the cement business in 2009 and now have 6Mt/yr of capacity at present, having managed to turnaround some of the units," said JSW Group's Parth Jindal said. While the Salboni cement unit will cost US$120m in the first phase, the expansion project to double its capacity will require anther US$105m of investment.
Sajjan Jindal said that the group plans to enter into a power purchase agreement with the government for two 660MW power plants at Salboni with an investment of US$1.19bn. He added that the group is also exploring the option of entering the paints business and is considering setting up a modern paints factory at the site. The group is keeping its options open on whether to acquire an existing paints business or launch its own business from scratch. The group is also looking at the possibility of setting up downstream steel processing units at the site at a later stage.
Caribbean: Caribbean Cement's parent company Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) has appointed Luis Ali has as Group Finance Manager, effective from 4 January 2016.
Portland Cement Association celebrates 100th anniversary 07 January 2016
US: The year 2016 marks the centennial anniversary of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), the US' leading advocate for America's cement manufacturers. Widely recognised as an authority on the technology, economics and applications of cement and concrete, the PCA is a vocal advocate for sustainability, economic growth, sound infrastructure investment and overall innovation and excellence in construction.
In celebrating its 100th year, the PCA will be involved with as well as hosting several events throughout the year, including:
- World of Concrete, Las Vegas, Nevada. The official launch of Centennial Celebration;
- PCA Spring Congress, Chicago. Main centennial celebration for PCA membership;
- 2016 DC Fly-In, Washington, D.C., Reception for Members of Congress, Congressional staff, agency officials and allied groups in conjunction with transportation fly-in;
- Open house at PCA Skokie headquarters and CTLGroup to showcase campus to local politicians, government officials, local construction and business leaders, CTLGroup clients and potential clients.