September 2024
Lafarge Mahaweli celebrates safety month 07 July 2015
Sri Lanka: According to the Daily News (Sri Lanka), Lafarge Mahaweli Cement has concluded its health and safety month 2015, with a number of activities held at its plant premises in Colombo Port.
The theme of 2015's safety month, which was in line with Lafarge's global best practices on secure operations, was 'Keep Learning - Committed, Open, Uncompromising,' with special emphasis on zero accidents and a firm commitment towards engaging and caring for one another.
Like all key stakeholders of Lafarge Mahaweli, employees and their children were also given the opportunity to actively participate in the health and safety month by being part of the 'Good Practices and Safety at Home' internal competition, where their ideas on health and safety within the home were accepted and judged according to competition guidelines. The best ideas and concepts received special awards.
China: According to Reuters, Anhui Conch Cement sold its shares in Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemicals Group and Tangshan Jidong Cement Company in the April – June 2015 period for a net profit of US$217m.
Caribbean Cement is named Champion Exporter 07 July 2015
Jamaica: Caribbean Cement Company is Jamaica's Champion Exporter for 2014, for which it was awarded the Governor General's Trophy by the Jamaica Exporters Association. Caribbean Cement also won the category III award for achieving sales above US$5m. There were 29 awards on offer, covering everything from support services to export tonnage, export value, agricultural exports, Caricom exports and third country exports. There were also awards for service export champions that included technological solutions, shipping and logistics.
Semen Baturaja's cement sales up by 25% 07 July 2015
Indonesia: According to Reuters, Indonesian state-owned cement producer PT Semen Baturaja Tbk has posted cement sales that exceed 600,000t so far in 2015, up by 25% from the same period of 2014. Several projects kicking off in South Sumatra contributed to the sales, which have reached only 38% of 2015's target of 1.75Mt.
Plymouth quay to be turned into cement depot 06 July 2015
UK: According to the Plymouth Herald, a major new six-silo cement depot is being planned in Corporation Wharf in Cattedown, Plymouth, Devon as part of a bid to bring its historic wharf back into use. It is part of a bid to transport the tens of thousands of tonnes of cement brought in and out of Plymouth every year by boat instead of road. The Victoria Group wants to build a new bulk cement storage and terminal at Corporation Wharf in Cattedown.
India: According to the Hindu Business Line, Sanghi Industries has installed a 1.2Mt/yr capacity grinding mill at its plant in Sanghipuram, Kutch. This increases the plants total capacity to 4.1Mt/yr. Sanghi Industries also plans to install a 15MW waste heat recovery system at the plant.
Abandoned cement ship drifts to Umbergaon beach 06 July 2015
India: According to the Times of India, an abandoned cement ship drifted on to the beach of Fansa, a coastal village in Umbergaon, Valsad.
The MV Coastal Pride was reportedly abandoned 15km away from Umbergaon by the ship's 14 crew members on 24 June 2015 after it developed a problem. The overturned ship drifted to Fansa village's beach after a few days because of strong water currents, according to Valsad Marine police.
The ship was en route from Porbandar to Indira Dock in Mumbai. Following a distress call by the ship's captain, the Indian Navy sent its Sea King helicopter for a search and rescue operation from Mumbai and the Indian Coast Guard send a Chetak helicopter from Daman. The 14 crew members aboard the ship were saved. "A marine police team was deputed to Fansa when we received information about the ship. We are trying to get in touch with the ship's owner," said Prem Veer Singh, superintendent of Valsad police.
India: According to the Economic Times, JSW Cement plans to bring down its cement-making cost by as much as 75% by setting up grinding units closer to markets, in contrast to the traditional model of clinker units placed near the source of raw material.
According to the plan, the new units will use clinker imported from countries that have a surplus, thus allowing JSW Cement to add 1Mt/yr of capacity for about US$28.3m, compared to US$132m required to set up a similar capacity under the traditional model.
JSW Cement plans to establish several such grinding units on the country's east coast in West Bengal and Odisha, taking its cement capacity up to 20Mt/yr by 2020. "Our novel model involves setting up inexpensive grinding facilities closer to the markets rather than building cost-intensive clinker units closer to the raw material reserves," said Parth Jindal, son of group chairman Sajjan Jindal.
According to Anil Kumar Pillai, CEO at JSW Cement, typically 67% of cement capacity investment goes into clinkerisation and 33% goes into grinding. "We are investing 33% in grinding units. Hence, our balance sheet will be far leaner, service cost on interest will be far lower and our profitability ratio will be far better," said Pillai.
"Once our balance sheet gets strengthened with strong earnings profile to support large-scale investments, we will look at backward integration to acquire limestone reserves and set up clinkerising units," said Jindal.
Dangote to build US$150m new cement plant in Yaounde 06 July 2015
Cameroon: According to All Africa, US$150m will be invested by Dangote Group to build a new cement plant in Yaounde. The board chair and CEO of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said that the investment's aim will be to 'totally eliminate' any future cement demand increase in the country."Cameroon will not lack cement. We can assure the government that we are here to stay and will continue to invest," said Dangote.
UAE: According to a Companies and Markets report, after the economic downturn of 2008 - 2009, the cement market in the UAE is showing a positive rebound and is expected to grow by 7.56%/yr in 2014 - 2019.
The UAE is currently producing double its cement demand. Over 50% of the cement produced in the UAE is exported to Oman, Egypt and other African countries. However, analysts believe that in the coming years the cement export share will decline to meet the growing domestic demand.
The growth of the cement market in the UAE is being primarily led by a surge in construction investment because of the revival of economy. The government will invest US$700bn in the next 15 years towards the infrastructure development in the country. Ahead of Dubai EXPO 2020 and UAE National Vision 2021, major investment will be directed toward transport and power infrastructure.