September 2024
Egypt: According to Reuters, Arabian Cement Company has commissioned new alternative fuel processing machinery at its plant in Suez.
The state-of-the-art FLSmidth HOTDISCTM allows Arabian Cement's plant to rely completely on coal and alternative fuels to run its operations. Moreover, it enables the plant to operate its kilns using alternative fuel materials directly, without the need to pre-treat them. Arabian Cement now has a designed fuel mix of 70% coal and 30% alternative fuels. The alternative fuel that will be used will be a mixture of agricultural wastes, municipal sludge and refuse-derived fuels (RDF). Alternative fuel use is expected to result in around 60,000t/yr of reduced CO2 emissions.
Canada: McInnis Cement and the St Elzear Forestry Cooperative Association (ACF) have signed a cooperative agreement to study the feasibility of using forest biomass as an auxiliary fuel for the cement plant under construction in Port-Daniel-Gascons.
The utilisation of forest biomass as an alternative fuel would enable the McInnis cement plant to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). McInnis Cement has provided the equipment necessary for the use of alternative fuels at its new cement plant.
"We are pleased to establish this collaboration with the region's forest industry in line with our GHG reduction plan," said Christian Gagnon, president and CEO of McInnis Cement. "Any operations that result from this agreement will be reviewed by the Environmental Committee, whose work began in April 2015," he added.
Forest biomass is a fuel source in abundant supply in Gaspé. McInnis Cement requires a local long-term quality source of supply at competitive costs. The St Elzear ACF is able to supply forest residues, wood chips, sawdust, shavings and bark.
"By studying the possibilities together, including from the outset the client's needs and the capabilities of potential suppliers, we are putting all the pieces in place to make this project a reality," said Sebastien Roy, executive director of the St Alzear ACF. "The success of a fruitful partnership between McInnis and our organisation would be a big boost to our industry. The situation is complex since, beyond availability, supply sources need to be guaranteed over the long-term and quality and prices must remain competitive, including product transportation and processing costs."
Oman: According to the Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Oman Cement has said that due to operational difficulties, it has had to prolong the shutdown of a 4000t/day kiln for planned maintenance. CEO Jamal al Hooti said that the closure has resulted in lower production and sales in recent months, which has had an impact on company performance during the current quarter.
Sephaku Cement reports strong results in 2015 29 June 2015
South Africa: According to Business Day, Sephaku Cement is ramping up production towards a steady state at both its Delmas and Aganang plants.
In the first three months of 2015 to 31 March 2015, Sephaku Cement's revenue increased by 36%, while its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 39% to US$11.3m. Its operating profit grew by 44% to US$8.87m and its profit after tax grew by 57% to US$3.83m. Sales revenues came mainly from the Delmas plant, which reached steady state production in November 2014. Clinker and cement production at Aganang started in August 2014 and October 2014, respectively.
"We are pleased to have commenced clinker production at Aganang because it has improved our cost efficiencies and enabled Sephaku to remain highly competitive," said CEO Lelau Mohuba.
Sephaku Cement's market penetration continued, as reflected by 29% higher quarterly sales of about US$42.4m. "Our main focus going forward is to sweat the assets and increase free cash flows in preparation for the distribution of dividends," added Mohuba. Sephaku said that the operating environment remained highly competitive, as overall cement demand remained flat and the number of producers had increased. Subdued demand from South Africa's construction industry also resulted in prices remaining flat on a year-on-year basis.
Brazil/Portugal: SeeNews Portugal has reported that Portuguese holding company Semapa Sociedade Invest Gestao SGPS' Brazilian subsidiary NSOSPE Empreendimentos e Participacoes (NSOSPE) has acquired a 50% stake in Brazilian cement maker Supremo Cimentos.
The US$94m purchase agreement was announced on 29 April 2015. NSOSPE is jointly-owned by Semapa and Portuguese construction materials supplier Secil. Following the closure of the transaction, Semapa and Secil indirectly own the entire share capital of Supremo Cimentos.
India: JK Cement has received the necessary approval to make Jaykaycem (Central) its wholly-owned subsidiary by acquiring 100% of the paid up equity capital. The JK Cement board of directors approved the move on 26 June 2015.
JSW Cement to start four greenfield grinding units 29 June 2015
India: According to the Deccan Herald, JSW Cement plans to start four more greenfield grinding plants, two each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, as part of its plan to grow its cement and clinker capacities to 20Mt/yr by 2018.
JSW Cement director and CEO Anil Kumar Pillai said that the company expects cement demand growth in its current fiscal year, which ends on 30 September 2015 and will gain pace in the next fiscal year. "The government's new infrastructure-led industrialisation plan will really boost cement demand. Already analysts have predicted a double-digit GDP growth rate, which will give a 15% hike in cement demand," said Pillai.
The greenfield projects are part of JSW Cement's US$1.41bn investment plan. "Each of the projects will have an investment of US$54.8 – 62.6m. In Tamil Nadu, we have identified one location at Tuticorin and the other will be near Puducherry. It will take 36 months to commission the units. Funds for these projects will be raised via internal accrual and bank borrowings," said Pillai.
JSW Cement is looking for land in West Bengal and will announce the details soon. The company has production plants in Vijayanagar and Bellari in Karnataka, Dolvi in Maharashtra and Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. JSW Cement has achieved 55% of its production capacity in the last fiscal year. "In the last fiscal year, we produced 3.2Mt of cement and we have set a target of 4.2Mt in the current fiscal year. We expect to achieve 65% capacity utilisation once growth momentum gains in the third and fourth quarter," said Pillai.
Regarding industry rumours that JSW Cement is in the race to acquire Lafarge's cement assets in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Pillai said that the company was open to inorganic growth and will not go for exports.
Meanwhile, JSW Cement is installing a 10MW power plant that uses waste gas in Nandyal. "JSW Cement has committed US$15.7m of investment for this project and it will be commissioned within 12 to 14 months," said Pillai.
Zimbabwe: According to Southern Eye, PPC Zimbabwe's cement exports in the first half of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended on 31 March 2015, took a knock due to the weakening of the South African Rand against the US Dollar.
PPC said that exports from its Zimbabwe operations accounted for only 10% of cement sales volumes, although local sales were encouraging. It said that cement volumes in Zimbabwe grew by 9% in the first half of its 2015 fiscal year due to new marketing strategies implemented during the period.
PPC Zimbabwe's managing director Njombo Lekula confirmed that exports had fallen. "In terms of business, we are doing fairly very well, but there has been a bit of a slowdown from last year. However, performance internally in the country is still very good and that is something we can be happy with," said Lekula. "Obviously, on exports it wasn't great, partly because of the strengthening of the US Dollar and capacity in other surrounding areas. To export has been a bit difficult this year. Looking forward, we think the second half of the year will be very good as usual. We normally do very well in the last three months of our financial year, which ends in September 2015. I'm quite happy with the PPC Zimbabwe performance at this point in time."
PPC Zimbabwe is constructing a US$75m, 680,000t/yr capacity cement plant in Harare. The plant is expected to start production in the middle of 2016. The group recently unveiled an adjustment to its brand name for Zimbabwe and is now trading as PPC Zimbabwe.
Egypt/Sudan: According to Daily News Egypt, Qalaa Holding for Investment has signed an agreement with Financial Holding International (FHI) to sell FHI some of Qalaa's units. This is in line with Qalaa's aim to exit from some of its non-basic businesses and to reduce its consolidated debts of US$105m.
Qalaa will sell FHI its stakes in MENA Homes, Grandview and Dina Farms Land Companies, which will be separated from Dina for Agricultural Investments. In return, Qalaa will buy FHI's stakes in several affiliated companies, including cement producer ASEC Holding, as well as Taqa Arabia and Mashreq Petroleum in the energy sector. Qalaa will also buy FHI's stakes in Nile Logistics International in the Transport and logistics sector, Dina Farms Supermarkets in the retail sector and United Company for Foundries (UCF) in the metallurgical industry sector. The deal is expected to be finalised by December 2015, after the customary conditions and requirements are met.
Abdallah El-Ebiary, managing director of Qalaa's cement division, said that the cement sector is a main strategic area for Qalaa and that it has no intention of exiting it, nor the transport and energy sectors. He added that FHI plans to build a new pulveriser mill at the ASEC Cement plant in Minya, Egypt within the company's plan to convert to alternative energy due to the energy deficit and gas crisis. The cost will be US$30.2m and it will be built in the fourth quarter of 2015. "The company's strategy for the next period is to diversify to new and cheap energy sources instead of the traditional and unavailable sources. The investment cost is at US$30.2m, with US$1.31m for a pulveriser mill and US$11.8m for alternative fuel production," said El-Ebiary.
Qalaa also plans to increase the production capacity of its Takamol cement plant in Sudan from 430,000t/yr to 800,000t/yr in 2016. Qalaa aims to establish a new coal mine for the plant. The plant is 51% owned by ASEC Cement and 49% controlled by the Sudanese Social Security Investment Authority (SSIA), the entity that manages all pension funds in Sudan.
India: According to Finalaya News, Mauritius Debt Management has sold a 0.65% stake in Saurashtra Cement for US$210,807. It sold 330,000 shares at an average price of US$0.63 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).