September 2024
Italcementi launches upgraded Devnya Cement plant 22 October 2014
Bulgaria: Italcementi has launched its upgraded cement plant in Bulgaria, which is operated by its subsidiary, Devnya Cement. The upgrades will allow Italcementi to meet domestic demand and export demand from Eastern Europe.
"The new plant will enable us to respond to demand from the domestic market and from the neighbouring areas in Eastern Europe," said Italcementi Group chief executive officer Carlo Pesenti in a statement.
The revamp of the cement plant, located near the port of Varna in eastern Bulgaria, began in April 2012 and invovled an overall investment of more than Euro160m. Once the current test and commissioning stage has been completed on all the systems, the cement plant will be fully operational in early 2015. The new facility can produce around 4000t/day of clinker and about 1.5Mt/yr of cement.
The completion of the project will allow the group to consolidate its operations in Bulgaria, where it also runs the Vulkan grinding center in Dimitrovgrad, and boost its export capacity thanks to its proximity to the port of Varna West, which gives access to all the countries on the Black Sea and on the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Italcementi Group entered the Bulgarian market in 1998 with the acquisition of Devnya Cement, followed in 1999 by the acquisition of Vulkan Cement. In 2013, the Group reported revenue of Euro59m in Bulgaria.
Skyonic opens commercial-scale carbon capture unit at Capitol Aggregates cement plant 22 October 2014
US: Skyonic has opened its first commercial-scale CO2 capture and utilisation facility, at the Capitol Aggregates cement plant in San Antonio, Texas. The US$125m Capitol SkyMine will have a total CO2 mitigation impact of 300,000t/yr, through the direct capture of 75,000t of CO2 and transformation into sodium bicarbonate, bleach and hydrochloric acid. The unit is expected to generate around US$48m/yr in revenue and US$28m/yr in annual earnings.
"The Capitol SkyMine facility is the first step in our vision to mitigate the effects of industrial pollution and close the carbon cycle," said Joe Jones, founder and CEO of Skyonic. The SkyMine process allows up to 90% of CO2 emissions from flue gas to be captured and transformed into solid products that can then be sold.
Nepal Environment and Scientific Services accredit Sonapur Cements with low alkaline content 22 October 2014
Nepal: Sona Cement has been awarded the 'Proven Low Alkaline Content' accreditation by Nepal Environment and Scientific Services (NESS) NS Accreditation laboratory. According to a statement from Sonapur Cements, the accreditation will make it the first and only Low Alkaline Content Clinker and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) cement producer in Nepal.
Sonapur Cements has a plant in Dang, from which it produces different kinds of high grade and low alkaline content cement under the trademarks of Sona, Sonashree, Sonatech and Sonapur Cement.
Matteo Rozzanigo appointed as new CEO of Italcementi’s FYM 22 October 2014
Spain: Matteo Rozzanigo has been appointed as CEO of FYM, Italcementi's Spanish subsidiary. He is tasked with positioning the company in a cement market that is expected to stabilise and recover slowly after a prolonged crisis period. Rozzanigo replaces Mario Domenico Bracci, who held the post for the past three years and will now assume responsibilities for Ciments Maroc.
Rozzanigo holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy and has been with Italcementi for 11 years. In the past five years, he was employed as Italcementi's director for the Near East, effectively managing the operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Lafarge names director of plant in Toledo 22 October 2014
Spain: Lafarge has appointed Maruxa Suarez as director of its Spanish plant in Villaluenga de la Sagra, Toledo. Suarez, who was previously a production director at the plant, will replace Mariano Garcia Hoyos. Suarez started working for Lafarge in 2004 at the environment unit of the company in Madrid. He later joined the management team as process engineer and production director.
UltraTech Cement appoints Atul Daga as Chief Financial Officer 22 October 2014
India: UltraTech Cement has appointed Atul Daga as Chief Financial Officer of the company in place of KC Birla with effect from 1 December 2014. The decision was made at a board of directors meeting on 18 October 2014. The term of appointment of the managing director OP Puranmalka was extended for a period of one year until 31 March 2016.
Aditya Birla Group bids for LafargeHolcim assets 21 October 2014
India: The Aditya Birla Group has submitted bids to purchase global assets being divested from the LafargeHolcim merger. UltraTech and other companies that belong to Birla have put in bids for cement units of Lafarge and Holcim in Brazil and the Philippines at an enterprise value of US$1.4bn. The group had identified Brazil as a major place for expansion three years ago. The Philippines was among the overseas countries where the group started operations several years ago.
Birla is competing with rival cement companies and private equity funds for the units. Germany's HeidelbergCement has teamed up with Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil while Cemex has joined hands with CRH plc. Eurocement is also in the race. Birla's move is part of its overall plan to increase its cement capacity to 70Mt/yr by early 2016 from 63Mt/yr currently.
Over 50% of Birla's revenues come from its overseas operations. According to a consultant involved with the deal, Birla will be unable to bid for LafargeHolcim assets in some of the market, including India, as a purchase will lead to monopoly in those markets.
Semen Indonesia expands to Aceh Province 21 October 2014
Indonesia: Following its plan to build a cement plant in Papua, Semen Indonesia has said it will soon expand to the west and develop another cement plant in Aceh Province to fulfil increasing local demand.
Semen Indonesia finance director Ahyanizzam said that the company was considering developing a cement plant in Aceh, as well as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan, in addition to its plan to set up a plant in Papua. Each of the plants would have up to 3Mt/yr of cement production capacity. The investment would be around US$352m, which would be sourced from bank loans. He added that Semen Indonesia is currently looking for suitable locations for the plants. "We expect to start working on the Aceh project in 2015," said Ahyanizzam.
Semen Indonesia expects cement demand in the province to rise due to the construction of the Trans Sumatra highway, a 2700km toll road project that stretches from Aceh to Lampung in 24 sections, connecting major cities in Sumatra. Four sections of the toll road began construction in October 2014 and are expected to be completed in 16 months, absorbing US$4bn of investment. The four sections are designed to connect Medan to Binjai in North Sumatra, Pekanbaru to Dumai in Riau, Bakauheni to Bandar Lampung in Lampung and Palembang to Indralaya in South Sumatra.
Ahyanizzam added that the planned cement plants were also projected to help Semen Indonesia cope with rising cement demand from across the country. Demand is expected to grow by 4% in 2014 and by 6% in 2015.
Semen Indonesia produces 31.8Mt/yr of cement and has a 44% share of the country's cement market. The company plans to boost its cement production to 39.3Mt/yr by 2016 and to 40.8Mt/yr by 2017 with the help of its new plants.
New line for Al Sawfa Cement from ThyssenKrupp 21 October 2014
Saudi Arabia: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has received an order from Al Sawfa Cement Company, Saudi Arabia, to build a complete cement production line. The order is worth around Euro100m and commissioning is planned for 2016. The new 5300/day clinker production plant will be constructed parallel to the existing line in Jabal Farasan, approximately 150km north-east of Jeddah. The existing line, also supplied by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, has been in operation since 2009.
The main components are a 1700t/hr crushing facility, 40,000t of additive storage, a blending bed, a 390t/hr raw material grinding plant with ball mill and a POLYSIUS SEPOL separator and a 15,000t blending silo for raw meal.
The Polysius kiln line will consist of a five-stage preheater with PREPOL AS-CC, the POLRO rotary kiln and a POLYTRACK cooler with intermediate crusher. Cement grinding will take place in two ball mills with SEPOL high-efficiency separators. The plant will be rounded off with a 6000t cement silo as well as cement packing and loading facilities.
Lothar Jungemann, CEO of the Cement operating unit of the Process Technologies business unit of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, said, "This follow-up order shows that we are a reliable partner to our customers. With our leading technology and strong service focus, we support cement producers worldwide with their efforts to further expand capacities and increase operating efficiency."
UltraTech’s second quarter 2015 profit grows 20 October 2014
India: UltraTech has reported a higher net profit in the second quarter of fiscal 2015, on a standalone and consolidated basis, off the back of increased sales. Second-quarter standalone net profit grew by 55% to US$66.9m compared to US$43.1m in the second quarter of 2014. Quarterly net sales stood at US$878m, 20% higher than US$735m in the prior year quarter.
"During the quarter, domestic cement sales volumes increased by 11% on the back of higher demand and additional volume from the acquired units in Gujarat," said UltraTech. "Costs were impacted mainly on account of increase in prices of petcoke, input material and royalty on limestone."
For the first half of 2015, the company's net profit was US$169m, up by 11% from US$153m in the corresponding period of 2014. Net sales and other operating income rose by 17% to US$1.81bn from US$1.56bn for the comparable period of 2014. The combined domestic cement and clinker sales were 10.4Mt, up by 12% from 9.22Mt in 2014, while white cement and wall care putty sales volumes amounted to 302,000t, up by 3% compared to 294,000t in the year-ago quarter.