November 2024

Kenya: The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has begun the process of upgrading its Athi River cement plant, a project that is expected to cost approximately US$11.1m. The upgrade will halt the plant's normal operations for six weeks.

According to EAPCC head of production, Joseph Kombo, the upgrade targets the kiln and the packing plant. "In the packing plant, we are upgrading the mechanical and electrical components of the packers as well as improving the bag conveying system, all geared towards improved the loading process and quick turnaround thus ensuring customer satisfaction," said Kombo. "We are installing a bag house to replace the electronic precipitators, retrofitting the raw-mill gear box, replacing three sections of the cement kiln shell and installing a radio link into the raw material handling sections, among others."

EAPCC plans to improve reliability, increase production and improve energy-efficiency. The bag house will reduce emissions from the plant to insignificant levels, complying with international emission standards.

Nigeria: Lafarge's Nigerian business has entered into an agreement with Flour Mills of Nigeria to purchase a 30% stake of Nigeria's United Cement Company. The deal will give Lafarge complete control of United Cement Company.

"Pursuant to the agreement, the first 15% stake would be acquired in the first quarter of 2015, while the second 15% stake is scheduled to be acquired by February 2016 at the latest," said Lafarge.

Mexico: Cemex plans to create an energy division to participate in power generation using natural gas and wind power for self-supply and sale to Mexico's state utility company CFE. Cemex wants a stake in up to seven power generation projects similar to the two it currently relies on, according to CEO Fernando González.

The Monterrey-based company announced in September 2014 that it would seek to increase its power generation capacity, without mentioning specific projects. In April 2014, Cemex completed financing of the US$650m 252MW Ventika wind farm in Nuevo León State, in which it holds a 5% stake. The facility is slated for completion in the second quarter of 2016.
Ventika is expected to supply power to beverage bottler Femsa, steel products firm Deacero, Tecnológico de Monterrey University and Cemex, with more off-takers likely to come onboard in the future. AWS Truepower, a New York-based renewables consulting and engineering services firm, will act as independent engineer to support the construction of Ventika, which will comprise two 126MW parks.

González said that Cemex was exploring project possibilities and searching for partners with the requisite plant management knowledge. "We have already developed energy generation projects in Mexico and in other countries under the self-supply model, because cement production demands a lot of power and there is not enough electricity available," he said.

Italy: Italcementi has reported that in the third quarter of 2014 its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to Euro469m, down from Euro472m in the third quarter of 2013. Revenues fell by 3% year-on-year to Euro3.12bn. Italcementi confirmed that it still expects to report a higher recurring EBITDA for the full year.

UK: In January 2014, the UK Competition Commission (CC) instructed Lafarge Tarmac to sell one of its two cement plants to enable a new company to compete in the industry. In light of the LafargeHolcim merger, Lafarge plans to sell Lafarge Tarmac and all of its assets in the UK, with the exception of the Cauldon cement plant in Staffordshire, to a new market entrant. Following the merger, the newly-formed LafargeHolcim would retain the Cauldon cement plant.

The Cauldon plant would remain under the management of Lafarge Tarmac until the merger. "There is unlikely to be much change for employees," said a Lafarge Tarmac spokesperson. "Until the LafargeHolcim merger is completed, the plant remains part of Lafarge Tarmac and will be managed as such with no change for employees, customers or suppliers." The decision was made by the company's shareholders.

Malaysia: Tasek Corp reported a 7.1% drop in earnings to US$6.4m in the third quarter of 2014 amid stiff competition. Earnings declined despite a 3.3% rise in revenue to US$44.4m during the three month period. Tasek said that it suffered lower margins from the cement segment due to intense price competition on the market. For the nine months to the end of September 2014, earning were 16.3% higher at US$23.2m, with revenue climbing by 14.5% to US$144m. Tasek said that the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2014 was expected to remain positive.

Nigeria: Bua Group International has invested US$500m in a 3Mt/yr capacity greenfield cement plant in Okpella, Edo State. The Obu Cement Plant will take Bua's cement capacity to 5.3Mt/yr when it is commissioned in February 2015.

Bua Group already operates a 0.5Mt/yr capacity cement plant in Sokoto State via its subsidiary, Sokoto Cement. The plant currently operates at 100% capacity. Bua Group is also constructing a new 1.5Mt/yr capacity in the same state. In Edo State, Bua Group currently owns the 0.3Mt/yr capacity Edo Cement Plant.

The Obu plant is planned for conclusion and commissioning within the first quarter of 2015, and is predicted to hire over 1000 direct labour and thousands of indirect labour, according to Yusuf Binji, executive director, project and technical, Bua Group, Okpella, Edo State.

Germany: Haver & Boecker has recently launched its new Roto-Packer Adams Mini packing system, the new G600 palletiser series and the Feige PalletFill Type 16.

The Roto-Packer, based on Adams technology, fills powder-type bulk materials into compact polyethylene bags at speeds of up to 600bags/hr and over a steplessly adjustable weight range of 1 – 10kg. Haver Innovation Management are working to increase the packing speed to 1200bags/hr.

The new G600 palletiser series from Newtec Bag Palletizing, a Haver & Boecker subsidiary, has also been launched. To increase capacity, the G600 series palletisers work using two lifts to convey the bags. Control of the palletisers is done via a human-machine-interface, which allows the user to operate the machine. The operator can perform a product changeover or switch to a maintenance mode with only a few adjustments. A VPN connection for remote maintenance ensures ongoing support by specialists of Newtec Bag Palletizing and allows a reduction in maintenance time.

'Plug & Fill' and 'ATEX compliance' are the key functions of the Feige PalletFill Type 16, a swivel-type pallet filling station. Feige, a Haver and Boecker company launched the product. The pallet-filling station is used for the automatic and calibrated filling of drums and pails on pallets. The mobile design allows filling directly at the tank without first having to pump the product from the tank system to a fixed filling system. 255 dosing-parameter settings for a variety of products can be entered. The control and operating systems are placed directly at the filling station.

South Africa: The board of PCC has accused former CEO Ketso Gordhan of defamation and published the circumstances behind his resignation, according to local media.

Initially the board of PPC stated that Gordhan had resigned due to 'a difference of opinion' regarding board procedures. However, Gordhan later said that he had lost confidence in the board for not dismissing an executive who was 'undermining company strategy.' PPC had only two executives at the time, Gordhan and CFO Tryphosa Ramano.

PPC said the reasons Gordhan had given for wanting to fire CFO Ramano included that she 'had a bigger office than him' and had requested a reserved parking spot. Ramano had also refused to participate in a voluntary salary sacrifice scheme aimed at raising the wages of lower-level workers and was 'interrogating a loan agreement' which Gordhan had verbally agreed to with a potential funder. The board said that Ramano had ill-treated an employee whom Gordhan had employed.

The board was of the view that the reasons advanced by Gordhan were not substantive and did not warrant the termination of the CFO. Additionally, PPC said that Gordhan had resigned twice in his 20-month stint as CEO.

According to Gordhan PPC's statement is, "Making a complete mockery of the substantial reasons I presented to the board and shows the board's inability to actually deal with the relevant matters impacting the business and shareholder value."

Italy: Officers from Italy's market regulator Consob and the tax police visited the headquarters of Italcementi on 5 November 2014 as part of an investigation into alleged insider trading, sources close to the matter said, according to Reuters.

According to local media, the inspections, which were also carried out at the offices of Italcementi's main shareholder Italmobiliare, concerned a series of measures taken by the Italcementi group in March 2013 in a bid it made for its French unit Ciments Francais.

A spokesman for Italcementi said that the group hoped that the Consob inspections would not reveal deliberate intention to do wrong. "In the opposite case, the group's management will take firm initiatives to safeguard the interests of the company, which would be the injured party."