September 2024
India: Fosroc Chemicals has set up a new US$1m plant in Uluberia, Howrah district in West Bengal. The plant is intended initially to manufacture 20,000t/yr of cement and concrete additives.
"The plant, constructed on 5261m2 of privately owned land on lease, will initially produce cement and concrete reinforcing liquid chemicals. Within a year, we will add powder chemicals manufacturing with another US$1m investment," said R Sai Krishnan, Vice-President, Fosroc Chemicals (India).
The Fosroc Indian arm of the international construction chemicals company wants to increase its turnover to US$67m in 2014. Cement, concrete and grouting chemicals are its main sales drivers in the country. In India it has a 15% market share in construction and industrial chemicals. Around 70% of its turnover comes from business projects solutions and the rest from retail.
Chile/US: Cemento Melón has hired River Logic to implement its Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solution, a business analytics platform. The IBP solution is intended to aid the Chilean cement producer to dynamically integrate finance with the sales and operations planning process, optimising demand, supply, production, distribution and investment capital decisions. The implementation will be led by River Logic Chile, a partner company to US-firm River Logic.
"We are convinced that the IBP solution will enable us to accurately model the business, including the financial and operational complexities and through the application of prescriptive analytics will provide us with the superior decision-making ability required in modern management," said Antonio Lira, Strategy Lead at Cemento Melón. "
"Given the complexity of the cement market, low return on assets and strong price competition, we believe IBP's unique ability to supporting tactical and strategic planning processes will be a fundamental contributor to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage for Melon" said Raimundo Veloso, partner at River Logic Chile.
Uzbekistan: Eurocement plans to build a new 2.4Mt/yr cement plant in Uzbekistan worth US$128m. Commissioning is expected in 2016. The company has signed a contract with China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd for the supply of equipment, design, installation supervision and training for construction of the cement plant in the Tashkent Region.
Nigeria: The controversy among cement manufacturers and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) over the application of various cement grades for building and construction may have waned as block makers in the northern part of Nigeria have started to comply with the SON directive on the classification of cement grades and their uses.
Northern Nigerian block-makers have announced that they have complied with the SON directive as most of them now use 42.5R grade cement to produce concrete blocks. Hamza Gambo, chairman of Kaduna State Blocks and Concrete Makers Association, said that all of his members have complied with the SON directive, adding that the directive was in the national interest. He stated that most block-makers in the north now use Dangote 3X cement, which is the only 42.5R grade cement that meets the SON specification.
"We've been using the new improved cement for the past two months," said Gambo, who owns concrete block plants across Nigeria. He added that the Kaduna State Blocks and Concrete Makers Association would deal with members who refuse to comply with the SON cement grade standards according to the association's constitution.
Cameroon: Dangote Cement has announced that its US$150m cement plant in Douala, Cameroon will commence production in August 2014. The company management said that the 1.5Mt/yr capacity plant was almost ready and would commence initial production at 1Mt/yr before production is stepped up to maximum capacity.
Dangote's general manager, Abdulahi Baba, said that the cement plant would revolutionalise the cement industry in Cameroon and help to stimulate the economy. According to Baba, the plant is ready for test running and what remains to be completed is the construction of access roads to the plant.
The Cameroon plant is also set to import clinker from other regions. Baba disclosed plans to build a jetty by the plant, which would make raw material imports and product distribution more convenient. The jetty will be situated close to the Douala Sea Port.
Canada: Lafarge is moving ahead with an attempt to use plastic waste instead of coal at its Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. Scarth MacDonnell, Brookfield's plant manager, appeared before Colchester County council to inform them of the plant's intent to use plastic waste as a low-carbon fuel.
"We think we have found a solution to the very real problem of plastics that build up in landfills," said MacDonnell. "We hope to get 30% substitution of coal." MacDonnell added that the emissions are safe and meet or exceed provincial and federal government standards.
The plant will submit an application to Nova Scotia's Department of Environment for an industrial trial replacing coal with shredded plastics. It will also host an open house on 17 July 2014 for people who want to learn more about and talk about the idea.
MacDonnell said that a study by the province's Department of Natural Resources indicates that there is 79,000t/yr of plastic going into landfills in Nova Scotia and that a study by Dalhousie University states that using plastics reduces carbon dioxide emissions up to 34% and other greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by as much as 98%.
Pakistan: The inauguration of the Dasu dam has reinforced optimism in the local cement industry, which has been banking on the continuous increase in local demand owing to mega construction projects.
The Dasu dam, one of the mega dam projects, is expected to increase cement demand in Pakistan by 1Mt/yr for the next five years. The 4320MW dam will be completed in two phases at an estimated cost of US$4.8bn. Since the Dasu dam is located in the north, the cement for the project will most likely be procured from nearby cement plants. Cement companies like Maple Leaf, Fecto, Bestway, Cherat, DG Khan, Fauji are the most likely to benefit from the dam construction.
Analysts say the construction of big dams like Dasu and Basha will supplement the already improving cement demand in Pakistan. "Dasu dam will add an additional 1Mt/yr of cement demand, which will be significant for the local industries," said BMA Capital analyst Sajjad Hussain. "It will increase the already escalating cement demand in the country."
"The launch of the Dasu dam is important for the cement industry in northern region of the country," said Standard Capital Securities analyst Saad Hashmi. "Other major infrastructure projects that are expected to start soon will further increase cement demand and it may jump 5% in fiscal year 2015."
Turkey: The Competition Authority of Turkey has launched a probe into six cement companies that operate in the Aegean Region. The authority will investigate AS Çimento, Batiçim Bati Anadolu Çimento, Batisöke Söke Çimento, Çimentas Izmir Çimento, Denizli Çimento and Göltaş Göller Bölgesi Çimento to see if the companies have engaged in activities that breach competition law.
US: Martin Marietta Materials' US$2.7bn purchase of Texas Industries has been approved by the US Justice Department under a settlement that requires asset sales. Martin Marietta will sell rail yards in Texas and a quarry in Oklahoma to maintain competition in the market for gravel, sand and crushed stone.
"Without the divestiture obtained by the antitrust division, customers would have likely faced higher prices as a result of this acquisition," said Bill Baer of the US Justice Department.
New PT Cemindo Gemilang cement plant in Lebak 27 June 2014
Indonesia: A new cement plant being built in the Regency of Lebak, Banten Province, is expected to come on stream in 2015. Construction of the plant is already 60% completed. The cement plant, which is owned by PT Cemindo Gemilang, is being built over a 5km2 plot of land and will have a production capacity of 4Mt/yr of cement when it starts operation in 2015. The Regency of Lebak is included in the Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development, an initiative of the Indonesian government.