September 2024
Mexico: Holcim will start a programme to use biomass as fuel in August 2014 at its Orizaba cement plant. Its subsidiary Ecoltec has installed a system to utilise biomass, using residual heat from the cement furnaces. The company will use coffee bagasse and biomass from the paper and beer industries, according to spokesman Gustavo Gastelum. Apart from limiting fossil fuel consumption, the project will also reduce methane gas emissions from organic waste. Since 1990 Holcim Mexico has cut its net carbon dioxide emissions by 19%.
Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board orders Jaypee Cement to halt over-production 11 June 2014
India: The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB) has ordered Jaypee Cement to halt its over-production immediately, according to local media. In order to ensure that the directive is followed the board has asked the electricity provider to limit the power supply that is provided to the cement plant.
Kaspi cement plant nears launch 11 June 2014
Kazakhstan: HeidelbergCement will soon launch a new 800,000t/yr cement plant in Mangystau Province following a US$273m investment. The plant will use dry chalk as a raw material. So far more than 70,000t of cement has been produced in test mode.
"Our company is included in the programme of forced industrial innovative development," said Evgeny Kholodnyakov, chief technologist of Kaspi cement plant. The plant will supply cement to the local and export markets.
US: Holcim US plans to invest US$100m to modernise its Ada cement plant in Oklahoma State, according to Robin DeCarlo, vice president of Holcim's corporate communications. The company submitted an application for a permit to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in June 2014 and expects to begin upgrading the plant between October and December 2014.
"We can't start without a permit from DEQ," DeCarlo said. She didn't release specific details about the modernisation but indicated that it would include upgrading the kiln line. DeCarlo noted that the modernisation of the kiln line will meet 'all known environmental regulations and reduce all major regulated emissions,' even with the increased plant capacity.
"We are expecting that there will be approximately 250 temporary jobs during the modernisation phase, which will have a direct and positive impact on the Ada economy," said DeCarlo. "The modernisation will increase our plant's capacity by about 20%." Holcim's plant in Ada currently employs about 120 people.
Government loan of US$67m would help Industria Nacional del Cemento to reactivate contracts 11 June 2014
Paraguay: The Paraguayan Congress is set to approve a US$67m loan to state-owned cement producer Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) to resume investment in its Villeta and Vallemi cement plants. The funding will allow INC to continue its US$25.7m contract with FLSmidth to convert its fuel from fuel oil to coke as well as its US$6.3m contract with Claudius Peters, according to Esmerk news service. Other contracts are with Haver & Boecker, for US$7m to install two bagging facilities, and with Daca to optimise an agricultural lime plant, which is suspended due to legal issues, for US$5.9m. Overall, the investments that will be made with the loan will save INC US$30m/yr.
Kazakhstan: Karaganda Cement has started the operation of its No. 5 cement production line, the administration of the Karaganda Region has announced. The project cost US$67m and it has created 115 jobs. The cement plant will reach its design cement production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr in 2015. Karaganda Cement is owned by Steppe Cement Holding, a subsidiary of Central Asian Cement.
Polish cement sales to grow to 15.5Mt in 2014 11 June 2014
Poland: Gorazdze Cement has forecast that sales of cement in the country will grow by up to 7% year-on-year in 2014 to 15.5Mt up from 14.5Mt in 2013. Similar sales growth is expected in 2015, provided more projects co-financed by the European Union are started. The Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR) expect sales to reach 15.2Mt in 2014 and then 16.4Mt in 2015. The research institute attributes the sales growth in 2014 to an improving situation in the rail, energy, residential and road construction sectors.
India: UltraTech Cement Ltd is in talks to buy cement assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. The two companies are in discussions about projects, including Jaiprakash's Rewa cement plant in central India, which has a 7Mt/yr cement production capacity.
Selling additional assets would help Jaiprakash to reduce its debt, which jumped more than four-fold in the five years through March 2014 to US$10.3bn. In 2013 UltraTech agreed to buy a Jaiprakash cement unit based in Gujarat State.
Jaiprakash is also looking for buyers for cement assets in Himachal Pradesh State, where it owns two plants with a combined production capacity of 3.5Mt/yr. Jaiprakash sold its 74% stake in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Ltd, a joint venture with the Steel Authority of India Ltd, to Dalmia Bharat Ltd for US$194m in March 2014.
After its recent divestments, Jaiprakash has a cement production capacity of 26.4Mt/yr, according to a company presentation in May 2014. The company plans to sell assets valued at about US$1.35bn by March 2015.
Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) is set to construct a US$9.13m power plant that is expected to reduce its annual power bill by about US$5.70m. The 4MW power plant will run on waste gases generated by the company's Athi River cement plant via waste heat recovery (WHR) system. Construction is scheduled to start in September 2014 and is expected to take one year.
"The new power plant will have a huge impact on our operational costs because its output will translate to about 40% of our current total energy requirements," said EAPCC's managing director Kephar Tande.
Around 20 - 25% of the project costs will be funded from internal savings with the rest of the funds coming from commercial loans. EAPCC also hopes to permanently address the problem of frequent power outages, which have posed major problems at its clinker plant. EAPCC currently consumes about 13MW of power supplied from the national grid to run its main installations, including a 1700t/day capacity kiln.
Tande said that the new power plant would help to stabilise the company's operations as it eyes expansion of its overall cement production capacity to 2Mt/yr by 2017 from the present 1.3Mt/yr. EAPCC plans to begin procurement for a new clinker plant near Bisil, Kajiado Country, Kenya in September 2014 at an estimated cost of US$171m. "We hope to conclude the feasibility study on the new clinker plant in Bisil by end of July 2014 and move to the next stage," said Tande.
Also on the cards is the construction of a second cement plant in the Nooleleshuani area of Kajiado County by 2016. The proposed plant site is next to the limestone-rich Maasai Plains, which are the major source of raw material for the five cement companies based in Athi River.
Kenya's power shortage has held back industrial expansion for decades despite the availability of huge energy reserves such as wind, coal and geothermal. The energy sector, though critical in uplifting the country's development, has registered slow growth due to the high initial capital requirements and inability to mobilise adequate financial resources to undertake large-scale investment.
Nigeria: The management of Lafarge Nigeria has urged stakeholders in the cement sector to cooperate on the need for proper product labelling by manufacturers.
The company's general manager (Industrial Performance), Lanre Opakunle, said that the step was necessary to address the issue of incorrect cement application in the Nigeria. Opakunle said that there is a need to review how cement products are labelled in order to educate end users on the basic steps necessary for the correct application and results.
"We discovered that labelling is not adequate and we made some proposals," said Opakunle. "However, those proposals have not been taken on board. We will keep making efforts to see that they are." Opakunle added that correct labelling would help to ensure that people have the right information at their disposal.
"Lafarge is the only cement manufacturer in the market that puts the uses and specifications of cement on their bags," said Opakunle. "In our technical submission to SON we said that we want to do more than that; we want to put it in a way that the layman can understand." He noted that issues of cement application should not dwell on the cement grades; rather it should be about knowing the right mix.
"The most widely used individual application of cement in the world is 32.5 grade," said Opakunle. "It is important that the user understands how to use whatever grade of cement that is available on the shelf because of certain risks which may maybe associated with these grades, whether it is 32.5 or 42.5 grade. The information should be properly labelled on the bags."