September 2024
Construction to start at 4Mt/yr cement plant in Banten 11 September 2013
Indonesia: PT Cemindo Gemilang is due to start building a US$450m cement plant in Banten province following a groundbreaking ceremony on 11 September 2013. The 4Mt/yr plant will be situated on a 500 hectare plot in Bayah, Lebak regency. It is due to start commercial operations in the third quarter of 2015.
The subsidiary of oil palm plantation, mining and property business Ganda Group intends to spend a further US$150m on developing related infrastructure for the plant including a port and a power network. Cemindo will finance the project with external and internal funds. The majority of the funding, representing 70% of total investment, will be obtained from a syndicated loan led by the state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia.
Cemindo sells cement under the Semen Merah Putih brand in 20 provinces in Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra. In 2012 it acquired a majority stake in Vietnamese cement producer Chinfon Cement Corporation for US$250m.
Indian police charge three cement producers with corruption 11 September 2013
India: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed separate chargesheets against Penna Cement, Raghuram Cements and India Cements for favours they allegedly received from the Andhra Pradesh state government in 2008 and 2009. According to newspaper The Hindu, YS Jaganmohan Reddy has been accused of influencing his father, deceased chief minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Rajasekhara Reddy, to grant government benefits to firms that invested in his own companies.
The CBI allege that Penna Group had invested US$7m in Jagati Publications and US$3.5m in Carmel Asia, both belonging to YSJ Reddy. In return, Penna Cements was allocated mining leases in Anantapur and Kurnool districts and the transfer of limestone mines originally allotted to Walchand Cements. Similar deals with Raghuram Cements (now Bharati Cements) and India Cements are noted in the CBI's charges.
ASEC Cement starts cement production at 2Mt/yr Minya plant 11 September 2013
Egypt: ASEC Minya, formally Arab National Cement Company, has begun cement production at its 2Mt/yr cement plant in Minya, Egypt. The ASEC Cement subsidiary has been producing clinker at the site since May 2013.
"We are extremely proud to have been able to see this project through to completion despite the challenging operational environment," said ASEC Cement CEO Giorgio Bodo. "The launch of cement production, which marks the official completion of this project, is a clear reflection of our confidence in the Egyptian economy and our belief in the country's ability to recover from the current volatility."
Bodo cited security issues, fuel scarcity and general 'instability' as causing major setbacks that the cement producer had to overcome. Construction of the plant originally began in December 2010 but work was interrupted by the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011.
ASEC Minya will be connected to the Egyptian national electric grid via a 42km transmission line to be completed by the end of 2014. Until then the plant will use rented generators. The new cement plant has created 400 direct and 800 indirect jobs.
Roanoke Cement certified as Exemplary Environmental Enterprise 11 September 2013
US: Roanoke Cement Company has been accepted as an Exemplary Environmental Enterprise within the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP). VEEP was established to encourage superior environmental performance by encouraging organisations within the state of Virginia, that have strong, established environmental records, to surpass their own performance levels.
Mika Cement to re-start production in September 2013 11 September 2013
Armenia: The Mika Cement plant, which has been idle since September 2012, is due to start up production on 10 September 2013 according to the plant's director Naira Martirosyan.
In an interview with Armenian news agency Arminfo, Martirosyan revealed that rises in power costs on 7 July 2013 may lead to increased cement prices. As a result of energy price rise, overall production costs have risen by 20 – 25%.
Originally built in 1970, the cement plant was privatised in 2001. Holding two production lines the plant has a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr. The plant employs 450 workers when operational.
DG Khan Cement profit rises by 35% to US$52.5m 11 September 2013
Pakistan: DG Khan Cement has reported that its profit after taxation rose by 35% year-in-year to US$52.5m for the 2012 – 2013 financial year that ended on 30 June 2013. In the same period in the 2011 – 2012 year it reported a profit of US$39.2m. No reason for the increase in profit was given in the notice sent to the Karachi Stock Exchange. The cement producer also saw its sales rise by 9% to US$238m from US$219m.
In its release DG Khan revealed that its board has approved plans to build a green-field 2.6Mt/yr cement plant on land the company owns at Hub, Lasbela District. Meanwhile, plans to build a cement plant in Mozambique have been dropped due to a lack of supporting infrastructure.
Tabuk Cement posts US$28.5m net profit in first half of 2013 10 September 2013
Saudi Arabia: Tabuk Cement Company has reported a net profit of US$28.5m for the first half of 2013, a slight rise from US$28.2m in the same period in 2012. Tabuk Cement attributed the rise to rationalisation of expenses. The cement producer's operating profit fell by 3% year-on-year to US$28.1m from US$29.0m.
Australia Cement broke competition law with fly ash contract 10 September 2013
Australia: Australia Cement has been found in breach of Australian competition for a fly ash contract that lessened competition. As reported by The Australian newspaper, Justice Andrew Greenwood of the Federal Court in Brisbane made the verdict in a case against the cement producer by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The ACCC had alleged that Cement Australia had breached the abuse of market power provision though a fly ash contract with Millmerran Power Partners. While finding no breach of section 46 of the Act, Justice Greenwood said Cement Australia had breached section 45 through a contract to buy the fly ash from the power station.
Only interim declarations were publicly released to give the parties the chance to go through the about 500-page judgment in case of any confidentiality issues. Justice Greenwood reserved his decision on costs and no decision was made on any penalties.
Dangote planning US$400m cement plant in Kenya 09 September 2013
Kenya: Dangote Cement has released plans to build a US$400m cement plant in Kenya, according to the president's office of Kenya. Dangote's CEO Alhaji Aliko Dangote was part of a three-day state visit by Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to the east African country to build bilateral trade agreements. No further information on timescales or production capacity was released.
ASEC Cement wins Muthanna contract 09 September 2013
Iraq: ASEC Cement and Iraq's Qemmet El-Iraq have won a 14-year contract to renovate and manage the Muthanna Cement Plant in Muthanna Province, Iraq.
Abulla Hussein of Qemmet El-Iraq and ASEC Cement Chairman and CEO Giorgio Bodo attended a signing ceremony in Baghdad with Southern Cement, the state holding company that controls Muthanna Cement, on 28 August 2013. The value of the contract was not released.
"Iraq has embarked on a robust plan to rebuild and modernise its infrastructure and has launched major housing, industrial, and community projects. The rehabilitation of Muthanna is an important part of Iraq's investment in bridging the supply gap, particularly in the south," said Bodo.
Muthanna Cement is located in southern Iraq, between Najaf and Basra. Built in the 1980s, the plant has a total clinker production capacity of 1.92Mt/yr and 2Mt/yr of cement. Due to economic sanctions placed on Iraq in the 1990s, the company's current production capacity is around 20%. Work on the plant will start in the second quarter of 2014 with a plan to reach the plant's original cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr in August 2016.