September 2024
HeidelbergCement commissions 1Mt/yr mill in Ghana 04 December 2012
Ghana: HeidelbergCement has commissioned a new cement mill with a capacity of 1Mt/yr at its Tema cement grinding plant in Ghana. The project has cost Euro16m.
"The commissioning of the new cement mill is part of our strategy of focusing on expanding our clinker and cement capacities in attractive growth markets. In addition to Asia and Eastern Europe, these include, in particular, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. Schiefele added that HeidelbergCement announced in September 2012 the construction of a new clinker plant and a new cement grinding installation in the neighbouring country of Togo.
HeidelbergCement's subsidiary, Ghacem Ltd, operates two cement grinding plants in the coastal cities of Tema and Takoradi. With the commissioning of the new mill, the company has increased its cement grinding capacity to 3.7Mt.
Eurocement to invest US$388m in Sverdlovsk plant 03 December 2012
Russia: Eurocement Group plans to invest around US$388m towards building a 1.3Mt/yr plant in the Sverdlovsk Region, according to the region's government. The project at the Nevyansky Tsementnik plant is expected to be finished by 2015. It will create around 1000 jobs for the construction and around 400 jobs for the operation of the line. Eurocement will invest its own and borrowed funds into the construction.
Gebr. Pfeiffer to supply VRM to Iraq 30 November 2012
Iraq: Sinoma (Suzhou) Construction Co has placed an order for an MPS 5000 B vertical roller mill for raw material grinding from Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer. The grinding plant will be set in GRD Cement Plant Company Tainall's 5000t/day cement plant located near the town of Sulaimaniah in northern Iraq. The MPS vertical roller mill on order is designed for a capacity of 450t/hour at a product fineness of 12 % R 90µm.
CNBM to build US$600m plant in Tajikistan 29 November 2012
Tajikistan: The Tajikistan government has announced that the Tajikistan Aluminum Company (TALCO) will build a 3Mt/yr cement plant costing over US$600m in a joint venture with China National Building Material Company (CNBM). The new plant will be built in Khatlon province in the south of the country. The plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2013 and the project will create 5000 new jobs.
Where to build an African cement plant 28 November 2012
The outgoing chief executive of PPC (Portland Pretoria Cement) officer, Paul Stuiver, summed up the dilemma facing cement producers on the east coast of Africa. Building near the coast leaves you vulnerable to imports.
In a recent interview with the South African business weekly, 'Financial Mail', Stuiver said that imports are not a threat to African expansion, provided that a facility is not built within 200km of a port. Exactly the same issue was raised by Yves De Moor in his column in the November 2012 issue of Global Cement Magazine.
Countries along Africa's east coast receive imports, but Stuiver said that Africa's high logistics costs mean the prices increase steeply as the cement is transported inland. He commented that the markets in Mozambique and KwaZulu Natal in South Africa were especially vulnerable and that most imports to South Africa come through Durban. Unsurprisingly both of PPC's big recent investments have been in landlocked countries, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia respectively. In July 2012 it also tried to invest in CINAT, the Democratic Republic of Congo's state-owned cement producer.
The import issue to South Africa reignited last week when the South African National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) confirmed that it had confiscated 'sub-standard' cement imported from Vietnam. As we covered in August 2012 in this column this follows a row in July 2012 about whether cement from Pakistan's Lucky Cement was complying with South African standards.
Although standards still lead the argument, more honesty has emerged with the use of the word 'dumping' in the complaints. Stuiver explained that "...the price of cement from Pakistan, India and Vietnam is low because electricity, fuel and transport rates are subsidised." Whilst PPC can report that its revenue has risen by 9% to US$837m for the first nine months of 2012, complaints against foreign imports seem overly protective. In 2009 PPC confirmed the existence of a cartel in the country. PPC has even gone to the Advertising Standards Authority to stop imports with elephants on their bags!
With reports that Nigerian producer Dangote is building a new US$389m plant in South Africa, thoughts turn to what will happen once South Africa becomes 'self-sufficient' in cement, like Nigeria which has proudly announced this recently. Giant infrastructure projects are one way to use all that excess cement and this is what Lafarge WAPCO has been asking the Nigerian government to do recently, in a road building drive. Better transport links in South Africa would wreck Stuiver's maxim about not building near a port.
Two solutions from this week's news might appeal to the industry on the south and east coasts of Africa. The first is to use inventive export barriers just like the Bureau of Indian Standards have imposed to slow down exports from Pakistan. The second is to persuade importers to do what a North Korean ship reportedly did with its consignment of cement this week off the coast of Somalia: dump it in the sea.
Lafarge UK/Tarmac joint venture appoints key staff 28 November 2012
UK: Lafarge and Anglo American have appointed the chairman, chief executive office (CEO) and CFO of their joint-venture in the UK. Jamie Pike is appointed as non-executive Chairman, Cyrille Ragoucy as CEO and Guy Young as CFO of the joint-venture. The appointments are subject to the completion of the joint-venture and final clearance from the UK Competition Commission. It is anticipated that the joint-venture will commence operations in early 2013.
Jamie Pike, aged 57, is the non-executive chairman of Lupus Capital, a leading international supplier of building products to the door and window industry, RPC Group, a leading international supplier of rigid plastic packaging and MBA Polymers, a private US plastics recycling business. He was chief executive of Foseco, an international business serving the foundry and steel-making industries, until its acquisition by Cookson Group in April 2008. He led the buy-out of Foseco from Burmah Castrol in 2001, which culminated in flotation on the main market in 2005.
His early career was as a consultant with Bain and Co and A T Kearney before joining Burmah Castrol in 1991. He rose to chief executive of Burmah Castrol Chemicals before leading the Foseco buy-out. Pike was educated at the University of Oxford, holds an MBA from INSEAD and is a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Cyrille Ragoucy, aged 56, is currently senior vice president for Health and Safety at Lafarge. From 2005 to 2009 he was CEO and regional president for Lafarge's cement operations in China (Lafarge Shui On Cement) where he was responsible for 25 plants and 10,000 people. Between 1999 and 2005 he was regional president for Aggregates, Concrete, Asphalt and Paving for Lafarge in Eastern Canada. Ragoucy joined the Lafarge group in 1998 as vice president Cement Strategy for Lafarge North America.
Guy Young, aged 43, has been CFO of Tarmac since 2010 with responsibility for Tarmac's financial, IT and legal operations as well as the pre-integration planning for the joint venture. Guy has been with Anglo American for 15 years in a variety of roles, including CFO of Scaw Metals, Group Procurement and within the CEO's Office. Guy was educated at the University of Cape Town and qualified as a chartered accountant after doing articles at Deloitte.
India slows Pakistan exports with US$10,000 guarantee 28 November 2012
India: India has made all cement exports subject to a US$10,000 Performance Bank Guarantee. A letter issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to all foreign cement manufacturers explained that cement exporters will have to submit this guarantee in order to be qualified to export cement to the country.
Pakistan cement producers view this as another non-tariff barrier imposed by the BIS to restrict cement exports from Pakistan despite the country being designated 'most favoured nation' status by India effective from 1 January 2013.
According to an industry official quoted by the Pakistani Observer, India has previously used non-tariff barriers to slow Pakistan exports. In 2007 the BIS issued licenses to Pakistani cement manufacturers after physical verification of their production process but these expired leading to slowdowns in cement exports.
Extension of Russian contract for FLSmidth 28 November 2012
Russia: The Danish cement plant manufacturer FLSmidth has won a contract worth approximately Euro27m from the Russian company Kaluga Cement Plant LLC to supply additional equipment for its cement plant currently under construction in the Kaluga province, 300km southwest of Moscow. The contract is an extension of the contract that FLSmidth won in 2011 from Kaluga for the supply of a complete cement plant.
"The award of this order to FLSmidth underlines the strength of our good relations with the customer and the value of our long-standing local presence in Russia," said Group CEO Jørgen Huno Rasmussen. "The order is also a good example of the general signs of a positive development in the cement market."
North Korean ship accused by Somalia of dumping cement 28 November 2012
Somalia: Authorities from the autonomous Somali state of Puntland have impounded a North Korean ship for allegedly dumping cement off the country's coast.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea flagged vessel MV Daesan was captured near to Bossaso whilst it was unloading 5000t of cement. The MV Daesan had originally been heading to Mogadishu but its cargo was rejected due to water leakage.
According to NK News and Radio Gaalkacyo the Somali authorities condemned the dumping as 'illegal' and 'environmentally destructive.' The Somali authorities are reportedly planning to bring the crew before a court.
Nesher Cement CEO Joel Feldschuh to leave at end of 2013 28 November 2012
Israel: Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises CEO Joel Feldschuh has announced to shareholders that he will leave the company on 31 December 2013. Feldschuh has spent nine years in post at Nesher.
"Over the past nine years Nesher met all the economy's needs for high-quality products at competitive and fair prices and most of all, at a high level of service," said Feldschuh.