September 2024
Ethiopia/India: Sinoma International Engineering and its subsidiaries have signed contracts to upgrade cement plants for Ethiopia-based Derba MIDROC Cement and India-based Ambuja Cement.
Sinoma International Engineering has signed a contract worth US$290m with Derba MIDROC Cement to build a 5000t/day clinker production line at the cement producer’s plant at Deba in Oromia. The project includes supplying a full line from raw material crushing to cement packaging. Once payment conditions are confirmed the project should take around 30 months.
Ambuja Cement has signed a contract with Sinoma subsidiary Tianjin Cement Industry Design and Research Institute (Sinoma TCDRI) to supply upgrades to its integrated Bhatapara plant in Chhattisgarh and its Farakka and Sankrail grinding plants in West Bengal. The clinker plant’s production capacity will be expanded to 4Mt/yr and both grinding plants will be increased to 2Mt/yr respectively. The value of the contract is around US$285m. Schedules for the proposed work will be agreed subject to further negotiation.
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa's Roadcem product has been approved by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. The product is a cement additive that is used for soil stabilisation in road construction projects. It was developed to improve the characteristics of soils before they are used for the base, sub-base or sub-grade construction in roads.
Osita Ezedozie, the Director of Highways (Materials, Geotechnics & Quality Control), of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, said “Following the improved performance observed from the tests, pilot study and evaluation of Roadcem over ordinary Portland cement in soil stabilisation, approval has been granted for the introduction and use of Roadcem for stabilisation of soil in highway pavement sub-base course construction. At 5% Roadcem content, the stabilised sharp sand complies with all the specification requirements for a sub-base course and also achieves higher stability at a lower cost than stabilisation with ordinary Portland cement.”
Spain: Cementos Tudela Veguín plans to spend more than Euro62.5m on sustainability-enhancing upgrades to its three cement plants in Asturias and one in León. The plans consist of upgrades to fuelling systems that will enable the plants to use biofuels and hydrogen, as well as efficiency upgrades. The La Nueva España newspaper has reported that the producer is seeking to secure European Union (EU) funding for the project. The region of Asturias is eligible for Euro263m-worth of regional decarbonisation funding under the EU's Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation.
A planned second phase of upgrades will consist of the installation of carbon capture systems at the plants. They emitted 1.67Mt CO2 in 2022. 1.12Mt (67%) arose from the decarbonisation of limestone and 0.55Mt (33%) came from the combustion of fuel.
India: Shiva Cement says that a proposed 1Mt/yr grinding unit as part of its new Sundergarh plant is on hold while it evaluates the site location. The cement producer confirmed that the 1.36Mt/yr clinker unit at the site in Odisha has been commissioned as well as a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit. It added that it has already obtained clearance to operate (CTO) from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) for 0.66Mt/yr of clinker production and 9MW WHR at the site. It is currently awaiting clearance for the remaining clinker production capacity. Work on alternative fuel systems, a 12km rail siding and a 10km overland belt conveyor at the site are reportedly progressing on schedule.
Thailand: US-based Rondo Energy and Siam Cement Group (SCG) plan to expand the production capacity of a heat battery storage unit at a SCG plant to 90GWh/yr. Once complete the site will reportedly have a production capacity larger than any current heat battery-supported manufacturing facility worldwide and will save up to 12Mt/yr of CO2. The SCG site already has a capacity of 2.4GWh/yr.
SCG’s executive vice president Thammasak Sethaudom said “Rondo offers an innovative solution to reduce the carbon emissions from industrial process heat used in factories worldwide. SCG can use Rondo’s technology to lower our own carbon emissions and SCG Cleanergy can partner with Rondo to help our customers cut emissions.” He added “We also realised that we can leverage our 70 years of technical expertise in the refractory business and supply chain.”
Rondo heat batteries consist of refractory bricks capable of storing renewable energy as heat. The heat energy can then be returned to an industrial process as hot air or steam. SCG invested in Rondo Energy in 2022.
This story was amended on 4 July 2023, after a previous version erroneously stated the location of the plant as Ukraine. Global Cement apologises for this error.
India: ICRA says that all-Indian cement production capacity will rise by 6% year-on-year to 610Mt/yr during the 2024 financial year. The ratings agency forecasts that the Indian cement industry will invest US$14.6bn over the four years up to the end of the 2027 financial year to expand its capacity by 26% to 725Mt/yr. The Financial Express newspaper has reported that costs of cement production fell in the second half of the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023. The trend is expected to continue throughout the 2024 financial year. Meanwhile, ICRA has forecast domestic demand growth of 7 - 8% year-on-year in the 2024 financial year.
US: Cemex USA has commissioned a new 225t cement unloader for handling dry bulk materials from ships at the Port of Palm Beach in Florida. The port says that the producer invested US$7m in the equipment. It is decorated with a mural of a manatee cow and calf, dedicated to local conservation charity Friends of Manatee Lagoon.
Images here.
Oman: Huaxin Cement informed the Muscat Stock Exchange of its intent to buy a further 5.1% stake in Oman Cement on 3 July 2023. Zawya News has reported that this would increase the China-based group's stake in Oman Cement to 64.7%. It acquired its existing 59.6% in the producer for US$193m earlier in 2023, but subsequently revised the price to US$200m.
India: UltraTech Cement increased its cement sales volumes by 20% to 30Mt in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year. Press Trust of India News has reported that the producer sold 950,000t of cement outside of India, up by 13% from 840,000t a year earlier.
During the year, UltraTech Cement recorded a capacity utilisation rate of 90% across its 136Mt/yr capacity.
Philippines: Holcim Philippines and Sungshin Cement have signed a memorandum of understanding whereby Holcim Philippines will be priority supplier of cement for use in Sungshin Cement's ready-mix concrete operations in the Philippines, InPR News has reported. South Korea-based Sungshin is anticipating growing demand from infrastructure projects, partly due to a US$3bn development loan agreement between the government of the Philippines and South Korea.