September 2024
Schmersal’s new subsidiary opens for business in Bangkok 06 September 2019
Thailand: Germany’s Schmersal has founded Schmersal Thailand to serve the machine safety and systems solutions needs of Thailand’s growing industries, including its 42.4Mt/yr cement industry. It will further support Schmersal’s sale partners throughout the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
Cemex’s Barangay Tina-An cement plant revises operating hours 05 September 2019
Philippines: Cemex’s subsidiary APO has stopped operations at its Barangay Tina-An cement plant in Naga during morning and afternoon/evening rush-hour to ease the city’s traffic congestion problem. The Philippine Star has reported that lorries dispatching cement from the 4.0Mt/yr integrated plant were a cause of traffic build-up on the Pan-Philippine Highway. Ignacio Mijares, President of Cemex Holdings Philippines, agreed to the restriction following a meeting with Gwendolen Garcia, Governor of Cebu Province. Representatives of Cemex and regional government will meet next week to discuss the working of the solution.
The disruption to production follows the introduction of tariffs of US$4.81/t on imported cement.
EAPCC seeks land sales to close debt gap 05 September 2019
Kenya: East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has declared an intention to sell two parcels of idle land in Machakos County totalling an area of 2000 acres. Business Daily reports that the 40-day leniency period in which for the company to clear its debts expires on 11 September 2019. Shareholders will vote at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 27 September 2019 on whether to sell the land. To sell the land, EAPCC must first evict 14,300 resident squatters.
Dominican Republic: The national total yield of cement rose to 2.81Mt in the six months to 30 June 2019 from 2.73Mt in the same period of 2018, an increase of 2.7% year-on-year. Data from the national cement industry association Adocem shows that 0.50Mt was exported over the period, 17.8% of the Dominican Republic’s production. The remaining cement boosted domestic sales by 5.2% to 2.31Mt from 2.19Mt in the first half of 2018, corresponding to a revenue of US$223m, up by 14.6% from US$195m in the half to 30 June 2018, on the back of rising demand from construction projects.
Repsol Sinopec Brazil, Ouro Negro and PUC-Rio develop cement quality-check tech for oil wells 05 September 2019
Brazil: Repsol Sinopec Brazil, Ouro Negro and the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Centre of Science and Technology at Rio de Janiero’s Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio) are working together on a through tubing logging profile tool to assess cement quality in lined wells. Arbolas has reported that, where current technologies allow only for observation of anomalies located directly around the tool, the sought-after solution will facilitate detailed recording of the integrity of the adjacent layer. Ouro Negro Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eduardo Costa has described the proposal to incorporate its TTilt technology into the Wellrobot, yielding continuous data feedback and thus reducing well interventions. The companies say that the prospect of reliable seal integrity testing for plugging and abandonment operations on fluid-bearing formations is of enormous economic and environmental import to numerous industries.
Cemex installs Patol’s heat-detection cables 05 September 2019
UK: Cemex has installed Patol’s Firesense linear heat detection cable (LHDC) at its 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Rugby. The installation uses a digital interface to monitor a zonal length of LHDC which will detect any overheating in the plant’s lubrication systems.
Australia: A general labourer and rigger who worked for Macweld Industries, contracted by Adelaide Brighton at its Birkenhead cement plant, is suing the cement company. The Advertiser has reported that the man is seeking damages for Adelaide Brighton’s ‘failure to take reasonable action to minimise risk of injury,’ which allegedly led to the man falling through a hole during upgrade works on the plant in 2016. The man previously received an unspecified sum in worker’s compensation benefits from his erstwhile employer.
The effects of CO2 regulation on cement production 04 September 2019
Forgive the poor image quality but our magazine editor Peter Edwards spotted this provocative graphic (above) at the Federación Interamericana del Cemento (FICEM) technical congress that is taking place in the Dominican Republic this week. It came from a presentation given by Yassine Touahri from On Field Investment Research. The reason this slide raises eyebrows is because it seems to inversely link CO2 emission regulations with cement grinding capacity growth.
One would expect integrated or clinker production capacity addition to decline in the face of various carbon taxes because the majority of emissions in cement production are process emissions. Yet this graphic suggests that it goes further by affecting the supply of clinker in these regions. If correct then it supports the argument that introducing carbon taxes forces related capacity investment to go elsewhere. In other words, if governments try to control industrial CO2 emissions, then the market will follow the path of least resistance. The world has a clinker production capacity surplus and the countries with no CO2 regulations are scooping it up.
The counter argument is that capacity growth and CO2 legislation is unrelated. The regions with flat or falling grinding capacity additions are the places were this trend is occurring anyway for other reasons. These areas have built their houses and infrastructure and so one would expect no or low capacity growth. In this environment it is easier to introduce CO2 laws because, rightly or wrongly, it is perceived to be less important to the overall economy. Meanwhile, outside of these zones national economies are growing: they want to build things and new grinding plants to take advantage of a global glut of clinker are helping them to do this.
Other issues with this graphic are the widely different reasons for low cement grinding capacity growth in the areas with CO2 legislation. Europe, for example, has endured the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for over a decade and it has seen growth in the slag-cement grinding model in some countries in recent years. General trends have also seen a considerable drop in production capacity in Southern Mediterranean countries as their export markets decline. China is actively trying to manage a reduction in production capacity following a period of unparalleled growth. CO2 legislation is one potential means to do this.
The next step here would be to model the effect of a carbon tax on a developing market, which is genuinely growing its cement consumption, compared to a more mature one. This might help to answer whether economic development can be untangled from carbon emissions. CO2 regulations are undoubtedly distorting cement markets though. Touahri is right when he says that, “CO2 management will be the key challenge for the cement industry in the 21st century.” Once it is given a value then it changes the nature of the business.
There will be a full review of the FICEM technical congress 2019 in a future issue of Global Cement Magazine
Philippines finalises three-year cement tariff 04 September 2019
Philippines: The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has introduced a customs duty on imported cement of US$4.81/t. The Manila Times reports that the measure is subject to annual review and will be in place for three years, decreasing by US$0.48/yr.
The government previously imposed a provisional tariff of US$4.02/t, in spite of protests from Vietnam that any executive action would be in contravention of World Trade Organisation rules. Philippine law allows for the imposition of such measures where an appointed advisory body has determined that increased imports ‘threaten to substantially cause injury to the domestic industry.’
The advisory body in question is the Tariff Commission, who in August 2019 recommended a tariff of US$5.68/t. Secretary of Trade and Industry Ramón López stated that the figure aims to address the threat with minimal impact on buyers. Cement prices in the country hit a low in early January 2019 of US$98.6/t, rising to US$108.25/t after the imposition of the provisional tariff.
Vietnamese producers will be the hardest hit by the price hike, with 75% of the Philippines’ imported cement originating in Vietnam. Asian Review reports that a further 18% comes from neighbouring China and 8% from Thailand.
Raysut Cement announces US$30m grinding plant plans 04 September 2019
Oman: Raysut Cement is planning the construction of a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in the port town of Duqm. The project has a cost of US$30m, with work set to begin on 19 September 2019. Oman Cement has been building a 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement production plant at Duqm since December 2018. The new grinding plant is Raysut Cement’s first development project since it received US$50.7m in funding from the Omani Bank Nizwa.