Displaying items by tag: Austria

Interesting news from Holcim Mexico this week with the announcement that it is planning to invest US$40m towards building a 0.7Mt/yr grinding plant in the state of Yucátan. The unit will be supplied with clinker from Holcim Mexico’s Macuspana and Orizaba integrated cement plants. This follows the news in August 2018 that Elementia’s cement company, Cementos Fortaleza, had started to build a new 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant at Merida in Yucatan. That project has a budget of US$30m.

These two projects offer a contrast to comments made by the head of Cemex Mexico, Ricardo Naya Barba, who was lamenting the state of the market to local press at the start of the month. He said that sales volumes of cement, concrete and aggregates had fallen by 12 – 15% in the first seven months of 2019. He blamed the decline partly on falling national infrastructure investment. This marked a slight improvement on Cemex’s Mexican results for the first of 2019 where sales, sales volumes and earnings were all down. At this time as well as slowing infrastructure projects the situation was also attributed to a residential sector hit by the slower-than anticipated start of the new programs.

Elementia’s Mexican cement business, Cementos Fortaleza, reported a similar picture in the second quarter of 2019. Its net sales fell by 6% year-on-year to US65.4m from US$69.7m. This was attributed to a market contraction affecting all of Elementia’s businesses in the country, as well as the redefinition of its core products for the Building Systems business unit. Earnings fell also and this was further attributed to mounting energy and freight costs. Cementos Moctezuma faced many of the same issues. Its cement sales fell by 13% to US$147m in the second quarter of 2019. It is expecting a similar picture for the remainder of the year.

Data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) shows that the value of cement sales in Mexico fell by 7% year-on-year to US$1.21bn in the first quarter of 2019 from US$1.30bn in the same period in 2018. Cement sales volumes fell by 8.2% to 10.9Mt from 11.9Mt. This was the lowest figure since 2014.

The one larger Mexican cement producer that doesn’t seem to have been overly troubled so far in 2019 is Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC). Earlier in the year the company was considered to be the Mexican cement producer most at risk from potential US tariffs due to higher reliance on exports than its competitors. Yet Mexico’s National Chamber of Cement (CANACEM) publicly said that that it didn’t consider US tariffs a significant barrier to the local industry. GCC reported growing net sales and cement sales volumes in the second quarter of 2019 due to industrial warehouse construction, mining projects and middle-income housing at the northern cities.

Two new grinding plants in a particular region of Mexico don’t necessarily reflect the state of the country’s industry as a whole. Yucatan may suit the grinding model due to a lack of raw materials or strong shipping links. The region may also be defying the gloomy national state of affairs in the construction sector. Alternatively, producers may be chasing low-cost and low-risk expansion plans in a tough market. The grinding model wins out over the clinker producing one in this scenario. In the wider picture in August 2019 Cemento Cruz Azul ordered two petcoke grinding mills from Germany’s Loesche and Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon said it had been awarded the supply of an MAS DT burner to an unnamed cement plant. These suggest that, although the sector may be having a bad year so far, things are expected to get better.

Kyrgyzstan: Kant Cement has upgraded its packing equipment at its integrated plant. Russia’s Vselug supplied a Turbo K8 filling machine and Germany’s Berg provided compressors, according to Cement and its Applications magazine. The company plans to sell at 60% of its products in 25kg and 50kg following the upgrade.

The plant has also been installing general upgrades at the site, including a new combination burner from Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon in 2018. It is also planning to upgrade an electrical distribution substation by the end of 2019 to reduce interuptions to production.

Italy: The 0.4Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Travesio, which has been out of operation since early 2016, has not been purchased by w+p Zement, a subsidiary of Weitersdorfer, the Austrian cement and construction materials group. Diego Franz, the mayor of Travesio, has expressed the hope that Buzzi Unicem will now oversee the decommissioning of the plant itself.

Austria: RHI Magnesita, a global supplier of refractory products, systems and services, achieved a revenue of Euro1.54bn in the first half of 2019, an increase of 2.2% year-on-year despite challenges in some of its major markets. Its adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) increased by 12.3% to Euro234m from Euro209m, driven by the realisation of a further Euro10m of synergies and the strength of its Industrial Division. RHI Magnesita’s operating free cash flow of Euro129m was driven by EBITA growth.

“I am pleased to announce a robust financial performance in the first half of 2019,” said Stefan Borgas, CEO of RHI Magnesita. “Despite difficult end markets, we have seen a very strong performance from our Industrial Division, offsetting a slightly softer performance from the Steel Division in more challenging market conditions.”

Austria: Alpacem has appointed Birgit Lautner as its head of human resources and Jerneja Potocnik as the head of its financial control. Lautner, aged 47 years, worked in various international finance and industrial companies in human resource roles before joining Alpacem. Potocnik, aged 41 years, will also act as finance director for Salonit Anhovo, the group’s Slovenian subsidiary. She has held various positions in the Wietersdorfer Group since 2016.

Mexico: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has been awarded the supply of an MAS DT burner to an unnamed cement plant in Mexico. The burner is designed for coal, natural gas and liquid secondary fuel operation. To optimise the maintenance work, the burner is equipped with a divisible jacket tube. A satellite burner, with the supplier’s adjustment system, will be mounted on top of the main burner to improve solid secondary fuel utilisation.

Italy: Austria’s Alpacem purchased a terminal and bagging plant at Trieste in Italy from Italcementi in April 2019 for an undisclosed sum. The unit will be run by the company’s Slovenian Salonit Anhovo subsidiary with support from its Italian subsidiary W&P Cementi. Cement processed at the terminal will be delivered from the Salonit Anhovo integrated plant in Slovenia for sale in Slovenia, Italy and Croatia.

Austria: Data from the Austrian Cement Industry Association (VÖZ) shows that cement production rose by 7.4% year-on-year to 5.2Mt in 2018. The increase has been attributed to a construction boom. Sales of cement grew by 4.7% to Euro432m. Sales continue to increase at a similar rate in the first quarter of 2019 but this has slowed down in the second quarter.

The association has said that environmental investment more than doubled in 2018 to Euro45m. The local industry’s alternative fuels substitution rate was 82% and CO₂ emissions fell by 0.8% to 521kg/t of cement.

Austria: Mondi has launched ‘myMondi’ a web-based platform. It says it is the first all-in-one digital customer platform available in the paper sack industry worldwide. The sales product is intended to enable customers to view live product and stock information, place orders and track order status.

South Korea/Thailand: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has commissioned a MAS kiln burner at a cement plant in South Korea. The order was issued in late 2018 for three MAS burners. The first burner was delivered in February 2019 and the other two in March 2019. In May 2019 Unitherm Cemcon says it supported the commissioning of the first burner.

The scope of supply included two 43MW MAS/4/KO SO type burners for coal and heavy oil and one 87MW MAS/7/KO SO.X type rotary kiln burner for coal, heavy oil and solid secondary fuels. All three burners have been executed with a divisible burner jacket tube. One MAS/7/KO.SO.X is already successfully operating in another line, firing up to 6t/hr of coal and around 10t/hr of solid secondary fuel.

The burner manufacturer has also been awarded a contract to supply a hot gas generator for a plant in Thailand. The scope of supply includes: engineering and manufacturing drawings for the hot gas generator combustion chamber; a combined 45MW oil and coal burner; a primary air fan; a gas electric pilot burner; a flame monitoring device; and an oil valve train with burner management system.