Displaying items by tag: Austria

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.

Austria: Unitherm Cemcon has launched the MAS DT rotary kiln burner, a new product in its Mono Airduct System (MAS) product line. The new burner is already in operation at six cement plants in Austria, Germany and France.

The new design uses a more efficient primary air injection, resulting in higher effective momentum and optimised combustion. Placing the adjustable primary air openings directly at the burner tip leads to unobstructed injection of the air jets into the kiln. With minimum losses at the air nozzles, the entrainment of secondary air is improved by approximately 15%.

The new primary air system, with discs instead of flexible hoses, requires less space inside the primary air channel. Therefore, the burner is smaller in diameter and lighter in weight, which reduces investment costs. Unitherm Cemcon says that the cooling of the outer jacket tube with the MAS system (hose and disc design) is superior to that of other rotary kiln burners, as 100% of the primary air is used for cooling. With the new disc system, the cooling of the burner tip is improved even further. The producer added that all new MAS DT burners showed improved lifetime of the refractory lining at the burner. On average the refractory lifetime is extended by approximately 20%.

World: FCT Combustion has released details on new burner projects it is involved with. Selected projects include a new contract in the US to convert both kilns to natural gas firing at Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska. The order includes Gyro-Therm MKII Burners, Natural Valve Trains and NFPA 86 BMS for both kilns.

Nova Cimangola in Angola has contracted FCT to convert its 5000t/day kiln to fuel oil firing. The order includes a multi fuel main burner, calciner burners, oil heating units, oil pumping and filtering units and control panels.

FCT also provided details about a low NO_x kiln conversion for an undisclosed client. Other selected cement sector projects include the commissioning of Turbu-Flex burner systems for clinker kilns at Finnsementti’s Parainen and Lappeenranta plants in Finland. These are scheduled for commissioning in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively. Baumit’s Wopfing plant in Austria is due for a natural has lance for kiln preheating to be delivered later in March 2019.

It also plans to deliver a Turbu-Flex burner system for a clinker kiln to an undisclosed client in China later in March 2019. It is based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study undertaken by FCT is to allow for the firing of natural gas and to modernise the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for March 2019.

Italy: W&P Cementi and Friulana Calcestruzzi’s turnover grew by 12% year-on-year to Euro35m in 2018. W&P Cementi produced around 0.35Mt of cement and binders, according to the Il Friuli newspaper. Friulana Calcestruzzi produced around 0.12Mm³ of ready-mix concrete. The companies are part of Austria’s Alpacem brand bringing together cement and concrete subsidiaries of Wietersdorfer Group in Austria, Slovenia and Italy. The group has a cement production capacity of 2Mt/yr and a concrete production capacity of 0.3Mm³ across 19 sites with over 640 staff.

Austria: Franz Struzl, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of RHI, has died at the age of 76 years. He was the CEO of the refractory producer from 2011 to 2016.

Struzl studied at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in 1965. After more than 40 years at Alpine Steel Group (later Voestalpine), he became the chairman of Voestalpine in 2001. He held this position until 2004 and soon afterwards became CEO of Voestalpine, Brazil (Villares Metals), remaining there until 2010. In 2011, he joined RHI as CEO. Struzl also participated in the first negotiations regarding the merger of RHI and Magnesita. He retired in 2016 due to illness.

US/Europe: US refractory manufacturer Plibrico has entered into a distribution partnership with the Pli Group Europe, a refractory distributor contractor based in Vienna, Austria. Under the new alliance, Pli Group Europe will provide full-service distribution of Plibrico’s Plico brand refractories in Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria, with immediate effect.

“Adding Pli Group Europe to our ranks of Pli Partners allows Plibrico to reinforce its expertise, enhance its service offering and strengthen the value chain offered to customers throughout Europe,” said Brad Taylor, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Plibrico.

Austria: Zement Leube has acquired a 24.99% stake in Asamer. It made the purchase from Kurt Asamer who had decided to leave his 33% share in the business, according to the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (OÖN) newspaper. The other partners in the business, Manfred Asamer and Robert Pree, have taken over some of Kurt Asamer’s holdings given them a majority share of 75.01%. Asamer is a building materials company that producer’s aggregates and concrete. It also owns cement production assets, including Fabrika Cementa Lukavac in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Austria: RHI Magnesita has appointed Jacqueline Knox as EVP General Legal Counsel & Company Secretary. She will join the company on 1 December 2018 and will be part of its executive management team.

Knox was previously General Counsel and Company Secretary at Ophir Energy, a Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) listed upstream oil and gas business with a large portfolio of assets across Africa and Asia, which she helped to take from a private company to a London listing. She holds a dual degree in law and international relations (BA/LLB) from the University of Queensland and is a dual British / Australian citizen.