Displaying items by tag: Bedeschi

Ghana: Italy-based Bedeschi has installed handling equipment and conveyor lines for a clinker, bauxite and manganese project at the Port of Takoradi. The initiative is now at the commissioning stage. Bedeschi supplied five conveyor belts with a total length of 3km, two A frame type 50/1400 shiploaders and one eco-hopper. The shiploaders and the eco-hopper were delivered fully erected from the manufacturer’s shipyard directly to the client jetty with a dedicated heavy-lift vessel.

China: Italy-based Bedeschi has appointed Michele Gatto as the managing director of its new Hong Kong-based subsidiary Bedeschi Far East. The company is intended to assist local customers and to support the Far East market both commercially and technically.

Gatto was previously the Sales Director East Asia and Asia Pacific for Aumund from 2019 to 2022. Prior to this he worked for Bedeschi in area manager and sales roles with a focus on Asia. He has also worked for Danieli, Brevnini Power Transmission and Carraro.

Somaliland: MSG Group of Companies through its DIFC Dubai based subsidiary company Horn Holding Group ltd (HHG) has signed an agreement with Bedeschi SPA Italy for the construction of phase 1 of a full cement plant in Berbera, Somaliland. Phase 1, a grinding unit, will take about 18 months and will have production capacity of 0.7Mt/yr. The project has also achieved financing from reputed Italian Financial Institutions. The complete full plant project shall take three years to complete with a production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr of cement and 1.0Mt/yr of clinker.

This article replaces an earlier version that erroneously stated that Raysut Cement was also involved in the project. MSG Group and Global Cement would like to make it clear that MSG Group is the 100% owner of this project.

Dominican Republic: Colacem Group subsidiary Domicem has awarded the contract to upgrade the limestone reclaiming system at its integrated Sabana Grande de Palenque cement plant in San Cristóbal province to Italy-based Bedeschi. The original stacking and reclaiming equipment, installed by Bedeschi in 2004, allows clay and limestone handling at the plant. The upgraded machine will improve the limestone reclaiming system, increasing its capacity from 200t/hr to 360t/hr, the capacity needed in order to feed a new production line that is being installed at the plant.

US: Italy-based Bedeschi has been awarded a new order for the supply of two BED RNSH 1800/6 type apron feeders for Lehigh Cement’s integrated Mitchell plant in Indiana. The new feeders will be able to process up to 1300t/hr of crushed limestone and they will be placed in the primary and secondary crushing area to replace the old existing machines. They feature super duty design with CAT type chains and a Bedeschi super duty belt. As part of the installation Bedeschi has used a three dimensional survey to define the exact room availability in the existing plant. The new feeders will join three others at the plant that were already ordered as part of an upgrade programme for clay crushing and additive dosing. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Lehigh Cement, a subsidiary of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, resumed work on its US$600m upgrade project at the Mitchell plant in February 2021. Work on the upgrade was suspended in early 2020.

Ghana: Italy-based Bedeschi has been awarded a contract to supply and install cargo handling equipment for the Port of Takoradi. The project includes the supply of handling equipment and services for importing clinker and exporting bauxite and manganese. Bedeschi will supply five conveyor belts with a total length of 3km, two type 50/1400 A frame shiploaders and one eco-hopper. The shiploaders and the eco-hopper will be delivered fully erected from the supplier’s shipyard directly to the client jetty with a dedicated heavy lift vessel.

The project will adhere to ‘state of the art’ environmental standards with the use of dust collection and de-dusting system specifically designed for this application. All the conveyors will be closed, included the section where tippers and eco hoppers are in operation. Bedeschi will also provide the computerised control system too. No value for the contract or date of commissioned has been released.

Poland: Italy-based Bedeschi has won a contract with China-based Nanjing Kisen International Engineering, part of China National Building Materials, to carry out equipment supply for the modernisation of crushing and storage facilities at a Lafarge Polska cement plant in Poland. The supplier says that it will provide a crushing system featuring two RI 450/15000 double rollers and two Pal SP 130/18 portal reclaimers for raw materials storage.

Morocco: Bedeschi has reported that erection works are underway at a project it is carrying out for LafargeHolcim in Morocco. Following an intense civil work phase, during which the single trusses were preassembled and equipped with the mechanical comports, the 4.3km-long belt conveyor is taking shape. The site team is taking full advantage of Trimble Connect to facilitate the erection works.

The conveyor, which trusses up to 5t completely assembled at ground, has been erected on a mountain using a suspended cableway. The system, installed and operated by Bedeschi team with its partner SEIK, allowed fast-track operations with high degree of safety and quality.

Last month Soyuzcement, the Union of Russian Cement Producers, reported that cement production was on course to grow by 8% year-on-year to 58Mt in 2019. This estimate was based on growth from January to October 2019 followed by a modest rise in November.

Graph 1: Cement production in Russia, 2010 – 2019. Source: CM Pro, Ernst & Young.

The pickup is significant because it’s the country’s first annual resumption of growth since 2014. At that time low commodity prices, a worsening economy and international sanctions broke a fairly steady growth cycle that had started in 2000. The only blip in that run was the global economic downturn around 2008. In the medium to long term Soyuzcement’s review pinpointed growth drivers as being government-backed residential housing schemes, integrated land development projects and an increase in the construction of concrete roads. This increase has been driven by consumption growth in most regions, led by a 12% rise in the Central Federal District although the Volga Federal District started to slow in the second half of 2019.

Figure 1: Russian Federal Districts by cement production in 2016. Source: Soyuzcement.ru.

Anecdotally, this change in the fortunes of the Russian cement industry can be seen in the volume of news coverage on the Global Cement website over the last few years. The mean number of news stories on the country in 2016 and 2017, increased by half in 2018 and then again in 2019. Partly this is down to our attempts to increase our coverage of the region but it also shows a general trend. In the news specifically there haven’t been many new plant projects domestically but there has been a steady stream of upgrades and maintenance related stories. For example, Eurocement subsidiary Kavkazcement reported in recent weeks that it had installed a replacement dry kiln. This has been part of a group of upgrades that Eurocement has started in 2019. On the supplier side both Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer and Italy’s Bedeschi opened subsidiaries in Russia in 2019.

One thing that didn’t seem to slow down the growth were mounting tariffs on Russian exports into Ukraine. Russia’s neighbour first blocked imports of cement from Russia in May 2019 due to, what it said was a Russian ban on imports. It then followed this with an antidumping rate of 115% for imported clinker and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) from Russia. It also penalised imports from Belarus and Moldova, although at lower rates. Russia’s cement export rates seemed untroubled by this, rising by 13.5% year-on-year to 0.8Mt in the first 10 months of 2019. Exports hit of high of just below 2Mt/yr in 2014 but have since stabilised at around 1Mt/yr. Imports reached around 5Mt/yr in the early 2010s and have been slowly declining since then, reaching 1.5Mt in 2018.

The lowered production rate that the Russian cement industry has faced over the last five years has been noteworthy given the apparent low capacity utilisation rate. The Global Cement Directory 2019 records the country as having a production capacity of 111Mt/yr. This gives Russia a capacity utilisation rate of 48% in 2018! Unlike, say, the countries in southern Europe that have had to rationalise their cement industries following the post-2008 decline, Russia may have structural aspects to the industry that have helped protect it from lower utilisation rates. These include relatively low export-import rates and the large size of the country with limited sea access to many regions. Most of its production capacity is located in the west but a sizable minority of plants are based further east across the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern regions. Even under subdued economic conditions, plants in these places are likely to be less susceptible to foreign imports, for example.

Looking ahead, the question is whether the current growth that the cement industry is enjoying is viable once government spending slows down. Alongside this the industry could also focus on sustainability. As the government announced in early January 2020, the country expects to face both negative and positive effects from climate change. The cement industry could be at the front of this trend if it decides to clean up production and/or move into new markets as the Arctic region opens up.

Russia: Italy’s Bedeschi has set up a new subsidiary in Moscow. The company is working on a project for OTEKO at its dry bulk terminal at the port of Taman on the Black Sea. It consists of the supply of a fully automated coal export terminal with a total aggregated capacity of more than 50,000t/hr on six loading lines. The supply includes bucket wheel stacker-reclaimers, several kilometres of conveyors and shiploaders. The system allows the blending of different types of coal. The new company in Russia joins existing subsidiaries in the US, Morocco, India and the UAE.