Displaying items by tag: Bekabadcement

Uzbekistan: The largest cement plant in Central Asia has been commissioned in the Sherabad district of the Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan. Construction of the Sherabad cement plant has been carried out by Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (AMMC) JSC. The cost of the project was US$212.8m and its capacity is 1.5Mt/yr. The majority of the cement produced will be directed toward domestic demand. The Turkish DAL Teknik Makina Ticaret ve Sanayi AS company also participated in the construction of the plant.

The project was paid for by AMMC's own funds (US$24.4m), a loan issued by the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan (US$90m) and loans from commercial banks (US$110.6m).

There are currently five large cement plants in Uzbekistan: Kyzylkumcement, Akhangarancement, Kuvasaycement, Bekabadcement, Jizzakh cement plant, as well as a number of small enterprises. Their total capacity exceeds 8.5Mt/yr. Over the next five years, Uzbekistan plans to increase its national capacity to 17Mt/yr, double the current level.

Companies with projects under construction or in the planning process include Russia’s Eurocement Group, which is building a US$220m dry process plant with a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr. Two more cement plants will be built with funds from Chinese investors. The first is being built by the Xin Lei enterprise in the Akhangaran region. It will have an annual capacity of 1.0Mt/yr at cost of US$108m. The other will be established by Akhangaranshifer at a cost of US$100m, also with a capacity of 1.0Mt/yr.

Uzbekistan: Qizilqumsement and Bekabad Cement intend to conduct energy saving projects at their plants by the end of 2020, according to local press.

Bekabad Cement, in partnership with the World Bank, is upgrading its aeration system and the products transportation system at its cement silos. The upgrade will save more than 3MkW/hr of electric power per year. The plant is also installing a new cement ball mill with a capacity of 135 – 150t/hr. This is planned to reduce power consumption by 20%.

Qizilqumsement plans to reduce its gas consumption by 46.6Mm³, and power consumption by 57MkW/hr. A clinker silo will be built, the clinker plant will be upgraded and the closed circuit cement milling will be launched for mill #7.

Uzbekistan: Uzbekistan plans to increase cement production from 7.5Mt/yr in 2014 to 7.9Mt/yr in 2015. Production is expected to reach 8.9Mt/yr by 2019. Within a programme of measures on structural reforms, modernisation and diversification of cement plants will take place in 2015 – 2019. Kyzylkumcement will invest US$30.7m to update equipment, while Bekabadcement will invest US$5.5m to modernise its milling technology.

Our spotlight is on Uzbekistan this week following an update on the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine's (AMMC) plans to build a new cement plant in the south of the country. The news emerged in the wake of the completion of the AMMC's cement grinding plant, in the Jizzakh region, which was finished in late March 2014. Meanwhile, Eurocement announced that its subsidiary in Uzbekistan, the Akhangarancement plant, had received a limestone and marl quarrying licence.

Previous to the new AMMC grinding plant, Uzbekistan had five cement plants with a total cement production capacity of nearly 6Mt/yr. Only one of these was a dry production process plant, the 2.5Mt/yr Krzylkumcement plant, in the south-western Bukhara province. Cement consumption in the country was estimated to be around the same, also at 6Mt/yr.

Back in 2011 the government of Uzbekistan planned to invest US$6.94bn to develop infrastructure, transport and communication construction from 2011 - 2015. This investment has now been followed up with a direct financial injection into the cement industry.

In late February 2014, local building materials company JSC Uzbuildmaterials announced government plans to invest US$49.1m into the local cement industry. The programme includes nine projects for the three largest cement plants in the country: the Kyzylkumcement plant, the Ahangarancement plant and the Bekabadcement plant. Kyzylkumcement will receive the majority of the investment, US$39.6m to spend over three years on a new cement mill, upgrades to the clinker production lines and construction of a 220/10kV main substation. Ahangarantcement and Bekabadcement will replace 'out-dated' equipment and will upgrade their production lines.

Mineral-rich Uzbekistan is relatively undeveloped but this is changing. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was reported to be US$51bn in 2012 by the World Bank, having seen steady growth since 2002, and its population was just over 30m in 2013. Its cement consumption is 300kg/capita, a figure below the global average (estimated at 536kg/capita in a forthcoming Global Cement Magazine report on 'Cement consumption versus Gross Domestic Product'). This places Uzbekistan in a favourable position for future development on a graph of GDP per capita against cement consumption per capita. The latest investment programme suggests that the Uzbek government are hoping that this is the case.