Displaying items by tag: Brazil

Brazil: A research team at the University of São Paolo (USP) has concluded a study of cement hydration and pozzolanic activity when using 10% sugarcane bagasse (SB) and bamboo leaf ash (BLA) mixture. A paper released by the team has stated that the additive lowered the calcium hydroxide and heat required for hydration, saving on costs and emissions in cement production. Both binary and ternary concretes had higher compressive strengths with than without the mineral-rich additive. The study was supported by public and private funding.

Brazil: Brazil’s National Syndicate of the Cement Industry (SNIC) has released August 2019 sales figures of 5.10Mt, up by 3.0% year-on-year from 4.95% in August 2019. This corresponds to an equal apparent consumption of cement in the country of 5.10Mt, up by 2.9% year-on-year from 4.96Mt in August 2018. Besides rising demand, SNIC points to non-repeating depressing factors acting on domestic cement capacity a year ago, including a lorry drivers’ strike.

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.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ revenue rose by 3.8% year-on-year to US$1.44bn in the first half of 2019 from US$1.39bn in the same period in 2018. Sales growth was driven by ready-mixed concrete and the company’s other businesses as cement sales fell slightly. It reported a profit of US$29.4m compared to a loss of US$72m previously. Its cement sales volumes fell by 6% to 13.8Mt from 14.7Mt.

"In the first half of the year, we achieved net revenue growth and stability in our leverage, even though the Brazilian economy has not yet achieved the anticipated recovery and despite the impact of an atypical seasonality in North America. In this second quarter, we followed our investment plan and inaugurated a new production line of mortar, in Cuiabá, and one of agricultural solutions, in Nobres, both in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso," said Osvaldo Ayres Filho, Global chief financial officer (CFO) of Votorantim Cimentos. The company added that higher prices in Brazil, growing sales in North America and positive currency effects successfully offset poor results in Turkey.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has announced the conclusion of its acquisition of a mortar production unit from Supermassa. The plant, located in Ananindeua, Belem, in the state of Para, has capacity of 0.15Mt/yr. Votorantim Cimentos notes that the total investment, including the acquisition, modernisation of technology, installation of automation and other improvements, will total US$4.3m.

The acquisition is part of the company's growth and geographical diversification strategy. The purchase is the company's 11th mortar production unit, and brings its mortar production capacity up to 2.5Mt/yr.

Argentina: Sergio Faifman, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Loma Negra has said that his company does not export cement because it is ‘not competitive’ with other countries. He cited logistical issues with transporting clinker and cement to ports, in an interview with the Ámbito Financiero newspaper. He also mentioned that the costs per tonne of cement in Brazil and Egypt were 30% and 50% respectively cheaper than in Argentina. In a ranging interview Faifman also discussed the cement producer’s labour problems at its Baker plant , its on-going upgrade at its L'Amali plant and negative effects from the local currency devaluation in 2018.

Brazil: Data from SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, shows that sales rose by 1.5% year-on-year to 25.8Mt in the first half of 2019 from 25.5Mt in the same period in 2018. SNIC president Paulo Camillo Penna said that the growth was in line with SNIC’s forecasts and that more ‘robust’ growth was anticipated the second half of the year. He added that the growth in cement sales had been supported by the real estate market and that the industrial sector was also growing.

Brazil: InterCement is to stop production at its integrated Pedro Leopoldo plant in Minas Gerais. It plans to temporarily run the unit as a cement terminal, according to Por Dentro De Tudo. The plant has 53 employees. 28 will be relocated to other plants in the company and the remaining 25 will be made redundant.

Brazil: CSN Cimentos is planning to spend around US$390m on building a new 3Mt/yr cement plant in Paraná. Eduardo Bekin, president of the Paraná State Development Agency, said that the company already had the authorisation to conduct economic viability studies and should confirm the plant by late August 2019, according to the Valor Econômico newspaper. CSN is also considering building the plant in Sergipe state, where it operates a limestone mine. The final decision will depend on the best tax environment for the cement producer.

Brazil: According to data from SNIC, the Brazilian national cement industry union, 4.6Mt of cement was sold in Brazil during May 2019. The figure is 27.6% higher compared to May 2018, with the large percentage increase due to the low base resulting from a truck drivers’ strike in May 2018. The first five months of 2019 recorded sales of 21.6Mt, a 5.6% year-on-year rise.