Displaying items by tag: Bulgaria

Bulgaria: The Bulgarian unit of Swiss building materials maker Holcim has announced the construction of a new waste recycling installation worth Euro6.5m at its cement production site in the village of Beli Izvor, in the country's northwest. Some Euro1.6m the total investment costs were covered by the EU-funded operational programme Competitiveness, according to Holcim Bulgaria.

The recycling plant for sorted solid household waste will increase the volume of recovered combustible waste by more than 35,000t/yr, which Global Cement infers may be included in the plant's cement kiln as an alternative fuel. With the launch of the waste recycling installation, Holcim Bulgaria completed a six-year investment programme worth Euro80m that targeted technological upgrades, an increase in production capacity and the mitigation of environmental risks.

Bulgaria: Devnya Cement has announced that it has officially launched the construction phase of a Euro160m project to upgrade its production facilities. The company has signed up Chinese turnkey cement plant builder CBMI, a subsidiary of Sinoma International Engineering, as a general contractor for a new 1.5Mt/yr cement production line, which is set to begin operation in early 2015.

The upgrade represents a significant step up for the company, a subsidiary of Italy's Italcementi, which currently has a capacity of just 2Mt/yr.

Bulgaria: Bulgarian cement maker Vulkan Cement has announced that it will temporarily shut down its kilns from the beginning of 2012 due to flagging demand and imports from neighbouring countries that are flooding the market. The move has been prompted by a continuous drop observed in the cement market during the last three years.

Vulkan Cement also cited Bulgaria's obligations as an EU member state stemming from CO₂ emissions regulations and from REACH, the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use, as key factors that directly affect cement production costs. It said that the temporary work stoppage would allow the company to cope with the economic downturn and properly secure its chances of a solid recovery.

The Vulkan Cement plant will continue operating as a grinding centre during the shutdown of its kilns and will receive clinker from its sister plant, Devnya Cement.