
Displaying items by tag: Capacity
UltraTech Cement expands Karur grinding plant
17 February 2025India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned 0.6Mt/yr of new cement grinding capacity at its Karur grinding plant in Tamil Nadu. The expansion follows the commissioning of a 2.7Mt/yr greenfield grinding unit at the site in April 2024. The plant's total capacity is now 3.3Mt/yr. The additional capacity will reportedly help UltraTech to meet the rising demand for composite cement in South India and improve its blended cement ratio.
The producer's domestic grey cement capacity now stands at 167Mt/yr and its global capacity at 172Mt/yr.
Cuban cement output declines
13 February 2025Cuba: Cement production fell to 258,000t in 2024, representing only 10% of the country’s installed capacity, according to the OSDE Group of Business Construction Materials. President Reynolds Ramírez Vigaud attributed the decline to energy shortages amid national financial challenges.
The sector's problems date back to 2017, according to CiberCuba, when capacity utilisation was 58%. Despite initiatives such as the first ‘eco-friendly’ cement production in 2018 and the reopening of the Sancti Spíritus cement plant in 2022, the industry has faced logistical issues and plant shutdowns. This has a knock-on effect on the government’s annual housing plan and the inability to meet domestic demand for cement. The government is also prioritising the export of cement to obtain foreign currency, worsening shortages and increasing prices.
New cement plants at Nuevitas and Santiago de Cuba will begin production in 2025.
WCA president forecasts major changes in global cement industry
30 January 2025Global: The World Cement Association (WCA) projects a 22% decline in global cement demand by 2050. Price increases are expected to continue in European and North American markets, while significant market restructuring is already underway to address overcapacity in China and Japan. Multinational companies are scaling back cement business and focusing instead on North America, while cement production in Europe continues to decline due to strict CO₂ regulations and capacity reductions.
India's cement production has surpassed 200Mt/yr, with domestic firms strengthening their position as multinationals exit the market. Chinese producers are expanding their presence, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia.
WCA president Wei Rushan said “To remain both profitable and environmentally responsible, the cement industry must aim to reduce capacity by 50%, from 4.7Bnt/yr to 2.3Bnt/yr within the next decade. This requires focusing on modern, sustainable production units.”
Iran’s cement production capacity reaches 90Mt/yr
13 January 2025Iran: The country’s cement production capacity has reached 90Mt/yr, with 85% of machinery and parts manufactured domestically, according to Majid Vafapour, head of the Cement Industry Employers Association.
Vafapour said domestic demand is fully met, with any surplus exported. He noted that reduced infrastructure activity due to funding constraints has driven higher exports.
Vafapour said “If international challenges are resolved and domestic projects regain momentum, the current 90Mt/yr capacity could be fully utilised for domestic consumption.”
Efficiency initiatives, including the use of additives, could boost output by 20% without new facilities, according to The Tehran Times. However, energy supply disruptions have left over 30 kilns idle, according to Vafapour, and clinker reserves have dropped below strategic levels.
Oyak Cement to invest in RDF at Adana plant
12 December 2024Türkiye: Oyak Cement will invest US$4.59m to increase fuel supply capacity at its Adana plant. The producer will add 180,000t/yr of processing capacity to the existing 36,000t/yr refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production capacity, raising the total to 216,000t/yr. It will also establish a biomass facility with a capacity of 180,000t/yr. The RDF will be prepared at a disposal fuel facility for use in the cement plant.
Adani Group announces major investments in Rajasthan
10 December 2024India: Adani Group has announced a US$750m investment in Rajasthan, with US$375m allocated over the next five years to green energy, cement production and infrastructure development. The group plans to add four cement units, increasing its total capacity by 6Mt/yr, according to BusinessWorld magazine.
Aditya Birla targets 200Mt/yr cement capacity by 2035
19 November 2024India: Aditya Birla plans to expand its production capacity by 28% from 156Mt/yr to 200Mt/yr before 2035. Group chair Kumar Mangalam Birla told the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi that scale is key to long-term survival, and that he always aims for his group to be a leader in any given industry in which it operates.
Domain-B News has reported that Birla said "It took the group 36 years to build a 100Mt/yr cement capacity, while it added another 50Mt/yr capacity in five years.”
RLJ Infracement to expand Mirzapur grinding plant
14 November 2024India: RLJ Infracement plans to more than double the production capacity of its 0.3Mt/yr Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, grinding plant to 0.66Mt/yr.
Reuters has reported that the plant's cement supplier, Prism Johnson, now plans to terminate its supply agreement with Rockhill Hi-Tech Cement. Rockhill Hi-Tech Cement operates the 0.22Mt/yr Patna grinding plant in neighbouring Bihar.
Amsons Group takes aim at East Africa
06 November 2024When we think about ‘up and coming’ regions for the global cement sector, Africa is high on many people’s lists. This is unsurprising given that Africa is the youngest continent on Earth, with a population set to boom to 2.5 billion by 2050 – or 1 in 4 of the global population for that year, according to the UN. This population, 1 billion higher than today, will drive rapid urbanisation. Cement capacities, currently around 350Mt/yr across the continent, will have to rise substantially to meet demand.
Filling part of this rise will be Amsons Group. This week it announced plans for a US$320m investment in a 1.6Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Tanzania. It also promised a whopping US$400m to revamp Bamburi Cement in Kenya, should its existing US$180m bid for the Holcim subsidiary be accepted. Based on the numbers for Tanzania, this investment might be enough to take Bamburi Cement from 1.1Mt/yr to around 3Mt/yr, assuming similar project scope and equipment suppliers.
So, what is Amsons Group? Founded in 2000, Amsons is a Tanzania-based conglomerate with interests in construction, transport, flour, container depots, cement and concrete. It already operates Camel Cement, a grinding plant, in the Mbagala suburb of Dar es Salaam and it owns a 65% stake in the 1.1Mt/yr integrated Mbeya Cement plant, which it bought from Holcim in September 2023. The group’s website states that it emphasises local production of materials to reduce the nation’s reliance on imports. A greenfield cement plant fits right into that philosophy.
Looking at recent market trends, we see some positive news for Amsons. In Tanzania, cement production rose by 6.2% to 8Mt in 2023, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry. This followed a 9.7% rise in the prior year. Data is so far lacking for 2024. To the north, cement consumption ramped up strongly in Kenya in the second half of 2023, following a less than stellar start to the year. Thanks to a particularly strong June to September period, consumption finally ended 2023 around 0.8% higher than the previous year, at 9.6Mt. However, consumption tailed off in the final quarter. Worse, the first four months of 2024 - the most recent data available from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics - saw a 10% decline in cement consumption relative to the same period of 2023, falling to 2.6Mt/yr.
As Africa lacks cement capacity compared to other regions, it is important to highlight that Amsons’ new plants will have to take on not just existing capacity in East Africa, but countries that export to the continent too. Indeed, this week Pakistan, a long-time agitator of South African cement producers, reported a year-on-year rise in exports for October 2024. Exports rose to 4.36Mt, a 9% increase compared to 4Mt in October 2023. This news comes amid precipitously falling domestic demand within Pakistan, with September 2024 shipments down by 22% year-on-year. It is also worth noting that Tanzania itself exported around 1.1Mt of cement to Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, the DRC and Zambia in 2023. This figure will likely be higher in 2024, given the February 2024 launch of Huaxin Cement Tanzania Maweni Company’s 1.3Mt/yr plant in Mavini, which has a focus on exports.
This apparent abundance of existing capacity, plus exposure to imports, would appear to give an investor like Amsons Group pause for thought. However, it has committed to a total investment of US$900m. This is not small change. If we add in the money it paid for Mbeya Cement in September 2023 – the amount was not disclosed – Amsons will likely shell out more than US$1bn in just a few years. It is going ‘all in’ to become, in the words of its Managing Director Edha Nahdi, “one of the largest cement manufacturers in Kenya and Tanzania by 2030.” It will be very interesting to follow it on its journey.
ABC Transport expands capacity at Lafarge Africa’s cement plant
05 November 2024Nigeria: ABC Haulage, the heavy-duty vehicle division of ABC Transport, has expanded its operations at one of Lafarge Africa's cement plants by introducing a new fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG) powered vehicles. Victor Nneji, head of innovation & strategy at ABC Transport, said that adopting CNG technology has reduced operating costs by reducing dependency on diesel. This expansion increases the company’s capacity at the unnamed plant by 250,000t/yr.