Displaying items by tag: Capacity

India: Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement production capacity to 20Mt/yr by 2021. At present it has a capacity of 15.5Mt/yr, according to the Hindu newspaper. The company plans to increase its capacity by both expanding existing units and building new ones. It acquired Reliance Cement in mid-2016.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has said its production capacity is expected to reach 10Mt/yr by the end of the first half of 2017, with company COO Sapna Sood stating that this would be achieved by ‘debottlenecking’ existing facilities following a US$40m project that started in 2015.

“We have a project where we are looking at safety and debottlenecking that is near completion,” said Sood. “When we look at the country, the infrastructure that is coming in and the commitment that we are making to infrastructure, it is pretty exciting for the country and the industry.”Sood added that, while the company had no immediate plans to build a new cement plant, Holcim Philippines planned to offer various solutions to help in the implementation of various infrastructure projects.

The total demand for cement in the Philippines reached 26.0Mt in 2016, up from 24.4Mt in 2015, although the final quarter of 2016 and first quarter of 2017 have been subdued.

Holcim Philippines operates four cement plants in La Union, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental and Davao.

Vietnam: Nguyen Quang Cung, chairman of the Vietnam Cement Association, has predicted that the country will face an oversupply of nearly 50Mt in 2020. The local industry’s cement production capacity was nearly 88Mt/yr in 2016. It is expected to reach 108Mt/yr in 2018 and up to 130Mt/yr in 2020, according to comments made by the association to the Saigon Times. Domestic demand is estimated to be 82Mt in 2020 thereby creating the shortfall. The association is also lobbying for a two-year delay in regulation changes made in 2016 that are expected to make exporting cement more expensive for producers.

China: The China Cement Association has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to speed up the consolidation process in the local cement industry. According to documents seen by the South China Morning Post the cement body wants the ministry to consolidate at least 60% of the country’s cement production capacity into 10 producers by 2020. The association made its proposals in July 2016 and has since chased the ministry for a response.

Association data shows that China may have to cut 390Mt/yr of production capacity and cut 130,000 jobs in the next five years in order to maintain an adequate balance between supply and demand. Larger cement plants could also be required to exchange production quotas and seek cross holdings in equity stakes.

To aid the consolidation process, existing cement companies will pool together US$3bn in a restructuring fund. This is expected to aid the larger cement producers, including Anhui Conch, Huaxin Cement, Qilianshan Cement and Sichuan Shuangma Cement.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has announced that it will build new cement plants in Nigeria, in Okpella in the northern part of Edo State and Itori in Ogun State. Dangote said that the new plants are expected to add 9Mt/yr to the company’s current output of 29.25Mt/yr, raising it to a total 38.25Mt/yr.

The Group’s Managing Director Edwin Devakumar, made the announcement in Lagos. He explained that the Okpella plant will have one 3Mt/yr cement line and that the Itori plant will deliver 6Mt/yr from two production lines. Both plants are expected to come on stream within the next three years.

Devakumar said the company’s expansion drive was targeted at expanding its nationwide presence and reducing the transportation cost component of its operations. He added that the new investments will also lower the cost of production, bring about a future reduction in the price of cement and generate employment opportunities in the host communities.

Group Managing Director for Cement Onne van der Weijde said the demand for cement was still high considering the population growth in Nigeria. He observed that Nigeria’s consumption of cement, at 100kg/capita was relatively low by international standards, indicating growth potential.

Van der Weijde added that Dangote Cement can supply the entire western and central Africa region. Dangote Cement currently exports cement to Niger, Ghana and Togo, with plans to also move into the Ivory Coast.

Philippines: The Manila Bulletin has reported that the capacity utilisation of local cement plants has increased to 85% from 68% in 2014 due to strong domestic construction activities, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

DTI undersecretary Victorio Mario Dimagiba said that there is enough cement supply to meet demand. He added that the Philippines had 31.3Mt/yr of cement production capacity in 2014, when consumption was 21.3Mt, or 68%. At present, however, plant capacity utilisation has reached 85%.

The increase in demand in the Visayas and Mindanao areas in the past two weeks was to pre-empt the onset of the rainy season. Dimagiba said that, even though there are cement plants in these regions, there is a huge logistical challenge in the transport of cement to the islands. He added that should local demand in these regions exceed production, imports could augment the shortfall.

China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released a plan to transfer the production capacity of six cement projects that are currently being built in Sichuan Province. These schemes, with a total cement production capacity of 6Mt/yr, will be publicised on the national production capacity replacement quota platform for future transfer.

China: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has set a timetable for eliminating out-dated cement plants. The MIIT has requested that local governments in China work out structural adjustment plans for the cement industry before the end of March 2014 and propose detailed treatment measures towards on-going and finished contravening cement projects before the end of June 2014, according to the Xinhua Chinese news agency.

Hebei province has been asked to cut its cement production capacity by 60Mt/yr by 2017. Jiangsu province is to cut its production capacity by 10Mt/yr and Jiangxi province must cut its capacity by 5Mt/yr. The MIIT expects that cement production utilisation will be improved to over 75% by the end 2017 after the cement industry follows its measures. Emissions of dust and nitrogen oxide will be cut by more than 40% and the cement industry's average profit margin should be no less than the manufacturing industry's average.

China: The China Cement Association (CCA) has drafted a plan to promote mergers and acquisitions in the cement industry, according to an 'industry insider' quoted by Xinhua's China Economic Information Service. The plan is to help the cement industry to eliminate its out-dated production capacity and increase the concentration ratio of the industry.

According to the plan, the number of cement enterprises in the country will witness a significant drop during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) from that in seen in 2010, with no more than 1000 cement clinker enterprises and no more than 2000 large-scale cement grinding stations, each with annual output of more than 600,000t/yr, left by the end of 2015.

The plan also aims to develop five enterprise groups that each have annual output of more than 100Mt/yr and have a complete industry chain, core competence and international influence.

Liberia: HeidelbergCement has commissioned a new 0.5Mt/yr, US$14m cement mill at its cement grinding plant in Monrovia, Liberia. The German cement producer operates in Liberia through a subsidiary, Cemenco. It is the only cement producer in the country.

"The construction of the new cement mill in Liberia is in line with our strategy of modernising and expanding clinker and cement capacities in emerging markets," said Dr Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement. "In Ghana, we recently increased the cement grinding capacity at our Tema cement plant and are currently building a new cement mill in Takoradi. Together with our existing plants in this region, the new mill in Liberia strengthens our coastal network in West Africa."

Investment in the new cement grinding facility in Liberia includes a two-chambered 65t/hr ball mill with high-efficiency separator, filter, fan and flow meter. The power supply of the new cement-grinding mill is provided through a 5.7MW generator plant on a rental basis.

HeidelbergCement is currently conducting investment projects in sub-Saharan Africa amounting to almost US$400m. They include expansion projects of cement capacity of about 3Mt and of clinker capacity of 1.5Mt.