Displaying items by tag: Coal

Egypt: Medhat Istvanos, head of the cement division of the Chamber of Building Materials, affiliated to the Federation of Egyptian Industries, says that exports from the country are being made uncompetitive due to the government’s decision to raise energy prices in June 2018. He said that the local exchange rate had aided exports but that “the government’s bureaucracy has eliminated export hopes,” according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The local industry exported cement worth US$57m during the first half of 2018.

Istvanos said that the industry has a production capacity utilization rate of 60% with a production capacity of 84Mt/yr but consumption of only 54Mt/yr. He added that the decision to build the new 12Mt/yr Beni Suef cement plant was “not based on precise information” and that it had harmed local production.

Tanzania: The State Mining Corporation (Stamico) has assured cement producers that it holds sufficient coal supplies. It said that 18,600t/month of coal is being produced every month at its mine at Kabuko in Songwe, according to the Citizen newspaper. It intends to increase production to 45,000t/month when demand is ‘high’ and then to later raise production to 60,000t/month when it fixes infrastructure bottlenecks.

In August 2018 cement producers reported that they faced coal shortages. Subsequently, cement prices rose.

China: Tianrui Cement’s sales revenue rose in the first half of 2018 due to an average price rise year-on-year of 22%. Its revenue grew by 13.8% to US$629m from US$553m in the same period in 2017. Profit increased by 17% to US$82.6m from US$71.6m.

Cement sales volumes fell by 4.7% to 13.3Mt from 12.6Mt due to government imposed production limits in Henan province and a decrease in infrastructure and property investment. In Henan and Anhui the company’s cement sales fell by 7.1% to 10.3Mt but it Liaoning and Tianjin it rose by 4.5% to 3Mt. the cement producer also reported that its cost of sales rose by 12.3% to US$721m due to rising coal prices and other input costs.

Indonesia: A barge delivering coal to Lafarge Indonesia’s cement plant at Lhoknga, Aceh has spilled around 7000t coal on a beach in Northern Sumatra. The barge was delivering coal to the plant at the end of July 2018 when it ran aground, acccording to the Antara News Agency. Lawyers representing local environmental groups have demanded that the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim be legally responsible for the cleanup operation.

India: Coal India plans to supply 4.65Mt/yr of coal to the cement industry via online auctions until 2023. Of this amount 1.14Mt/yr will be despatched by railway and the rest by road, according to a Coal India executive quoted by the Economics Times newspaper. Most of the coal will be supplied by Coal India’s subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields with the rest sourced from Western Coalfields, Mahanadi Coalfields and Eastern Coalfields. Bharat Coking Coal and North Eastern Coalfields are not part of the auction, as they do not offer any coal to the cement sector.

India: UltraTech Cement plans to build five waste heat recovery (WHR) units with an investment of US$72.6m. The new WHR units will have a capacity of 63MW and they will take the company’s total WHR capacity to 121MW, according to the Hindu newspaper. It is anticipated that the cement producer will be able to meet half of its power requirements from its WHR plants. They are also intended to protect the company from changes in the price of coal.

Mexico: Germany’s Loesche has sold two coal or petcoke grinding mills to Cruz Azul. Both will be used on new production lines at cement plants in Hidalgo and Oaxaca respectively. No value for the deal has been disclosed.

Each mill will have a capacity of 65t/hr. Loesche will be supplying complete plant equipment, including process gas filters, mill fans, inerting units, explosion protection valves, kiln gas cyclone separators, feed screw and drag chain conveyors as well as the complete electrotechnical equipment. The scope of supply also includes engineering for steel and concrete construction.

Loesche previously delivered a LM 46.2+2 CS type mill to Cruz Azul’s Tepezalá cement plant, operated under the Cycna subsidiary, at the end of 2016.

India/Indonesia: India Cements has purchased an 100% share of Raasi Minerals through its subsidiary Coromandel Minerals. The Singapore-based company owns a controlling stake in several coal mines in Indonesia. No value for the transaction has been disclosed.

India: The Ministry of Coal has cancelled Jaypee Cement’s coal block at Mandla in Madhya Pradesh citing breach of agreement. In a letter the ministry said that the cement producer was ‘not serious about the development of the coal mine,’ according to the Business Standard newspaper. The ministry has accused Jaypee Cement of switching the plant using coal from the mine without permission and of exceeding the agreed output.

The Mandla coal mine was allocated to Jaypee Cement in March 2015 after a bidding process. At first it supplied Jaypee’s Balaji cement plant in Andhra Pradesh. However, production from the mine switched to the Shahabad cement plant in June 2017 following the acquisition of the Balaji plant by UltraTech Cement.

Vietnam: Tata International Singapore has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vissai Cement Group to form a joint venture company in to use the port of Vinh. The deal is expected to create a distribution network for coal, according to the Press Trust of India. The company will also be responsible for Vissai Cement’s coal imports. The joint-venture is expected to benefit from the port’s location as a key gateway for trade into and out of Laos.