Displaying items by tag: Egypt
Arabian Cement to spend US$5.7m on new coal mill
21 November 2016Egypt: The Arabian Cement Company plans to spend US$5.7m on a new coal mill for its Suez cement plant. The upgrade is intended to increase production capacity at the site, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. At present the plant is operating at 60% capacity by using one coal mill. It imports coal from Europe, China and South Africa through the Dekheila Port of Alexandria and Adabiya Port in Suez.
The cement producer reported that its net profits fell by 36% year-on-year to US$8.97m in the first nine months of 2016 from US$14.1m in the same period in 2015. It blamed this on foreign exchange rates and a drop in sales due to technical problems at the plant.
Algerian investors to buy ASEC Algeria for US$60m
31 October 2016Algeria: A group of Algerian investors have agreed a share purchase framework to buy 100% of ASEC Algeria from ASEC Cement and ASEC Cement Djelfa Offshoren for US$60m. ASEC Cement is an Egypt-based producer and supplier of cement and other construction materials. ASEC Cement Djelfa Offshoren is a subsidiary of ASEC Cement, a subsidiary of Qalaa Holdings.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development helps to reduce carbon emissions from the Egyptian cement industry
29 September 2016Egypt: The Egyptian cement industry could reduce its CO2 emissions by 2030 by following new recommendations in a report from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). These recommendations have been published in the EBRD’s report, ‘Policy roadmap for a Low-Carbon Egyptian Cement Industry,’ which highlights the need for decisive and collaborative action by the industry’s stakeholders in order to achieve a reduction in CO2 emissions.
“Improving environmental standards in the cement industry and offering commercial incentives is realistic and vital for the profitability of the sector,” said Philip ter Woort, the EBRD Director for Egypt.
The roadmap outlines recommendations for policy actions from the Egyptian government that may provide effective incentives for the cement industry to improve its energy efficiency and to reduce CO2 emissions. The report points out that the potential for improvement is high despite that 50% of the Egyptian cement industry’s production capacity was built after 2000, and is using up-to-date equipment and clinker kilns that use best available technology (BAT).
Until 2014, the Egyptian cement industry, one of the most energy intensive industries in the country, had primarily used state-subsidised natural gas and heavy fuel oil to fire its cement kilns. However, following a gradual phasing out of the energy subsidies, Egyptian cement companies have switched to using high CO2 intensive fuels such as coal and petcoke.
The roadmap suggests that in order to reduce CO2 emissions, the industry should reduce the clinker content in cement, increase the use of alternative fuels, improve electrical energy efficiency and use more renewable sources of energy. Under one of the more ambitious scenarios, 2.2Mt/yr of coal will no longer have to be imported by 2030, saving about US$200m. Furthermore this would lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions to about 2% below the historic level prior to the fuel switch. In addition the cement industry could increase its usage of alternative fuels substitution.
The report was initiated by the EBRD, in cooperation with Egypt’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), the Chamber of Building Materials Industries/Cement Industry Association (CBMI) and the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
FLSmidth signs operation and maintenance contract with Wadi El Nile Cement Company
15 September 2016Egypt: FLSmidth has signed a contract with Wadi El Nile Cement Company (WNCC) for operation and maintenance of its cement plant. The contract is a five-year continuation of the existing contract signed in 2010. In addition, WNCC also ordered an upgrade of the plant from 6000t/day to 7200t/day of clinker. The upgrade will be executed as part of the operation and maintenance contract. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
"The continuation of the contract is visible proof of the successful partnership we have with WNCC. We have now operated their 6000t/day for almost five years. The performance delivered was the main driver for WNCC to expand and continue its partnership with FLSmidth. The extension of the operation and maintenance contract reflects our ability to increase our customers' productivity and preserve asset value," said FLSmdith Group Executive Vice President, Cement Division, Per Mejnert Kristensen.
The initial contract will expire at the end of 2016 and the new contract term is from January 2017 to December 2021. The upgrade to 7200t/day is planned to be operational from the summer of 2017.
Royal Cement gains logistics base in Poland
02 September 2016Poland/Egypt: Royal Cement EU, the European arm of the Egyptian white cement producer Royal El Minya Cement, is planning to expand in the Gdansk-Kowale IV logistics centre in Poland, belonging to 7R Logistic. Querco Property acted as Royal Cement's advisor in finding and negotiating the deal.
Siemens to launch Sicement Electrification system in Egypt
18 August 2016Egypt: Siemens will launch its Sicement Electrification system at the Bringing Power to Cement Industry forum in Cairo. The product line is designed to provide electrical distribution and optimisation systems for cement plants including high-voltage electrical substations required for the interconnection with the national grid. All components are coordinated with each other to reduce costs and CO2 emissions.
Arabian Cement to build US$9m petcoke mill
16 August 2016Egypt: Arabian Cement plans to build a US$9m petcoke mill for its cement plant. It is preparing all the necessary legal and financial requirements for the project. The new mill will help the cement plant reduce its operating costs.
Arabian Cement appoints Sergio Alcantarilla as CEO
10 August 2016Egypt: Arabian Cement has appointed Sergio Alcantarilla as its CEO with effect from 3 August 2016. He succeeds Jose Maria Magriña Vadillo.
Alcantarilla was previously the Chief Operation Officer of Arabian Cement. He graduated from the Superior Industrial Engineering School at the University of Seville in Spain. After entering the cement industry in 2002 he worked for five years as a plant manager in Spain before moving to Egypt in 2009.
Hazemag wins order for El Arish cement plant
03 August 2016Egypt: The government of Egypt has ordered crushers and apron feeders from Hazemag for its El Arish cement plant. The agreement includes six HAF 22116 apron feeders with spillage conveyor and six HPI 2025 primary impact crushers for each 1200t/hour of limestone with a feed size of up to 1500mm. This plant crushes the limestone to D95 < 75mm.
In addition Hazemag will supply six HAF 1480 apron feeders with spillage conveyor and six HRC 0816 double roll crushers each for crushing 400t/hour of clay with a feed size of up to 500mm to D95 < 75mm, as well as three HGI 1420 gypsum impact crusher for crushing 350t/hour of gypsum with a feed size of up to 800 mm to D90 < 40mm.
The cement plant has six new 6000t/day cement lines supplied by Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry. The plant is expected to be completed in mid-2017.
One Chinese cement giant, one massive order
15 June 2016A Sinoma subsidiary was raking in the big bucks this week with the announcement that it had booked a Euro1.05bn order with the Egyptian government. The order was for six 6000t/day cement production lines plus assorted maintenance contracts from Chengdu Design and Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI).
The order caps a busy month for Sinoma. At the start of June, another subsidiary, CBMI, said that it had picked up deals to build two new lines in Algeria for Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie. Around the same time another project in the country, a joint venture between Lafarge Algeria and Souakri Group, revealed that it had started commissioning its mill. Other assorted cement projects announced so far in 2016 include a waste heat recovery unit for Thai Pride Cement in Thailand, a conversion to coal burning at South Valley Cement in Egypt and various orders for mills via Loesche for Sinoma projects in Vietnam.
The scale of that latest Egyptian order becomes apparent when one looks at Sinoma, or China National Materials Group Corporation’s, annual results. It reported revenue of US$8.08bn in 2015, a slight decrease from US$8.38bn in 2014. Those six lines represent 13% of the group’s entire turnover in 2015. That’s one humongous order. The last time Sinoma signed a cement deal on this magnitude was in August 2015 when Nigerai’s Dangote placed an order at a value of US$1.49bn.
Elsewhere on the balance sheet for 2015, its profit fell markedly by 25% year-on-year to US$150m from US$200m. However, its new order intake grew by 14% to US$5.1bn. Overseas orders accounted for over three quarters of this or US$4.32bn, its highest level on record. This compares to its rival FLSmidth’s new order intake of US$2.8bn in 2015. It declared that it would continue to seek business outside of China in line with the country’s ‘One belt, one road’ policy focusing on Central Asia and South America.
This growth by Chinese engineering companies on the world stage may have been stymied in 2015. The Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) in Germany reported in April 2016 that the members of its Industrial Plant Manufacturers’ Group (AGAB) had booked orders of Euro19.5bn in 2015, a similar figure to its orders in 2014. This compared to a drop of 63% of large plant orders (not just cement) in 2014 from Euro5.29bn in 2013. AGAB saw opportunity in service industries for its German members as markets stalled in Russia and Brazil, and China’s property market faced its own problems. Research by UBS Evidence Lab, as reported by the Financial Times in May 2016, has taken a different view, suggesting that Chinese construction quarry equipment manufacturers such as Sany, Zoomlion and XCMG were likely to expand their market share outside of China to 15% by 2025. At present the research pegged them at 7%.
Expansion comes with its risks though. In late May 2016 Sinoma International Engineering reported details of a tax dispute it was suffering in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi subsidiary of the company was levelled with a request for unpaid back taxes from 2006 and 2008. At the time it was appealing against a bill of US$18m. In a changing global marketplace some things never change. Global success it seems is taxed.