Displaying items by tag: Electricity

Turkey: Nihat Özdemir, the chair of Limak Holding and president of the Turkish Cement Manufacturers’ Association (TÇMB), has reassured the construction industry that the price of cement will not rise too sharply in 2019. He denied that the price would rise by up to 40%, according to the Hürriyet Daily News newspaper. However, he did confirm that prices would increase due to growing input costs and negative foreign currency exchange effects. Özdemir said that electricity costs had risen by 76%, coal by 182% and petroleum coke by 170%.

In late December 2018 the Construction Contractors Confederation (İMKON) complained about an expected 40% price rise in cement products and it called on the government to intervene. The Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD) has also issued a similar warning.

Spain: Jesús Ortiz, the president of Oficemen the Spanish cement association, forecasts that exports of cement will drop by 20% year-on-year in 2019. He has blamed the situation on high electricity prices, according to the El Economista newspaper. He predicts that the local industry will have a capacity utilisation rate of 53% in 2019. He added that residential house construction was growing, but that the share of non-residential building had fallen.

Sweden: Cementa says it is has supply problems delivering its Bascement product. The delivery issues have been caused by frequent power cuts to its Slite plant, weather-related delays to its shipping schedule and high cement demand. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement said that it was keeping its customers regularly updated.

Uzbekistan: Cement production has fallen by 4.7% year-on-year to 5.6Mt in the first nine months of 2018 from 5.9Mt in the same period in 2017. The decline has been blamed on rising gas and electricity prices, according to the Trend News Agency. Energy prices have risen by at least 60% so far in 2018. 4.5Mt of production, or over 80%, was sold through the Uzbek Commodity Exchange.

Sweden: Cementa plans to electrify its cement plant at Slite in Gotland as part of its Cemzero project. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement plans to make its plant CO₂ neutral by 2030, according to Helagotland. However, the plan is limited by a lack of technology to fully electrify large-scale manufacturing at the site. The company also holds concerns about where it would source larger quantities of electricity.

Sudan: Fuel shortages and power cuts have reduced cement production by half. The Atbara Cement Plant reduced its production to 60,000t/month from 120,000t/month, according to Radio Dabanga. Production fell to 20,000t/month from 60,000t/month at Alsalam Cement, to 32,000t/month from 80,000t/month at El Takamol Cement, to 50,000t/month from 120,000t/month at North Cement and to 30,000t/month from 70,000t/month at Berber Cement. Parts of the country experienced fuel shortages in 2017 and this has continued in 2018, leading to problems far various industries.

Chile: Cementos Bicentenario (BSA) has signed a deal with energy company Engie to supply its Quilicura grinding plant near Santiago with renewable energy. All of the energy supplied to the plant will come from renewable sources including solar and hydroelectric. The contract, equivalent to 35GWh, will see the plant achieve the I-REC certification.

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant has suffered damage to its equipment due to problems with the local electricity supply from state energy company ANDE. Issues including low voltage that damaged the main electric motor of the plant’s cement mill and other equipment at the site, according to the ABC newspaper. Consequently, cement is not being despatched from the Vallemi plant. Normal production is expected to resume in mid-April 2018. INC’s Villeta cement grinding plant has increased its dispatches to compensate increasing its deliveries to 80,000bags/day of cement from its normal level of 50,000bags/day.

Uganda: Tororo Cement and Hima Cement have blamed falling production on reduced electricity supplies. Morgan Gagranihe, the executive director of Tororo Cement, said that production from the company’s plant at Tororo had fallen by half to 0.6Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. However, local power company Umeme has rejected the claims. It suggested instead that the cement producers were prioritising cement production for large-scale customers.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has signed new gas and electricity contracts in South Australia. It has entered into an agreement with Beach Energy for the supply of gas to its South Australian operations. It has also entered into an agreement with Infigen Energy for the supply of its electricity requirements to the Birkenhead and Angaston cement plants and Klein Point Quarry on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. The new agreements are intended to manage the company’s energy requirements and costs following a series of blackouts in the region.

The cement producer said that its energy strategy includes: a portfolio approach to energy supply and procurement benefits; consumption management and operational efficiency; the aim of obtaining 30% of energy supply from alternative fuels in the medium term; use of alternative cementitious materials in place of more energy intensive products; cost recovery through vertical integration and long term customer relationships; and financial strategies.