Displaying items by tag: Fives

Najmat Al Samawa Cement (NAS Cement) in Iraq announced this week that its second production line was successfully fired up on 13 May 2025. The new 5500t/day line was formally announced in May 2023. It joins the existing line at the site and should bring the plant’s total production capacity to around 3Mt/yr. The plant is a joint-venture between Pakistan-based Lucky Cement Limited and the Al Shumookh Company in Dubai and its representatives in Iraq.

Global Cement Magazine interviewed Intezar Ahmad, the Director of Operations at NAS Cement, in the November 2024 issue. He explained that China-based TCDRI was the main contractor for both the original and new lines. Equipment for Line 2 was also supplied by Fives Pillard, Loesche and IKN. Commissioning was scheduled for the second quarter of 2025. This, nicely, appears to be spot on. Lucky Cement added in its statement about the new line this week that it is also building a new 0.65Mt/yr cement grinding mill at the plant. This addition is expected to be commissioned during the second half of the 2025 calendar year. Lucky Cement also operates a cement grinding plant, under a joint-venture, in Basra.

The expansion at NAS Cement is by no means the only one as there have been a number of project announcements over the last three months. Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer revealed in late-March 2025 that it had won an order to supply a vertical roller mill for the Al Amir cement plant in Najaf. This contract was awarded through the China-based contractor Sinoma Suzhou. Commissioning is planned for the second half of 2026. Then, one month later in April 2025, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani made a statement launching ‘implementation works’ at four cement plants in Al-Muthanna Province. This included the 6000t/day Al-Arabi Cement Plant, the 6000t/day Al-Khairat Al-Muthanna Cement Plant, the 6600t/day Al-Samawa Cement Plant and the 6000t/day Al-Etihad Cement Plant. Al-Sudani also mentioned the start of commercial operations at NAS Cement’s second line. Subsequently, IVI Holding signed a US$240m deal with Sinoma Overseas in mid-May 2025 to build a 6000t/day plant in Al-Muthanna Province. Presumably, this is one of the projects that the government highlighted. Finally, the Kurdistan Region prime minister Masrour Barzani inaugurated the 6300t/day Dabin cement plant at around the same time. This last project was built by PowerChina together with a power station.

The Iraqi economy has been doing well in recent years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported in May 2025 that the non-oil sector experienced “very strong growth” of 13.8% in 2023. This slowed down to 2.5% in 2024 due to a slowdown in public investment and in the services sector, and a weaker trade balance. However, the IMF noted that the agriculture, manufacturing, and construction sectors had remained resilient. Non-oil sector growth is forecast to remain subdued in 2025 amid a “...challenging global environment and financing constraints.” In its coverage of the new line at NAS Cement, Pakistan Today reported that the country has a notional cement production capacity of around 40Mt/yr but that many of the older plants have suffered from under-investment. Accordingly, the domestic market is around 25Mt/yr supported by state-funded housing projects, oil-field infrastructure schemes and reconstruction in Mosul. 3 - 4Mt of this is supplied via imports from Iran and Türkiye. The newspaper also noted the risk that all these new cement plant projects may face from variable gas supplies from the government. NAS Cement, for example, switched from heavy fuel oil (HFO) to gas in 2022.

Cement sector capacity expansion is coming in Iraq following a revived local economy. Risks abound though due to the country’s economic outlook, its dependence on oil and an geopolitical uncertainty. Yet money is being spent and new projects are starting to be commissioned. Onwards!

US: France-based Fives Group has launched new subsidiary Fives FCB USA in Alabama to supply the North American market with low clinker blended cement and supplementary cementitious material production equipment and services. Products being promoted include the FCB Horomill, the FCB TSV Classifier and the FCB Rhodax. The unit will share premises with Fives’ North American Construction Services company.

Deputy general manager Alain Cordonnier said “The opening of our subsidiary in the US marks a significant milestone for Fives FCB. We are excited to bring our innovative technologies and expertise to the US market, and we look forward to building strong partnerships with local industry leaders.”

France: Eqiom has awarded Fives FCB a contract to upgrade its cement grinding plant at Héming. The project involves integrating an FCB TSV 4000 TSF Classifier and an FCB TGT Filter with the existing milling circuit at the unit operating by the subsidiary of Ireland-based CRH. The upgrade is intended to reduce the plant’s clinker factor, improve the quality of the cements produced, offer the option of manufacturing cements with higher fineness and reduce energy consumption. The new equipment is expected to be tied-in during the plant’s annual mill shutdown in 2025, with commissioning to follow.

Both Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura revealed plans to work with hydrogen this week. Additionally, Lhyfe and Fives signed a deal to sell decarbonised products and services to industries, including cement, covering hydrogen production to combustion.

Türkiye-based Limak Çimento said that it had successfully conducted a hydrogen-enhanced alternative fuel test at its integrated Anka plant near Ankara. As part of the project it blended hydrogen with an alternative carbon-neutral fuel and then operated the plant’s kiln at a 50% substitution rate. The cement company says that the trial achieved a world first by feeding the hydrogen-enhanced fuel directly into the calciner instead of the main burner in the rotary kiln. According to local press, Air Liquide supplied grey hydrogen for the test, although this could be switched to green hydrogen in the future. As a reminder, ‘green’ hydrogen is produced by the electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources. ‘Grey’ hydrogen is made from steam reforming using fossil fuels.

Limak’s wider ambition is to use hydrogen-blended alternative fuels at all of its cement plants by 2030. By doing so it aspires to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 700,000t/yr. Its CEO Erkam Kocakerim remarked in mid-2023 that focusing on the carbon risks that energy-intensive industries might face exporting to the European Union (EU) paled in comparison to the potential payback from the green energy transition. At a climate change summit in mid-2023 organised by the United Nations and the Turkish government, he called for the Turkish Emission Trading System to be put into action as soon as possible, the creation of an updated renewable energy roadmap with renewable hydrogen, CCUS and renewable fuels, and the publication of a hydrogen and CO₂ country atlas. At the same time, he stated that the local cement sector could meet the EU’s 2030 emissions targets through the increased uptake of alternative fuels and blended cements.

Meanwhile in Peru this week Juan Carlos Burga, the general manager of Grupo Gloria subsidiary Cemento Yura, told the Gestión newspaper that its cement plant near Arequipa is preparing to start a green hydrogen trial in 2025. The catalyst for this is a solar power unit at the site that is currently scheduled for commissioning in early 2025. Once it is ready then the plant’s hydrogen project can use the renewable energy source to manufacture hydrogen and inject small quantities of it to stabilise the burning process and reduce the amount of coal used.

By contrast the memorandum of understanding that Lhyfe and Fives announced this week looks like the pair are marking their territory in the hydrogen supply and equipment chain for heavy industry. As part of the agreement the companies are targeting the metals, glass and cement industries and some other selected industrial heating processes and applications in Europe and North America. France-based Lhyfe develops, builds and runs green hydrogen production plants both for external clients and itself. It operates one plant at Bouin in France and is building other plants in France and Germany. However, the output of these sites is low. In spite of this, it says it is set to become the largest producer of renewable hydrogen in France in 2024. Fives, well known as a cement equipment supplier, says it has been a “technological leader in hydrogen for over 50 years” and that it sells “the widest range of hydrogen-proven burners available on the market to serve all industries.” The Lhyfe-Fives agreement follows a similar deal between Air Products and ThyssenKrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers in 2020.

Projects in West Asia and South America such as those discussed by Limak Çimento and Cemento Yura are not necessarily where one might expect them to be. Typically all the sustainability news in the cement sector tends to be dominated by companies in Europe and North America. This is reflected in the continents that Lhyfe and Fives have targeted this week. Yet, the focus by Limak and Yura on hydrogen suggests that these companies are hunting for decarbonisation options that are cost effective ahead of potential legislative enforcement. Both appear to be using hydrogen as a fuel enhancer or additive rather than on its own.

We have reported upon a steady stream of hydrogen projects for the cement sector in the last year. These include Heidelberg Materials' study looking at using ammonia as a hydrogen source for fuelling cement kilns at its Ribblesdale cement plant in the UK, Fives work with Holcim at the La Malle plant in France and much work by Cemex such as the increase of its stake in green hydrogen production technology developer HiiROC in late 2023. As with Global Cement Weekly’s previous reporting on hydrogen, the jury is still out on whether it is a ‘goer’ for heavy industry at scale. An executive at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told a conference in March 2024 that the infrastructure investment to support the use of hydrogen would cost over US$1Tn in the US and Europe alone. The head of Saudi Aramco then pointed out at the same event that oil and gas, for now at least, cost far less than hydrogen. Despite this, the projects keep coming.

Global: Lhyfe and Fives have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide a decarbonised solution for the cement industry, covering everything from hydrogen production to combustion. This initiative is designed to accelerate the energy transition by enabling the use of hydrogen in process industries without the need to modify existing equipment.

Lhyfe will produce and supply green hydrogen, while Fives will offer optimised and safe solutions for its use in industrial combustion processes, including cement production.

France: Fives Group has partnered with Holcim to decarbonise its cement production processes. Fives conducted successful hydrogen tests at the La Malle site in France, achieving over 50% hydrogen substitution in cement production. This result also enabled a significant increase in the use of alternative fuels while still maintaining cement quality. The group has also developed a digital model to tailor this process to each cement plant's unique requirements.

Mexico: Cementos Moctezuma has awarded a contract to France-based Fives FCB to supply an FCB Horomill 3800 grinding mill for its Morelos cement plant in Tepetzingo. The supplier says that the mill offers a lower power consumption than any competing product in the market. The latest mill will be the 15th Fives FCB mill at a Cementos Moctezuma cement plant in Mexico. Fives FCB says that its mills had accumulated 1.5m hours of operation across three different sites at the end of 2022.

Bahrain: Fives Services Gulf has held the inauguration ceremony for its Bahrain workshop. The facility includes offices, warehouses and machining, parts production and repair facilities. The site first entered operation amid Covid-19 restrictions in early 2021.

Fives Services Gulf chief executive Frederic Gicquel said "We are proud to be part of the industrial development of Bahrain and support the government's efforts to improve the foreign investor experience. This workshop will enable us to provide better quality services to our clients in the region and contribute to the sustainable growth of the industrial sector."

The subsidiary of France-based Fives employs 134 people.

Senegal: The International Finance Corporation (ICF) has arranged a Euro242m finance package for SOCOCIM Industries to build a new production line at its Rufisque cement plant in Dakar Region. Euro214m of the loans will be used to decarbonise cement production at the site, including a contribution towards a larger Euro260m upgrade project. The new planned production line will have an alternative fuels substitution rate of 70%, increased energy efficiency and will reduce the plant’s CO₂ emissions.

The finance package organised by the IFC comprises a Euro120m loan from the IFC's own account and Euro122m equivalent in local currency parallel loans from Société Générale Sénégal, CBAO Groupe Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Internationale Pour Le Commerce et l'Industrie du Sénégal, and Ecobank Sénégal. Société Générale Sénégal has been appointed as the administrative agent to manage the local currency financing with the other lenders.

SOCOCIM is a subsidiary of France-based Vicat. Fives revealed in early 2022 that it would supply a 6500t/day kiln line for the Rufisque plant.

France: Fives has secured a contract to supply a 65MW Pillard NOVAFLAM Evolution burner to a cement producer. The customer’s aims are to continue to maximise alternative fuel (AF) use, to improve clinker quality and to reduce NO_x emissions at its cement plant. The order also includes precalciner burners and a natural gas-powered 35MW Pillard hot gas generator, as well as valve trains and pumping systems.