Displaying items by tag: GCW177
Cemex Nicaragua wins safety recognition
17 November 2014Nicaragua: Cemex Nicaragua, has been awarded a national prize as a leading business for its industrial safety management procedures. The award was given by the National Council for Work Safety and Hygiene and refers to the firm's Canal plant in southwest Managua. The firm is building a new production unit in the northeast section of the same city at the moment. This new unit is due to begin operations early in 2015.
Iran expects to make 120Mt/yr by 2025
17 November 2014Iran: Iran has exported over 11.79Mt of cement and clinker during the first seven months of the current Iranian fiscal year, a period spanning 21 March 2014 to 22 October 2014. The Secretary of Iran's Cement Industry Employers Association, Abdolreza Sheikhan said that 8.1Mt of cement and 3.6Mt of clinker was exported.
Sheikhan added that around 32.5Mt of the country's total cement output was distributed in domestic markets during the first six months of the current fiscal year. Iran produced 41.6Mt of cement in the first seven months of the Iranian fiscal year. It exported over 20Mt of cement during the previous fiscal year.
Iran's Industry, Mines and Trade Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh has forecast that the country's cement export will hit 120Mt/yr by 2025.
Six candidates shortlisted for PPC CEO job
14 November 2014South Africa: PPC has compiled a shortlist of six candidates to succeed Ketso Gordhan as CEO and will make an appointment after a shareholders' meeting in December 2014, according to chairman Bheki Sibiya.
"We have 85 candidates, of whom six are the cream of the crop," said Sibiya. "We are looking at a person who is going to buy into the board's strategy. We are not looking at anybody who is going to change it."
Oyak Group eyes LafargeHolcim assets amid expansion
14 November 2014Turkey: Oyak Group, Turkey's military pension fund, has US$2bn in cash for acquisitions and may spend some of it on assets being divested by Lafarge and Holcim.
Oyak is interested in Holcim and Lafarge businesses in countries including Romania, Serbia and Hungary, according to Celal Caglar, Oyak's head of the cement and automotive unit. Holcim and Lafarge need to sell units to gain regulatory approval for their planned merger to form LafargeHolcim. In Europe, regulators have set a 15 December 2014 deadline to either approve the deal or open a deeper investigation.
"We are interested in bidding as Oyak or together with a European group," said Caglar. Oyak has US$2bn in cash for acquisitions and can leverage it more than five times if needed, he added. "We are closely following the sale process."
On 10 November 2014 Oyak completed the purchase of Turkey's Denizli Çimento from Ireland's CRH and Turkey's Eren Holding AS for between US$400m and US$450m, as part of Oyak's expansion plans. Oyak has a cement production capacity in Turkey of 20.1Mt/yr, or 19% of the country's market share, through its six plants, including Denizli. It has a clinker production capacity of 10.3Mt/yr, or 15% of Turkey's total. Oyak expects Turkey's cement market to grow by 5% in 2015 after an estimated 6% in 2014, helped by projects including highways, a road tunnel under the Bosporus, stadium constructions and new metro lines.
Coretrax launches CX-IST technology for well cement placement
14 November 2014UK: Coretrax, leading engineered service for wellbore clean and abandonment, has launched its CX-IST (Inflation Support Tool) to the oil and gas market, following a US$3m development investment.
The CX-IST significantly reduces rig time, offering substantial cost savings. It gives a positive indication that the cement will be set in the correct place before latching at the bottom of the work string, using a pre-installed landing sub. Once secure, pump pressure inflates the elastomer to seal the wellbore. The IST is then released by picking up the work string. The CX-IST creates a 100% wall-to-wall base for well cement or fluid. The operator can deploy as many ISTs as needed in the same or multiple zones without tripping the drill pipe in and out of the hole, providing significant operator time and cost reductions.
"This is a monumental success for Coretrax and a game changer for the entire industry," said Kenny Murray, managing director at Coretrax. "The team is passionate about the business and has worked tirelessly for three years, from initial stages, to produce an innovative product, which will benefit the oil and gas sector."
TOJCHIN grinding plant in Vahdat to be completed in April 2015
14 November 2014Tajikistan: All of the necessary equipment will be delivered to Tajikistan for a cement plant that is being built at the Chormaghzak Pass in Vahdat Township before the end of 2014, according to Abduhalim Qodirov, the director general of the Tajik-Chinese joint venture, TOJCHIN, which is building the plant.
Construction of the plant began on 1 October 2014. The first line, which has 600,000t/yr of cement production capacity, will be introduced into operation in April 2015.
"360 specialists, mainly citizens of Tajikistan, are involved in construction of the plant," said Qodirov, noting that the plant would have a cement production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr when completed. The plant is expected to provide 500 jobs. The total cost of the project is US$30m, including US$23m invested by Chinese business circles and US$7m contributed by Tajik private entrepreneurs.
Under the law passed by Tajikistan's lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament on 12 November 2014, TOJCHIN is exempted from paying value added tax (VAT) and customs duties (totalling US4.6m) on equipment shipments.
Titan's third quarter 2014 profit boosted by weak Euro
14 November 2014Greece: Titan has announced that its third quarter net profit more than tripled, helped by foreign exchange gains from a weakening Euro.
Titan's net profit rose to Euro27.6m in the third quarter of 2014, compared to Euro7.2m in the same period of 2013. A weaker Euro against the Dollar and the Egyptian Pound led to foreign exchange gains of Euro21m in the quarter. In 2013, Titan had currency losses of Euro4.5m.
Sales rose by 2% year-on-year to Euro309m, with growth in the US and Greece more than offsetting a decline in Egypt, where natural gas supply shortages hurt the operation of its plants. Titan said that it was optimistic on its performance for the rest of 2014, citing a continuing recovery in the US and expectations for higher cement consumption in Greece for the first time in seven years.
McInnis Cement awards 6000t/day cement plant contract to ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (USA)
13 November 2014Canada: ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions and McInnis Cement have announced a sales/purchase agreement valued at US$133m for the manufacture and supply by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (USA) of a complete cement production line.
The new 6000t/day capacity plant is currently under construction on a greenfield site in the Port-Daniel-Gascons area of Quebec, Canada. The new plant will be complete with a POLCID proprietary process control system to monitor and control all aspects of the plant and a POLAB laboratory automation system to assure product quality. The plant is scheduled for commissioning in 2016 with full production starting later in that year.
"The McInnis Cement project represents the most technologically advanced and environmentally sound plant of its kind, designed to meet or beat the most stringent requirements of both the Canadian and American environmental agencies," said Mark S Terry, president of the resource technologies division of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions (USA). "Combined with the extensive experience of both project teams, we have the complete recipe for success for the Port-Daniel-Gascons facility.''
The main components include: a 1800t/hr quarry crushing plant, a raw material reclaim system comprises a bridge reclaimer for limestone and four portal reclaimers for other additives or fuel, a QUADROPOL vertical roller mill for raw grinding and a blending silo for raw meal storage, with a capacity of 10000t. The Polysius kiln line will consist of a five-stage, two-string PREPOL AS-MSC preheater, a 5.2m x 75m POLRO rotary kiln and a POLYTRACK cooler with intermediate roll crusher. Cement grinding will take place in two QUADROPOL vertical roller mills with SEPOL high-efficiency separators. The plant will be rounded off with three cement silos (with a capacity of 120,000t) as well as cement truck and ship loading facilities.
Thang Long Cement to construct a second 2.3Mt/yr line
13 November 2014Vietnam: Semen Gresik is reportedly preparing to double the annual production capacity of 2.3Mt/yr of the Thang Long Cement plant in Hoanh Bo District, Quang Ninh Province, through building the second production line. The Thang Long Cement 2 project is on the list of projects approved by the prime minister in 2011 for investment during the 2016 - 2020 period and features in the country's sectoral master plan. Semen Gresik acquired a 70% stake in Thang Long Cement for US$157m in 2012.
India Cements returns to profit
13 November 2014India: The India Cements Ltd (ICL) has returned to black in the second quarter of its 2015 financial year, which ended 30 September 2014, after reporting loss for four quarters in a row. It has reported profit for the quarter despite a drop in volume and rising cost pressures.
The India Cements reported a net profit before tax of US$1.22m for the second quarter of the 2015 financial year, compared to a loss of US$5.11m in the previous year. Sales volumes were down by 3% to 2.35Mt against 2.44Mt in the prior year. Net sales were higher at US$184m during the quarter, compared to US$176m in the previous year.
T S Raghupathy, special adviser to The India Cements, said that the Indian cement industry reported a 9% in the first half of the 2015 financial year. However, growth in the south was the weakest among the regions. Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the principal markets for India Cements, virtually saw de-growth, he added.