Displaying items by tag: GCW287

Last month’s prize for the most clichéd phrases in the cement news nearly went to UK technology firm Hanhaa and its ‘internet of packaging.’ At first glance the phrase seems like a hackneyed marketing play on the ‘internet of things,’ where objects outside of normal computers start to get networked, allowing for ‘added value.’ Silly wording maybe, but the intent is serious. Tracking is a vital part of logistics for industries like cement. The investors in Hanhaa, BillerudKorsnäs, may be on to something. Indeed, in 10 years time we may be kicking ourselves that we didn’t see it.

One drawback with networking everything though is that all sorts of items start to become vulnerable to computer hacking. The famous industrial example in recent years was the so-called Stuxnet virus, an alleged attempt by US and Israeli intelligence services to physically damage parts of the Iranian nuclear industry. It was intended to damage centrifuges by looking for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) made by Siemens in very particular circumstances. A good overview on Stuxnet can be gained by watching Alex Gibney’s documentary ‘Zero Days.’

The problem for cement plants is that they also use PLCs for process control in common with other heavy industry. Effectively, whoever built Stuxnet has shown criminals how to attack any industrial plants that uses PLCs. Unsurprisingly, given the drip-drip of bad publicity, Siemens made a point of saying that it had gained a cybersecurity certification from TÜV SÜD, a German inspection and certification organisation, for some of its related products in late 2016.

Actual examples of cement plants being attacked are hard to find. Low-level cyber intrusions are likely to be treated akin to, say, individuals trespassing on a plant grounds and more serious incidents are probably kept quiet. ThyssenKrupp’s Industrial Solutions division, that builds cement plants amongst other things, reported that it had data stolen in an online attack from somewhere in Southeast Asia in 2016. Data espionage is one thing. Physical damage to an industrial plant is quite another. Previous to this, an unnamed German steel plant was reported to have been damaged by a systematically planned attack in 2014. Another way hackers can mess up your day is via extortion attempts or so-called ransonware attacks where systems are shut down until a ransom is paid. Recent examples of this in the wider public sphere include attempts to extort the San Francisco Municipal Railway in November 2016 and the St Louis Public Library system in January 2017. Despite shutting down their systems neither organisation paid up.

From our perspective, the Global Cement website runs using a common content management system (CMS) that runs on commonly used server software. Due to this we constantly receive low-level hacking and exploit attempts from automated scripts attempting to find weaknesses in the setup. New exploits are found, hacking attempts occur, software is updated and the cycle continues. However, the key difference between the Global Cement website and a cement producer is the turnover. A cement plant operates in millions or hundreds of millions. In this way, for hackers the return on investment of hacking an industrial plant is far higher. even if it is using limited-run proprietary software and equipment. And even if critical parts of a plant’s system are security hardened, hackers may be able to find a way in via less secure areas and then work their way across. Staff smartphones accessing a local wifi network, contractors using insecure USB drives, and hackers using social engineering techniques such as confidence tricks to gain system logins by phone are just some methods that could grant intruders digital access.

A report by Ponemon placed the average annualised cost of cyber crime to the industrial sector worldwide at US$8.05m. Although the authors point out sample size issues with their calculation, industry is the fifth most affected sector in terms of losses after finance, utilities, technology and services. Networking innovations in industry such as the ‘internet of packaging’ are potential game changers as added value from the network effect and suchlike becomes factored in. The risk though is that these kind of innovations also offer opportunities to criminals and anarchists. It’s likely only a matter of time until a serious hacking attack at a cement plant becomes public knowledge.

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Austria: Peter Oswald has been appointed as the next chief executive officer (CEO) of Mondi Group. The current CEO, David Hathorn, will retire from the role on 11 May 2017 following the group’s annual general meeting whereupon Oswald will succeed him. Subsequently Hathorn will continue to work for Mondi in an executive capacity until his retirement in February 2018.

Oswald graduated in law from the University of Vienna and in business administration from WU-Vienna Business School. He began his career with Deutsche Bank and automotive company KTM. He joined the Frantschach Group in 1992 as the head of internal audit, later becoming corporate controller. After serving as chief executive of its bag and flexibles business from 1995 to 2001, he was appointed chief executive of Mondi Packaging Europe in 2002, leading its subsequent integration with Frantschach into the new Mondi packaging division. Oswald was appointed chief executive officer of the Europe & International Division in January 2008. He is also currently serving as chairman of the Confederation of European Paper Industries.

Germany: Heribert Breuer has retired as the managing director of Allmineral. Breuer was one of the founders of the company in 1988 and he worked for it since then helping to integrate the company into Hazemag. He will be succeeded by Marco Steinberg.

Steinberg previously worked as the Vice President Global Sales & Marketing for MBE Coal & Minerals Technology, which was previously known as KHD Humboldt Wedag Coal & Minerals. His focus in the new position will be to expand the product portfolio of the subsidiary and build on technological advances.

Allmineral manufactures customised processing plants for the raw materials industry. More than 750 installations designed in Duisburg for dry and wet processing of primary and secondary raw materials are currently operating reliably and efficiently around the world.

Pakistan: Syed Jamal Shahid has retired as a director of Fauji Cement with effect from 19 January 2017. Tahir Ashraf Khan has been appointed as a director of the company with effect from 20 January 2017.

Saudi Arabia: Tabuk Cement has appointed Saeed Bin Saeed Obaid as its new chairman. He succeeds Khalid Bin Saleh Al-Shathry.

Japan: Ube Industries net sales have fallen by 5.8% year-on-year to US$1.49bn for the first nine months of 2016 from US$1.59bn in the same period in 2015. Its operating income fell by 21% to US$109m from US$139m. The cement producer blamed the declines on weak demand for cement, low prices and rising prices of coal in the third quarter despite a strong export market.

Bangladesh: Loesche has received an order to supply a 56.3+3 CS type vertical roller mill for the Aman Group’s Haria 2 cement plant at Narayangonj near Dhaka. The contractor for this order is the China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC). It follows a previous order by the Aman Group for a Loesche LM 56.3+3 CS mill that was supplied in 2014 for the Haria 1 line. The new mill was supplied in late 2016.

The roller mill for the Haria 2 line has a production capacity of 240t/hour for Portland and composite cement clinker with a fineness of 3200 Blaine or 175t/hour of ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) with a fineness of 4500 Blaine. It has a drive power of 5300kW. In addition to the mill, the scope of supply also specifies additional technical equipment for the grinding plant including a rotary feed, a two-way chute, a metal detector and a permanent magnet drum separator.

UK: Thermoteknix has announced the launch of its ThermaScope HD kiln and cooler camera Multi-View system at the Global CemFuels Conference 2017 taking place in Barcelona. The new measurement, recording and analysis system for Thermoteknix HD kiln and cooler cameras provides real time screen displays with picture-in-picture layouts to coordinate and continuously record video data and events. A user Interface (UI) has been introduced to maximise the image presentation and to carry out temperature recording, I/O, alarms and analysis in the background. Full OPC compliance gives integration to plant automation and control without the need for custom programming.

An updating time line provides access to past history allowing the user to scroll the kiln and/or cooler video backwards or forwards in time to review, recall or compare fuel changes and events in the pyro process. ThermaScope Multiview software allows the operator to navigate graphically through past events, viewing the kiln process as on-going and illustrated in the timeline.

Multi-View provides the engineer with the ability to trend prospectively or retrospectively any point or area in the image by placing tools on the live (or historic) image to show the effects caused by changes in operational parameters, fuel, combustion, kiln speed, or other factors affecting production and clinker quality.

Honduras: Cementos Argos has inaugurated its 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at San Lorenzo. It spent US$25m on the upgrade project and it has created 100 new direct and indirect jobs. The plant, formerly known as Cesur Grinding Station, was purchased from Lafarge in 2013. The refurbished plant will add to the cement producer’s assets in the country including an integrated cement plant in Comayagua and a terminal in San Pedro Sula.

Iran: Data from the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade of Iran reports that the country’s cement production fell by 1.4% year-on-year to 42.7Mt in the first nine months of the Iranian calendar year that started on 31 March 2016. Cement production has fluctuated in recent years due to weak domestic demand, according to the Trend News Agency. Other issues the cement industry has experienced have included a recession in the local construction industry, low supplies of natural gas, low international oil prices and declining exports.