Displaying items by tag: GCW321

Pakistan: Cherat Cement has contracted Finland’s Wärtsilä to increase its power output at its Nowshera plant. It has ordered three Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both natural gas and heavy fuel oil (HFO). The total electrical output will be approximately 29MW. Wärtsilä will also provide advisors to oversee the installation and commissioning of the engines.

“We need to enlarge our facilities and this we must to do quickly on a tight schedule. Wärtsilä has supported this timetable by agreeing to deliver their generating sets on a very short timetable…” said Azam Faruque, chief executive officer of Cherat Cement. The Nowshera cement plant is also powered by Wärtsilä equipment, consisting of four Wärtsilä 32 engines.

The new generators are scheduled for delivery in March 2018 and the plant is expected to be fully operational by June 2018.

US: Lafarge North America, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, has officially opened the upgrade to its Ravena cement plant in New York. The upgrade work took three years at a reported cost of US$300m.

“By modernising the plant, we have transformed it into an efficient, competitive and state-of-the-art facility that will allow us to meet the growing needs of our customers and remain a strong partner to the community for the foreseeable future,” said John Stull, chief executive officer (CEO) US Cement, LafargeHolcim. He added that the plant has supplied cement for high profile projects, including the Tappan Zee bridge reconstruction and One World Trade Center Memorial.

Upgrade work focused on building a new clinker production line to modernise the previously wet process plant. Following the work the plant now has a clinker production capacity of 2Mt/yr with improved emissions levels and higher operational performance.

Cuba: Cementos Cienfuegos has gradually restarted production following Hurricane Irma hitting the island in early September 2017. Electricity was restored to the site on 14 September 2017 enabling the cement mills to be operated. The kiln was ignited on 19 September 2017, according to the 5 de Septiembre newspaper. Components damaged by the storm included the insulation covering electrofilters on the plant’s tower, broken power cables and a breach to a water dyke near the site.

Bolivia: Ramiro Heredia, the technology manager of Empresa Publica Productiva Cementos de Bolivia (ECEBOL), says that the company has an issue with the water supply to the new Potosí cement plant it is planning near Chuitara. The cement producer has asked the local government for help, according to the El Potosí newspaper. Once operational the plant will require 6.5l/s, although it will be able to cope with 3.5l/s during the construction phase. ECEBOL is also due to sign a contract with Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) to provide electivity to the unit. Construction at the site is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2018.

Germany: Private equity company Blackstone has agreed to buy Schenck Process from IK Investment Partners. No further details, including the cost of the transaction, have been disclosed.

“Schenck is an innovative and unrivalled leader, and we see considerable opportunity to grow the business both organically and by acquisitions in its various end markets. We are excited to team up with management and accompany Schenck in the next stage of its development,” said Lionel Assant, Head of European Private Equity at Blackstone.

Detlef Dinsel, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK 2007 Fund said that Schenck had, “…transformed its business focus from a mechanical manufacturer to a service and integrated solutions provider, achieved significant growth by expanding the product portfolio and entering new markets both organically and through selected add-on acquisitions.”

Schenck develops and manufactures solutions for a wide range of industrial processes including weighing, feeding, conveying and filtration. With over 2300 employees worldwide and significant operations across Europe, North and South America, China, India and Australia, Schenck serves a diversified customer base across a variety of industries, including food, chemicals, mining and construction.

US: Ireland’s CRH has agreed to buy Ash Grove Cement for US$3.5bn. The American cement producer operates eight cement plants across eight US states, combined with ready mix concrete, aggregates and associated logistics assets across the US midwest. Once shareholder and regulatory approval is obtained the deal is expected to complete by the end of 2017.

"Ash Grove is an excellent addition to CRH's portfolio of businesses across North America as we seek to deploy our capital into high quality businesses that enhance our global asset base and provide opportunities to create shareholder value. We welcome the Ash Grove team to CRH and look forward to further developing our longstanding relationship as part of one company," said Albert Manifold, chief executive of CRH.

Before the purchase agreement Ash Grove Cement was the largest domestically-owned cement producer in the US. The company has operated for 135 years and over a century of this time it has been run by the Sunderland family.

France: French investigators have interviewed three former Lafarge Syria workers as part of an inquiry in to the company’s conduct in Syria. A computer worker, an engineer and packing line worker at one of the company’s cement plants travelled from Syria to be questioned, according to the Agence France Presse. The trio are the first witnesses to be called by the judicial inquiry that started in June 2017. It is investigating whether the subsidiary of Lafarge indirectly paid armed groups, including the ‘Islamic State’ group, to keep its plant during the Syrian Civil War.

South Africa: AfriSam has described its offer with Fairfax Financial Holdings to buy a stake in PPC for US$154m as ‘fair.’ In a questions and answer statement on its website it commented that the “…Partial Offer and Merger reflect the fair and relative value of PPC and AfriSam based on the unaffected market price for PPC shares and other valuation benchmarks.” PPC described the offer to its shareholders as low and has confirmed that it has been in communication with other potential bidders, including Nigeria’s Dangote Cement.

France: Denmark’s Aalborg Portland has inaugurated its terminal at Rochefort. The Atlantic port terminal is intended to supply the west of France, according to the Sud-Ouest newspaper. The terminal has a capacity of 4900t and it has been operational since May 2017.

Pakistan: DG Khan Cement’s profit after taxation has fallen by 6.3% year-on-year to US$74.5m in the financial year that ended on 30 June 2017 from US$79.5m in the same period in 2016. It blamed the decline on its expensive coal inventory, higher power costs and low prices, according to the News International newspaper. Despite this its sales revenue rose slightly to US$308m.