Displaying items by tag: GCW346

Germany: Schade Lagertechnik has achieved re-accreditation under the international quality management system ISO 9001, as well as under the environmental standard ISO 14001 and the occupational health and safety standard OHSAS 18001. The audit was carried out by TÜV Hessen and completes Schade’s transition to the 2015 standard for quality and environmental management.

China: Anhui Conch’s sales revenue grew by 35% year-on-year to US$11.9bn in 2017 from US$8.85bn in 2016. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$2.51bn from US$1.36bn. The cement producer said that it had, ‘seized the favourable opportunities arising from the state’s further deepening of supply-side structural reform and the promotion of off-peak season production.’

During the year Anhui Conch opened eight cement grinding plants including Quanjiao Conch Cement, Anhui Xuancheng Conch Cement and Nantong Conch Cement. Outside of China the company completed phase two of its Merak grinding plant in Indonesia and started cement production and completed construction of the North Sulawesi Conch plant in Indonesia and the Battambang Conch plant in Cambodia. The units in Indonesia and Cambodia are due to start production in 2018. A new plant, Luang Prabang Conch, is being built in Laos and preliminary work on projects at Volga Conch in Russia, Vientiane in Laos and Mandalay in Myanmar is underway. At the end of 2017 Anhui Conch says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 246t/yr and 335Mt/yr respectively.

The cement producer also announced that its Baimashan Cement plant was intending to start operating a CO₂ collection and purification pilot project in the first half of 2018. The initiative is part of the group’s moves to implement the government’s low-carbon development strategy.

China: Tianrui Cement grew in sales revenue in 2017 due to higher sales prices. However, its sales volumes of cement fell slightly to 29.3Mt in 2017 from 29.5Mt in 2016. This followed government mandated supply side reform and environmental measures such as production suspension. Its sales revenue rose by 40% year-on-year to US$1.33bn from US$950m. Its profit nearly tripled to US$157m from US$39.5m.

The cement producer added that by the end of 2017 all of its clinker production lines were equipped with denitrification systems and bag filters. These upgrades brought the concentration of emitted nitrogen oxides and particulates below the national pollutant emission standards and the concentration of emitted sulphur dioxide also met national standards.

It also completed its acquisitions of majority stakes in Henan Yongan Cement and Tianrui Xindeng Zhengzhou Cement.

Indonesia: Indocement’s sales revenue fell by 6% year-on-year to US$1.01bn in 2017 from US$1.12bn in 2016. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement saw its operating income fall by nearly half to US$131m from US$255m. In HeidelbergCement’s annual report it said that, although cement and clinker sales grew by 5.5% in 2017, prices fell due to excess production capacity.

Ivory Coast/Senegal: The West African Development Bank (Board) has approved loans for cement plant projects in Ivory Coast and Senegal. It will give US$47m to Ciments Du Sahel for it to build a third clinker production line at its plant in Kirène. The new line will have a production capacity of 2.7Mt/yr. It has also approved a loan of US$9.4m for Ciments de Côte d’Ivoire (Cimivoire) to build a new 3Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Abidjan.

South Africa: Dangote Cement South Africa’s sales revenue rose by 3.7% year-on-year to US$200m in 2017 from US$192m in 2016. The subsidiary of Nigeria’s Dangote Cement attributed the result to increased demand and improvements in operational efficiency in the second half of the year. Its net profit fell by 16.2% to US$4.87m from US$5.81m due to one-off income from the closure agreement with Sinoma on the final handover of a new cement plant.

The cement producer added that the local cement industry increased its prices and ‘customer mix stability’ in 2017. Total estimated sales volumes including imports fell by 0.8% to 12.9Mt from 13Mt.

Nigeria: China’s CBMI and LafargeHolcim have held a signing ceremony for a 5000t/day cement plant upgrade project near Ewekoro. The deal follows previous collaborations between the companies in the country, including work at Ewekoro and Unicem.

India: Anjani Portland Cement plans to build a new clinker production line at its Chintalapalem plant at Gudimalkapuram in Telangana. The plant has a production capacity of 1.16Mt/yr and this will rise to 2.31Mt/yr once the upgrade is complete. The project is expected to cost US$61m. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.

Syria: An investigation by the Agence France Presse has found that one local employee of Lafarge in Syria was killed and another has been missing for five years. According to the news agency, Syrian mechanic Yassin Ismail, who was employed at Lafarge's plant at Jalabiya, was kidnapped by jihadist fighters in 2013. He was subsequently executed, according to relatives and former work colleagues. Another mechanic Abdul al-Homada, was disappeared in Aleppo in 2013 while attempting to collect his salary.

LafargeHolcim is being investigated in France over claims that Lafarge Syria had paid extremist groups to keep its Jalabiya cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria. Six former Lafarge executives have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation. Those managers could also face prosecution for endangering the lives of their local Syrian employees after 11 of them filed their own lawsuit alleging that Lafarge put financial profit before their personal safety.

Turkey: Germany’s KHD Humboldt Wedag plans to increase its field staff at its office in Istanbul. They will primarily work on site in supervision for assembly and commissioning. The engineering company added that it intends to continue to increase its workforce in the country and that ‘experienced and well-trained cement experts’ should apply proactively.