Displaying items by tag: GCW355
Mozambique: President Filipe Nyusi has inaugurated the 0.25Mt/yr Cimentos de Maiaia plant in Nacala. The US$10m project was a joint venture between Chinese firms and local investors, according to the Mozambique News Agency. Chinese investors provided 85% of the funding. The new plant is the third in the port of Nacala. Cimentos de Maiaia plans to focus on markets in the north of the country.
Nigeria: Ibeto Cement has signed a deal with Milost Global for US$850m. The US-based private equity firm will provide US$500m in equity and US$350m as debt to the cement producer, according to Bloomberg. In a separate development Ibeto Cement has also entered into a reverse merger with Century Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration company.
Ibeto Cement has operated a cement terminal in Port Harcourt since 2005. It is also renovating the former Nigercem plant in Nkalagu. It announced a US$386m contract with China’s Sinoma in late 2015 to build a cement plant in Enugu.
Rwanda: Vincent Munyeshyaka, the Minister of Trade and Industry, says that traders who are charging too much for cement will be fined. He told the New Times newspaper that about 30 traders have been fined for cement price speculation so far. Fines range up to about US$350. The country has faced a shortage of cement since February 2018 when local producer Cimerwa started upgrade work at its Bugarama plant.
Bestway Cement orders four mills from Loesche
29 May 2018Pakistan: Germany’s Loesche has sold four vertical roller mills (VRM) to Bestway Cement through China’s Sinoma International Engineering. The mills will be used to upgrade Bestway Cement’s Farooqia plant in the Punjab province. No expected date of commissioning or value for the order has been disclosed.
The order consists of one raw mill, one coal mill and two clinker mills. One four-roller mill VRM with a capacity of 450t/hr will be used to grind cement raw material to a fineness of 12% with sieving residue of R 90μm. Two further mills with a throughput of 170t/hr will serve for the subsequent grinding of cement clinker to a fineness of 3200 Blaine. One large modular VRM with a capacity of 40t/hr will be used in the grinding of coal to a fineness of 10% and R 90μm sieving residue.
India: Binani Cement's committee of creditors (COC) has accepted a bid by UltraTech Cement. The COC will now submit UltraTech Cement’s plan to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for approval, according to the Times of India newspaper. However, the Supreme Court is also looking at the case following a petition by rival bidder Dalmia Bharat.
UltraTech Cement made a direct bid of US$1.12bn for the bankrupt Binani Cement following an auction in March 2018 that was originally won by Dalmia Bharat. Dalmia Bharat has disputed UltraTech Cement’s offer and the two companies have conducted legal campaigns to reinforce their respective claims.
Cyclone Mekunu shuts down Raysut Cement
29 May 2018Oman: Cyclone Mekunu has forced Raysut Cement to stop production for eight to 10 days. The cement producer said that the storm caused external damage to its plant at Salalah and flooded production buildings and the stockyard.
Cemex sells Amazon terminal to Votorantim
29 May 2018Brazil: Cemex Latam has signed an agreement to sell its stake in Cimento Vencemos do Amazonas to Votorantim Cimentos for US$30m. Cimento Vencemos do Amazonas operates a river cement terminal in Manaus in Amazonas, according to the La Republica newspaper. The deal is subject to approval by the Brazilian and Colombian competition bodies and the Brazilian waterways transportation agency.
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa’s chairman Mobolaji Balogun says that the company plans to cut its debts by 2020 before continuing with its expansion programme. In an interview with Bloomberg he said that the cement producer wants reduce its leverage ratio to below 70% from over 100% at present.
The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim wants to take advantage of improvements in the Nigerian economy and a recovery in South Africa to grow its profits. Its total debt recently dropped to about US$600m. Lafarge Africa incurred debt to expand the production capacity at its Calabar cement plant and plans to add more production to plants in the southwest and the north of the country.
India: Grasim Industries plans to invest up to US$870m in its cement business by the end of 2021. The subsidiary of Aditya Birla that also operates UltraTech Cement, wants to modernise its existing cement plants, carry out environmental upgrades and increase the production capacity of the units it acquired from Jaiprakash Associates, according to the Mint newspaper.
Aditya Birla Group’s chief financial officer Sushil Agarwal said that the company wants to increase the capacity utilisation rate of the former Jaiprakash Associates cement plants to over 85%, the standard level for the other UltraTech Cement plants. He added that on average cement plants in India have a capacity utilisation rate of 75%.
Qatar: France’s Fives FCB has released more information about its project to build a fifth production line for Qatar National Cement at its Umm Bab plant. The new 5000t/day clinker line was ordered in April 2014 and Fives has been responsible for the supply of a complete production line from raw material preparation to cement despatch. The new line is expected to be commissioned in the first half of 2018.
The line uses natural gas for fuel. Raw material preparation includes a 1000t/hr double impact rotor crusher for limestone, clay or shale, a gamma ray analyser, two limestone storage silos of 30,000t and two shale and clay storage siloes of 10,000t. For raw meal grinding the line will use a 440t/hr FCB B-mill with a diameter of 5.6m, a length of 21.2m and a power of 6600kW. It also has a FCB TSV 7500 Classifier BF.
The 5000t/day kiln consists of a five-stage single string FCB Preheater with low pressure drop cyclones, a FCB Zero-NOx Precalciner with a diameter of 5.2m fitted with a Pillard PRECAFLAM burner, a three piers FCB rotary Kiln with a diameter of 4.8m and length of 76m, a Pillard NOVAFLAM burner for rotary kiln, a clinker grate cooler with an active area of 112m2, an electrostatic precipitator for cooler dedusting, a Pillard ROTAFLAM burner as auxiliary burner and a Pillard HeatGen Systems for hot gas generation. The kiln line also includes Fives TGT UP Filters for the kiln and alkali bypass. The line has a 40,000t clinker storage silo.
Cement grinding comprises two FCB B mills with a capacity of 115t/hr. These have a diameter of 4.6m, a length of 14m and a power of 4200kW respectively. Cement grinding also includes Two Fives SONAIR Filters, two FCB TSV Classifiers and two Fives SONAIR Filters. Cement storage consists of two 20,000t silos.
Finally, cement packing and dispatch includes four truck loading systems with a capacity of 250 - 300t/yr each and one big bag loading station with a capacity of 30t/hr.
The project follows collaboration between Fives and Qatar National Cement on lines two, three and four at Umm Bab.