Displaying items by tag: GCW385

Chile: Colbún has signed a deal with Grupo Polpaico to supply the cement producer with 183GWhr/yr of renewable energy for a 10 year period. Cementos Polpaico will start using renewable energy at its Cerro Blanco integrated plant and its Coronel cement grinding plant in 2019 to allow energy efficiency upgrades to be implemented. Other plants in the group’s portfolio will start using the renewable energy supply by 2022.

US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) says that the upgrade to its Rapid City cement plant in South Dakota has started operation. The expansion has added 0.44Mt/yr of production capacity to the unit taking its total capacity to 1.18Mt/yr. The project cost US$105m and it started in 2016. Tie-in of the upgrade was finished in late November 2018. Production was suspended during the tie-in-process and has now resumed. The new facilities are now being stabilised.

“The Rapid City expansion comes at an opportune time, as our US cement plants are running nearly at full capacity, and we expect to see continued, steady growth in demand across our market area. We will be able to serve our customers better and operate our cement logistics network more efficiently with the additional capacity,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC’s chief executive officer (CEO).

GCC has 5.8Mt/yr of cement production capacity. Of this, 3.5Mt/yr is in the US, with plants in Pueblo in Colorado, Odessa in Texas, Tijeras in New Mexico, Trident in Montana and Rapid City in South Dakota. GCC expects to ramp up the new production capacity at Rapid City gradually over the next 18 to 24 months, in accordance with market conditions.

GCC’s cement production capacity in Mexico is 2.3Mt/yr from plants in Chihuahua, Juarez and Samalayuca in Chihuahua state. In the third quarter of 2018, GCC reactivated two idled kilns in Chihuahua to increase production of both oil well cement and construction cement.

US: France’s Fives Group has released detail about a project to upgrade the cement mill workshop at Giant Cement’s Harleyville plant in South Carolina. The contracts included the complete engineering, supply, fabrication, transport, installation and commissioning services for material handling, cement grinding and cement loading. New equipment included a clinker and additives transport circuit with a dedusting system, a classifying circuit with a FCB TSV Classifier, a new Fives TGT Filter, all gas and material connections as well as the ball mill internals revamping, a cement truck bulk loading area and a weighing station.

Engineering, offshore supplies and project management were handled by Fives FCB. Onshore supplies and all site works including civil and structural works, mechanical and electrical installations were covered by Fives Solios. Major milestones of the project included starting civil works in November 2017. Mechanical and electrical erection work ran from February to July 2018. First cement production was on 29 June 2018.

Uzbekistan: Uzbek-Chinese joint venture Titan Cement (unrelated to the Greek group of the same name) has commissioned a 0.2Mt/yr plant in the Korauzyak District of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. The project had an investment of nearly US$40m, according to the Uzbekistan Daily newspaper. The funding was comprised of US$19m in direct investment from the joint venture, US$17m from loans and US$2m in foreign investment. This plant was originally reported as having started operation in mid-2016.

Bangladesh: Saudi Arabian company Engineering Dimensions has signed a partnership agreement with Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to build a cement plant at Chhatak in Sunamgan. BCIC Chairman Shah M Aminul Haque and Engineering Dimensions President Mohammed N Hijji signed the deal, according to the Financial Express newspaper. Representatives of the Ministry of Industries and the Saudi Arabian embassy also attended the ceremony.

Germany: The RKW Group came second in a study into ‘Germany's Most Sought-After Employer 2018’ by the FAZ Institute and the IMWF Institute for Management and Economic Research. The institutes looked at the 5000 largest companies in the country and scored them by quality, performance, success, sustainability, corporate culture and values.

The RKW Group is a family-owned company headquartered in Frankenthal, Germany and a manufacturer of film solutions for hygiene, agricultural and beverage sectors. It also produces packaging for powdery goods. In addition, the company makes films and nonwovens for medical applications, for the chemical and converting industries as well as for the construction sector.

UAE: Fives Group’s Mineral Business Line has set up a new subsidiary in the Middle East to support customers with services and technical assistance. Based in Dubai and referring to the Services Department, the new division aims to support Fives' customers through a local presence and by offering its services including upgrade and revamping projects, technical assistance, supply of spare parts, on-site machining and so on.

Nigeria: Ashaka Cement has spent over US$4m on community projects in Gombe state since 2010. The funding has been invested in social initiatives near its Ashaka cement plant and Maiganga coal mine, according to the Daily Independent newspaper. Its projects include training young people in vocational trades and engineering. It also distributed 5000 safety vests to schoolchildren at a community day.

Bolivia: A group of retired workers who used to work for Sociedad Boliviana de Cemento (Soboce) have asked for a 10% share in the cement producer. They have made their request to the company’s largest shareholder, the businessman and politician Samuel Doria Medina, according to the La Razon newspaper. They were allocated a 10% share in the business in 1975. However, the pensioners allege that Doria Medina cancelled their shares using false documentation. Doria Medina holds a 49% share in the company. He sold the other 51% share for US$300m to Holding Cementero, the largest shareholder of Consorcio Cementero del Sur, which is part of Gloria Group in 2014.

Lithuania: The Bega cement terminal has won a ‘Product of Lithuania’ award from the government. Minister of Economy Virginijus Sinkevičius and the President of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK) Robert Dargis presented a medal to Laimonas Rimkus, the general manager of Bega, according to the Vakarų Ekspresas newspaper. The joint venture with local cement producer Akmenes Cementas was commissioned in early 2018. The terminal plans to increase its exports of cement to 0.35Mt/yr by 2020.