Displaying items by tag: GCW432

Kenya: Mombasa Cement has started building a 36MW wind farm at its integrated Vipingo plant. The project is intended to support a new grinding unit being constructed at the site, according to the Business Daily newspaper. It is intended to reduce the cost of electricity and minimise disruptions caused by power cuts. The wind farm will consist of 12 turbines with a capacity of 3MW each. The cement plant is also installing a high-power voltage line from the Kaloleni substation to improve its connection to the local electricity grid.

US: CalPortland has been awarded a US$175,000 grant from the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District (MDAQMD) to replace a 1999 Terex Bore/Drill rig with a 2019 Caterpillar MD2650 drill. The new drill expects to see a 76% reduction on average in nitrogen oxides (NO_x), reactive organic gases (ROG) and particulate matter (PM) combined. The grant comes from the Carl Moyer Program, which provides monetary grants to private companies and public agencies to clean up their heavy-duty engines beyond legal requirements through retrofitting, repowering or replacing their engines with newer and cleaner ones.

US: Union workers at the Keystone Cement plant in Bath, Pennsylvania have started legal action against the company over its sale to HeidelbergCement. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) union says that the company must honour its contracts, according to the Morning Call newspaper. It is representing around 132 workers at Keystone’s cement and aggregate operations.

According to the lawsuit, HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Lehigh Hanson announced in October 2019 that it would not accept or assume the terms of any existing contracts. The union claims that this contravenes a requirement that any new owners or operators of the plant assume the contracts in place at the time of sale. The agreement to sell the plant to Germany’s HeidelbergCement for US$151m was announced in late September 2019. It is subject to regulatory approval.

Paraguay: Paraguay’s main cement producer, state-owned Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC), has ‘significantly’ slowed production at its 1.0Mt/yr integrated Puerto Vallemi plant to a rate of 12,000 bags/day, creating a supply gap that imports and Intercement’s 0.4Mt/yr integrated Asunción plant have been unable to fill. Esmerk Latin American News has reported that the shortage has precipitated a 33% price rise in the cost of a bag of cement in the country to US$10.20 from US$7.00 when the shortage began in October 2019.

Uganda: The Uganda government’s Committee on Natural Resources suspended pozzolano extraction at quarries in eastern Uganda on 14 November 2019. The Daily Monitor reported the cause of the suspension as pollution of water sources. Speaking at Tororo Cement’s Chemangal quarry, committee chair Kefa Kivanuka said that “The regulatory authorities were negligent,” and that activity at quarries was suspended until the completion of a damage assessment involving committee meetings with cement producers for the review of their pozzolano extraction licences. Besides Tororo Cement, Hima Cement, Kampala Cement and Kenya-based National Cement subsidiary Simba Cement all supply plants with pozzolano extracted in the region.

India: The leading global supplier of cement kiln refractories, has produced its first test batch of magnesia carbon bricks (MCBs) for use in cement kilns at its 18,000Mt/yr Tangi plant near Cuttack in the state of Odisha. The company acquired the fully-equipped plant in August 2019 for Euro5.5m and has said production will be supported by a ‘new state-of-the-art world-class research and development centre currently under construction in Bhiwadi’ in serving the needs of the regional cement industry.

France: LafargeHolcim has fulfilled its contract with the Port of Brest for the delivery of 10,000t of cement and almost 0.17Mt of draining sand by sea to the port in the Département of Brittany. A Euro220m project has been underway since 2016 for expansion and diversification of the port’s handling capacity, with completion scheduled for 2020. LafargeHolcim says that it proposed specific construction solutions for use of its materials in improving the accessibility of Brest’s existing wharves and building a new ‘heavy’ wharf.

Russia: Eurocement has announced an expansion in its cooperation agreement with consumer goods retailer Castorama. Eurocement’s regional subsidiary Mikhailovcement, which operates a 2.0Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Ryazan, dispatched the first batch of cement to Castorama in October 2019. Mikhailovcement and other Eurocement subsidiaries will now supply bagged cement to all of Castorama’s 19 branches across Russia.

India: JK Cement has revealed its rebranded JK Wall Putty, which will be known as WallMaxX. JK Cement operates 10.9Mt/yr of cement capacity across India. It launched its JK Wall Putty, the main constituent of which is its white cement, in 2002 to give a highly water-resistant finish to plaster that prevents seepage and flaking.

Cambodia: Thai Boon Rong’s 0.9Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Kampot province was commissioned on 14 November 2019, marking the end of a US$110m construction project on its 678 hectare site in Dangtong District.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said that the plant, Cambodia’s fifth, would help meet rapidly growing domestic demand.