Displaying items by tag: Germany

Zimbabwe: Government capital controls are delaying the handover of a new vertical cement mill ordered from China-based CBMI to Lafarge Zimbabwe. The cement producer still owes the supplier US$5.2m but has been unable to make the payment due to economic measures the government has taken to avoid depreciation of the local currency, according to the The Insider newspaper. The subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim is unable to obtain a certificate of completion from the supplier until the transaction has been completed. CBMI handled the order and Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer supplied the mill. The outstanding debt to CBMI may also delay Holcim’s deal to sell Lafarge Zimbabwe to Fossil Mining, which was announced in June 2022.

Europe: RHI Magnesita is heading a European Union Horizon project called ReSoURCE. The project seeks to develop a sensor-based refractory waste sorting and powder handling system. It involves academic partners in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the UK. The European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA) supplied Euro6m in funding for the study, while the UK government supplied Euro1m. Global refractory waste generation is currently 28Mt/yr.

RHI Magnesita chief executive officer Stefan Borgas said “On average, 60% of all spent refractories generated by refractory-consuming industries go to landfill, while only 30% are recycled. With the ReSoURCE project, we aim to increase it up to 75%. This means we can achieve significant savings of CO₂ emissions per annum. With this research project, we have the chance to make a difference in the world.”

Pakistan: Germany-based Menzel Elektromotoren has revealed work on a replacement motor it has built for an unnamed cement plant in Pakistan. As part of the project it has designed a motor to fit a limited installation space that could drive the unit’s raw mill, another cement mill or a fan.

The engineering company’s solution was a compact slip ring motor in frame size 710 with the cooling system tailored to fit around a steel girder in the cement plant. To accommodate the existing couplings in two different sizes, Menzel designed the replacement motor with two shaft ends with different diameters. The motor output is configured to ensure efficient continuous operation in each of the three applications. The machine has a rated output of 4600kW and a rated voltage of 6300V. It complies with protection class IP55. At the customer's request, it was designed in cooling type IC 666, with permanent external ventilation of the inner and outer cooling circuit. Before delivery, Menzel also ran a load test in its in-house test field with the end-user attending via video streaming.

South Korea: Ssangyong Cement has ordered equipment from Germany-based KHD Humboldt Wedag as part of an upgrade to clinker production line five of the Donghae plant. The scope of supply for the contract includes: a Pyroclon R type calciner with Pyrotop mixing chamber; a Pyrorotor type alternative fuel combustion reactor; a Pyrobox type coal firing system for process start-up and operation balancing; replacement of stage four cyclones with new high-efficiency cyclones for calciner connection and an overall pressure drop reduction; a new kiln inlet chamber with orifice, kiln hood and tertiary air ducts; and a new Pyrofloor PFC 738AW type cooler with a Pyrocrusher PRC 420-4ES.

This project will be the fourth Pyrorotor installation at the Donghae plant. KHD’s scope includes the engineering and supply of mechanical equipment for the clinker production as well as electrical equipment for the overall modernisation of the production process. The project scope is the same as the modernisation contract of line four of Donghae plant, which was signed in February 2021 and currently is in commissioning. The commissioning of the modernised line five is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023.

South Korea: Halla Cement has awarded a supply and engineering contract to Germany-based KHD Humboldt Wedag for an upgrade of line 2 at Okke plant. KHD will supply a new Pyroclon R type calciner, with a Pyrotop type mixing chamber, and a 4.2m x 15m Pyrorotor type combustion reactor. Other equipment being provided includes: a Pyrobox type coal firing system for process start-up and operation balancing; replacement of stage five cyclones with new high-efficiency cyclones; and a new kiln inlet chamber with orifice. Erection and commissioning of the modernised production line is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.

This latest project marks the second installation of a Pyrorotor at Halla Cement’s Okke plant. The installation of line 3 at the site is currently ongoing with commissioning scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. Overall, this will be KHD’s ninth installation of a Pyrorotor in South Korea.

The Pyrorotor has been promoted to cement plants as a way of using low-quality alternative fuels with minimal pre-processing. It offers a thermal substitution rate of over 85% and will also allow the Okke plant to reduce its NO_x emissions. The installation of the new Pyroclon R type calciner and the high-efficiency cyclones in the lowest preheater stages will also provide the production line with an increase in efficiency due to an overall pressure drop reduction in the entire preheater.

India: Adani Cement Industries has ordered a MVR 3750 C-4 type vertical roller mill from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for a new 165t/hr cement grinding plant it plans to build at Dahej in Gujarat. The order also includes an integrated SLS 4000 VC type classifier and a drive with a rated power of 3090kW. The subsidiary of Adani Group will produce fly ash-pozzolan mixed cement at the site.

Gebr. Pfeiffer’s local subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India), will act as the general contractor for the project and will provide plant engineering. The commissioning of the new mill is planned for the period before the rainy season in the summer of 2023.

UK: Bunting plans to promote its magnetic separator and metal detector products at the Powtech trade fair taking place in Germany in late September 2022. The company will be displaying a number of high-strength rare earth magnetic separators including its Plate Magnet Housing (PHMS), Drawer Magnet (HFS), Grate Magnet, Plate Magnet and Bullet Magnet products. Each magnetic separator effectively removes fine tramp iron from a wide range of granules and powders at different locations within a plant. The company promotes its products to the aggregate, quarrying, recycling and slag processing sectors amongst others.

Turkey: KÇS Kipaş Çimento has placed an order with KHD Humboldt Wedag for a Pyrorotor for its Kahramanmaraş cement plant. The supplier says that the equipment will enable the plant's calciner to achieve an alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate of 90%. It will additionally restrict NO_x emissions to 800mg/Nm³. After a short shutdown for assemblage of gas duct connections, KHD expects to commission the upgraded system in mid-to-late 2023.

The company says that the KÇS Kipaş Çimento contract represents its 11th Pyrorotor order globally and the first in Turkey.

Germany: Loesche has published its Sustainability Report of its performance in 2021. The supplier’s Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions declined by 6.1% year-on-year to 229t from 244t in 2020 and by 19% over the two years from 2019, when they totalled 282t. It reduced the share of Scope 2 emissions in the figure to 40% from 41% in 2020 and 45% in 2019.

Loesche offers emissions-reducing products to the global cement industry under the label Greenkey Solutions. These include its A/Fuel and H/combust ranges for alternative fuels and green hydrogen upgrades, its C/Clay range for clay calcining and grinding, its Digital/Ready 4.0! range for predictive process optimisation and smart asset management, its E/Slag range for ground granulated blast furnace slag upgrades and its S/Crete range for waste concrete recycling, as well as audits for retrofits. Together, Loesche says that its products can reduce the global cement sector’s carbon footprint by 90%. Within this, Loesche believes that calcined clay technology alone can reduce cement’s CO₂ emissions by 40% and its energy demand by 21%.

Loesche said that its launch during the year of its H₂Optimum grinding bed spraying system can reduce grinding mills’ water consumption by 50%.

Second quarter results have been released for many of the European-based cement producers, so we’ll take a look at how they are doing so far in 2022. The general trend for the companies sampled here is that revenue is up, cement sales volumes are down and earnings are varied. Added to this, ready-mixed concrete (RMC) and aggregate sales volumes have risen for most of these organisations. Each producer did well in the US, less well in Europe and differently elsewhere. Concurrently, input costs for raw materials, energy and logistics have been rising and this has been passed on to consumers fairly consistently as price rises.

Graph 1: Sales revenue for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Graph 2: Cement sales volumes for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Graph 3: Ready-mixed concrete sales volumes for selected European-based multinational cement producers in the first half of 2022. Source: Company financial reports.

Holcim is currently in a state of transition with responses from regulators on big divestments in India and Brazil expected in the second half of 2022 alongside its diversification into light building materials. Both North America and Europe did well for the group in the first half of 2022, particularly the former, where cement sales volumes rose, unlike the other regions. Asia Pacific was more problematic with inflation and pricing issues reported. Cement demand was also said to be ‘softer’ in China and the Philippines compared to the first half of 2021. The region’s recurring earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) also fell.

HeidelbergCement’s half-year results were less upbeat with cement sales volumes down by 2.6% on a like-for-like basis, RMC sales volumes stable and aggregates sales volumes up by 1.7%. One point to note here is that HeidelbergCement divested its business in the western US in late 2021 and the graphs above do not show like-for-like changes. However, one reason for the dour tone was that higher input costs had led to a 11.4% drop in the group’s result from current operations before depreciation and amortisation (RCOBD) to Euro€1.53bn. It blamed this on its inability to raise prices sufficiently to counter ‘significantly’ higher costs of energy and transport.

Cemex benefitted from its strong presence in the Americas but even this wasn’t enough to shield it from the negative effect upon earnings of higher energy costs and supply chain disruptions. So, net sales increased in Mexico and the US but operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell. In Mexico this was blamed on a higher base for comparison in 2021. In the US a declining EBITDA margin was attributed to higher energy costs and supply chain headwinds from maintenance, imports and logistics. Interestingly though, Cemex managed to raise both sales and earnings in its Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia despite cement sales volumes slipping. It said it was able to do this due to well executed price rises.

Buzzi Unicem reported growth in sales revenue and earnings despite falling cement sales volumes. It attributed this to a ‘strong’ increase in prices. However, it noted that the mounting energy costs had contributed to a decline in its EBITDA margin. Deliveries for the half-year grew in the US, Central Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic. They fell in Italy and, unsurprisingly, Ukraine. Also, despite the growth in deliveries in Poland and the Czech Republic in the reporting period, Buzzi Unicem said that a slowdown in Europe had become evident in the second quarter of 2022 and was particularly evident in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic. In Ukraine the group reported that activity had resumed at its Volyn plant in the north-west of the country following the Russian invasion in February 2022. The Nikolayev plant, in the south, though continued to remain idle. Sales volumes halved in the country year-on-year. Given the circumstances it seems amazing that they didn’t fall by more frankly.

Finally, Vicat had a tougher time of it than some of the other companies featured here. Its sales revenue grew significantly, as a result of higher prices, but earnings tumbled. The latter was blamed on a high base for comparison in the first half of 2021 and the energy situation. A few non-recurring capital intensive projects at various plants, including the start-up of the Ragland plant’s new kiln in the US, didn’t help either.

Much of the above leaves an uncertain outlook for the second half of 2022. All of the cement producers here expect to increase their sales revenue and raise their prices. Most of them though are rather more circumspect or downright pessimistic about what the state of their earnings will be. The companies covered here are multinational but with a focus on Europe and the US. We have omitted plenty of regional producers elsewhere around the world in this roundup that have already published their results, such as India-based UltraTech Cement or Nigeria-based Dangote Cement. The other big market that is missing is China, where the producers are mostly yet to publish their half-year results. We will return to cover these topics in future weeks.