Displaying items by tag: Germany

Germany: Holcim Deutschland’s Kollenbach cement plant in Beckum has commissioned a Zeppelin Cat 6030 FS hydraulic excavator. The machine is 15m long, 7.5m high and it has an engine power of 1500HP. It will mine at least 470t/hr of limestone from the plant’s quarry. The excavator was purchased due to the height and thickness of the marl layers in the deposit. Material from the quarry will then be transported 2.5km by truck to a stationary primary crusher before use at the cement plant.

Germany/China: Baltrader Capital has ordered the construction of two cement carriers from China’s Fujian Southeast Shipbuilding, who will deliver the new vessels from end of 2020. The ships will be intended for the European shortsea trade. Following the completion of the order, the Baltrader fleet will comprise 12 cement carriers with pneumatic self-discharging systems.

Each of the sister vessels, CemCoaster and CemClipper, measures 98m in length, 15.6m in width and carries 4650t at 6m draft. They will be equipped with a MaK main engine, allowing a future conversion into dual fuel operation. The ships will then be optionally run on liquid natural gas (LNG) or on marine gasoil.

The ships have been planned and designed in Germany by SDC Ship Design & Consult in cooperation with the project engineering department of the BRISE-Group. Dutch producer Van Aalst Marine & Offshore will supply the automatic self-discharging system, powered alternatively by the main engine’s shaft generator or the auxiliary generators. It can be used for the transportation of loose cement, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly-ash. It will have a loading capacity of 500t/hr and unloading capacity of 250t/hr. Additionally, these iceclass 1B ships are equipped with a ballast water treatment system (BWTS).

Germany: Reinhard Schäfer has joined the management board of Bosch Rexroth. He succeeds Bertram Hoffmann, who left the company at the end of March 2019.

Schäfer, aged 54 years, takes on Hoffmann’s responsibilities for manufacturing and quality management at the engineering company. The mechanical engineer began his career in 1986 as a trainee at the former Rexroth Star in Schweinfurt and advanced to the position of technical plant director and managing director. He then held a number of executive positions in manufacturing and quality management in different areas within the automotive division of the Bosch Group in Germany, the Netherlands and China.

Germany: Siemens is presenting new products from its Digital Enterprise portfolio for process industries at the Hannover Messe trade fair. These include new versions of its Comos computer-aided engineering (CAE), XHQ Operations Intelligence and its PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator software products. The latest version of Comos includes a portal to help users choose components from a range of manufacturers. The new version of XHQ Operations Intelligence includes better access to remote data and simplified integration of engineering data. The update to PCS 7 Plant Automation Accelerator includes increased system openness based on GSDML and NE150 standards.

Germany: Siemens is extending its Simogear portfolio with a new synchronous-reluctance drive system consisting of Simogear standard gear unit, Simotics reluctance motor and a Sinamics frequency converter for controlling speed. The product has an output range of 0.55 – 4kW and is available for Sinamics G110M, G120D, G120 and S120 converters.

The engineering company says that its efficiency class is comparable to IE4 and it is offers advantages in comparison to asynchronous motors when operating under partial load due to its greater efficiency and lower losses. In addition, the drive system is characterised by high dynamics due to the low moment of inertia and optimised control. An external fan is not required due to the constant torque/speed curve up to the nominal speed and the drive system is certificated to CE, UL/CSA and CCC is in preparation. It also says that commissioning is easy as the motor code can be entered into the convertor.

Siemens sells a portfolio of frequency converters, motors, couplings and gearboxes for many industries and applications, including the cement and mineral sectors.

Poland: Germany’s Bilfinger is installing refractory linings at Cemex Polska’s Rudniki cement plant. It is also carrying out assembly work at various parts of the unit. The industrial services company is installing the refractory linings for parts of the plant, which entails using around 2000t of refractory material within a five-month period. It is part of the installation of a new cement clinker production line at the site.

The contract comes under Bilfinger’s Engineering & Maintenance Continental Europe division. Companies for which Bilfinger has worked on past contracts in Poland include cement producers CRH and Dyckerhoff.

Germany: HeidelbergCement expects increasing sales volumes for its cement, aggregate and ready-mix concrete products in 2019. It plans to raise its prices to regain margins it lost in 2018. The building materials producer also intends to continue the cost cutting programme it started in November 2018. It said that energy cost inflation, improvements in Indonesia, Europe and North America, and new state infrastructure projects should result in a ‘solid result improvement.’

“In view of our strong positioning in raw material reserves and production sites in attractive locations, the unique vertical integration, our excellent product portfolio, and our industry-leading margin management, we believe we are well equipped for the opportunities and challenges of 2019,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement. He added that the group will continue the digitalisation process of its entire value chain in order to further improve operational excellence.

Germany: Cemex has received certification from the Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) certification for five of its ready-mix concrete (RMX) plants in Berlin and Potsdam. The CSC acts as a certification system, grading building materials facilities on environmental, social and governance practices throughout supply chains. The auditing was conducted by Kiwa Deutschland, an independent certification body recognised by the CSC.

There was lots to mull over in the latest Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) Annual Economic Report. The headlines were that the construction industry market peaked in 2017 and that the mining industry was still recovering, but maybe slowing, in 2018.

For the construction industry the CECE reported that a growth period from 2008 to 2018 reached a high level of growth of 4.1% in 2017. This fell to 2.8% growth in 2018 and is forecast to drop to 2% growth in 2019. It put this in terms of the sector having a cyclical nature, normally of around eight years. This means it believes a downturn is overdue. Slowing gross domestic product (GDP) growth and tighter financial and monetary conditions are expected to drag on the residential sector. The non-residential side is growing by more than 1.5% in Europe but it has started to following the residential sector. It also noted the ‘very poor’ performance of the infrastructure sector due to government under-investment.

Graph 1: GDP vs Construction Output, year-on-year change (%). Source: Euroconstruct & CECE.

The construction equipment sector saw sales rise by 11% in 2018, bringing it to only 10% below the high recorded in 2007. The CECE reported that the rate of growth for concrete equipment was becoming ‘less dynamic’ after four years of growth. Sales in Europe grew by 17% in 2018 but there was a wide difference between northern and southern countries. France and Germany had 9% and 14% growth respectively but Italy and Spain had 23% and 60% growth respectively. Looking at product groups, truck mixer sales and batching plant sales were particularly strong, with growth rates over 10%. Overall, most countries experienced growth, with the exception of Turkey.

Graph 2: Growth rates in construction equipment sales by product groups in Europe, year-on-year change (%). Source: CECE.

Looking globally, the CECE said that Europe ‘slightly underperformed’ in 2018 as worldwide equipment sales grew by a fifth. It attributed this to the return of emerging markets, led by China and India. Sales in Latin America recovered with a rise of 15% but Brazil, notably, was not part of this trend. North America and Oceania had growth rates of around 20% but the Middle East and Africa saw declining sales. The CECE forecasts global equipment sales growth of 5 – 10% in 2019 subject to there being no trade wars.

Tying into this, the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) said today that Sebastian Popp, its Deputy Managing Director, described cement plant equipment manufacturers as a ‘drag’ on the rest of the building materials plant sector. His words were from an event that took place earlier in March 2019. Overall incoming order and turnover fell in 2018. He blamed this on a cement market characterised by overcapacity. However, if cement plant engineering was removed from the calculations then the incoming orders of German building material plant manufacturers would have risen by 17% year-on-year and turnover by 16%.

None of this is encouraging for the European cement equipment manufacturers. However, as we said in February 2019 (GCW 390), the market is changing and so too are the suppliers. A period of transition is to be expected. Recent good news from Denmark’s FLSmidth include an order for a new plant in Paraguay and sales figures for its vertical roller mills in 2018. Russia’s Eurocement ordered three mills from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer just last week.

Germany: Cemex has reached a binding agreement to sell its aggregates and ready-mix concrete assets in the north and northwest regions of Germany to GP Günter Papenburg for around Euro87m. It expects to sign the final agreement in April 2019 and close the divestment during the second quarter of 2019.

The assets in Germany being divested consist of four aggregates quarries and four ready-mix concrete (RMX) plants in north Germany, and nine aggregates quarries and fourteen RMX plants in northwest Germany.

The proceeds expected to be obtained from this divestment will be used mainly for debt reduction and for general corporate purposes. The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval.