Displaying items by tag: Germany
Germany: Möllers Group has promoted Area Sales Manager Tobias Steffens to responsibility of the Asia Pacific Region. As a channel partner, he will intensify cooperation with the local sales partners and oversee the implementation of new products in the target markets.
Steffens, aged 39 years, studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden. He worked in a position of responsibility at Swisslog and Kardex for the regions of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Australia and was more recently a Design & Engineering Manager for intralogistic systems and special applications.
Holcim Germany’s Beckum cement plant gains certificate from Concrete Sustainability Council
08 August 2018Germany: Holcim Germany’s Beckum cement plant has gained a silver sustainability certificate from the Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC). The company said that certificate is the highest that a cement plant can obtain. It certifies that the plant promotes transparency about the production process and supply chain as well as considering its impact upon the environment.
The company said that the unit is the first LafargeHolcim cement plant in the world to have CSC certification. It also plans to certify cement grinding plants and ready mix plants in Germany in the near future.
Germany: ThyssenKrupp has decreased its earnings forecast for its 2017 – 2018 financial year due to the poor performance of its Industrial Solutions division. The division is expected to report a negative adjusted earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) of Euro200m in the third quarter of the year due to higher expected total costs, particularly for a cement plant in Saudi Arabia and two other industrial projects. The group said that the number of major projects in the cement and fertiliser sector had decreased ‘considerably,’ partly due to the production overcapacity in the cement market.
"It is important to me to call it what it is. The results of our analysis at Industrial Solutions are anything but satisfying. The structure of plant construction must be adjusted to the changed market conditions in order to achieve a turnaround and finally become competitive again. We must act swiftly here," said Guido Kerkhoff, chairman of the executive board of ThyssenKupp. The group has proposed focusing its Industrial Solutions division on small and medium-sized projects and targeting plant construction on the higher-margin service business.
In mid-2017 the group announced plans to reorganised its Industrial Solutions division, including the decision to cut 1500 jobs in operational areas.
Germany: HeidelbergCement’s revenue from its cement business fell by 2.5% year-on-year to Euro4.16bn in the first half of 2018 from Euro4.27bn in the same period in 2017. Despite this, its cement sales volumes grew by 3% to 61.9Mt from 60.1Mt due to growth in its Asia-Pacific and Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin, Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia areas. Across all business lines its sales revenue rose slightly to Euro8.43bn from Euro8.39bn although the group said it rose by 6% on a like-for-like basis. Its profit increased by 20.2% to Euro435m from Euro362m.
“The growth of revenue and sales volumes in all business lines reflects the strong market dynamics. All in all, we could significantly improve the profit also in the second quarter. The strong operational development, lower restructuring charges and a further reduction in financing costs more than compensated for the increasing cost inflation and negative exchange rate effects,” said Bernd Scheifele, chairman of the managing board. He added that a ‘solid’ development of results in the second quarter indicated a positive trend reversal after a weather-related difficult start of the year.
By region, in Western and Southern Europe the group’s cement and clinker sales volumes rose by 5.3% to 15.1Mt due to the acquisition of Cementir in Italy and the good development of sales volumes in Spain. In its Northern and Eastern Europe-Central Asia area, sales volumes fell by 4% to 11.5Mt due to bad weather. In North America its sales volumes decreased by 2.3% to 7.4Mt due to bad weather and the sale of its white cement business. In Asia-Pacific sales volumes rose by 5.4% to 17.5Mt with growth noted in Indonesia. Finally, in the group’s Africa-Eastern Mediterranean Basin area sales volumes grew by 6.4% to 9.9Mt driven by markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Shun Shing Group orders two mills from Loesche
30 July 2018Bangladesh: Hong Kong’s Shun Shing Group has ordered two mills from Germany’s Loesche for its local subsidiaries, Seven Circle Bangladesh (SCB) and Shun Shing Cement Mills (SSCM).
SCB has ordered a vertical roller mill for a new grinding plant in Gazipur. With four main and four support rollers, the mill will be used for grinding clinker and slag. It will have a throughput capacity of 400t/hr and it will be the largest Loesche cement mill in the country. The cement mill for SCB is equipped with a Compact Planetary Electric Drive (COPE) and has a drive power of 9.2MW.
Loesche has also received a mill order for SSCM. A LM 53.3+3 CS mill will be used, with three main and three support rollers and a drive power of 4650kW. The mill will grind clinker and slag at a capacity of 180t/hr in a newly-built grinding plant belonging to SSCM in Shikalbaha near Chittagong.
The scope of delivery for both mills includes the complete mill including the static mill components. Both mills will continue to be equipped with Pronamic wear parts, developed by for the main rollers, support rollers and the grinding table. It is anticipated that commissioning of both grinding plants will take place in autumn 2019.
Both SCBL and SSCM produce around 4.4Mt/yr of cement with their production facilities there under the brand ’Seven Rings Cement.’ Additionally, the business areas of the parent company Shun Shing Group also extend to the trade and transportation of raw materials and industrial chemicals for construction.
Hermann Trollius order for Gebr. Pfeiffer
24 July 2018Germany: Hermann Trollius has purchased a used MPS 125 A type mill as part of a capacity expansion and has additionally ordered a selection of new equipment from Gebr. Pfeiffer. The company operates a lime and crushed stone works at Lauterhofen in Bavaria. It produces limestone and dolomite for use in the building, steel, glass, sugar and animal feed industries, as well as for agricultural applications.
Gebr. Pfeiffer will assist Hermann Trollius in setting up the entire grinding plant, taking maintenance measures on the MPS mill and coordinating the delivery of the additional plant equipment. Two distribution table SUT 2800 type separators will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer along with a TRT Triplex dryer with a length of 3.15m and a diameter of 2000mm to be used for drying dolomite, which has a moisture of 4 - 11%. The dryer will have a new hot gas generator of the type HMG 900 for natural gas firing. The hot gas generator to be used for the mill will be of the HMG 800 type.
The new machines will be on the site in early November 2018 so that the customer’s new plant will go online in early 2019 at the latest.
Bernd Scheubel retires from Refratechnik
18 July 2018Germany: Bernd Scheubel retired from Refratechnik at the start of May 2018.
He started his career at the technical centre of Krupp Polysius (TKIS) in New Beckum. After five years working there as a mineralogist he joined Refratechnik in 1987, starting as a sales manager for South America. In 1998 he was appointed a member of executive management of Refratechnik Cement in Goettingen. In 2003 Scheubel joined the management board of Refratechnik Holding at Ismaning near Munich, the position he held until he retired.
The main focus of his work was the expansion of the international refractory business of Refratechnik in the Americas and East Asia, mainly in China. In addition he held positions at the executive boards of the World Refractory Association and the European Refractory Association.
Germany: Thomas Spitzenpfeil has been appointed as the chief financial officer of Schenck Process Group with effect from 1 October 2018. He will also join the management board of the company. Spitzenpfeil will be responsible for the company’s global finance and IT organisation and will work alongside Andreas Evertz, president and chief executive officer (CEO). He will replace Eric Jaschke as CFO, who has decided to leave the company at the end of 2018 for personal reasons.
Spitzenpfeil has 14 years’ experience as the CFO of large international businesses in the manufacturing sector. For the past eight years, he was the CFO of Carl Zeiss, the global technology group in optics and optic-electronics with 27,000 employees.
He started his career at Robert Bosch in 1990 and thereafter held various commercial roles at VIAG, Kodak and Hydro Aluminium/VAW-Aluminium. Prior to joining Carl Zeiss AG, he served for six years as the CFO of Zumtobel in Austria. At Carl Zeiss, his role comprised responsibility for finance and controlling, audit and risk management, consolidation and accounting, IT, digital innovation, financial services, facility management, logistics, central production and US shared services.
Jaschke joined the company in 1999 and held various roles with focus on local and international accounting and controlling responsibilities in Germany and Australia. He was appointed as CFO of Schenck Process in September 2015.
Germany: Schmersal Group has appointed Andreas Balack as the new manager of its South Germany sales region. The 44-year old holds over 20 years of sales experience with knowledge of the plastics processing sector. He previously worked as the deputy sales manager at a company selling safe automation technology. At Schmersal he manages a team of 25 people, comprising customer service employees, product managers and engineers.
Germany: Two cement plants are installing selective catalytic reduction (SCR) units ahead of new environmental emissions limits that will start in 2019. CRH Opterra Zement’s Karsdorf plant has started a Euro23m upgrade project to its emissions systems. The plant will install SCR units on each of its production lines. Work on the upgrade is scheduled to be completed by the start of 2019.
Holcim WestZement is also installing a SCR unit purchased from Yara at its Beckum cement plant. The Euro14.2m project will start trial operation by the end of 2018.