Displaying items by tag: Iraq

Iraq: The government has approved a series of recommendations from the Ministerial Economic Council to support the growth of Iraq’s cement industry and to ensure that production capacity continues to meet domestic demand.

The cabinet approved a loan agreement between the Republic of Iraq and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for an electricity services reconstruction and enhancement project. It also approved a recommendation from the housing consultative group that investors in housing projects need to complete a percentage of the planned building work before they are allowed to own the land.

Algeria/Iraq: Dal Machinery & Design (DMD), part of Turkey’s Dal Engineering Group, has been awarded a contract to supply a kiln shell to LafargeHolcim Algeria’s Oggaz cement plant. The shell has an internal diameter of 5mm. The shell will be manufactured from a single part, with one single welding in the axial direction. It is expected to be delivered by September 2019. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Other recent orders for DMD include the supply of two kiln shells for LafargeHolcim’s Bazian cement plant at Sulaimani in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The kiln shells were manufactured with a diameter of 5.2m. Delivery was made at the beginning of March 2019. DMD’s other kiln shell clients in Iraq included the Gasin cement plant in 2018. It also supplied a mill tunnion to LafargeHolcim’s Kerbala cement plant.

Iraq: Etihad Al Saqar has entered into a US$260m contract with China Machinery Engineering for a new cement plant. The unit will have a clinker production capacity of 6000t/day and will use a 52.2MW heavy fuel oil power plant, according to ET Net News. China Machinery Engineering, as the general contractor, will be responsible for the design, supply, civil engineering and construction, installation, training, commissioning, warranty and other works of the project. Construction is expected to last 30 months.

Iran/Iraq: Hamid Hosseini, the secretary general of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, says that exports of cement from Iran to Iraq and the Kurdistan region of Iraq have been suspended for the last year. Tariffs were added first before a ban, according to Tejarat News. At present exports of clinker are allowed.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) is preparing to export up to 3Mt/yr of clinker to markets in Asia and Africa. QNCC chairman and managing director Salem Butti al Naimi said that the company was actively taking to Indian companies and that an agreement might be signed soon, according to the Qatar Tribune newspaper. He also mentioned potential targets in Iraq, Yemen and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s revenue grew by 12% year-on-year to US$729m in the first nine months to 31 March 2019 from US$654m in the same period in 2018. Its local cement and clinker sales volumes dropped by 13% to 4.4Mt from 5.1Mt. Export sales more than doubled to 1.5Mt from 0.7Mt, Overall sales volumes rose to 6Mt. Its income fell by 18% to US$80m from US$97.3m. It said that its cost of sales rose by 14.1% due to rises in the cost of coal, packing material and other fuel prices.

The cement producer said that a 2.6Mt/yr expansion project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be completed by the end of 2019. Contacting for a new 1.2Mt/yr plant in Samawah in Iraq has been finalised including a power plant from Finland’s Wärtsilä. Commercial production at the site is planned for mid-2020.

Iraq: Al Shumookh Lucky Investments, a subsidiary of Pakistan’s Lucky Cement, has ordered a power pant from Finland’s Wärtsilä for its Najmat Al-Samawa cement plant. The equipment is scheduled for delivery towards the end of 2019, and the plant is expected to become fully operational during the third quarter of 2020. No price for the order has been disclosed.

The power plant will operate on two Wärtsilä 32 engines running on locally-available heavy fuel oil (HFO) with diesel as a back-up fuel. The engine is designed to operate with reduced fuel and water consumption in hot climates.

Iraq: Pakistan’s Attock Cement has commissioned its new grinding plant in Basra. Civil, mechanical and electrical construction work on the unit was finished in January 2019.

Qatar: Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) is preparing to export clinker, grey cement and white cement. Following the completion of its 5000t/day Plant 5, the company is considering targeting countries like Yemen and Iraq, according to the Qatar Tribune. The cement producer has a production capacity of 16,000t/day. In 2018 it produced 2.9Mt of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and Sulphate Resistant Portland Cement (SRC). It also intends to add new cement products to its portfolio in 2019.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 16.5% year-on-year to US$51.3m in the six months to 31 December 2018 from US$63.7m in the same period in 2017. The cement producer said that its cost of sales rose by 14.2% due to mounting packaging, coal and other fuel prices. Its revenue grew by 6.2% to US$250m from US$235m. It attributed this to higher export volumes of cement and clinker. Its local sales of cement and clinker fell by 8.4% to 2.99Mt from 3.27Mt. Exports more than doubled to 1.02Mt from 0.5Mt. Accordingly, overall sales volumes increased by 6.8% to 4.01Mt from 3.76Mt.

The company reported that levelling work at its Samawah 1.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant project in Iraq started in January 2019. Civil work is scheduled to start in March 2019 and commercial production at the unit planned to start in mid-2020.