Displaying items by tag: Jobs

Botswana: Cheetah Cement Botswana aims to achieve a cement production capacity of 900,000t/yr by June 2023. Cheetah Cement Botswana currently has a capacity of 36,000t/yr since commissioning its US$40m Francistown cement plant in February 2022. Botswana Investment and Trade Centre CEO Keletsositse Olebile said that the expansion will create 200 new direct jobs.

Xinhua News has reported that the move will turn Botswana, which consumes 620,000t/yr of cement, into a regional cement exporter and reduce its net imports by US$90m/yr.

UK: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson’s plan for the installation of a carbon capture system at its Padeswood cement plant has proceeded to the due diligence stage for funding from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The project is one of 20 from the East Coast Cluster and HyNet North West Consortium to make the shortlist for this phase of the approval process.

If successful, Hanson will be able to capture 800,000t/yr of CO₂ and produce carbon neutral cement at the Padeswood plant by 2027. It will create 54 new skilled full-time jobs.

US: Calucem, part of Cementos Molins, plans to establish a new calcium aluminate cement plant in New Orleans, Louisiana. The company will invest US$35m in the project and expects to commission the plant in mid-late 2023. It expects to create 70 new direct jobs and a total of 228 new jobs locally.

Calucem president and chief executive officer Yuri Bouwhuis said “Calucem is taking on a new investment that will support our growth and diversification in the US and ensure that we continue to offer high-value products to our global customers. Our choice of Louisiana for our first all-new manufacturing project in the US is due to the availability of strategic raw materials such as limestone and natural gas, access to waterways and skilled labour and the long history of using speciality cement products in the US.”

Australia: Hallett Group plans to establish a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. Magnet News has reported the cost of the project as US$83.9m, towards which the producer has received US$13.4m in government funding. The plant will produce cement using South Australian ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) from Nyrstar’s Port Pirie and Liberty Primary Steel’s Whyalla steel refineries and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant. Its operations will be 100% renewably powered. An accompanying new distribution facility at Port Adelaide will ship the cement to markets. The project will create 50 new jobs.

When the Port Augusta grinding plant becomes operational in 2023, its products will reduce regional CO₂ emissions by 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr, according to the company’s expansion plans.

Hallett Group chief executive officer Kane Salisbury said "We're talking about 1% of the entire country's 2030 [CO₂ reduction] commitment, delivered through this project." Salisbury added "We're looking at turning South Australia into a global leader in manufacturing green cement."

India: The Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has directed Calcom Cement to create 20 new full-time jobs for local people by January 2023. The Sentinel newspaper has recorded that the new positions must go to people from designated Project Affected Families (PAFs) with regard to the plant's Pipapukhuri cement plant in Assam. The designation covers any household which lost a source of a livelihood following the company's refusal to deliver a previously agreed rehabilitation package.

China: Mudajaya Group Berhad has concluded a deal to acquire Real Jade Limited for US$51m. The deal marks the Malaysia-based conglomerate’s first expansion into the Chinese market. Real Jade Limited operates the 1Mt/yr Shandong integrated cement plant. It employs 50 people in Shandong Province.

India: Protestors have halted mining operations at JSW Cement’s Khatkurbahal mine in Odisha, which serves the company’s Sundargarh cement plant. The New Indian Express newspaper has reported that the protestors accuse the company of mining and dumping overburden on neighbouring agricultural land, damaging properties with debris from blasts, drying up six wells and creating excessive dust pollution. The protestors also complained that the mine has failed to create new jobs for local people.

Morocco: Holcim subsidiary LafargeHolcim Maroc has released information about its 1.6Mt/yr Agadir cement plant in Souss-Massa Region. The producer invested US$299m in the plant’s construction and it has been operational since late 2021. The plant is highly automated in line with Holcim’s Plants of Tomorrow strategy. It will run off wind power from 2023, and also uses alternative fuel (AF). 200 people work at the plant.

In conjunction with its work in setting up the new cement plant, LafargeHolcim Maroc developed drinking water networks in the surrounding area, including the construction of three solar-powered water towers.

US: Holcim US’ Lafarge Ravena cement plant in New York State has launched a celebration of six decades’ successes on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the plant’s groundbreaking ceremony. 1000 people attended the ceremony on 19 May 1961, where New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller broke ground on the then Atlantic Cement Company’s new US$64m facility.

Addressing the crowd, Rockefeller said “The enormous production capacity of this plant will undoubtedly draw many large and small companies to the environs, and, as a result, employment will rise considerably.”

Today, the Lafarge Ravena cement plant directly employs 160 local people.

India: Kanodia Cement has commissioned its new Amethi cement plant in Uttar Pradesh. The plant consists of four grinding units spread over an area of 18ha. Indo-Asian News Service has reported that the facility’s equipment includes two 12-spout rotary packers and six floor-mounted truck loading machines, supplied by Denmark-based FLSmidth. Kanodia Cement says that the new plant marks progress in line with its sustainable development plant. Its operations will directly and indirectly employ 1000 people.