Displaying items by tag: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan: Yug Cement Stroi LLP has emerged as a new investor to help finish the previously mothballed 0.5Mt/yr Khantau cement plant in Zhambyl Region. The company, acting as a strategic partner, has borrowed US$29m for seven years from Bank RBK to finance the completion of the plant's construction. It is intended that the plant will reach full cement production capacity in the autumn of 2014.

The Khantau cement plant has a design capacity of 0.36Mt/yr of clinker and 0.5Mt/yr of Portland cement with grades M400 and M500. The Hengyuan International Engineering Group has supplied technology for the plant. Its raw materials are extracted from the Khantau limestone deposit, Khantau sand and gravel deposit and the Ulkensai clay deposit located near the plant.

In 2007, ACIG borrowed US$30m from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan for the construction of this cement plant. At the time the plant was 85% complete and mothballed due to the shortage of funds. In 2013, the project was transferred from the Development Bank to the Investment Fund of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan: HeidelbergCement will soon launch a new 800,000t/yr cement plant in Mangystau Province following a US$273m investment. The plant will use dry chalk as a raw material. So far more than 70,000t of cement has been produced in test mode.

"Our company is included in the programme of forced industrial innovative development," said Evgeny Kholodnyakov, chief technologist of Kaspi cement plant. The plant will supply cement to the local and export markets.

Kazakhstan: Karaganda Cement has started the operation of its No. 5 cement production line, the administration of the Karaganda Region has announced. The project cost US$67m and it has created 115 jobs. The cement plant will reach its design cement production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr in 2015. Karaganda Cement is owned by Steppe Cement Holding, a subsidiary of Central Asian Cement.

Kazakhstan: Karcement JSC, a subsidiary of Steppe Cement, has successfully completed the commissioning of its new dry-process Line 5. The new kiln line will increase Steppe Cement's total cement production capacity by 1.5Mt/yr.

Kazakhstan: The Ministry of Innovation and New Technology of Kazakhstan has announced that in 2014 the Mangistau region in the southwest and Akmola region in the north of Kazakhstan will be able to completely halt cement imports, as new cement production facilities will be launched in these regions.

"The launch of new production facilities, Caspiycement in the Mangistau region, which will have a capacity of 1Mt/yr and Kokshecement in the Akmola region, which will have a 2Mt/yr capacity, will allow the regions to halt cement imports, increase cement exports and curb seasonal price increases in the west and north of Kazakhstan," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, in the first 10 months of 2013 Kazakhstan produced 6.2Mt and imported 1.6Mt of cement. During this period, the supply of cement produced in Kazakhstan exceeded 80% of the country's demand. Kazakhstan now has 10 cement plants with a total production capacity of 10.7Mt/yr.

In December 2013 Italy's Italcementi held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new kiln line at its ShymkentCement plant in southern Kazakhstan. The plant's managing director, Gabriel Morin, said that the production capacity of the new dry cement line will be 1.2Mt/yr and will take 20 months to complete.

"The new cement making technology line is expected to produce first clinker in the middle of 2015," said Morin, adding that after the launch of the new line the old kiln will be shut down. Modernisation of the 1.28Mt/yr plant has cost US$80m.

Kazakhstan: Italcementi Group has invested US$80m in the modernisation of its Shymkentcement JSC plant in southern Kazakhstan. The new dry-process cement line will have a cement capacity of 1.2Mt/yr and is expected to be commissioned in 20 months.

"The new cement line is expected to produce clinker in mid-2015. After the launch of the new line, the old furnace will be shut down," said the general director of the Shymkentcement plant.

Kazakhstan: Construction of Caspian Cement, located in Mangistau Oblast, will be completed by the end of 2013 according to Alik Aidarbayev, Akim of Mangistau Oblast.

"By the end of the year, we plan to complete two major projects related to the construction of Caspian Cement and Caspian Bitumen with a total estimated cost of US$545m and the creation of 600 permanent jobs," Aidarbayev said.

Nine projects with an estimated cost of US$425m and the creation of more than 3000 new jobs are planned for completion at the site in the next few years.

Belarus/Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan is interested in buying a 'large' batch of Belarus-built wagons for cement transportation, according to Nigmatzhan Isingarin, President of the Association of National Forwarding Agencies of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstani Association of Freight Carriers and Wagon (Container) Operators. Isingarin met with the Prime Minister of Belarus, Mikhail Myasnikovich, on 31 October 2013. The wagons will be manufactured by the Mogilev railway car building plant.

In addition to negotiating a purchase, Isingarin and Myasnikovich discussed a contract for manufacturing and supplying wagons via international leasing. Isingarin said he was satisfied with the progress in the project's implementation. So far 425 wagons have been delivered.

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement has reported that its income rose by 4% year-on-year to US$54.3m in the first six months of 2013 from US$52.2m in the same period in 2012. The Kazak cement producer attributed the increase to a rise in prices in an interim financial statement.

Steppe Cement reported a profit before tax of US$3.82m for the period, up from US$391,000 in the same period in 2012. However, sales volumes declined by 8% to 0.56Mt from 0.62Mt. In its statement the cement producer confirmed that it had committed to spend US$7.7m on renovating its production line #5

Kazakhstan: Steppe Cement, a construction materials producer in Kazakhstan, has announced that it sold 166,121t of cement in the first quarter of 2013 compared to 170,000t in 2012. However, its revenue from cement sales was US$15.1m, 17% higher than the US$12.9m that it took in the first quarter of 2012.

While it sold more cement in the first quarter of 2013 than in the same period of 2012, Steppe Cement was unable to keep pace with expansion in the wider Kazakh market. It saw its domestic market share fall to 15% in the first quarter of 2013 versus 18% in the first quarter of 2012.