Displaying items by tag: Plant

China/India: UltraTech Cement has agreed to sell its majority stake in Shandong Binani Rongan Cement for around US$120m. As part of the deal its subsidiaries Krishna Holdings and Nathdwara Cement will both divest their shareholdings in the company. UltraTech Cement picked up the 3Mt/yr plant in 2018 as part of its acquisition of Binani Cement in 2018. The buyer has not been named.

Uzbekistan: Akhangarantsement says that it has installed a ThyssenKrupp raw materials grinding unit at the site of an upcoming 5Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Tashkent Region. The equipment consists of a jaw crusher for primary crushing and a hammer mill for secondary crushing. The company said that the upcoming plant will “provide the market with a line of high-quality products for the construction of housing, industrial and infrastructure facilities.”

Russia: Eurocement subsidiary Kavkazcement has announced the launch of a new CEM-II Portland limestone cement product. The company says that the cement has a wide range of applications, from “general purpose structures to objects operating under aggressive environmental conditions: concrete and reinforced concrete structures, monolithic structures, massive foundations and indoor structures, as well as in screeds, plaster mortars and dry building mixes.” Kavkazcement general director Nikolai Muradov said, “The use of cements with mineral additives provides a high-quality concrete surface; in finished products, the risk of efflorescence, cracking and other defects is reduced.” Customers can purchase the product in 50kg or 1t bags.

Tanzania: Huaxin Cement subsidiary African Tanzanian Maweni Limestone has ignited the kiln and begun trial production of clinker at its newly upgraded 0.75Mt/yr Maweni Limestone clinker plant. Huaxin Cement acquired the subsidiary in May 2020 and begun upgrading the kiln line on 1 June 2020, in spite of the fact that only 14 Huaxin Cement management team colleagues remained in the country due to the company withdrawing staff to China prior to the coronavirus lockdown.

Huaxin Cement says that it will not upgrade the plant’s grinding unit “for various reasons.” The company said, “subject to the epidemic prevention and control situation, the company will send an excellent management team to implement advanced cement process technology and management. We are committed to turning Maweni Limestone into a benchmark industrial enterprise in Tanzania and promoting the local cement industry to achieve quality.”

Nigeria: BUA Group subsidiary BUA Cement has shared plans to establish a 3Mt/yr-capacity integrated cement plant in Guyuk, Adamawa State. The Sun newspaper has reported that the company also plans to establish a 50MW power plant in nearby Lamurde, also in Adamawa State. BUA Group chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu said, “We will use new technologies to supply power to the proposed cement plant and communities of Guyuk and Lamurde.” The state’s limestone deposits with provide the raw material for clinker production.

Zimbabwe: PPC Zimbabwe has announced that it has entered into a preliminary agreement with a Zimbabwe-based energy investor “with technical partners in South Africa” that will build and operate the company’s planned 32MW solar power plant in Matabeleland South. 16MW will power PPC Zimbabwe’s cement production and the rest will be fed in the national electricity grid, according to the Herald newspaper. The unit will be located adjacent to PPC Zimbabwe’s 0.5Mt/yr integrated Colleen Bawn plant.

US: Vicat subsidiary National Cement has received a fine of US$148,000 from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for exceeding mercury emissions regulations over a 123-day period between May 2019 and February 2020 at its integrated Ragland plant in Alabama. The Daily Home newspaper has reported that unexpectedly high mercury levels in coal and other raw materials burned as fuel during that time caused the breach, which the company immediately reported to ADEM.

National Cement president Spencer Weitman said, “The issue took several months to fix.” Multiple upgrades and operational changes solved the issue, including installation of a US$400,000 mercury absorption carbon injection system. ADEM said, “National Cement did not economically benefit from the emissions violations.”

In January 2020 National Cement began work on construction of a new US$250m kiln line, due for completion in 2022.

Israel: The Environmental Protection Ministry (EPM) has granted Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises a licence to substitute more refuse-derived fuels (RDF) for petcoke than was previously permitted at its 5Mt/yr integrated Ramle, Central District cement plant. The Times of Israel newspaper has reported that the licence also allows for greater metal emissions. The company said, “As is customary in the global cement industry, the Nesher plant in Ramle uses raw materials and alternative fuels, thus achieving a number of environmental goals, including reducing landfill, minimising the use of natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Pakistan: Power Cement says it has started commercial operation of its new 7700t/day clinker production line at its Nooriabad plant. It completed the procurement and installation of machinery for the new line in mid-2019. It was supplied by Denmark’s FLSmdith.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) and Saudi Arabian-based Engineering Dimension International Investment (EDII) have formed a joint-venture called Saudi Bangla Integrated Cement in order to build a new integrated cement plant. The proposed unit will have a clinker production capacity of 12,000t/day, according to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper. It will be supplied with limestone from Meghalaya in India via a long conveyor belt. If realised the project is expected to create up to 700 direct and indirect jobs. Government-owned BCIC previously signed a partnership agreement with EDII in late 2018.