Displaying items by tag: Plant
France: Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies has inaugurated its pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée. The 50,000t/yr unit will manufacture cement products using metakaolin and blast-furnace slag, according to the L'Usine Nouvelle magazine. It says it will produce cement with reduced CO2 emissions up to 250kg/t using a flash-calcined process down from 900kg/t in the normal clinker production process. The project had investment of Euro10m.
EAPCC receives government backing to sell land to meet debts
21 November 2018Kenya: The East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has received backing from the Ministry of Trade to sell unused land to pay off debts and commitments of nearly US$150m. The ministry said that a cabinet memorandum is ready to grant the company approval to sell off its assets, according to the Business Daily newspaper. The cement producer says it needs the funds to pay employee benefits, pay suppliers, pay off debts to companies including the Kenya Commercial Bank and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and refurbish its plant. The cement producer says it wants to spend US$19.5m towards refurbishing its plant in a one-to-two month shutdown. At present the unit is operating at a 50% capacity utilisation rate.
APO Cement to scale back operations
21 November 2018Philippines: Cemex Philippines’ subsidiary APO Cement plans to close its Davao cement terminal and indefinitely suspend one of its kilns at its Barangay plant in Cebu. It said in a statement that it had taken this action due to uncertainty caused by the disruption to its raw material supply, according to GMA News. It follows the on-going suspension of APO Land and Quarry following a landslide in September 2018. APO Land & Quarry supplies raw materials to APO Cement.
Construction starts at Kattakurgan cement plant
20 November 2018Uzbekistan: Construction has started on a 2.4Mt/yr cement plant in the Kattakurgan district of Samarkand. The project has an investment of US$420m, according to the Uzbekistan National News Agency. The first stage of construction will spend US$200m towards building a 1.2Mt/yr plant by 2020. This is expected to create 300 jobs. Then the plant will expand its production capacity from 2020 to 2023. The plant will produce both grey and white Ordinary Portland Cement. China’s Gansu Hengya Cement is investing in the project.
Golden Bay Cement hit by four-week stoppage in September 2018
20 November 2018New Zealand: Fletcher Building says that its Golden Bay Cement plant in Auckland was forced stop its cement mill for four weeks in September 2018. It said it had insurance to cover this but that its earnings for its 2019 financial year are likely to be impacted by up to US$8m. Generally, the building materials producer reported that, until the end of October 2018, its business in New Zealand had been flat. In Australia it is facing ‘challenging’ conditions with growing input prices and a slowing residential sector.
Canada: Quebec's Ministry of Economy and Innovation has confirmed that it has received a request from the shareholders of McInnis Cement to swap the debt the province holds in the venture for equity. A request has been made to the ministry and to Investissement Québec, the provincial government's investment arm, to convert almost US$200m of debt into shares in the cement producer, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. The newspaper speculates that an arrangement of this kind could be part of a potential deal with creditors to reduce the company’s liabilities and enable it to continue to operate.
McInnis Cement’s plant at Port-Daniel–Gascons was inaugurated in mid-2017. Construction at the site started in mid-2014. However, cost overruns saw the government-backed project delayed and then taken over by an investor, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a pension and insurance fund manager. The CDPQ was reportedly considering options including selling the plant or securing more investment in early 2018. Three bids were made for the cement producer but were rejected as being too low, according to reporting by the Globe and Mail. Interested parties in the company included Germany’s HeidelbergCement.
Montenegro: The Chamber of Economy of Montenegro has discussed plans to build a new cement plant at Pljevlja. The project has been proposed to reduce imports of cement, grow the local economy and take advantage of local resources, according to the Vijesti newspaper. The location is favoured due to local reserves of marl, coal, gypsum and fly ash from a local coal-fired power station. However, Dragica Sekulić, the minister of economy, said that the project would require a ‘serious’ investor.
In 2017 the country imported cement with a value of Euro41m. In the first nine months of 2018 it has imported Euro39m worth of cement.
Pakistan: The Supreme Court has appointed a special committee to visit the DG Khan’s cement plant in Chakwal to investigate how it stores water. The committee will report back to the court about the capacity of the reservoirs built by the plant as well as whether they were filled by extracting water from the aquifer or from rainwater, according to the Dawn newspaper. The committee will also take samples of water from the reservoirs.
The court has been looking into how DG Khan and Bestway Cement set up cement plants in the Potohar region related to water issues at the nearby Katas Raj Temples. Previously, the court was told that the DG Khan Cement was only operating tube-wells for domestic use by its workers but a witness alleged that the plants were extracting water for industrial use from the water table.
Indonesia: LafargeHolcim has signed an agreement with Semen Indonesia to sell its 80.6% share of Holcim Indonesia for US$1.75bn. The assets to be sold to Semen Indonesia include the entirety of LafargeHolcim’s operations in Indonesia, which consists of four cement plants, 33 ready-mix plants and two aggregate quarries. LafargeHolcim says it decided to divest Holcim Indonesia as part of the on-going portfolio review. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
“As part of our Strategy 2022 – ‘Building for Growth’ we have committed to divestments of at least Euro1.8bn. Today’s announcement is an important milestone in reaching our target and to increase our financial strength,” said Jan Jenisch, chief executive officer (CEO) of LafargeHolcim.
Mosstroytrans and Inner Mongolia Mengxi Cement to build 0.5Mt/yr plant at Krasnokamensk
13 November 2018Russia: Mosstroytrans and China’s Inner Mongolia Mengxi Cement have signed an agreement to build a 0.5Mt/yr cement plant at Krasnokamensk in Transbaikal. The deal was signed at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, according to the Business World Agency. The project dates back to 2014, when China’s Beijing Triumph International Engineering conducted a feasibility study at the site. In 2016 the regional government declared the project a regional priority.
Mosstroytrans is a diversified company that was established in 2010. At present, it is running a number of construction projects in the Nenets Autonomous District. Inner Mongolia Mengxi Cement is based in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. It operates cement plants with a total production capacity of 16Mt/yr.