Displaying items by tag: Plant
ANCAP’s Minas cement plant shut due to union action
05 April 2018Uruguay: The Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland’s (ANCAP) Minas cement plant has been shut for two months due to union action. The cement producer has been forced to supply cement from its Paysandu plant instead, according to the El Pais newspaper. If the situation continues then ANCAP may need to buy cement from its competitor Cemento Artigas.
ANCAP’s cement division has accumulated debts of US$207m since the early 2000s. Revenues have been reportedly lower than costs since 2004. ANCAP started a restructuring plan at the cement producer in 2017.
Kenya: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed US$96m to invest in National Cement towards upgrading a cement plant and building new grinding plants. National Cement’s chairman and chief shareholder Narendra Raval is also expected to invest US$102m into the expansion project, according to the Daily Nation newspaper. The company intends to build two grinding plants in Kenya and Uganda and a new 5500t/day clinker production line at its existing integrated plant in Merrueshi in Kenya. It also plans to build a 8MW captive power plant at Merrueshi.
The battle for Binani Cement
04 April 2018Persistence has paid off for UltraTech Cement this week. Although the deal is not complete, all the signs are pointing towards India’s largest cement producer buying Binani Cement despite losing an auction for it last month. Here’s a recap of what has happened so far.
In July 2017 the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Kolkata, a semi-judicial body that rules on issues relating to companies, started insolvency proceedings for Binani Cement. It followed a plea by one of the cement company’s creditors, the Bank of Baroda, that had an outstanding claim of around US$15m. The Kolkata bench of the NCLT rejected Binani Cement’s argument that the debt was tiny compared to the assets of its parent company Binani Industries of US$2.15bn. It then appointed an administrator, or resolution professional, called Vijaykumar Iyer, a partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India. More on him later on.
The subsequent auction of Binani Cement raised lots of interest both internationally and locally due to its production base. The company operates a 4.9Mt/yr plant at Binanigram in Rajasthan with two kilns and four mills. It also runs a 1.4Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Sirohi in the same state. Unusually though for an Indian producer it also runs a 2Mt/yr grinding plant at Jebel Ali, Dubai in the UAE and a 0.5Mt/yr integrated plant, Shandong Cement, in China.
Its products domestically in India include 43 and 53 grades Ordinary Portland Cement and Portland Pozzolana Cement, with the Bollywood film star Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. On that last point the Indian Supreme Court chastised Binani Cement in 2014 for not paying sales tax in Rajasthan whilst being able to hire Bachchan! However, given the ferocity of the struggle to buy Binani Cement maybe all that marketing of the brand paid off, giving the producer a much higher profile than it might otherwise have had.
Anyway, lots of companies showed interest in Binani Cement in the first round of bidding in late 2017. CRH, LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement, India Cement, Orient Cement, Ramco Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement and Piramal Group were all linked to the auction. Eventually UltraTech Cement, JSW Cement, Ramco Cement, HeidelbergCement India, Dalmia Bharat and a pair of Indian investors all submitted bids and JSW Cement emerged as the winner with a bid of US$919m. However the emergence of an additional liability of around US$250m scuppered that auction when it turned out that Binani Cement had offered a corporate guarantee for the acquisition of a fibreglass asset in Europe known as 3B in 2012 by Binani Industries. By February 2018 the next auction was in progress and this time Dalmia Bharat Cement and UltraTech Cement led the race. Dalmia Bharat won the second auction with a bid of around US$1.03bn made in a consortium with Bain Capital’s India Resurgent Fund and Piramal Enterprises.
At this point the situation might have conceivably slowed down. Instead, UltraTech Cement kept on fighting and queried the entire bidding process. It then made a direct offer of US$1.11bn to Binani Cement in the form of a so-called ‘comfort letter’ that Binani Industries used to stop the insolvency process. At the same time it received approval from the Competition Commission of India in its bid for Binani Cement, the previous absence of which was one of the reasons its bid against Dalmia Bharat was rejected.
Indian company law now faced a dilemma over how a bankruptcy works given that the NCLT was meant to be in charge. A way out was found though when the NCLT in Kolkata and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal both allowed the bidders to settle the dispute ‘amicably.’ To add further confusion the administrator Vijaykumar Iyer also alleged right in the middle of the final tussle between Dalmia Bharat and UltraTech Cement that fraudulent transactions had been made by Binani Cement! Whether this has any further implications remains to be seen.
At this stage nobody is likely to declare UltraTech Cement the winner of Binani Cement until it actually picks up the keys to the cement plants. Perhaps not even then in case of any lingering legal issues! UltraTech Cement clearly views Rajasthan as a growth area given the tenacity with which it has gone after Binani Cement. It operates two integrated plants in the state and is building two more of its own. After its long journey in buying plants from Jaiprakash Associates in 2017, UltraTech Cement is starting to look like the cement producer that simply won’t take no for an answer.
YD Madencilik orders new production line from KHD
04 April 2018Turkey: YD Madencilik, part of Üstyapi Insaat Group, has ordered a 5000t/day clinker production line from Germany’s KHD Humboldt Wedag. The plant will be built at Yiglica, Düzce in the Marmara region. KHD will be responsible for engineering and equipment supply, as well as the supervision of erection and commissioning. It will also provide its Simulex plant simulation software to mirror the operation of the new plant.
The new production line will consist of the following KHD core components: a six-stage preheater with Pyroclon LowNOx AF calciner, equipped with a Pyrotop compact mixing chamber, tertiary air duct and the Pyrobox calciner firing system; a three tyre rotary kiln, with a diameter of 4.8m; a Pyro-Jet kiln burner; and a Pyrofloor clinker cooler equipped with a Pyrocrusher system.
After commissioning, KHD says that YD Madencilik’s plant will operate its most efficient six-stage preheater in Turkey. It added that close to 70% of Turkish cement production units have been designed and installed by KHD. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019.
BASF to spend Euro6m on new additives plant in Russia
04 April 2018Russia: BASF Construction Systems plans to spend at least Euro6m towards building a new cement additive and concrete admixture plant. The plant will be the company’s fifth in the country, according to Interfax. The subsidiary of Germany’s BASF is currently looking for a site for the unit with a decision planned for 2018. It will then build the plant by 2021.
Tunisia: Clinker production at Carthage Cement’s plant in Djebel Ressas has stopped due to union action by the staff of NLSupervision. Concrete production, aggregate production and clinker export is proceeding as normal. The cement producer said that the management of NLSupervision and union representatives are currently meeting to resolve the issue. NLSupervision, a subsidiary of Denmark’s FLSmidth, holds an operation and maintenance contract for the cement plant.
Algeria/Niger: The Aoulef cement plant in Afrar province has started exporting cement to Niger. Youcef Yousfi, the Minister of Industry and Mines, welcomed the news in a statement, according to the El Moudjahid newspaper and the Algeria Press Service. The plant exported 950t of Ordinary Portland Cement by land. The 1.5Mt/yr Aoulef cement plant started production in December 2017. It aims to export around 1Mt/yr of cement.
HarbisonWalker International obtains ISO certification for refractory plants in Georgia and Kansas
29 March 2018US: HarbisonWalker International has obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification for its Thomasville monolithic and precast refractory plant in Georgia and its South Shore refractory brick plant in Kansas. The refractory manufacturer now plans to achieve the new ISO standard at the rest of its plants by the end of 2018.
Poland: LafargeHolcim has celebrated investing over Euro95m at its Kujawy cement plant since 2008. As part of the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone, the plant has had a number of upgrades over the last decade and has created over 60 jobs.
Projects at the site have included spending Euro24m on environmental improvements such as installing new filters, building a new clinker silo and four cement silos, and converting the plant to process alternative fuels. Euro56m has been invested on production upgrades including a new cement grinding mill, a new calciner and new constant monitoring systems. Euro18m has been spent on two bulk loading terminals, a new weighbridge and self-loading systems and a new laboratory.
First clinker produced at Limak Anka Cement plant
28 March 2018Turkey: The first clinker has been produced at the Limak Anka Entegre Cement plant. Turkish engineering company Sintek added that the flame was first lit in mid-march 2018 for the 5000t/day production line. Turkish cement producer Limak signed a US$155m contract with China’s Sinoma and local company Sintek to build the plant in early 2015. The project was originally scheduled to be completed in early 2017.