Displaying items by tag: Plant

India: Wonder Cement, a part of the Rajasthan-headquartered RK Group, has announced that it will set up a 2Mt/yr clinker grinding unit in Dhule, Maharashtra at a cost of US$64.7m. The plan marks the company’s first foray into the state. This is in addition to the earlier-announced plan to invest US$359m by the end of the 2020 financial year.

“The Dhule plant will distribute cement mainly across Maharashtra, while a minimal quantity will be supplied to Madhya Pradesh,” said Managing Director JC Toshniwal, who added that the company is also in the process of developing a railway siding for the unit.

Following the commencement of the Dhule facility, Wonder Cement’s production capacity will increase to 8.75Mt/yr from the present 6.75Mt/yr. The clinker required for the unit will be supplied from Nimbahera plant in Rajasthan. Gypsum, another raw material used for manufacturing cement, will be procured from Gujarat and fly ash from a nearby thermal power plant.

In addition to the plants in Nimbahera and Dhule, Wonder Cement is in the process of setting up a third clinker facility of about 2.5Mt/yr in Nimbahera, Rajasthan. “The civil works for the third clinker unit is in full swing,,” confirmed Toshniwal. “We will commission it by mid-2019. This will help to increase our cement production capacity to 11Mt/yr.”

Under its expansion plans, the company will look at setting up two more clinker units. One will be in Madhya Pradesh, but the location for the other is yet to be finalised.

Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a cement and marble production complex worth US$1.1bn to the south of Cairo on 15 August 2018. The 500-hectare industrial complex is located 12km north of the Upper Egyptian governorate of Beni Suef.

It took 21 months to complete the complex, which includes three cement plants with a combined annual production capacity of 12Mt/yr. Egypt, through the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, worked together with 20 local and international companies on the project.
During the unveiling ceremony, Sisi said that such industrial projects would help reduce imports, while saving foreign currency and offering thousands of job opportunities to local people.

There have been quite a few new cement plant project announcements in the past week, with expansions announced in Mexico, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India and Uzbekistan. 11.8Mt/yr of new capacity has been announced in just a week, mostly from a whopping 9.0Mt/yr project in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, the first in that Province. Notable in this project, as well as two of the others, is the involvement, once again, of large Chinese-based cement plant manufacturers and / or finance and associated influence from Chinese parties.

Of course, this trend is nothing new. The rise of Chinese cement plant manufacturers, particularly into Africa and other developing cement markets, has been covered in previous Global Cement Weekly columns. However, it does appear to be stepping up a notch in 2018 compared to previous years. So far this year we have reported on 21 confirmed Chinese cement plants being built in 15 countries other than China, from the planning stage to ‘up-and-running.’ A total of 37.2Mt/yr, more than the capacity of Germany, is being built across Algeria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Zambia. That’s not including a similarly large number of news stories where the supplier is not explicitly stated. This is seen a lot in Indian projects, as well as in Vietnam, where the cement sector appears to still be expanding, despite the government’s pronouncements. In many of these cases, and elsewhere, these unidentified suppliers are likely to be Chinese.

The driver for this increase in Chinese-led cement sector investment is, of course, the severe overcapacity in China’s domestic cement sector. The government is currently undertaking its most drastic capacity reduction measures so far. The ongoing integration of Sinoma and CNBM is one example of the lengths it will go to to reduce the current inefficiencies in the sector. This week the Chinese government reiterated its strict prohibition on new greenfield cement plants. It also warned that any producer that wants to upgrade its plant with a new line must only install the same capacity as the line that will be replaced, amid concerns that some were flouting this rule. This comes as the profits of major producers have been rising. Presumably the government would like them to climb further still.

So where does this leave the more established (read ‘European’) cement plant manufacturers such as Fives, FLSmidth, KHD and thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions, some of which are fully or partly-owned by Chinese companies? Well, with fewer full-line projects available in developing regions due to the rise of the Chinese, they have become increasingly specialised in specific areas. Those that want European equipment will increasingly specify a pyro-line from Supplier A, a mill or two from Supplier B, conveyors and storage from supplier C, and so on. Arranging this, as it turns out, is something that Chinese plant manufacturers are quite keen to do. Take, for example, FLSmidth working for Sinoma (China) alongside Atlas Copco (Sweden) and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Japan) on a cement plant in Indonesia. Indeed, FLSmidth signed a framework with CNBM on future collaborations in July 2018. FLSmidth and CNBM already have an extensive ‘back catalogue’ of joint projects. FLSmidth has valuable expertise that Chinese firms need to complete these kinds of projects.

Of course, another European supplier, Germany’s KHD, is mostly owned by China’s AVIC. In a forthcoming interview in the September 2018 issue of Global Cement Magazine, KHD’s CEO Gerold Keune states that the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) scene is now ‘completely dominated’ by Chinese suppliers. KHD fits in by providing a wide range of equipment but, crucially, great expertise in pyroprocessing and crushing solutions. It itself relies on smaller firms to provide their knowledge to specific parts of a larger project, be it conveyors, feeding systems or silos. Everyone is getting better and better, but in a smaller and smaller area.

Also in the September 2018 issue of Global Cement Magazine will be a report from the VDMA’s Large Industrial Plant Manufacturer’s group (AGAB) in Germany, which highlights another advantage for the Europeans: Digitisation. According to a VDMA survey, the industry anticipates a positive influence from digitisation activities on sales and earnings and expects to see margins improve by up to 10% as a result of the efficiencies it offers over the next three years. In this regard they are ahead of the Chinese mega-suppliers.

The conclusion from this wide-ranging column? The integration of Chinese weight and European know-how is stepping up a notch and will only accelerate from here. Can everyone be ‘winners?’ The next few years may reveal some of the answers.

Uzbekistan: Tajik-Chinese joint venture Chzhungtsai Mohir Cement is planning to build a cement plant near Tuda in the Boisoun district of the Surkhandarya region in Uzbekistan. The unit will have a production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr, according to Asia-Plus. The company operates a 1.2Mt/yr cement plant in Tajikistan than opened in 2016. Tajikistan exported 0.66Mt of cement in the first half of 2018 and 0.36Mt of this went to neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Pakisan: Fauji Cement has approved plans to set up a 12.5MW captive solar plant. The company operates a 3.4Mt/yr cement plant near to Attock in Punjab Province.

Zambia: ZCCM-Investment Holding, an investment company owned by the Zambian government, says that it will be the junior partner in a cement plant that it is planning to build in a joint venture with China Machinery Construction Group Limited (SinoConst). ZCCM will hold 35% of the joint venture, Central African Cement, and SinoConst will hold the remaining 65%. The US$680m project was announced in early 2018.

ZCCM also announced that its subsidiary, the Ndola Lime Company, was continuing to be in ‘distress.’ It said that its board was considering its options. The lime producer has reportedly suffered from liquidity problems and low production due to old equipment.

Russia: The head of Job Safety, Industrial Safety & the Environment Department at Eurocement’s Nevyanskiy Tsementnik cement plant has been fined Euro42,000. The fine was issued by the local authorities for emissions of non-organic dust with high silicon content, according to URBC Daily News. The plant does not have an emissions permit.

India: FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals India Limited (FAGMIL) is preparing to build a 1000t/day white cement plant in Himachal Pradesh. The state-run company, under the control of the Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, has received a letter of intent from the state government of Himachal Pradesh granting it a mining lease to support building a white cement plant. This will be followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between FAGMIL and the state government.

The lease area is 108 hectares and it is located near Nohra Dhar Village, Tehsil Sangrah in the Sirmour District. Limestone from the site will be used to support a white cement plant. A pre-feasibility study has been completed by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials, Ballabgarh in Haryana and further planning activities are in progress.

Nigeria: A group of investors from the US have visited Ibeto Cement’s Nigercem plant in Nkalagu. The visit was part of an assessment to prepare Ibeto Cement for a listing on a stock exchange in the US, according to the This Day newspaper. Cletus Madubugwu Ibeto, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ibeto Group said that Chinese contractors were due to work on upgrading the plant to a production capacity of 6000t/day with a 45MW waste heat recovery unit. In May 2018 Beta Cement signed an investment deal with US-based private equity firm Milost Global for US$850m.

India: The board of Birla Corporation has confirmed plans to build a new 3.9Mt/yr cement plant at Mukutban in Maharashtra. The unit will also include a 40MW captive power plant and a 10.6MW waste heat recovery system. The project has an investment of US$356m and it is intended to be completed by early 2022.

The cement producer says it has acquired land, mineral concessions and environmental clearance for the plant. It added that the proposed site has good railway and road links. The project is also eligible for an ‘attractive fiscal incentive’ from the state government of Maharashtra.

Birla Corporation operates a grinding plant at Butibori in Maharashtra through its Reliance Cement subsidiary.