Displaying items by tag: Plant
ACC to implement massive upgrade at Jamul
08 March 2012India: ACC Limited has announced plans to set up a new clinker production facility at Jamul in Chhattisgarh, replacing its existing line at the plant. Currently the plant can produce 1.6Mt/yr of cement. The expansion will see this figure rise to 5Mt/yr by mid-2015. The existing line will be phased out as the new one is commissioned.
Along with the announcement, ACC also said that it is planning to set up decentralised grinding stations, which will use clinker produced at Jamul. These will be implemented in a phased manner and are scheduled for completion by March 2015.
At the same time, ACC will also increase its existing grinding capacity at its Sindri plant in Jharkhand. Another new grinding plant is currently being built at Kharagpur in West Bengal. Both installations will source clinker from the new Jamul plant.
The overall capacity of ACC will increase to 35Mt/yr when all these projects are completed, helping the company to meet the demand for cement in the east of India.
Brazil: Cement manufacturer Holcim, which already operates cement plants in Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, is considering a new plant or joint-venture with a company already established in the Brazilian cement market. The group has untouched limestone reserves in the south, mid-west and the north east regions to offer any potential collaborator.
Holcim President Otmar Hübscher said that the company has been looking at possible locations and wants to focus Holcim to meet the growing cement demand in Brazil, where it is currently operating at its 5.3Mt/yr capacity. The company has already announced an US$800m expansion of its plant in Barroso, Minas Gerais. It is presently waiting for environmental clearance for the project, which will see that plant increase its capacity from 1.2Mt/yr to 3.5Mt/yr by 2014.
Siam Cement targets Indonesia for major investment
05 March 2012Indonesia: Thailand's Siam Cement Group (SCG) has revealed plans to build a new cement plant in Indonesia to capitalise on the country's rapidly-growing demand for construction materials. Kan Trakulhoon, president and chief executive officer of SCG, said that the company would invest US$300m in a cement plant in Sukabumi, West Java. The plant will have a capacity of 5000t/day and construction is expected to start by the end of 2012.
The investment comes after SCG bought a 100% stake valued at US$135m in Boral Indonesia, a company that produces ready-mixed concrete, from Australia-based Boral in February 2012. Kan said that SCG's growth lies outside of Thailand and that Indonesia is a big part of that.
The SCG chief, who has previously lived and worked in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, said that he had been impressed with Indonesia's improvement during the past few years. "During the last four to five years, the growth was very good. SCG has a lot of confidence in Indonesia," he said. Kan said he that he was not afraid of competition with Indonesia's more established cement makers as SCG had already acquired supporting companies such as Kokoh Inti Arebama, an Indonesian construction-material distributor.
Semen Gresik, Indonesia's largest cement producer, and other cement makers plan to invest a total of US$6.27bn during the next three years to boost production. The investment is expected to produce an additional 30Mt/yr of cement in the country, with annual output reaching 90Mt/yr in 2017 from 52Mt in 2011. Chaovalit Ekabut, SCG's chief financial officer, added that demand for SCG's products remained high in Indonesia.
Looking ahead, Kan said that in the next five years, the company would invest US$5bn in its ASEAN-country operations. In 2012 it will spend US$1.3-1.5bn in various regional investments, but Kan did not disclose how much the company has set aside for Indonesia.
Ash Grove files request to close Midlothian wet kilns
29 February 2012US: Ash Grove Cement Company has reportedly filed a permit amendment with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) seeking to close two of its three cement kilns in Midlothian, Texas. A local environmental pressure group, Downwinders at Risk, reported that it would convert the third kiln to dry production.
Ash Grove said that it was 'premature' to talk about the permit because the decision was not final. Downwinders' director Jim Schermbeck said that he expects the state agency to approve the change."They're going to reduce emissions. TCEQ will let them do that," Schermbeck said.
US cement kiln operators face a 2013 deadline to meet new emission standards from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The proposed changes would take production down by 20% at the site to around 0.95Mt/yr.
Smooth test completed at Lafarge/Strabag plant
29 February 2012Hungary: Lafarge and Strabag have successfully finished a test run at a Euro250m cement plant that they have jointly completed near Kiralyegyhaza in south west Hungary, according to Lafarge Cement Magyarorszag managing director Frederic Aubet. Mr Aubet said the test run results show the plant to be one of the most environmentally friendly in Europe.
The plant, which will turn out 0.75Mt/yr of clinker and 1Mt/yr of cement, will be fully commissioned by 2015.
Holcim to close Catskill and Artesia plants
27 February 2012US: Holcim (US) Inc. has decided to permanently close its cement making operations at its Catskill facility, according to a New York State Department of Conservation Environmental Notice Bulletin. The company is also set to permanently close its Artesia plant in Mississippi. Both plants had previously been mothballed due to the stagnating US economy and low cement demand.
Holcim Vice President of Corporate Communications Robin DeCarlo said that the state of the economy had not improved. She said that this, along with a decrease in demand for cement across the US, had led Holcim to decide to permanently close the plants.
Speaking of the Catskill plant, DeCarlo said, "Nothing has really changed with the plant from the mothball status to the close. We still have staff there, we are still looking at our equipment and are maintaining our permits, so not much has changed."
DeCarlo said that there are no plans for Catskill at this point and that a timeline on the completion of the closures remains unclear. The announcement to cease operations at Catskill was reported to the Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC) for the sole purpose of changing Holcim's solid waste permit. This will allow it to dispose of its raw materials, according to DEC Region 4 spokesman Rick Georgeson.
New captive power announced for Indocement project
24 February 2012Indonesia: Indonesia's second largest cement producer PT Indocement has announced plans to build a 2 x 30MW power plant in Pati, Central Java. The plant, which will cost around US$200m, will guarantee a power supply to Indocement's new cement factory, which is to be built in Pati later in 2012.
The new cement factory will cost around US$300m, according to Indocement's corporate secretary Sahat Panggabean. It will have a capacity of 2.5Mt/yr and will be operational by mid-2015. This will take Indocement's domestic cement capacity from 18.5Mt/yr up to 21Mt/yr.
Saudi Cement to relaunch kilns in May 2012
22 February 2012Saudi Arabia: Saudi Cement Company has announced that it will re-start operation of its 4000t/day Kiln No. 6 by the start of May 2012 at the latest. It will have completed a large-scale environmental overhaul and conversion of the kiln from gas to crude-oil by this date.
The company will also recommence operation of three older kilns over a similar timescale. These have a combined capacity of 1325t/day. The total additional available capacity available in May 2012 will be 5325t/day, helping to meet rising demand in the country.
Vietnam halts plant construction
20 February 2012Vietnam: Vietnam's Ministry of Construction has announced that it will temporarily delay work on several approved cement projects in the country. The move was announced with the spectre of severe cement overcapacity looming over the country. In 2012 it is expected that the country will consume around 50Mt of cement, 10Mt short of its existing 60Mt/yr capacity, according to the Vietnam Cement Association (VCA).
The director of the ministry's Construction Materials Department, Le Van Toi, noted that many cement producers were facing losses due to decreasing consumption and high interest rates. "Many cement producers have had to borrow up to 80% of their total investment capital and that eats most of their profits while interest rates remain high," he said.
Toi said that the Thanh Liem Cement Plant in northern Ha Nam Province had to close its doors due to significant losses, although the plant has not yet declared bankruptcy. Many other plants have cut their capacity sharply. "If the situation continues, the number of cement plants that will have to shut down will surge in the near future," Toi warned.
VCA's chairman Nguyen Van Thien urged cement producers to boost their trade promotion and export heavily in 2012 to deal with the surplus. He expected that the producers could export more than 7Mt of cement in 2012, a massive increase over 2011, when the country exported 1.5Mt. Vietnamese cement is exported mainly to China, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well as several African and southeast Asian countries.
Work to step up at Zambian Dangote plant
15 February 2012Zambia: Work on the construction of a new US$500m Dangote Cement plant in the Masaiti District of Zambia is progressing well and will be completed on schedule, according to company logistics manager Kampew Nundwe. The 1.5Mt/yr plant will be the largest in the country when it reaches its full capacity in 2013.
The plant is expected to create more than 1500 direct and indirect jobs during the construction and operational phases. "At the construction stage, 500 casual workers will be employed and up to 1000 people will be employed when full operations start," said Nundwe.
Nundwe said that the Chinese contractor working on the project has completed construction of temporary offices would soon be moving to the main construction site, with 80 trucks carrying materials from Germany and China scheduled to arrive from 15 February 2012 onwards.