Displaying items by tag: Russia
Workers on Russian Holcim project strike over pay
19 December 2014Russia: The workers of the Granit company, which is involved in construction of a new line at the Holcim cement plant in Saratov, Volga Federal District, conducted a one-day strike on 18 December 2014. Their actions were due to a disagreement caused by overdue salaries.
Atrus halts construction of cement plant in Krasnodar
17 December 2014Russia: Austrian company Atrus Cement has halted construction of a cement plant in Krasnodar territory indefinitely. The project has been temporarily put on hold due to a lack of funds to finance the construction, according to Interfax.
Atrus Cement was planning to build and launch a cement plant in the Crimean district of Krasnodar territory by 2016. The project will cost over US$188m and will have a cement production capacity of 2.1Mt/yr. The company had hoped to start construction in 2012 and complete the project by 2016.
LSR to sell Slantsy cement plant to Eurocement
16 December 2014Russia: LSR Group is selling its Slantsy plant in the Leningrad region of Russia to Eurocement Group. The parties have signed a preliminary sales agreement, with Eurocement having obtained approval from Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (FAS).
Control of plant operations is expected to be transferred later in December 2014. LSR said that the deal is part of its strategy to 'focus on projects with the highest returns on invested capital and fast growing real estate development business, thus maximising value for shareholders.' LSR will use most of the proceeds to reduce its debt and make it 100% Ruble-based by the end of 2014.
Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service allows Topkinsky Cement to acquire 25% stake in Iskitimtsement
03 December 2014Russia: Topkinsky Cement, a part of Siberian Cement, has received the Federal Antimonopoly Service's (FAS) permission to purchase a 24.92% voting stake in Iskitimtsement. Siberian Cement's stake will therefore grow to 49.899%. In February 2013 the FAS blocked Sibirsky Cement from acquiring a 90% stake of Iskitimtsement's voting shares.
Iskitimtsement posted a revenue of Euro85m and a net profit of Euro11m in 2013 compared to a revenue of Euro77m and a net profit of Euro16m in 2012. The cement plant holds 17% of the Siberian Federal District's cement market.
Russia: Buzzi Unicem has completed the acquisition of 100% of Uralcement from for Euro104m in cash. The acquisition of Uralcement's plant in Korkino raises Buzzi Unicem's annual production capacity in Russia to 4.5Mt/yr.
In September 2014 Buzzi Unicem, via its German wholly-owned subsidiary Dyckerhoff, agreed to acquire Uralcement, subject to regulatory approvals expected by the end of 2014. Having obtained the authorisations, Buzzi Unicem has finalised the agreement for the acquisition of Uralcement's plant in Korkino, south of Chelyabinsk, with a cement production capacity of 1.1Mt/yr.
Buzzi Unicem seeks to boost its position in the Urals region and benefit from the combined production network with Dyckerhoff's plant at Sukhoy Log. Dyckerhoff entered the Russian cement market in 1994 with the acquisition of a stake in Sukholozhskcement.
Russia’s Sibirsky Cement expects sales to fall by 7% in 2015
20 November 2014Russia: Sibirsky Cement has announced that it expects its sales to decrease by 7% year-on-year in 2015, according to first vice president Gennady Rasskazov. "We are making budget plans for next year, but I think that sales will stand at 4 - 4.1Mt," said Rasskazov. In 2014, Sibirsky Cement aims to sell 4.3Mt of cement.
Voskresensk Cement uses Siemens environmental monitoring system
12 November 2014Russia: Lafarge's Voskresensk cement plant has set up a continuous environmental monitoring system analysing cement furnace emissions. Siemens has designed and delivered the equipment. The monitoring system controls standard parameters like the content of dust, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide, oxygen, pressure, gas flow rate and organic content. Lafarge also has an environmental monitoring system installed at its Ferzikovo Cement Plant.
Eurocement to sign US$280m in contracts with Sinoma
12 November 2014China/Russia: Eurocement plans to sign three contracts worth a combined US$280m at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing. The contracts cover the construction of dry-process cement lines at the Kavkazcement, Belgorodsky Cement and Oskolcement plants. Each line will have a clinkcer capacity of 6200t/yr or a cement capacity of 3Mt/yr. Each contract is for US$93.3m and the contractor is Sinoma International Engineering.
In May 2014 Eurocement signed six contracts to build new plants with Sinomach, CNBM and Sinoma for a total of US$580m. All of the projects are being carried out as part of a programme to switch to dry-process cement production. Overall investments in the programme will exceed US$2bn.
"We plan to switch our enterprises to the new technological platform in three years, between 2014 and 2017," said Eurocement president Mikhail Skorokhod. By 2018, Eurocement intends to produce 100% of its cement using the dry-process. This will boost capacities by 5Mt/yr to 45Mt/yr, according to Skorokhod.
Eurocement has calculated that the programme will pay for itself in 7 - 10 years. Cost of production is planned to fall by 35% - 40%. The debt/equity ratio of financing for the programme is 70%:30%. In May 2014, Eurocement signed a strategic agreement with Sberbank to finance its investment programme.
Wikov Gear sends 120t gearbox to Spassk-Cement in Russia
05 November 2014Russia: Engineering company Wikov Gear will transport a 120t gearbox to a cement plant near Vladivostok, Russia, via road and ship by February 2015. It is the heaviest gearbox Wikov Gear has produced in over 100 years of existence, according to CEO Tomas Zrostlik. Lorries with the gearbox will leave Plzen, western Bohemia, in the middle of November 2014.
The biggest gearbox made by Wikov Gear thus far weighed 102t. It was made for Siemens, which was building a cement roller mill in South Korea. "Before that, we were producing special gearboxes which weighed 60 – 70t, in particular for roller mills' heavy operations," Zrostlik said. Some 80% of the company's portfolio is equipment weighing 20 – 25t.
The gearbox that is destined for Russia is 8m long, 5m high and 2.5m wide. It has been designed for 15 years of operation. The recipient is Spassk-Cement, of the private group Vostok Cement, which has three cement plants and supplies 95% of its output to Russia.
"We will load the equipment within three weeks. It will travel to Hamburg and then by ship via Shanghai. We expect it to arrive in 45 - 50 days," Zrostlik said. The gearbox will be in 25 boxes, the heaviest one weighing 45t. The assembly will start in March 2015 and the launch of its operation is planned for around 15 April 2015. Wikov Gear is also responsible for the assembly and online implemtnation.
Supplies for cement plants have made up 15% of Wikov Gear's turnover thus far, but the share is to rise up to 25% in 2015. The company also won an order from Lafarge in Germany in November 2014.
Eurocement’s Mikhailovcement plant produces 1.21Mt of cement in January - September 2014
14 October 2014Russia: Eurocement's Mikhailovcement plant in Ryazan produced 1.21Mt of cement in January - September 2014, up by 20.2% on the same period of 2013. This includes 281,350t of CEM I 42.5H (+65.6%) and 981,620t of clinker (+17%). A total of 1.23Mt (+21.1%) was shipped to customers. The plant extracted 1.27Mt of limestone (+16.9%) and 439,860t of clay (17.2%) from its quarry during the first nine months of 2014.