Displaying items by tag: Shutdown

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento’s (INC) Vallemi cement plant has suffered damage to its equipment due to problems with the local electricity supply from state energy company ANDE. Issues including low voltage that damaged the main electric motor of the plant’s cement mill and other equipment at the site, according to the ABC newspaper. Consequently, cement is not being despatched from the Vallemi plant. Normal production is expected to resume in mid-April 2018. INC’s Villeta cement grinding plant has increased its dispatches to compensate increasing its deliveries to 80,000bags/day of cement from its normal level of 50,000bags/day.

Tunisia: The National Chamber of Ceramics Manufacturers has expressed concern about the a shortage of white cement following the closure of the Société Tuniso-Andalouse de Ciment Blanc’s (SOTACIB) plant at Férien. The ceramics association has called for the government to speed up the import process, according to the L'economiste Maghrebin magazine. SOTACIB’s 0.65Mt/yr white cement plant closed on 19 January 2018 for a six-month period following a strike by workers in December 2017. Spain’s Cementos Molins is the majority shareholder in the company.

US: St Marys Cement has suspended production at its Dixon plant in Illinois. The move will result in about two-thirds of the employees losing their jobs, according to the Sauk Valley Newspapers. The company, a subsidiary of Brazil’s Votorantim, plans to continue cement grinding at the site until the summer of 2018 when its inventory will be exhausted. Then the plant will be used as a distribution terminal only.

The company said that the decision was made to improve cost efficiencies and that the plant’s location was poor compared to other sites. However, it plans to review its decision on stopping production by the end of 2018.

The Dixon cement plant originally opened in 1914 before becoming idle in 2008. Production then resumed in 2015.

India: Gujarat Sidhee Cement has extended the shutdown period of its Sidheegram plant until 28 September 2017 due to additional maintenance work on the kiln and coal mill. The maintenance period was originally scheduled to last until 25 August 2017. The cement producer said that cement grinding and packing operations will continue as normal and that the plant will meet all despatch requirements. Cement sales volumes are expected to be unaffected.

Chile: Cementos Bío Bío is to stop producing clinker at its Talcahuano cement plant. The cement producer has also laid off a third of its workforce, according to Pura Noticia. It now plans to import clinker from Asia instead, which it says, will reduce its production costs by US$19/t. The company started cement production at Talcahuano in 1961.

Saudi Arabia: Najran Cement has temporarily shut down its second production line due to poor market conditions and high inventory. The line has a clinker production capacity of 3000t/day. The cement producer intends to announce any financial impact arising from the shutdown in its financial report for the first quarter of 2017.

Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement has temporarily shut down five of its production lines. The lines have a joint clinker production capacity of 5600t/day. The decision was made due to poor market conditions, low demand for cement and high inventory.

US: An on-going mechanical failure is to shut down the Lehigh Cement Redding plant in California for an estimated 14 weeks. The problem with a gearbox has reportedly been occurring since January 2016 and has persisted despite equipment replacements. The cement producer is currently waiting for further replacement parts, according to the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper.

39 workers will also be laid off at the plant. Lehigh previously laid off 40 employees workers at the plant in 2009 due to a fall in construction activity in the market.

India: The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Nagpur has barred Murli Industries from selling or mortgaging its assets due to outstanding debts of over US$275m. The nine directors of the company have been asked not to leave the country without prior permission of the tribunal, according to the Times of India. Accusations of financial irregularities have also been levelled at the directors by the tribunal.

Murli Industries runs a cement plant in Chandrapur, Maharashtra that has been described by the Times as ‘practically closed down’. Workers at the unit have not been paid reportedly since the autumn of 2015. Subsequently they have preventing the company from transporting cement or raw materials out of the plant until they are compensated.

India: JK Cement has stopped clinker and cement production at its Muddapur cement plant in Karnataka. It reported finding cracks in a raw material silo.