Displaying items by tag: Sinoma

Najmat Al Samawa Cement (NAS Cement) in Iraq announced this week that its second production line was successfully fired up on 13 May 2025. The new 5500t/day line was formally announced in May 2023. It joins the existing line at the site and should bring the plant’s total production capacity to around 3Mt/yr. The plant is a joint-venture between Pakistan-based Lucky Cement Limited and the Al Shumookh Company in Dubai and its representatives in Iraq.

Global Cement Magazine interviewed Intezar Ahmad, the Director of Operations at NAS Cement, in the November 2024 issue. He explained that China-based TCDRI was the main contractor for both the original and new lines. Equipment for Line 2 was also supplied by Fives Pillard, Loesche and IKN. Commissioning was scheduled for the second quarter of 2025. This, nicely, appears to be spot on. Lucky Cement added in its statement about the new line this week that it is also building a new 0.65Mt/yr cement grinding mill at the plant. This addition is expected to be commissioned during the second half of the 2025 calendar year. Lucky Cement also operates a cement grinding plant, under a joint-venture, in Basra.

The expansion at NAS Cement is by no means the only one as there have been a number of project announcements over the last three months. Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer revealed in late-March 2025 that it had won an order to supply a vertical roller mill for the Al Amir cement plant in Najaf. This contract was awarded through the China-based contractor Sinoma Suzhou. Commissioning is planned for the second half of 2026. Then, one month later in April 2025, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani made a statement launching ‘implementation works’ at four cement plants in Al-Muthanna Province. This included the 6000t/day Al-Arabi Cement Plant, the 6000t/day Al-Khairat Al-Muthanna Cement Plant, the 6600t/day Al-Samawa Cement Plant and the 6000t/day Al-Etihad Cement Plant. Al-Sudani also mentioned the start of commercial operations at NAS Cement’s second line. Subsequently, IVI Holding signed a US$240m deal with Sinoma Overseas in mid-May 2025 to build a 6000t/day plant in Al-Muthanna Province. Presumably, this is one of the projects that the government highlighted. Finally, the Kurdistan Region prime minister Masrour Barzani inaugurated the 6300t/day Dabin cement plant at around the same time. This last project was built by PowerChina together with a power station.

The Iraqi economy has been doing well in recent years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported in May 2025 that the non-oil sector experienced “very strong growth” of 13.8% in 2023. This slowed down to 2.5% in 2024 due to a slowdown in public investment and in the services sector, and a weaker trade balance. However, the IMF noted that the agriculture, manufacturing, and construction sectors had remained resilient. Non-oil sector growth is forecast to remain subdued in 2025 amid a “...challenging global environment and financing constraints.” In its coverage of the new line at NAS Cement, Pakistan Today reported that the country has a notional cement production capacity of around 40Mt/yr but that many of the older plants have suffered from under-investment. Accordingly, the domestic market is around 25Mt/yr supported by state-funded housing projects, oil-field infrastructure schemes and reconstruction in Mosul. 3 - 4Mt of this is supplied via imports from Iran and Türkiye. The newspaper also noted the risk that all these new cement plant projects may face from variable gas supplies from the government. NAS Cement, for example, switched from heavy fuel oil (HFO) to gas in 2022.

Cement sector capacity expansion is coming in Iraq following a revived local economy. Risks abound though due to the country’s economic outlook, its dependence on oil and an geopolitical uncertainty. Yet money is being spent and new projects are starting to be commissioned. Onwards!

China: The China Cement Association has elected Zhou Yuxian as its president following a meeting of its representatives.

Zhou has been the chair of China National Building Materials Group (CNBM) since 2021. Earlier in his career he worked for China Reform Holdings, Sinoma, China National Materials Science and Industry Group, China Non-Metal Research Institute of Synthetic Crystals and the Synthetic Crystals Research Institute. He has held leadership positions at several trade associations, including the China Association of Construction Enterprise Management, and is also a visiting practicing professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Central South Mining and Metallurgy College and a master’s degree of engineering from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Wuhan University of Technology.

Dominican Republic: Sinoma CBMI Latin America has celebrated the completion of the PANAM cement project in the Dominican Republic. The project involved construction of a ‘modern’ cement grinding plant for Cemento PANAM, part of Grupo Estrella. According to a post on social media by Sinoma, the plant has a production capacity of 1.23Mt/yr, and integrates ‘advanced, carbon-neutral technologies’ to reduce environmental impact. The plant features a Gebr. Pfeiffer vertical roller mill with a capacity of 155t/hr of cement.

Tunisia: Votorantim Cimentos has completed the full sale of its assets in Tunisia to China-based Sinoma Cement. Votorantim Cimentos operates the Ciments de Jbel Oust plant in Tunisia. The transaction follows the fulfilment of precedent conditions, including regulatory approvals in China, Tunisia and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Delivery of the assets and financial settlement were also concluded.

Iraq: Gebr. Pfeiffer has won an order to supply a vertical roller mill for the Al Amir cement plant in Najaf. The MVR 5000 R-4 raw mill with SLS 4500 VR classifier will grind 500t/hr of cement raw material from a fineness of 10% R to 0.090mm, drying it from 12% to below 0.5% moisture. The mill will be delivered via China-based contractor Sinoma Suzhou. Commissioning is scheduled for the second half of 2026.

PPC revealed plans this week to build a new cement plant in the Western Cape region of South Africa. It has entered into a “strategic cooperation agreement” with Sinoma Overseas Development Company to put together a 1.5Mt/yr integrated plant for around US$160m. It is hoped that construction will start in the second quarter of 2025 with commissioning scheduled by the end of 2026.

CEO Matías Cardarelli described more details about the project during a tie-in webcast on 16 January 2025. Specifically, the new unit will be built at the company’s integrated Riebeeck Plant site due to the quality of the local limestone and the greater reserves. In addition, all the key environmental approvals and mining rights have already been obtained. Both this plant, and the nearby De Hoek Plant, will continue to run throughout the construction and commissioning period. A decision will then be made about required staffing. PPC did not explicitly say whether the two old plants would be closed but the new plant will “replace and increase the existing capacity” at the other sites.

Points to note from the announcement start with the low cost for the clinker production line. PPC’s 1Mt/yr line at its Slurry plant cost around US$75m when it was commissioned in 2018. Sinoma also built that one. However, negative currency exchange effects make comparisons tricky. In 2015 PPC said that the cost of the Slurry line was around US$115/t. It pointed out that the price was low as it was a brownfield investment. This compares to US$107/t for the Western Cape project, another brownfield project. Other recent integrated plant projects in Sub-Saharan Africa to consider include Cemtech’s clinker plant in Sebit, Kenya (US$170/t) or West International Holding’s forthcoming plant in Buikwe District, Uganda (US$150/t). Plans for a new PPC plant in the Western Cape go back to at least 2017 when the then CEO Johan Claassen said it was preparing for a ‘mega plant.’ At the time it was hoping to replace its Riebeeck plant with a ‘semi-brownfield’ facility that would use around 25% of the current plant’s equipment. The scheme had actually been around longer but Claassen remarked that insufficient domestic demand had held it back.

The next detail to consider is that PPC is planning to build this new plant within 100km of the coast. This was addressed directly with PPC saying that the new plant would be “extremely competitive” against imports. They say it will be able to produce cement, at least, to a similar cost to imports from Vietnam. It was also remarked that only 10 - 15% of the 1Mt/yr of imports, mainly from Vietnam, go to the Western Cape with the rest heading to KwaZulu-Natal via the Port of Durban.

PPC’s plans in Riebeeck are part of its ‘Awaken the Giant’ development strategy. For its six month financial results statement to September 2024 it said that it had “early positive and encouraging signs in all lines of our business.” In South Africa its earnings were up despite lower sales volumes. Dangote Cement’s local subsidiary, Sephaku Holdings, reported a similar picture with a small bump in revenue and earnings back up after coal and fly ash supply constraints a year earlier. PPC isn’t the only cement company developing capacity. Huaxin Cement-owned Natal Portland Cement was reportedly investing US$65m in the autumn of 2024 towards expanding its Simuma Plant in KwaZulu-Natal.

The cement sector in South Africa had a couple of ownership changes in 2024. As mentioned above, China-based Huaxin Cement bought Natal Portland Cement from InterCement at the start of the year. Then, Afrimat received approval to buy Lafarge South Africa in April 2024. Both of these incomers have clear ambitions to expand in the industry. In this context PPC’s decision to finally revive its Western Cape plans, before whatever its new competitors devise, makes sense. Expect more talk of capacity upgrades in the future.

China/Denmark: Denmark-based FLSmidth Cement has signed a licensing agreement with Sinoma International Intelligent Technology (IIT) covering the production and sale of QCX lab equipment in China. Cyril Leung, Country Head China – FLSmdith, said “The deal effectively provides us a new sales channel and represents our continued commitment to enhancing our services in the world’s largest cement market.”

All QCX equipment that FLSmidth Cement supplies outside of China will continue to be made in Brno, Czech Republic. Development and delivery of QCX software will remain in Denmark. FLSmidth noted that the agreement has no impact on the ongoing divestment of FLSmidth Cement.
FLSmidth Cement’s QCX lab equipment supports sampling, preparation and analysis. Products in the range include the QCX/RoboLab laboratory automation system, analysers, sample preparation products, quality control systems and laboratory software.

China: The sales revenue from CNBM’s cement manufacturing division fell by 31% year-on-year to US$5.70bn in the first half of 2024 from US$8.25bn in the same period in 2023. The group blamed the decline on falling sales volumes of cement and aggregates and decreasing prices of heavy building materials. Its Basic Building Materials segment reported an operating loss of US$261m from an operating profit of US$348m previously. The division sold 114Mt of cement and clinker, a fall of 20% from 142Mt.

In its interim report the group said that its Basic Building Materials segment had been “…affected by a combination of factors, such as the in-depth adjustment of the real estate and funding constraints for infrastructure projects.” Subsequently the cement industry had faced low demand and prices. It added that market overcapacity had not been resolved.

Overall the group’s revenue and gross profit fell by 19% to US$11.7bn and by 25% to US$1.86bn respectively. However, income from its Engineering Technology Services segment rose by 2% to US$2.89bn. This division includes cement plant and equipment supplier Sinoma International. The group noted that global engineering and construction demand remained stable in the first half of 2024.

Global: Titan Group and Sinoma CBMI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on new business opportunities and technological innovations, focusing on decarbonising and digitising cement manufacturing.

Chair of the Titan Group executive committee, Marcel Cobuz, said "Our partnership with Sinoma will enhance our Green Growth Strategy 2026, benefiting both companies and advancing efficiencies across various fronts. Together, we are transforming the building materials sector towards a net zero future."

The MoU extends the collaboration beyond their initial joint venture on Titan's cement plant in Albania, exploring further advancements in low-carbon fuel and cooler technologies, virtual cement applications, digital logistics and carbon capture solutions.

Saudi Arabia: Sinoma CDI says that it has won a contract with Eastern Province Cement for the construction of a new 10,000t/day line at the producer’s 3.5Mt/yr Al Khursaniyah cement plant. The new line will more than double the plant’s capacity to 7.15Mt/yr and cost US$271m, according to Mist News.