Displaying items by tag: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: Insee Cement has appointed Gustavo Navarro as its chief executive officer (CEO) of its operations in Sri Lanka. He succeeds Nandana Ekanayake, according to the Nation newspaper. Ekanayake will remain at the company as chairman of the board. Navarro has previously held chief executive positions for Holcim in Serbia and Russia, and for CRH in Romania.

Iran: Data from the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) shows that cement producers exported 5.85Mt of cement in the first five months of the local 2021 financial year, which began on 20 March 2020. The value of cement exports fell by 52% year-on-year to US$128m from US$266m, according to the Tehran Times newspaper. Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan were the top destination for the exports. Cement was also sent to India, Russia, Qatar, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, and Oman.

In its 2020 financial year Iran exported a total of US$7.0bn-worth of building materials and produced 85Mt of cement against a domestic consumption of 65Mt.

Sri Lanka: Tokyo Cement has supported its partner the Sri Lanka Navy in completing an underwater statue park. The Sunday Observer newspaper has reported that the 1200m² park in Trincomalee Bay, Eastern Province, lies at a depth of 18m and unfolds a historical storyline. Tokyo Cement supplied its Tokyo Super blended hydraulic fly ash cement to the project.

Project leader Piyal De Silva said, “Our Coral Conservation Programme (CCP) partner Tokyo Cement will carry out monitoring and maintenance activities and will provide material and technical support to set up a coral nursery for replanting corals within the Underwater Marine Sanctuary (UMS). The marine park will gradually become the home to coral colonies native to the Trincomalee Bay area. With the corals, it will attract young fish, which will ultimately lead to the formation of fish communities.” Tokyo Cement has been involved in coral reef restoration around Sri Lanka since 2010.

Sri Lanka: Siam City Cement subsidiary Insee Cement says it is ramping up production at its 0.4Mt/yr Galle grinding plant. The unit in Southern Province opened in 2018. The Daily FT newspaper has reported that the grinding plant, along with Insee’s Puttalam integrated plant, will have the production capacity to serve 100% of domestic demand. The producer added that production and supply of its products had returned to normal following disruption caused by coronavirus-related lockdown measures.

Insee Cement sales, marketing and innovation executive vice president Jan Kunigk said, “Our contribution to uplifting the nation’s economy is of immense value in rebuilding Sri Lanka during post-pandemic recovery. Insee Cement’s ability to efficiently deliver our full capacity of high-quality cement needed by individual house builders and concrete business partners has always been ensured.”

Sri Lanka: Norochcholai Coal Power Plant (NCPP) is courting buyers for its fly ash, of which it says it produces US$5.5m-worth annually. In 2019 NCPP sold US$3.3m to Sri Lankan cement producers. Daily News Sri Lanka has reported that the company has undertaken measures to increase the value of the fly ash to cement producers, in order to obtain a higher price. NCPP manager Indrasiri Gallage said, "By selling fly ash to cement producers the plant has also helped to free the country from reliance on clinker imports."

An expansion, including the installation of a new 300MW coal-fired power plant, will eventually bring the NCPP’s capacity to 1200MW. The plant is currently working to increase the value of its bottom ash for paving block production.

Bangladesh: Producers exported US$5.03m-worth of cement and clinker from Bangladesh in the six months to 31 December 2019 - down by 13 from US$5.75m in the corresponding period of 2018 and 1.6% below the government’s target of US$5.11m. Arab News has reported that the recipients of Bangladeshi cement and clinker included India, Myanmar, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka: Binod Chaudhary, the owner of CG Cement, says his company plans to invest US$150m towards building a new integrated cement plant. He said that he had approval from the government and had identified several potential limestone deposits to support the project, according to the Daily News newspaper. The company intends to export cement and clinker.

CG Cement operates a grinding plant at Dumbikas, Nawalparasi district. It says it has a 10% market share.

Sri Lanka: INSEE Cement has launched its first Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) based and externally assured sustainability report. The report was officially made public at an event in Colombo featuring a panel discussion on sustainability.

Sri Lanka: The Sri Lankan Navy has rescued nine sailors from the ‘Sri Lanka Glory,’ a barge that transports clinker to the Rugunu cement grinding plant in Galle. The barge was forced off course by gale-force winds off the coast of Rumassala, according to the Daily Mirror newspaper. A previous attempt to retrieve the seamen from the damaged vessel by tug had failed.

Sri Lanka: Lanwa Sanstha Cement has ordered two MVR 5000 C-4 type roller mills from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. The vertical roller mills will be used for the production of various cement types based on clinker, gypsum, granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash. The end customer is part of Onyx Group, which mainly operates in Sri Lanka and the UAE. The contract was signed in February 2019. No value for the order has been disclosed.

Most of the components of the grinding plants will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer (India). The core components of the mills - including the grinding rollers, the tension systems and the gear units - will come from Europe. Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) will also provide the entire engineering for the grinding plants and make available staff to support and supervise the erection and commissioning and assist with the performance test. The two grinding plants will each produce about 180t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) ground to a fineness of 4000cm²/g acc. to Blaine and they will be set up at staggered intervals. Delivery of the first plant is slated for the end of 2019 and scheduled to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2020.