Displaying items by tag: Togo

Togo: Cimenterie de Côte Ouest-Africaine (CimCo) says that it has hired Germany-based Intercem Engineering and Gebr. Pfeiffer for the supply and installation of a 2.5Mt/yr-capacity integrated cement plant in Lomé, Maritime Region. Togo First News has reported that the company has secured a US$35.8m loan from Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement (BOAD) towards construction of the US$179m plant.

CimCo said, “The targeted goal is to contribute to the satisfaction of cement demand in Togo and the region by taking advantage of the geographic location of the port of Lomé, as well as to contribute to the country's economic growth by boosting the competitiveness of the industrial sector along with performances of the infrastructure sector.”

Togo: Cim Metal Group subsidiary Cimco has received a Gebr. Pfeiffer 6400kW, CEM I - CEM IV MVR 6000 C-6 grinding mill. Germany-based Intercem Engineering will install the mill, which grinds CEM-I to a fineness of 3800cm2 at a rate of 370t/hr, at Cimco’s Lomé grinding plant.

Gebr. Pfeiffer has said that this is its 12th MVR mill installed on the African continent.

Togo: Germany’s Intercem Engineering has been awarded a contract by CimMetal Group to build a 2.5Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Lomé. The opening ceremony for the project is expected to take place soon and production is scheduled to start in early 2021. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The order includes a 1000t/hr truck unloading station, a 25,000t/hr storage facility for additives, a 1000t/hr truck loading station, two 50,000t clinker silos, four packing machines, eight truck loading stations, 10 truck scales and the corresponding laboratory equipment. The steel construction, the entire sheet metal fabrication, the subsystems, the electrical equipment, the complete engineering, the supervision of erection and commissioning are also included in the scope of supply and services. All of the equipment will be supplied by European manufacturers. All material conveyors have a capacity of 1200t/hr and are installed in a closed gallery to ensure dust-free transport. This was planned because of the location in the immediate vicinity of the port in Lomé.

Togo: HeidelbergCement has announced plans to bring the capacity of its subsidiary Cimtogo’s grinding plant in Lomé up to 1.6Mt/yr from 0.6Mt/yr at an investment of Euro27.0m. Agencé Ecofin has reported that this will bring the German group’s total investment in Cimtogo to Euro225m since its acquisition in 2012.

Togo: Nigerian-based Dangote Cement has received government clearance for construction of a 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant in Togo, its first in the country, at a cost of US$60m. When operational, it will bring Togo’s installed capacity to 5.7Mt/yr – 1.7Mt of it grinding only – and grind clinker from Nigeria and Togo. Agence Ecofin has reported that the sum is part of a raft of investments by Dangote Group in the country totalling US$3.47m and involving infrastructure and phosphate fertiliser production projects.

Togo: Eric Goulignac, a regional director of HeidelbergCement based in West Africa, says that the company believes in the local market despite competition. He expressed confidence due to the quality of its products, according to Télégramme228. The building materials producer is currently finalising a call for tenders for a Euro25m upgrade to its operations, including a new mill, at Cimtogo’s cement grinding plant in Lomé and a photovoltaic (PV) solar energy plant.

Togo: HeidelbergCement is considering investments of up to Euro25m in its local subsidiaries including Cimtogo, Scantogo and Granutogo. Local director general of the company Eric Goulignac outlined the plans, including building and installing a new mill at Cimtogo’s cement grinding plant in Lomé and a photvoltaic (PV) solar energy plant, according to the All Africa news agency. The projects will be considered by the board of HeidelbergCement in the summer before a final decision is made.

Nigeria: Four workers of Dangote Cement have been jailed for stealing cement worth over US$40,000. The defendants diverted nine cement trucks, bound for Togo, using fake identity cards and truck number plates, according to the Punch newspaper. Adewale Dalmeida, a fleet analyst, at the Ibese Plant, worked with the chief driver of the company, Ibrahim Lawal, and a Ghanaian driver, Lukman Adam, and Afeez Olaniba, who worked as an agent at the Nigerian-Benin border. The prison sentences imposed range from a 18 months to five years.

HeidelbergCement has been reportedly showing interest in South Africa and Mozambique this week following the opening of new production capacity in West Africa. The Germany-based cement producer has beefed up its presence in the region with the inauguration of a 1.5Mt/yr clinker plant in in Togo and a 0.7Mt/yr grinding plant in neighbouring Burkina Faso. An additional 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant in the north of Togo is also planned for commissioning in late 2016. Other new projects in Africa include a new 0.8Mt/yr grinding plant in Tanzania that was commissioned in October 2014 and a new 0.8Mt/yr grinding mill at the Takoradi grinding plant in Ghana.

HeidelbergCement has repeatedly stated that it is considering production capacity expansions in other African countries. It currently operates in Ghana, Benin, Liberia, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mostly it's a network of grinding plants with actual clinker producing plants in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon and Togo. Its presence covers a band across central sub-Saharan Africa. Moving out of this zone into southern Africa would start to give HeidelbergCement a truly continental presence. However, from Dangote to PPC to Lafarge Africa other players are hard at work building their own cement empires.

The wild card here is how involved Chinese firms are in this process. Chinese companies like Jidong Development are building their own cement plants like the Mamba Cement plant in South Africa or Gweru in Zimbabwe, where upgrades are currently taking place. More commonly though Chinese companies like Sinoma are building new African cement plants such as a new PPC cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo or a new United Cement Company of Nigeria Limited (Unicem) cement line in Nigeria or several Dangote projects.

As part of the commissioning process for HeidelbergCement's new clinker plant in Togo, the Chengdu Design and Research Institute of Building Materials Industry (CDI, part of Sinoma) has emphasised that it will transfer the maintenance responsibility to local Togolese workers. The fact that the CDI's chairman made a point of saying this underlines tensions about both existing and changing international business influences in the region. Contrast this with the more sympathetic way in which Dangote's expansions in Africa that are portrayed by local media. Or look at this week's announcement by Egypt's ASEC Engineering and Management to help run a cement plant in Ethiopia. There is no need for calming statements from ASEC.

Finally, after all the discussion of the effect of oil prices on alternative fuels usage by cement producers it is worth noting what HeidelbergCement stated in its February 2015 trading statement. Principally, a drop in the price of oil is expected to present a positive impact on costs and market demand for the group. HeidelbergCement generates 86% of group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in net oil importing countries. In these places lower oil prices means potentially faster GDP growth and greater infrastructure spending. It is also worth considering the impact lower oil prices might have on the group's total oil and diesel bull of Euro250m/yr.

HeidelbergCement's full annual results for 2014 are due to be published on 19 March 2015. Maybe they will be more forthcoming about its intentions in Africa then.