Displaying items by tag: Transport

Venezuela: The Venezolana de Cementos (Vencemos) Guayana grinding plant in Bolivar state needs US$47m to repair its transport fleet. Union head Johnny Linares said that only four vehicles out of 65 are working correctly in comments made to the Ultimas Noticias newspaper. The fleet is used to move clinker from the cement producer’s Pertigalete cement plant to the grinding plant. Production capacity at the plant fell to 28% at 97,000t in 2016 from 346,000t in 2012. Linares added that the national cement industry only received an investment of US$7m in 2016 but that he believes it requires US$25m/yr.

Nigeria/South Africa: Bolloré Logistics has detailed its work on two cement plant projects in Nigeria and South Africa working with China’s CBMI Construction. Teams from the logistics and transport firm in China and Africa have managed both projects.

Supplying equipment to the United Cement Company of Nigeria (Unicem) plant near Calabar involved transporting 500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) and 150,000 freight tons of project cargo with the shipment of 12 break bulk vessels to the Calabar Port. This was completed by more than 5000 round trips from the port to the construction site by truck. This project also included transporting cement mills, ‘out of gauge’ items of cargo that weigh 125t each. Two multi-axle hydraulic trailers were used to transport these 14 pieces of cargo in one shipment. A preliminary road survey and subsequent adjustments to the road infrastructure quality were required for successful delivery.

Work on a 3000t/day PPC plant in Lichtenburg started in August 2015 and is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2017. Bolloré Logistics secured the break bulk sea transportation and inland transport of the construction material and cement plant equipment cargo. To date, 200 TEUs have been moved to the site and 45,000t of freight cargo have been transported from Jingtang and Tianjin port in China to the plant site in South Africa.

Malaysia: Lafarge Malaysia Bhd's management has said that for the first half ended June 30 2016, core net profit was down 69.4% mainly due to lower cement revenue (-5.3%) due to weaker demand for cement on the back of a slowdown in the property market and delay in the commencement of mega projects such as KL118 Tower project, Tun Razak Exchange; Holcim 'synergisation' costs of about US$4m and a higher effective tax rate (+13.8%) from lower capital allowances.

Management expects the effective tax rates to be normalised in the 2017 financial year from capital allowances from its newly-commenced Rawang (Selangor) and Kanthan (Perak) plants expansions.

With the new capacity expansion in the Rawang and Kanthan plants commencing in March and April 2016 respectively, management revealed that this would provide savings in overall transportation costs as clinker is no longer required to be delivered from Langkawi (Kedah) to its grinding units in Pasir Gudang (Johor) which can now be delivered from Kanthan instead - which is approximately half the travelling distance.

Malaysia is due to see an increase in overall cement production capacity of 13% in 2016 due to the completion of expansion projects and the weak market is expected to become tougher-still. Besides looking out for further cost-saving avenues, Lafarge Malaysia is also looking for differentiation in this competitive market through higher investment in dry-mix cement and strengthening of its brand name through more aggressive marketing.

Iraq: Lafarge Iraq has signed an agreement with Iraq's General Company for Land Transportation (GCLT) for the transportation of cement. The contract is the largest in the history of the GCLT, which is owned by Iraq's Ministry for Transport. The deal will run for one year, and may be further extended for five years. Lafarge Iraq operates three cement plants: Bazian and Tasluja cement plants located in Sulaimania, in the Iraqi Federal Region of Kurdistan, and the Karbala Cement Plant located close to Karbala province.

Iraq: LafargeHolcim's subsidiary in Iraq has signed an agreement with the General Company for Land Transport to transport 0.5Mt/yr of cement in 2016. If successful the deal could be extended for five years, according to local press. The contract is the largest in the General Company for Land Transport's history.

Sri Lanka: Holcim Lanka has inaugurated a transport model for the transportation of its raw materials. In a public-private partnership between Holcim Lanka and the government, the state railway will transport raw materials by rail from the port of Trincomalee to the Mahawa railway station. The company's dedicated trucks will then transport the materials to the Puttalam cement plant. The inauguration took place at the China Bay station in Trincomalee, according to the Daily news newspaper.

“The successful launch of this phase would not have been possible without the support received from the Ministry of Transport," said Holcim Lanka Procurement and Logistics Director Charith Wijendra.

Environmental and efficiency improvements of the new model include using Supramax bulk carriers instead of smaller ships, using dedicated containerised trucks to reduce spillages and cut journeys and a reduction in the use of the railway network.

Vietnam: The People’s Committee of the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh have decided to stop the loading and discharge activities and transport of clinker, cement and wood chips on Ha Long Bay due to pollution fears at the tourist site.

Under the decision No. 617/QD-UBND, transportation of bulk cargo, such as clinker, cement and wood chips will be terminated from 1 July 2016. Transportation of these goods will be moved to Hon Net port on Bai Tu Long bay instead. The provincial People Committee has also previously proposed that the government stop upgrades at two cement plants, Thang Long 2 and Ha Long, due to similar concerns.

Ha Long Bay, which spans 1553km² and houses 1969 islands of various sizes, was recognised as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizatio (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1994 and 2000. It is a major tourist attraction in the country with more than 500 tourist boats in service.

Russia: According to Heavy Lift, Germany-based Dako Worldwide Transport has transported a 185t cement mill over 5700km from the manufacturer's location in Austria to a cement plant in Sterlitamak, Russia.

The mill, which measured 18.5m x 5.7m x 6m, was first loaded onto a barge in Linz, Austria for transport along the Danube River to the Romanian port of Constanta, where the cargo was loaded onto a vessel and shipped across the Black Sea to Rostov, Russia. From Rostov, the vessel travelled down the Volga-Don River system to eventually arrive at Nizhnekamsk, where the cement mill was lifted by a heavy lift port crane onto a ro-ro barge for onward transport down the Kama and Belaya rivers to Ufa, Bashkortostan.

On arrival at Ufa, the mill was unloaded using a bespoke roll-off jetty that had been designed and constructed by Dako in Russia. The company explained that this was extremely challenging due to the very low water level in the river at the time. Special steel plates were placed on the jetty and two heavy-duty prime movers were used to pull the 24-axle hydraulic trailer and its load off the barge and onto land. The same trailer was then used to transport the cement mill to its final destination in Sterlitamak, Bashkortostan by road. En route, the vehicle had to pass over several bridges, many of which had been reinforced for this transport.