Displaying items by tag: Transport
Fancesa starts legal action against hauliers
10 September 2018Bolivia: The cement producer Fancesa has started legal action against transport industry leaders Oscar Reynolds and Macguiver Rosales over threats and criminal association, after they stopped transporting its cement. Fancesa earlier reduced the rate paid to hauliers to transport cement from its plant to Santa Cruz by 13.7% to US$1.88/bag (50kg), prompting hauliers to stop transporting its cement.
Nigeria: The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is in discussions with Dangote Cement to transport cement. Fidet Okhiria told the Herald newspaper that talks between the companies are at an advanced stage. He also disclosed that the Lagos to Ibadan and Itakpe to Warri standard gauge railway line projects are on course and are about to start being tested respectively.
Cemtec successfully transports 170t mill to Bavaria
01 June 2017Germany: Cemtec has successfully transported a 170t cement grinding mill from its headquarters in Enns, Austria to a client in Bavaria. The transported equipment had an internal diameter of 4.6m, an outside diameter of 5.2m and a length of over 17m. Due to the size of the mill the transportation could not be carried out on motorways and the engineering company was forced to use smaller roads and inland waterways include the River Danube. Extra challenges included using additional haulage vehicles to cope with inclines of up to almost 14%, temporarily removing electricity and telephone cables in certain locations, laying road slabs at crossroads and shutting a motorway while the mill crossed it. The total transportation time took eight days.
UK: Tarmac has started using a small-scale liquid lime delivery vehicle to despatch Kalic and Kalic HS milk of lime consignments to smaller or harder-to-reach locations. The eight-wheeled vehicle can carry up to 18t of milk of lime and its shorter wheelbase makes it much more manoeuvrable than larger carriers. It also comes equipped with metering capabilities and adaptable nozzle to aid delivery. The vehicle will compliment Tarmac’s use of bulk tankers or 1t intermediate bulk containers (IBCs).
“Many of our smaller customers require small but regular deliveries of milk of lime as they often have limited storage available on site. Our new ‘milk round’ allows us to regularly deliver fresh top-ups in lower volume deliveries without customers being restricted to taking small deliveries in IBCs,’ said Tarmac Lime & Powders Logistics Manager Nick Thomas.
Messebo Cement buys 200 trucks from Man
26 April 2017Ethiopia: Messebo Cement has purchased 200 trucks from Germany’s Man for US$30m. The cement producer has expanded its fleet to reduce its transportation costs, according to the Ethiopian Reporter newspaper. The trucks have been assembled locally by Mesfin Industrial Engineering, a sister company to Massebo, after shipping. 25 of the trucks are silo trucks for transporting bulk cement and 50 are dump trucks.
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.
Lafarge Malaysia profits slump due to weak markets but plant expansions set to cut clinker transport costs
06 September 2016Malaysia: 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.
Lafarge Iraq signs cement transport deal in Iraq
02 September 2016Iraq: 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.
LafargeHolcim makes transport deal in Iraq
30 August 2016Iraq: 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.