Displaying items by tag: Upgrade

India: Ambuja Cements has announced investments of US$365m in India, of which US$100m is targeted for Bengal. The Indian cement producer intends to try to maintain its market share at 10% until 2018.

The subsidiary of Holcim announced it would invest US$59.2m at a grinding unit in Sankrail to expand its capacity to 2.4Mt/yr from 1.5Mt/yr by 2015. It has also proposed to invest US$41m in another grinding unit in the state at Bandel, according to Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee.

"This plant (Sankrail) is working at a capacity of 1.5Mt/yr and we will go up to 2.4Mt/yr. We also have a unit in Farakka with a 1.25Mt/yr capacity. So, with this, we will be one of the largest cement players in Bengal," said Ajay Kapur, CEO of Ambuja Cements.

Ambua Cements also announced that it is yet to gain clearance for the construction of a 3Mt/yr greenfield integrated cement plant in Rajasthan. Ambuja Cements holds a total capacity of 27.25Mt/yr in Rajasthan. A 1.5Mt/yr grinding unit at Sanand, Gujarat, is also being considered.

Iraq: International Finance Coporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is providing a US$70m loan to help renovate a cement factory in Iraq.

The financing will allow Kerbala Cement Manufacturing (KCML), a subsidiary of Lafarge, to rehabilitate a state-owned plant near the city of Kerbala. KCML will undertake the work under a concession agreement with the government of Iraq. The financing is expected to aid Iraq's construction sector.

"This financing will help address the cement shortage that Iraq is facing and help the country meet supply gaps in its infrastructure," said Guy Ellena, IFC Director for Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services in Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

KCML is a joint venture between Lafarge and MerchantBridge, a London-based private equity group. The financing is being supplemented by a US$20m loan from Proparco, a development financial institution funded by the French Development Agency and private shareholders.

UK: A Lafarge cement plant in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland has invested Euro6m in new equipment and an apprenticeship scheme.

Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster visited the plant, where she met employees and saw a refurbished electrostatic precipitator that will reduce overall dust emissions. She was also told about the Cement Kiln Dust (CKD) project, which has reduced some 8000t/yr of landfilled waste to almost zero.

Further plans for the Cookstown Works were also showcased, including a future upgrade of a central control room and the apprenticeship scheme, which saw two new apprentices join the works team in 2012. A further two apprentices will join the team in 2013.

The minister said that Lafarge's investment demonstrates its confidence in its workforce. "This is a difficult time for the construction industry and it is therefore particularly pleasing to see that the company is investing in its future by upgrading its current facilities and creating opportunities for apprenticeships," said Foster.

The investment in the Cookstown Works comes at a time when Lafarge is merging its UK building materials business interests with those of Tarmac Buxton. This has necessitated the sale of the French giant's Hope Works in Derbyshire, England.

Bulgaria: Italian cement group Italcimenti will install a new 4000t/day cement production line at its Bulgarian subsidiary Denya Cement. The company is investing Euro160m and the completion date is scheduled to be 2015.

Germany: Italcementi has awarded KHD a contract to upgrade and redevelop its Brescia Rezzato plant in Italy. The upgraded plant, situated in the environmentally sensitive Lake Garda region, will have to adhere to strict environmental requirements.

Italcementi has selected KHD's Clean Technology for the upgrade. It includes a KHD COMFLEX^® SC 18 – 3250 system for raw material grinding, a Two-Pier PYRORAPID^® Kiln 3000t/day 4.4m x 52m, a PFC PYRFLOOR^® clinker cooler 635 AW and a Low NO_X 5 stage Preheater 7950 PR.

KHD will also supply additional environmental equipment including selective catalytic reduction systems, a gas conditioning tower, selective non catalytic reduction systems, as well as special filter systems to reduce SO_X. KHD will install much of the equipment whilst the existing kiln continues to operate.

The Rezzato plant, built in 1964, was designed by former Italcementi chairman Giampiero Pesenti, father of current Italcementi CEO Carlo Pesenti, during his tenure as an engineer. The project is scheduled to be finished in 2014, in time for Italcementi's 150th anniversary.

India: India Cements has started gathering documentation for a 3Mt/yr expansion at two of its plants in Tamil Nadu. The company's next step is to secure clearance for these projects.

Brownfield expansions are being planned for Dalavoi, in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu, where the company plans to add a new line that will add over 2.55Mt/yr to the existing 2.16Mt/yr cement capacity. This will increase the total capacity at the plant to 4.71Mt/yr. A 40MW captive power plant will also be set up to supply electricity for the upgrade. At Sankaridurg the company plans to double the capacity of its 0.7Mt/yr plant.

If approved, the upgrades will increase India Cements' capacity to 15.5Mt/yr in its eight plants in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Oman: Oman Cement is in the process of increasing its cement grinding capacity by installing an additional 15t/hr cement mill. The tender process has been initiated for building the plant, according to the company's chairman Dr Abdullah Abbas Ahmed.

Oman Cement is also planning to improve the pollution control equipment on its line 2 to control dust emission levels. It is in the process of identifying a consultant for this project.

Meanwhile, the company said that its net profit increased by 32.5% to US$30.4m for the first nine months of 2012, from US$25.2m for the same period of 2011. Its sales revenue also increased, to US$108.5m, compared to US$94.2m during the period.

The company has achieved sales of 1.69Mt for the first nine months of 2012 compared to 1.40Mt for the same period of 2011.

Russia: Holcim Russia has decided to invest Euro350m towards upgrading its Volskcement plant in the Saratov region. The modernisation project will include the installation of a new 'semi-wet' production line with a capacity of 2500t/day. Currently the plant uses a wet process. Construction will take two years and is expected to start in the second quarter 2013. The new line will be commissioned in the third quarter of 2016.

Ethiopia: Mugher Cement Enterprise is considering proposals from two Chinese suppliers for a turnkey project to convert its current heavy furnace oil (HFO) clinker burning system to a coal-fired system. Mekonnen Zergaw, CEO of the state-owned Mugher, declining to disclose the names of the companies. He said that five companies had participated in the bid, of which one has been disqualified at the beginning while two companies did not pass the technical evaluation.

This is the second time Mugher has accepted tenders for the upgrade. Originally Mugher awarded a US$28m contract to Chinese firm Hefei Cement Research Design Institute (HCRDI) that built the same project for the EFFORT Messobo plant. "The company increased the bid by around US$11m after we had already awarded it," said Zergaw.

Mugher plans to complete the coal-fired furnace by the 2013-2014 fiscal year and its demand for coal is estimated to be 693Mt/yr. However, Mugher is still waiting for the approval of a US$33.2m loan request from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government instructed cement factories in 2010 to shift from HFO to other alternative sources of energy in order to reduce foreign currency spending.

Ethiopia: National Cement SC plans to complete upgrades worth US$99.7m by the start of 2013 according to the company's chief executive, Busa Assefa.

"We will start clinker trial production in October 2012 and cement trial production in November 2012," said Busa. He added that the trial production phase at the compnay's new plant near Bajatu, Kebele, will begin at a 60% clinker and a 70% cement production rate, to become fully operational by the start of 2013.

National Cement SC was formed from a merger between Ethiopia's first cement plant, Dire Dawa, and the National Cement plant that is currently under construction. Dire Dawa has a capacity of 60,000t/yr with further upgrades scheduled. The new National Cement plant will have a capacity of up to 4500t/day. It is being built on a 40ha location in Bajatu, Kebele, within 3km of Dire Dawa.

National Cement SC's upgrades will increase Ethiopia's national capacity, from 18 operational plants, by 1.3Mt to 12.46Mt/yr. The company expects to rely on the eastern Ethiopian market and exports to Djibouti and Somalia. In addition, the city of Dire Dawa has licensed four cement factories with a combined capital of US$277m, of which three are under construction.