Displaying items by tag: Upgrade

Philippines: Cemex subsidiary Solid Cement is installing a new US$356m, 1.5Mt/yr line at its Antipolo cement plant. When operational in April 2024, the line will increase the plant’s capacity by 79% to 3.4Mt/yr. Over the first four months of the project since March 2022, Solid Cement invested US$197m in silos and mechanical installation. The new 1.5Mt/yr line will use Low Temperature Clinker technology to reduce its CO₂ emissions, and will also recycle waste hot gases for raw materials drying.

Solid Cement is building the plant using 6000t of its own Vertua reduced-CO2 cement, which it says will further reduce its net carbon footprint by 564t.

Philippines president and CEO Luis Franco said “We will maintain our active role in supporting the development of this nation, as we have done in the past 25 years.”

US: Vicat subsidiary National Cement Company of Alabama inaugurated its new US$300m production line at its Ragland cement plant on 21 July 2022. Local press has reported that the line includes a new rotary kiln, equipped for alternative fuel (AF) use.

President Spencer Weitman said “This puts us into the next 40 or 50 years. And it’s prolonged the life of the plant to move us forward into the next century hopefully.”

El Salvador: Holcim El Salvador has officially inaugurated an upgrade to its Maya cement plant. The company has invested US$11.6m towards increasing clinker production capacity by 0.45Mt/yr at the unit. Total cement production capacity of the plant has increased to 1.9Mt/yr from 1.2Mt/yr previously. The Maya cement plant previously reduced production levels significantly in 2008 in response to the global financial crisis at the same time. Oliver Osswald, Region Head of Holcim LATAM, attended the inauguration. The event was also used to launch Holcim’s new corporate branding in the region.

US: Dome Technology has commissioned a 169,000t dome at Lehigh Cement's Mitchell cement plant in Indiana. The dome is equipped with three reclaim tunnels, enabling 83% live reclaim.

Dome Technology sales manager Lane Robertssaid “It’s a colossal project. It’s one of our bigger domes as far as storage capacity goes."

UK: Cemex UK has commissioned a new 25kg plasticcement bag packing line at its Rugby cement plant in Warwickshire. The line will operate alongside an existing paper bagging line.

Cemex UK's packed cement sales manager Graeme Barton said “The packaging of our products is under routine scrutiny to meet customer demand and reduce waste. We have listened to what our merchants and customers need, and by investing in higher, more reliable capacity, Cemex can now meet the demand from the market in peak months with greater confidence. In turn, our stockists can meet their customers’ requirements by supplying what they need, in a format that works better for them. Our merchants and end-users are already seeing the immediate benefits of the new packaging by reporting fewer breakages in branch and onsite – which helps to cut down on waste."

Germany: Holcim Deutschland announced a planned upgrade to its Lägerdorf cement plant’s kiln on 14 July 2022. The producer will install a second generation oxyfuel kiln, which uses an air separation unit to supply oxygen directly, emitting CO₂-rich flue gas. A new carbon capture system will supply captured CO₂ to a synthetic hydrocarbons plant, which will produce methanol for other industrial applications. The upgrade will result in the capture of 1.2Mt/yr
of CO₂ emissions and make Lägerdorf one of the world’s first carbon neutral cement plants, according to Holcim Deutschland.

The project, called Carbon2Business, was among four cement plant projects and 13 other EU-wide projects to win a share of a US$1.81bn EU Innovation Fund funding pot. CEO Thorsten Hahn acknowledged that the awarding of funds was ‘good news for Holcim and all partners working with us to decarbonise cement.’ He said “Climate change means cement change.”

Egypt: Misr Cement Qena commenced automated cement production at its Qena cement plant in early July 2022. The automation systems also cover plant maintenance processes. Misr Cement Qena awarded a technical management contract for the plant to Arab Swiss Engineering Company in June 2021.

Misr Cement Qena said "This step came in line with the company’s growth strategy to reduce operating costs and maximise asset utilisation in order to meet current challenges."

Vietnam: High costs have resulted in the cancellation of four planned new integrated cement lines by a local cement producer. Viet Nam News has reported that the producer in question presently faces costs of US$59.9 - 64.1/t cement, with a net loss of US$8.55 - 10.30/t. Coal prices are US$237/t, more than triple those at the start of 2022 of US$85.5/t. Gypsum and diesel prices rose by 50% over the first half of 2022. The producer reportedly attributed the coal price rise to the effects of the Covid-19 conflict and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Turkmenistan: Aumund has won a contract to equip Baherden Cement’s Ahal cement plant with three 300t/hr belt bucket elevators, three 450t/hr bucket elevators with central chain, a 1030t/hr double chain bucket elevator, two 200t/hr pan conveyors and 11 silo discharge gates. The equipment will serve raw materials preparation through to clinker grinding operations at the plant’s upcoming 1Mt/yr new line. Turkey-based cement plant builder Bilim Makina will receive the order.

Latvia: Germany-based Christian Pfeiffer says that it has successfully commissioned the new Broceni grinding plant for Schwenk Latvija. The supplier said that the plant is able to produce cement up to a fineness of 5600 Blaine and is one of the most sustainable grinding plants in Europe.

Schwenk Latvija previously announced a planned investment of Euro34m in a new 170t/day mill and a 12,500t silo at the site of its former Broceni integrated cement plant.