Displaying items by tag: Upgrade

Canada: France-based Fives FCB has secured a contract to upgrade the grinding unit at Ciment Québec’s Saint Basile integrated plant in Quebec. The supplier will install two FCB Horomill grinding workshops with FCB TSV 5000 THF classifiers, FCB aerodecanters and flash dryers and Fives TGT process filters. It said that its mills met the customer’s specifications: namely zero water use; minimum power consumption; data processing; and full automation with rapid recipe change.

Ciments Québec president and chief executive officer Luc Papillon said “After a thorough technical review of the various technologies available today for cement grinding, we have selected the Horomill, being confident that it is the best adapted solution for our multiple cements portfolio and our quest to reduce our cement environmental footprint.”

Tanzania: Huaxin Cement has commissioned the grinding system at its Maweni Limestone plant near Tanga. The China-based company acquired the company from Athi River Mining (ARM) Cement in mid-2020. It then invested US$145m on an upgrade to the unit and started trial clinker production in June 2020. The upgraded plant has a production capacity of 1.6Mt/yr. Huaxin Cement says this is the first time it has directly produced cement in Africa rather than exporting it there.

Nepal: China-based Hongshi Group has received clearance from the Nepal Rastra Bank to invest US$125m into Dang Cement. Hongshi Group owns an 85% stake in the cement producer, according to the Republica newspaper. The remaining 15% stake is owned by Shivam Cement. The investment will be used to build a 6000t/day production line at Dang Cement’s plant in Dang region. The project was previously approved by the Investment Board Nepal in late 2020 for commissioning in late 2023.

North Korea: Manpho cement plant has increased its production capacity by 20% through ‘technical innovations.’ Korean News Service has reported that the installation of new equipment in the plant’s kiln line also improved clinker quality.

India: Ramco Cements has commissioned a new waste heat recovery (WHR) unit on Line 3 of its Jayanthipuram cement plant in Andhra Pradesh. The company said that the system consists of two boilers and that the first on the line’s cooler has been started. A second boiler situated at the line’s preheater will be commissioned in June 2022. The new installation increases the Jayanthipuram plant’s WHR capacity by 31% to 21MW.

Philippines: The Board of Investments has approved China-based Sinoma Energy Conservation as the operator of a new 4.5MT waste heart recovery (WHR) unit that will be built at an unnamed cement plant in Naga, Cebu. The project has a budget of US$10.5m, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. Commercial operation of the unit is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022.

India: RHI Magnesita has opened its new Indian regional research and development centre. The centre is its fifth of its kind globally, and joins existing facilities in Austria, Brazil, China and the US.

The company is in the process of implementing a refractory production capacity expansion plan worth a total of US$53.8m. The plan consists of upgrades to its Bhiwadi plant in Rajasthan, Cuttack plant in Odisha and Vizag plant in Andhra Pradesh. It has already completed US$6.72-worth of the work with a 30% expansion at the Vizag plant. The company says that the remaining upgrades consist of both the establishment of new lines and the automation of existing ones.

RHI Magnesita India managing director and chief executive officer Parmod Sagar said “The centre will help us to better understand local market needs and to react faster to customer requirements. This is a world-class facility that will work closely with our global research and development network for local raw materials development, will provide solutions support for customer’s performance improvement projects and will support local manufacturing in the three India plants.”

Nepal: Udayapur Cement has commenced a US$42m upgrade and capacity expansion of its cement plant at Jaljale. The work includes replacing the shell of its 20m rotary kiln by the end of February 2022 and installing a reinforcement suspension preheater system, according to the Kathmandu Post newspaper. It will expand the plant’s capacity by 38% to 0.4Mt/yr from 0.29t/yr. The plant’s current equipment dates to 1988. Company spokesperson Laxman Pokharel said "Since the machines are old, we face frequent problems." He added that this has led to increased costs.

The Nepal government has agreed to loan Udayapur Cement US$34.4m, 80% of the project’s budget.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to secure a captive power supply for its Saitama cement plant through the installation of a new gas-powered generator. The company says that electricity from the generator will replace purchased energy in the plant's operations. It is also in the process of constructing a new waste heat recovery (WHR) power unit at the facility. Taiheiyo Cement claims that both upgrades will result in a 62,000t/yr reduction in operations' CO₂ footprint. Construction is due to commence before 2022 in order for the producer to commission the new equipment in mid-to-late 2023.

Saitama cement plant's former coal and woodchip-powered generator exploded in April 2021. The producer said that work is on-going to prevent the incident's recurrence by investigating the causes of the accident and formulating preventative measures.

Philippines: Eagle Cement recorded consolidated sales of US$324m in the first nine months of 2021, up by 63% year-on-year. The company said that its cement volumes recorded double-digit growth during the period. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were US$134m, up by 59% from US$83.9m. Its net profit meanwhile rose by 89% to US$102m from US$53.9m.

The company also announced that it has completed its expansion of its 7.1Mt/yr Bulacan cement plant in Luzon. The newly commissioned plant now boasts a fifth grinding mill, a third packing facility and a fifth cement silo, along with new supporting facilities.