Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
GEA trials carbon capture technology at Phoenix Zementwerke cement plant
18 September 2023Germany: Engineering company GEA has installed a carbon capture pilot plant at the Phoenix Zementwerke cement plant in Beckum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The supplier will now conduct testing over ‘several’ months, but said that it is confident that the cement plant is suitable for an installation to capture over 90% of its CO2 emissions. GEA’s carbon capture systems run on energy from waste heat recovery, with minimal to zero extra electrical input.
Phoenix Zementwerke managing director Marcel Gustav Krogbeumker said “We consider carbon capture a very exciting technology. Thanks to GEA's decades of experience in emissions control, I am very positive that together we can develop and implement a solution."
Jamaica: Caribbean Cement plans to launch an upgrade to expand its Rockfort cement plant’s capacity by 30% to 1.3Mt/yr in October 2023. The producer says that the expansion will cost US$40m and that the new capacity will come online in early 2025. The work will include enlargements of multiple kiln sections and the installation of a new coal dosing system, clinker cooler and clinker transport system.
Update on Nigeria, September 2023
06 September 2023Dangote Cement felt compelled to issue a statement clarifying its prices at the end of August 2023. In the release it stated what its ex-factory price was in Nigeria and added that transport costs and the location of a delivery could add additional expense. It made the declaration in response to alleged “misinformation” on social media channels that the company had been selling its cement more cheaply in the neighbouring country of Benin. A subsequent investigation by the This Day newspaper reported that Dangote Cement does not officially export cement to Benin and that the average price in the country was actually slightly higher than the end prices Dangote Cement provided. Competitor BUA Cement wasted no time though in saying at its annual general meeting that it would ‘crash the price of cement.’
All of this may sound familiar because a similar argument broke out in early 2021. At that time prices were rising following the outbreak of Covid-19, although other factors were at play. Then as now, Dangote Cement, the largest domestic producer, defended itself by publishing its prices and BUA Cement made another showy claim saying that it had no plans to raise the ex-factory price of its cement at the present time or in the future, “…barring any material, unforeseen circumstances.” The government also became involved with the Senate of Nigeria discussing the matter in relation to potential legislation at the time. Part of the problem here has been that Dangote Cement is the biggest producer and it has gradually started exporting cement from Nigeria in recent years and, regardless of any effects to the domestic market, it leaves it exposed to the kind of unsubstantiated scuttlebutt it has faced recently. Back in 2021 it briefly stopped exporting cement for a while before resuming it again in May 2021.
Graph 1: Half-year sales revenue from selected large cement producers in Nigeria. Source: Company reports.
Graph 1 shows how some of the large cement producers in Nigeria did in the first half of 2023. Dangote Cement is the market leader by a considerable margin and the figures here do not even include its sales elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its market dominance its sales revenue has fallen so far in 2023 and the company blamed election uncertainty, a “cash crunch”, negative currency exchange issues and the weather. That said though it did manage to increase its earnings through initiatives such as using alternative fuels, making efficiencies at its plants and utilised compressed natural gas in its truck fleet.
BUA Cement and Lafarge Africa provided less descriptive context in their release. Both BUA Cement’s revenue and profit after tax rose year-on-year but Lafarge Africa’s profit after tax fell. This may have been due to a rise in fixed production costs such as staffing, by-products costs and electricity, although depreciation was also an issue.
For all of BUA Cement’s talk of “crashing the cement price” it is preparing to commission two new 3Mt/yr production lines at its Obu and Sokoto plants respectively in the first quarter of 2024. Given everything else that is going on in the Nigerian economy, such as inflation, and the large size of the country it seems unlikely to lower the price although it might slow down the rate by which the price continues to rise. In its 2022 annual report BUA Cement’s managing director Yusuf Haliru Binji said that the new production lines would enable it to potentially increase its exports. This is the logical next step for a local sector outgrowing its domestic bounds and this is exactly what Dangote Cement has done. Yet, as the recent price debacle has shown, the price of cement matters to Nigerians. If the price keeps going up all of the local producers may end up facing negative attention whether warranted or not.
Birla Corporation targets cement capacity of 25Mt/yr
06 September 2023India: Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement production capacity to 25Mt/yr by the end of the 2026 financial year from 20Mt/yr at present. It intends to do this by upgrading its 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban plant in Maharashtra, installing a second grinding unit at Maihar in Madhya Pradesh as well as building new grinding plants, according to the Times of India newspaper.
Birla Corporation chair Harsh V Lodha said "With the commissioning of Mukutban, we have virtually ring-fenced our core market of Central India, which we can service seamlessly from our six plants, namely Maihar, Satna, Kundangunj, Raebareli, Chanderia and now, Mukutban. The strategic location of these plants and standardisation of product quality allows us to interchange source of supplies to maximise realisation and serviceability for our customers." He made the comments at the company’s annual general meeting.
Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has installed a new bag filter at its 3.9Mt/yr Ewekoro cement plant in Ogun State. The filter cost US$8.51m. Lafarge Africa says that the equipment has successfully reduced the plant’s dust emissions to below 50mg/Nm3. The company said that it has made ‘significant adjustments’ to its production activities, besides introducing air quality measurement systems across a 10km radius of the plant.
Lafarge Africa’s head of health, safety and environment Rachael Ezembakwe said “Care for the environment and for our host communities is built into all aspects of our operations within the country. Our social impact is focused on the areas of the most need: education, empowerment, health and safety, and shelter/infrastructure.”
Adbri raises first-half sales in 2023
30 August 2023Australia: Adbri recorded sales of US$599m during the first half of 2023, up by 14% year-on-year. Its net profit grew by 13%, to US$33.7m. The producer noted continued ‘solid’ demand, and traction on its price increases. It faced high capital requirements for its on-going upgrade of its Kwinana grinding plant to consolidate its Western Australian operations there. The company expects its second-half 2023 earnings to rise ‘moderately’ due to the effects of its cost discipline and price increases, as well as sustained levels of cement demand.
Heidelberg Materials Sement Norge lifts absorber unit into place for Brevik cement plant carbon capture system
29 August 2023Norway: Heidelberg Materials Sement Norge set in place a 220t absorber unit at its Brevik cement plant on late August 2023. The unit will form part of the upcoming 400,000t/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation at the site. It expects to complete the installation of the absorber unit within two weeks of its placement. In September 2023, Heidelberg Materials Sement Norge will proceed to install the system’s 100m-high absorber stack.
Brevik CCS operational manager Tor Gautestad said “The absorber is in many ways the heart of the carbon capture process, because it is where the flue gases are separated.”
Japan: Tokuyama Corporation has installed ABB’s Expert Optimizer automated optimisation system in the kiln line of its Nanyo cement plant. The system controls the line’s calciner, kiln and cooler processes. The supplier says that the technology will reduce the Nanyo cement plant’s thermal energy consumption by 3%.
Tokuyama Corporation "We selected ABB's Expert Optimizer to equalise operations and improve operational efficiency. As expected, we have significantly reduced the number of the operator manual operations normally spent on manual tasks.” It added “We believe that this solution will also support our young operators in learning the know-how of our operations efficiently."
Cementos Argos to expand facilities in the US and Colombia
24 August 2023US/Colombia: Colombia-based Cementos Argos is carrying out expansions to two cement plants in South Carolina and West Virginia. While not specifically named, these would appear to be the 1.1Mt/yr Harleyville and 1.8Mt/yr Martinsburg cement plants. The producer says that the expansions will increase its cement capacity in the eastern US by 450,000t/yr.
Additionally, Cementos Argos plans to expand the capacity of its Cartagena cement terminal in Colombia by 35% to 4Mt/yr. The producer says that this will serve as a platform for subsequent growth. It is targeting the US market, where an expansion is also underway at its import facility in Houston, Texas. The Cartagena terminal achieved its current capacity following a recent US$42m expansion.
Turkmencement completes Lebap cement plant upgrade
24 August 2023Turkmenistan: State-owned Turkmencement has successfully carried out an upgrade to its 1Mt/yr Lebap cement plant at Koytendag. The upgrade involves the installation of a new 3000t/day kiln line, supplied by Germany-based thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. The producer first announced the project in mid-2020, and ordered the new line in mid-2021.
In 2022, the Lebap cement plant produced 1.1Mt of cement, up by 11% year-on-year from 991,000t in 2021.