Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
Pakistan: Fauji Cement has installed a 12.5MW solar power plant at its Jhang Bahtar plant, near Islamabad. Business Recorder reports that Fauji’s is the world’s largest solar power station devoted to a cement plant, with 37,905 panels delivering an estimated annual total of 19,750MWh of energy.
Fauji has additionally installed two waste heat recovery plants of 12 and 9MW and two large reservoirs for water recycling and rainwater harvesting. Fauji is leading Pakistans’s Clean and Green initiative, having planted 25,000 trees and donated a further 40,000 plants to local government and nearby villages.
Argos Panama to expand Buena Vista cement plant
21 August 2019Panama: Argos Panama plans to install a line for the production and storage of clinker at its plant in Buena Vista, Colón Province. In an environmental impact study submitted to Panama’s Ministry of Environment, Argos estimated the total cost of the project, called the Balboa Project, at US$168m.
JK Lakshmi Cement reports strong start to financial year
07 August 2019India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s revenue rose by 9% year-on-year to US$160m in its first quarter to 30 June 2019 from US$147m in the same period in 2018. Notably, its expenses fell by 2% to US$146m due to decreasing logistics costs. Its net profit grew significantly to US$7.58m from US$0.44m. The cement producer also said that it had commissioned a 20MW captive power plant at its Durg cement plant in Chhattisgarh.
Libya: The Libyan Cement Company (LCC) says taxes, poor weather and local fighting have hampered its progress over the last year. The introduction of a 183% Foreign Exchange Tax in the last quarter of 2018 has tripled the price of imported spare parts, supplies and capital goods. This has delayed repairs to the cement producer’s plants. However the company believes that the tax may be lowered in the near future. A long and wet winter has also been blamed for reducing the demand for cement and reducing the company’s cash flow.
Fighting in Tripoli has affected the LCC’s operations in the east of the country with multi-month long interruptions to the supply of raw materials. It said that key roads have recently been re-opened following negotiations relieving the situation and that it hopes they will stay open.
The company said that it is still working towards a Euro200m upgrade project to its plant in Benghazi. The plan is to increase the unit’s production capacity to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr.
Philippines: Eagle Cement’s sales rose by 28% year-on-year to US$202m in the first half of 2019 from US$157m in the same period in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 21% to US$80.6m.
The company said it was on track to complete a 1.5Mt/yr grinding upgrade to its Bulacan plant in 2020. It added that it was secured approval for a permit to build a port terminal to support its new Line 4 production line at its Cebu plant. Once completed it expects to sell cement in the Visayas region by the end of 2020.
Mexico: Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon has been awarded the supply of an MAS DT burner to an unnamed cement plant in Mexico. The burner is designed for coal, natural gas and liquid secondary fuel operation. To optimise the maintenance work, the burner is equipped with a divisible jacket tube. A satellite burner, with the supplier’s adjustment system, will be mounted on top of the main burner to improve solid secondary fuel utilisation.
Loma Negra reports fire at L'Amalí cement plant
05 August 2019Argentina: Loma Negra says that a minor fire broke out at an auxiliary building for the second production line at the L'Amalí integrated cement plant on 1 August 2019. No casualties or injuries were reported in the incident. The subsidiary of Brazil’s InterCement said that the causes of the accident are yet to be determined but that no significant impacts are expected. The plant is currently being upgraded with a new production line that is scheduled for completion in early 2020.
India: Wonder Cement has launched the third production line at its Nimbahera plant at Chittorgarh in Rajasthan. The new 2Mt/yr integrated line had an investment of US$159m, according to the Hindu newspaper. The unit at Nimbahera now has a total production capacity of 9Mt/yr and the company also operates a 2Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Dhule in Maharashtra.
Sanjay Joshi, the executive director of Wonder Cement, said that he expected domestic cement demand to grow by 8% year-on-year in the 2019 – 2020 financial year. He added that, although the market was crowed, he thought that a new company could stand out if it delivered quality products.
Siberian Cement to upgrade automation systems
01 August 2019Russia: Siberian Cement is spending around Euro4m on upgrading the automated process control system (APCS) at its cement plants. The project, which is about half way along, is scheduled for completion in 2023.
UK: Cemex has invested around Euro1m on relocating and upgrading its Eversley ready-mixed concrete plant. The new plant will be located at the Bramshill Quarry in Hampshire reducing the need for truck journeys to the fomer site nearby. The unit is being replaced with a Liebherr 2.25 mobile mix plant. The plant will have a storage capacity of 300t of cement, and 240t of aggregates. It will increase production from 80m3/hr to 24m3/hr. The inclusion of a central mixer will also enable special products such as traditional sand cement screed and flowing screeds like Supaflo to be produced, increasing the product range available.