Displaying items by tag: grinding plant

India: Shree Cement has received approval from the state government of Karnataka for its planned US$81.5m Doddaballapur cement grinding and bagging plant. The Hindu newspaper has reported that, when operational, the plant will employ 300 local people.

Burkina Faso: Germany-based Gebr Pfeiffer is supplying a MVR 6000 C-6 type vertical roller mill for Cim Metal Group’s upgrade to its Cimasso cement grinding plant in Bobo Dioulasso. The mill, with an installed gear power of 6800kW, will be used on the plant’s second production line. The vertical mill can be used for different cement types between 4000cm²/g and 5000cm²/g according to Blaine and produces more than 400t/hr with its six active grinding rollers. The mill will be equipped with a SLS VC type classifier. The order also includes the delivery of a replacement gearbox. The upgrade project is being managed by Germany-based Intercem Engineering with Gebr Pfeiffer supplying the mill and the process design. The supplier says that this will be the first MVR mill to be installed in the country.

Kenya: The Competition Authority of Kenya has granted China-based Zou Fengqi and Oman-based Raysut Cement exemption from regulatory approval on a recent application in line with competition guidelines. The Business Daily newspaper has reported that the application stated that Zou Fengqi plans to acquire a 60% stake in Raysut Cement’s business in East Africa.

Raysut Cement operates grinding plants in Mogadishu, Somalia and Somaliland.

India: Dalmia Bharat subsidiary Dalmia Cement plans to increase its installed cement production capacity in Eastern India by a further 4.8Mt/yr. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that its remaining planned upgrades in the region consist of a 2.3Mt/yr capacity expansion at a grinding plant in Odisha and a 2.5Mt/yr capacity expansion at a grinding plant in Bihar. The Odisha upgrade is scheduled for commissioning in mid-2021 and the Bihar upgrade is scheduled for commissioning in 2023. When both completed, the new lines will increase the producer’s cement capacity to 40Mt/yr.

The company says that it plans to announce further capital expenditure (capex) investments. It said that its subsidiary Murli Industries requires US$47.7 - 54.5m-worth of capex spending. It acquired the company, based in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, in the 2021 financial year. Managing director Puneet Dalmia said that the company would wait for greater economic certainty before launching the next round of expenditure. He said that the company’s aim is to become a national producer.

India: Gallantt Industry has ordered a Ready2Grind compact grinding plant from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Gorakhpur cement plant in Uttar Pradesh. The supplier says that the 65t/hr-capacity plant will grind cement to a Blaine fineness of 3750cm²/g. The planned MVR 2500 C-4 represents the medium size of the portfolio of the supplier’s modular mill range. Due to the planned installation in the vicinity of a steelworks, blast furnace slag, steelworks slag from an induction furnace and fly ash from an in-house power plant will also be considered as supplementary cementitious materials addition to clinker and gypsum. The mill will be equipped with a 1270kW main drive and an integrated SLS 2650 VC high-performance classifier.

Brazil: Companhia Nacional de Cimento (CNC), part of Italy-based Buzzi Unicem’s 50% subsidiary BCPAR, has acquired CRH Brasil following approval by the Brazilian antitrust authority (CADE). The deal was originally agreed for US$218m although changes in the financial positions of the acquired companies changed this. Buzzi Unicem supplied CNC with US$242m to support the deal.

CRH Brasil’s assets included three integrated cement plants and two grinding plants in the south-east of the country. The company sold approximately 2.8Mt of cement in 2020.

Burkina Faso: Cim Metal Group has ordered an upgrade to its Cimasso cement grinding plant in Bobo Dioulasso from Germany-based Intercem Engineering. The cement producer has decided to double the plant’s production capacity to at least 4Mt/yr by ordering an extension production line and upgrading the original line. The plant, which was also supplied by Intercem, was originally commissioned in 2018.

The new order includes: three truck unloading stations; raw material handling systems; a raw material hopper station; a cement grinding unit with a vertical roller mill; four 5400t cement silos; five 12 spout rotary packers; ten truck loading stations; ten truck weighing bridges; and one upgrade to the existing cement grinding plant. Intercem is in charge of the engineering, all mechanical and electrical plant components, project management and is also responsible for the supervision activities for the civil, mechanical and electrical assembly works and the commissioning of the plant. No date for commissioning has been announced.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ consolidated net sales were US$6.41bn in 2020, up by 19% year-on-year from US$5.41bn in 2019. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also rose, by 35% to US$1.21bn from US$899m. The group attributed the growth to increased cement volumes sold in Brazil, Canada and the US. Total global cement sales increased by 8% to 32.4Mt. Net revenue grew in all regions, but the sharpest growth was reported in North America at 43% to US$945m.

Chief financial officer Osvaldo Ayres Filho said, “The past year has been extremely challenging due to the pandemic and its impacts across the planet. We have implemented a contingency plan to protect people's lives and preserve operations. This allowed us to respond with agility both in Brazil and in the other markets in which we have operations, ending the year with increased sales, cash generation growth and the lowest leverage in the past ten years.”

During the year, the group unified its joint-venture in Uruguay, with Cementos Molins, at a single site and merged its Canadian and US businesses under a new 83% owned subsidiary. It suspended its Pecém grinding plant expansion in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed it in September 2020. Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2021. The producer also released its Sustainability Commitments for 2030 in November 2020.

Guatemala: Mexico-based Cemex subsidiary Cemex Latam Holdings plans to install a new 1000t/day horizontal ball mill and support infrastructure including a dust collector and 3000t silo at its Puerto de San José grinding plant in Escuintia. Central America Data has reported the value of the work as US$16m.

Two fairly serious investments in Peru made the industry headlines this week. The first was Yura’s plans to upgrade its Arequipa cement plant at a cost of US$200m. The project will involve increasing the plant’s clinker production capacity as well as installing a new mill and a 4.3km conveyor. The second was the latest instalment in Cementos Interoceanicos’ long held ambition to build a plant. It has struck a deal with France-based Satarem to build a 1Mt/yr plant near Puno. The deal also includes Satarem buying a 30% stake in Cementos Interoceanicos and plans to construct two lime units as well.

Graph 1: Local cement sales in Peru, January 2020 to February 2021 compared to January 2019 to February 2020. Source: ASOCEM.

These projects follow a squeeze for the local industry due to coronavirus-related containment measures. Data from the Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM) shows that cement sales collapsed during the lockdown to just 11,000t in April 2020 before recovering in the autumn. Total annual local sales fell by 17% year-on-year to 9.7Mt from 11.6Mt. Sales have also remained high in January and February 2021.

The experience from the larger cement producers mirror the data from ASOCEM. Cementos Pacasmayo’s sales revenue fell by 7% year-on-year to US$354m in 2020 and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 21% to US$86.3m. Unión Andina de Cementos’ (UNACEM) income fell by 14% year-on-year to US$467m in 2020. Despite this, UNACEM managed to sign a deal to buy Cementos La Unión Chile for US$23m in December 2020. The purchase consists of a 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant and a 0.34Mm³/yr ready-mix concrete business with multiple concrete plants and trucks. UNACEM described Chile as its main clinker export destination and it holds concrete and precast subsidiaries in the country.

Yura’s general manager Ramón Pizá reportedly called his company’s plans a “vote of faith in Peru.” This is not an understatement considering the market shocks caused by coronavirus in 2020. The country implemented public health measures relatively early during the pandemic but still ended up with one of the worst death rates per capita in Latin America so far. As the British Medical Journal (BMJ) pointed out earlier this month, the timing was right but tragically the application of public health measures has been found wanting. Yet, the fundamentals for the Peruvian cement market are strong. Annual sales mounted from 2017 to 2019, and were showing signs of continuing this in early 2020 before the lockdown shut the market down. This growth pattern has continued so far in 2021.