Displaying items by tag: grinding plant

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.

India: UltraTech Cement has selected Germany-based Aumund to supply conveyors, elevators and feeders for its ‘Project Spring’ expansion project to increase its installed production capacity to 130Mt/yr of cement from 117Mt/yr.

The expansion project includes three integrated cement production units in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, each with capacities of up to 10,000t/day. For these kiln lines, Aumund India will supply clinker cooler extraction conveyors as well as the transfer conveyors to the clinker silos. Six cement grinding plants in various locations in India are also part of the capacity expansion plans.

Aumund will supply six pan conveyors, 11 Samson material feeders and 68 bucket elevators including up to 157m-high kiln feed bucket elevators, up to 2200t/hr roller press recirculation bucket elevators and clinker and cement handling bucket elevators, among other products. The order is one of the largest to date for Aumund India.

India: Shree Cement has commenced commercial production at its 3.0Mt/yr Cuttack grinding plant in Athagarh Tehsil, Odisha. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the company officially launched the new plant on 15 March 2021.

Iraq: Lucky Cement has started commercial cement production at its 1.2Mt/yr integrated Samawah cement plant. The News International newspaper has reported that the plant brings the company’s overseas installed cement production capacity to 4.1Mt/yr. It operates the 1.7Mt/yr Basra grinding plant in Iraq and a 1.2Mt/yr integrated cement plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The company said, “Despite the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, the project has successfully achieved its milestones on time.”

Chile: Melón’s new 0.25Mt/yr grinding plant that it is building at Punta Arenas is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first half of 2021. The unit is forecast to produce around 80,000t of cement in its 12 months, according to the La Prensa Austral newspaper. It has had an investment of US$30m and will create around 50 jobs. Spain-based Cemengal was previously reported as the supplier of the mill. It is intended to supply the Magallanes Region including Tierra del Fuego. The cement producer is also considering doubling the production capacity of the grinding plant to 0.5Mt/yr if the market supports it.

Fiji: Grinding units in Lami have ceased operations since mid February 2021. The reason for the pause is complaints by community stakeholders about pollution, including clinker spillages on the road from the Port of Suva. The Fiji Times newspaper has reported that plant owners met stakeholders on 23 February 2021.

Environment and Waterways Ministry permanent secretary Joshua Wycliffe said, "The origins of the issue are the transport itself: there was spillage on the way to the cement factories. We have stopped the companies; if it is the transport companies that are breaching, we have stopped them. We are open to someone else doing it provided they have the permits, proper paperwork and also follow the rules and conditions.”

Chile: Melón has signed an electricity supply contract with Enel Generación. The contract covers the supply for its La Calera, Puerto Montt and Ventanas cement plants, and its San Bernardo aggregates quarry, until 2043, according to the La Tercera newspaper. All energy supplied under the contract will come from renewable sources. There is also the possibility of expanding the scope of the contract.

General Manager Iván Marinado said, “Our commitment to the sustainability of our operations is permanent. We have state-of-the-art technologies, we work together with our carriers in programmes to reduce logistical impact and energy efficiency, and we have a solid co-processing strategy for the use of alternative fuels (AF) and raw materials. Today we are happy to take a new step and start the use of renewable energies, as a concrete and effective example of our concern to contribute to the environmental improvement of the localities where we operate.”

Cameroon: Atlantic Group is planning to build a 1Mt/yr integrated cement plant in the Port of Kribi. Business in Cameroon has reported that the company has received all necessary permissions for the project. The group’s only asset in Cameroon is the 48,000t/yr Atlantic Cocoa plant in the Port of Kribi, commissioned in 2020. Parent company Ivory Coast-based Atlantic Group recently inaugurated the 1.5Mt/yr Société Ciment Côte d'Ivoire (SCCI) near Abidjan in Ivory Coast.

Kribi’s five existing cement plants have a total production capacity of 5.8Mt/yr.

France: Vicat recorded full-year consolidated sales of Euro2.81bn in 2020, up by 2% year-on-year from Euro2.74bn in 2019. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 6% to Euro557m from Euro526m. Consolidated net income rose by 8% to Euro172m from Euro160m.

The group said that organic sales were ‘strong,’ rising in all regions except in France, by 6% in total. It attributed the decline to a near-total shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak in mid-March 2020, which lifted incrementally throughout the first half of the year. Vicat France’s cement business recovered ‘robustly’ in the second half of 2020, resulting in an operational sales increase of 3% for the year. Full stoppages of activity lasted for 33 days in India and for 30 days in Italy. Despite these challenges, business growth, cost-cutting and lower energy costs drove earnings growth, with ‘very sharp improvements’ recorded in the Americas and in Asia. Additionally, the ramp-up of a new grinding plant in Mali and production performance improvements in Senegal supported a ‘significant’ earnings increase in Africa.

Chair and chief executive officerGuy Sidos said, “Thanks to our employees’ tremendous efforts and commitment, the Vicat group strengthened its position amid the unprecedented current pandemic situation. Our resilience and flexibility allowed us to make organisational changes in order to reconcile our competing imperatives of keeping everyone safe and healthy, unlocking savings and making rapid adjustments, such as relocating our Paris head office to L’Isle d’Abeau in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Likewise, we made improvements to Vicat’s governance and stepped up our environmental and digital transformation programmes. Given the strength of our cash generation, we were able to resume key productivity investment programmes for the future. Despite the adversity we faced, our teams across all our various regions successfully delivered higher production efficiency levels and met market demand cost-effectively, paving the way for a solid increase in the Vicat group’s results.”

In 2021, the group plans to expand cement production and invest in new cement terminals in India and to continue with the upgrade of its Ragland cement plant in the US. It also says that it will ramp up projects aimed at meeting its carbon footprint reduction targets. The group expects its earnings to rise at constant scope and exchange rates over the full year.

Chile: The protest organisation Frente de Defensa de Islay has launched a challenge against the legality of Cbb’s planned 200,000Mt/yr Arequipa grinding plant in the Port of Matarani. The La República newspaper has reported that the organisation says that the plans would violate Islay district’s urban zoning law due to the risk of contamination.

The producer plans to complete the US$20m plant in mid-2021. It acquired the project from Inversiones Primax in 2019.