Displaying items by tag: grinding plant

Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe has opened PPC’s US$85m cement grinding plant at Msasa in Harare. China’s Sinoma built the 0.7Mt/yr unit that includes a palletiser and cover-wrapping machine, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The plant, PPC’s third production site in the country, was commissioned in late 2016.

US: Orcem Americas, a subsidiary of Ireland’s Ecocem, has been refused planning permission to build a slag cement plant in Vallejo, California. The cement producer was hoping to build a US$50m grinding plant but it faced opposition from local residents on environmental grounds, according to the Irish Times. The issues for the planners was an anticipated increase in the number of trucks on local roads and pollution from the plant. Orcem Americas can now appeal the decision to Vallejo’s City Council if it chooses.

Germany: CRH has agreed to sell one integrated cement plant and one grinding plant in Germany to an unnamed party. These assets were purchased as part of a group of sites acquitted by CRH from LafargeHolcim in 2015. The transaction is subject to approval by the German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt). No exact value for the transaction has been released but the Irish building materials company has placed a sale including these assets and others including a clay business in Northern Europe and a concrete business in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg for Euro400m. CRH currently operates two integrated cement plants in Germany at Wössingen and Karsdorf.

Myanmar: South Korea’s Yojin Construction & Engineering has placed an order for two cement mills from Loesche for installation in Myanmar. The order for a cement and slag mill is Loesche’s first in the country. The mills will be used at a grinding plant owned by Yojin Myanmar Engineering in Thilawa. They will each produce 75t/hr of cement with a fineness of 3300 Blaine. Operation is scheduled for mid-2017. Yojin is building its new grinding plant in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone south-east of Yangon. The site has an ambition to produce 1Mt/yr of cement.

Kenya: ARM Cement plans to increase its grinding capacity by 50% at its 1Mt/yr cement plant at Athi River. Pradeep Paunrana, the managing director of ARM Cement, made the comments in an interview reported on by Reuters. The new grinding capacity will use clinker from the company’s plant at Tanga in Tanzania. The upgrade plans follow an equity deal in late 2016 with the CDC Group to secure US$140m in funding. However, most of this money has been used to pay off debts.

Paunrana noted that cement demand in the East African region is expected to rise at 8 – 10%/yr. The cement producer is preparing to build a new cement plant at Kitui in Kenya but it wants to increase its capacity utilisation rate from its plant in Tanzania first.

Mexico/Qatar: Fives has released information on cement plant projects in Mexico and Qatar. It commissioned a second FCB Horomill unit on 31 January 2017 at the cement grinding plant of Cementos Fortaleza, as part of the new 3300t/day complete line under construction at the Tula cement plant in Hidalgo. The first unit was commissioned in early December 2016.

Fives FCB was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract from Cementos Fortaleza in mid-2015 for the design, supply, erection and commissioning of the cement production line. It includes a burning line using a FCB Kiln, FCB Zero-NO_x Precalciner, FCB Preheater and Pillard Novaflam burner; raw meal and cement grinding plants using FCB Horomill and associated FCB TSV™ Classifiers; and a petcoke grinding plant using a FCB B-mill and associated FCB TSV Classifier. The FCB Horomill raw meal grinding plant and FCB Kiln are scheduled for commissioned in the second quarter of 2017.

In Qatar, Fives commissioned a cement milling unit on 6 February 2017 for Qatar National Cement Co.'s fifth production line in Umm Bab. This follows the commissioning of another mill at the site on 25 January 2017.

The mills are part of a 5000t/day production line that Fives is building for the client covering raw material preparation to cement despatch. The equipment ordered includes one 6400 kW FCB B‑mill with a FCB TSV7500 Classifier for the raw meal grinding plant, one five-stage FCB Preheater and a FCB Zero-NO_x Precalciner, along with a FCB Kiln for the burning line, two TGT process filters and two 4200 KW FCB B‑mills with their FCB TSV4000 Classifiers for the cement grinding plant.

Bolivia: President Evo Morales has inaugurated the Itacamba Cement plant in Yacuses in the department of Santa Cruz. The plant had an investment of US$220m and has a production capacity of 0.95Mt/yr, according to Via Empressa. Itacamba Cement is a joint venture between Spain’s Cementos Molins, Brazil’s Votorantim Cement and Camba Cement. The cement producer also operates a grinding plant in Puerto Quijarro and its hopes to produce up to 1.2Mt/yr of cement from both sites. The plant is also expected to create up to 540 direct and indirect jobs.

India: ACC’s net sales have fallen by 4% year-on-year to US$1.63bn in 2016 from US$1.70bn in 2015. Sales volumes of cement fell by 2.7% to 23.0Mt from 23.6Mt and operating earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 7.5% to US$211m from US$229m. However, profit after tax rose by 2.7% to US$90m from US$87.5m. The company described the market conditions in 2016 as ‘challenging.’ It added that the economic slowdown following demonetisation was easing.

“The highlight of the year was strong cost saving measures, especially on fuel flexibility and raw materials. Focusing on our high quality, high performance product portfolio played an important role in the overall performance for the year. We are encouraged by the government's plans to invest in infrastructure," said Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director and chief executive officer of ACC.

The cement producer’s 1.35Mt/yr grinding plant at Sindri, Jharkhand was commissioned at the end October 2016, joining a 2.79Mt/yr integrated plant at Jamul, Chhattisgarh which was commissioned earlier in 2016. The new plants are expected to strengthen ACC’s market presence in the east of the country.

Honduras: Cementos Argos has inaugurated its 0.3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at San Lorenzo. It spent US$25m on the upgrade project and it has created 100 new direct and indirect jobs. The plant, formerly known as Cesur Grinding Station, was purchased from Lafarge in 2013. The refurbished plant will add to the cement producer’s assets in the country including an integrated cement plant in Comayagua and a terminal in San Pedro Sula.

Venezuela: The Venezolana de Cementos (Vencemos) Guayana grinding plant in Bolivar state needs US$47m to repair its transport fleet. Union head Johnny Linares said that only four vehicles out of 65 are working correctly in comments made to the Ultimas Noticias newspaper. The fleet is used to move clinker from the cement producer’s Pertigalete cement plant to the grinding plant. Production capacity at the plant fell to 28% at 97,000t in 2016 from 346,000t in 2012. Linares added that the national cement industry only received an investment of US$7m in 2016 but that he believes it requires US$25m/yr.