Displaying items by tag: grinding plant

China: Anhui Conch’s sales revenue grew by 35% year-on-year to US$11.9bn in 2017 from US$8.85bn in 2016. Its net profit nearly doubled to US$2.51bn from US$1.36bn. The cement producer said that it had, ‘seized the favourable opportunities arising from the state’s further deepening of supply-side structural reform and the promotion of off-peak season production.’

During the year Anhui Conch opened eight cement grinding plants including Quanjiao Conch Cement, Anhui Xuancheng Conch Cement and Nantong Conch Cement. Outside of China the company completed phase two of its Merak grinding plant in Indonesia and started cement production and completed construction of the North Sulawesi Conch plant in Indonesia and the Battambang Conch plant in Cambodia. The units in Indonesia and Cambodia are due to start production in 2018. A new plant, Luang Prabang Conch, is being built in Laos and preliminary work on projects at Volga Conch in Russia, Vientiane in Laos and Mandalay in Myanmar is underway. At the end of 2017 Anhui Conch says it has a clinker and cement production capacity of 246t/yr and 335Mt/yr respectively.

The cement producer also announced that its Baimashan Cement plant was intending to start operating a CO₂ collection and purification pilot project in the first half of 2018. The initiative is part of the group’s moves to implement the government’s low-carbon development strategy.

Ivory Coast/Senegal: The West African Development Bank (Board) has approved loans for cement plant projects in Ivory Coast and Senegal. It will give US$47m to Ciments Du Sahel for it to build a third clinker production line at its plant in Kirène. The new line will have a production capacity of 2.7Mt/yr. It has also approved a loan of US$9.4m for Ciments de Côte d’Ivoire (Cimivoire) to build a new 3Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Abidjan.

Ivory Coast: Intercem has received an order for a ship-unloading project for Ciments de l'Afrique (CIMAF) and has completed a project for Cim Ivoire. Both projects were received from Sea Invest on behalf of the end clients.

The CIMAF project for a cement grinding plant in San Pedro was agreed in February 2018. The order is an expansion of an existing ship unloading system. The contract was agreed by the Vice President of CIMAF in San Pedro, Melik Sefrioui, and Intercem’s General Manager, Olaf Michelswirth. The order includes a 3D scan of the existing system to ensure planning security. Intercem will perform the engineering, the foundation works, the deliveries, the assembly and the commissioning. Completion of the order is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The order for Cim Ivoire was first received in late 2016. It included the delivery of trough belt conveyors as well as all related components and the transfer tower on an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) base: from the piling, the foundation works, the steel construction, the cladding of the building, the roofing of the belt bridges, the necessary filters and chutes to the electrical equipment.

The ship unloading system includes two belts with a length of 100m and a capacity of 1200t/hr. The first belt can be charged with material from a hopper over its entire length. Two towers were built, one with a height of about 8m and one of about 34m of height. A generator situated in the lower part of the transfer tower two assures the emergency power supply.

The ship unloading system is connected to two 50,000t clinker silos and the raw material shed for Cim Ivoire. Thus a truck-free unloading of clinker and raw material will be achieved to suit the new regulations of the port authorities in Abidjan.

Australia: The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has fined Port Kembla Milling’s cement and slag grinding plant US$23,000 for allegedly storing raw materials in the open, in breach of its licence conditions. Raw materials, including gypsum and limestone, were allegedly stored in the open at the subsidiary of Cement Australia on at least five occasions since January 2016 in breach of the site’s planning approval and licence conditions. Such materials should be stored in an enclosed location to prevent dust emissions.

“The requirement to store materials in an enclosed building is a key way to ensure dust emissions from bulk materials are prevented. A measure that is very important given the residential areas near Port Kembla port,” said EPA Regional Director Metropolitan Giselle Howard.

In addition to the fines, the EPA has also required Port Kembla Milling to complete an independent raw materials handling audit to confirm appropriate storage and management systems are put in place. The company has made some initial steps to respond to this request, and the EPA will continue to work with the licensee to ensure full compliance.

India: Ramco Cements has entered into an agreement with Ramco Industries, a fellow subsidiary of Ramco Group, to buy a 216,000t/yr grinding plant at Kharagpur in West Bengal. The deal covers the land and equipment at the site. The cement producer will pay US$2.6m as part of the agreement.

Namibia: The Whale Rock Cement plant is set to start producing cement at its new grinding plant near Otjiwarongo in April 2018. Using the Cheetah Cement brand name the company had originally intended to start production in January 2018, according to the Namibia Press Agency. Clinker for the plant has been imported from Egypt. Previously, the imported cement was reported by local media as coming from China.

Originally the company intended to buy clinker from a local producer but the negotiations failed leading the cement producer to buy imports instead. Around 24,000t of clinker from a total of 40,000t have been transported from Walvis Bay to Otjiwarongo by 732 trucks. Once fully operational in August 2018 the plant is expected to create around 600 jobs. The company is a joint venture between China’s Asia-Africa Business Management and Whale Rock Cement.

India: Asian Cement Group has launched a new 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Rajpura in Punjab. The project had an investment of US$62m. The site will operate under the Duraton Cement brand.

The plant consists of a grinding mill with a roller press and a separator. The unit also uses a robotic laboratory from Demark’s FLSmidth to automate cement sampling, sample transportation, preparation and analysis.

The cement producer will launch its Prime WR variant product in March 2018. This product will be sold in vacuum-packed waterproof packaging. The first consignments from the plant have been sent to religious sites in Rajpura and Chandigarh. Subsequent rollout will target Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

Bolivia/Paraguay: Bolivia’s Fábrica Nacional de Cemento (Fancesa) is planning to build a new cement grinding plant and terminal near the border with Paraguay. The project is budgeted at US$16m and it may be built as a joint venture, according to the Correo del Sur newspaper. The cement producer is also about to deliver its first consignment to Paraguay.

Mozambique: President Filipe Nyusi has inaugurated Limak Cement’s 0.7Mt/yr plant in Matola. Nyusi said he expected the plant to ‘contribute to stabilising prices in a scenario of high levels of demand for cement,’ according to the Mozambique News Agency. The unit will employ over 140 people.

Honduras: Cementos Argos has ordered two Plug&Grind XL modular grinding units for a project in Honduras. Each mill has a production capacity of 220,000t/yr. The ball mills are 3.0 x 9.5m and they have a power of 1100kW. They also include 50,000m³/hr bag filters and classifiers. The scope of supply includes new cement storage silos for finished product, packing and dispatching equipment. The cement producer announced in early February 2018 that it was planning to spend US$20m on building a new cement grinding plant at Choloma.