Displaying items by tag: grinding plant

The Infrastructure Development Company in Bangladesh announced this week that it had agreed to loan Crown Cement US$25m to help it add a new mill to its cement grinding plant at Munshiganj, south of Dhaka. If completed it will be the plant’s sixth mill. Originally known as MI Cement the plant has a production capacity of 3.3Mt/yr and the most recent mill was added in 2017. The plan to add a sixth mill dates back to 2019 but was revised in 2021 with a total investment of US$90m. Securing a loan marks a significant step forward for the project.

The timing to expand a cement plant in Bangladesh is interesting given the problems facing the local cement sector. In August 2022 Mohammed Alamgir Kabir, the president of the Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA), told the Daily Star newspaper that cement producers were facing both falling investment in infrastructure development and private projects. The local cement industry imports 90% of the raw materials it uses and most of the country’s cement plants grind cement use imported clinker. However, the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic created supply chain problems leading to higher costs of raw materials, dearer transportation charges and started to push up global energy prices. This was then exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and negative currency exchange effects as the Bangladeshi Taka fell in value against the US Dollar. In words echoing cement associations in other parts of the world, Kabir suggested that cement producers now faced the option of either continuing to raise prices or simply shutting down production.

The local cement production capacity utilisation rate appears to be around 56% based on data from a recent feature in the Financial Express newspaper. It placed total production capacity at 83Mt/yr from 37 active plants but demand at only 47Mt/yr. This is similar to the reported utilisation rate of 54% back in 2017 from a total production capacity of 50Mt/yr. Data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) suggests that cement production picked up in 2021 but then declined on a monthly year-to-date basis between December 2021 and February 2022. However, the BBS only reports production from a sample of plants. Masud Khan, the chief advisor to Crown Cement and its former chief executive officer, placed the cost of all that unused capacity at US$40/t or something like an investment of US$1.46bn for idle manufacturing potential. In his view, the larger local producers forecast an increase in demand around five to 10 years ago and invested accordingly to avoid losing market share. However, some smaller companies may also have done the same.

The local sector has likely been able to cope with a relatively low capacity utilisation rate previously because it was ‘grinding heavy.‘ How the current problems have shown themselves on cement company balance sheets has been mixed though. LafargeHolcim Bangladesh’s sales revenue and profit grew by 8% year-on-year to US$166m and 7% to US$32.2m in the nine months to September 2022. It was probably able to do this, in part, due to the fact that it operates one the few integrated plants in the country and it has direct access to limestone reserves across the border in India. By contrast, HeidelbergCement Bangladesh’s sales fell by 3% year-on-year to US$90.7m in the first six months of 2021 and it made a loss of around US$2m. Aramit Cement’s revenue fell by 60% year-on-year to US$6.09m in the nine months to March 2022 and it reported a loss. Premier Cement Mills increased its revenue by 5% to US$99m in the same period, although its net profit dropped by 91% to US$387,000. Crown Cement’s revenue rose by 16% to US$13m but its net profit fell by 81% to US$1.32m.

Geopolitics, high energy prices and local problems are all combining to make life difficult for cement producers in Bangladesh. As the market adjusts to the current situation the determining factor here is likely to be the cost of grinding cement to end users versus just importing cement directly. Current conditions do not seem to be stopping Crown Cement though nor LafargeHolcim Bangladesh. The latter, for example, launched a new blended cement product, Supercrete Plus, earlier in November 2022. One way out for the others might be explore exports and the BCMA suggested just that to the government over the summer, although this doesn’t seem like the most obvious solution for a country that imports so much of its raw materials.

India: Ramco Cements has approved plants to build a second production line at its Haridaspur grinding plant in Jajpur District, Odisha with a capacity of 0.9Mt/yr. Around US$16m has been earmarked for the project. Once commissioned the plant’s total capacity will be 1.8Mt/yr.

The cement producer’s revenue grew by 31% year-on-year to US$442m in the first half of its financial year to 30 September 2022. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 35% to US$61.9m. It blamed the loss in earnings on falling cement prices and mounting fuel costs. The company currently has cement and clinker production capacities of 21Mt/yr and 14Mt/yr respectively. It also reported that a 6MW waste heat recovery unit at its Kurnool plant in Andhra Pradesh will be commissioned in November 2022. An additional 6MW at the same plant is scheduled to start operation in March 2023.

India: JK Cement subsidiary Jaykaycem has commissioned the 2Mt/yr grinding unit of its upcoming Panna cement plant in Madhya Pradesh. The producer expects to commission the plant's clinkerisation unit later in the 2023 financial year.

India: JK Cement has successfully inaugurated its new 2Mt/yr Hamirpur grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur District. The Indian Express newspaper has reported that the facility will produce grey cement.

Managing director Raghavpat Singhania said "The Hamirpur plant is a significant milestone. The commissioning of this plant has enabled a new growth engine for our grey cement business."

Uzbekistan: Turkey-based engineering company Deha Tech says that it is 95% of the way to completion of its construction of a new grinding plant in Tashkent. The supplier says that it expects to commission the new facility in late January 2023. It thanked employees and partners for all of their efforts towards helping it realise the project. Deha Tech secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the work in 2020.

UAE: Asian Paints has partnered with Riddhi Siddhi Crusher & Land Transport and Associated Soap Stone Distributing Company in a 60:40 joint venture for the purpose of white cement and white cement clinker production. The joint venture will invest US$66.5m in the construction of a planned 265,000t/yr integrated cement plant in the Emirate of Fujairah. The project will take until October 2024 to complete. In addition, the new company plans to establish grinding units in India to serve the export market.

Riddhi Siddhi Crusher & Land Transport and Associated Soap Stone Distributing Company operates limestone mines in Fujairah.

India: Prism Cement, part of Prism Johnson, has signed supply agreements with three cement producers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Mayflex Cement Industries, RLJ Infracement and Rockhill Hi-Tech Cement will supply the cement producer and distributor with cement from their respective grinding plants, which have a total capacity of 820,000t/yr. Prism Cement said that the agreements will help it to improve local availability in the strategic markets of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar contributed 19% of Prism Johnson's cement sales by volume in the 2022 financial year, and Uttar Pradesh 55%.

Mayflex Cement Industries reportedly commissioned its new 300,000t/yr Faizabad grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh earlier in 2022.

India: The Confederation of Indian Industry has certified Sagar Cements’ Bayyavaram grinding plant as an Excellent Energy Efficient Unit with an award at the Energy Management Excellence Awards 2022. The facility was also among recipients of the confederation’s GreenCo Star Performer Awards 2022.

Zimbabwe: Part of Lafarge Zimbabwe’s approved US$25m capital expenditure investments will go towards further expanding the company’s cement capacity in order to meet local demand. The company also plans to establish a new dry mortars plant. Lafarge Zimbabwe is on track to commission a new vertical roller mill at its Manresa grinding plant in early 2023. Lafarge Zimbabwe’s chief executive officer Geoffrey Ndugwa said, “The overall market demand continues to grow, driven by the segment of individual home builders as well as the ongoing major government infrastructure development projects. The company is confident that volumes will recover and grow as the availability of cement stabilises.”

Brazil: Holcim has closed the sale of its business in Brazil to Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) for an enterprise value of US$1.025bn. The deal was closed following approvals from the Brazilian authorities. This transaction includes Holcim’s five integrated cement plants, four grinding units, six aggregates sites and 19 ready-mix concrete facilities.

Holcim said that Latin America remains a core strategic growth region for the group. In the first half of 2022 it completed a new cement production line in El Salvador and significantly expanded its aggregates operations in El Salvador, Ecuador and Colombia. The company also continued to expand its Disensa retail network across the region with over 2000 stores now open across eight countries.