Global Cement News

France: The Vicat Group has reported that its consolidated cement sales have fallen by 2.8% year-on-year to Euro855m for the first nine months of 2013 from Euro879 in 2012. No reason was given for the decline. Cement sales volumes rose by 1.4% year-on-year to 13.7Mt. Overall the company saw its total sales remain stable year-on-year at Euro1.74bn.

"The United States, Switzerland, Turkey and Kazakhstan again delivered healthy business levels while political and security factors in Egypt and competition in India and Senegal continued to weigh on the Group's performance in these regions," said Guy Sidos, CEO of Vicat.

Turkey: Engineering supplier Loesche has released information about a contract it signed in July 2013 to supply Göltas Cimento with a Type LM 56.3+3 vertical roller mill for cement grinding for its plant 130km north of Antalya. Loesche has previously supplied the company with vertical roller mills for cement raw material and coal grinding. The mill will produce at least three different types of cement, a standard OPC cement and various types of composite cements, at a production rate of up to 230t/hr.

Ethiopia: A TEC has released progress information on contracts to provide an alternative fuel system, which can process sesame straw and stalks, and a cement big-bag filling station for Messebo Building Materials Production in Mekelle. Both commissions were awarded in the first quarter of 2013 and local manufacturing and the erection will be performed by Mesfin Industrial Engineering PLC, a sister company of Messebo.

Installation of the alternative fuels system will start in the fourth quarter of 2013 with a planned start-up in the first quarter of 2014. Collection and preparation of straw and the production of bales will take place at Kafta Humera. The first phase of the project includes building a baling capacity of 50t/hr and an alternative fuel feeding capacity to the calciner of 10t/hr at the cement plant in Mekelle. A future upgrade, phase two, will scale the system up to a baling capacity of 71t/hr and an alternative fuel feeding capacity of 20t/hr.

The new station for big-bag filling will be installed at the cement plant in Mekelle. The system will consist of three filling stations in modular design. Each station can handle 15 bags/hr. A total number of 45 big-bags/hr with an overall capacity of 90t/hr can be reached. The big-bag filling station will be installed and commissioned at the end of 2013.

Zambia: The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) of Zambia has started a study to investigate cement price rises in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia. The four sub-Saharan countries were chosen by the CCPC as a case study because they had similar companies producing and selling cement locally according to CCPC public relations officer Hanford Chaaba.

"We have been monitoring this situation concerning price changes for quite some time now and a study has been focused on these countries because the same producers of cement in Zambia have established factories in South Africa, Tanzania and Botswana," said Chaaba. He added that a similar study is also being conducted for the sugar and poultry industries.

Saudi Arabia: MAN Diesel & Turbo has received an order from the United Cement Industrial Company to build a 54.5MW captive power plant for a new 5000t/day cement plant located in the south of the country.

MAN Diesel & Turbo is building the power plant under an Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement covering delivery of the engines and the erection of all essential ancillary equipment. A consortium partner is responsible for local deliveries and services. Construction of the plant is set to begin in late 2013, with delivery of the engines due to take place in mid-2014.

"We believe there is tremendous potential in the domain of local power plant solutions for independent energy generation in particular, for example for cement or steel works. The United Cement Industrial Company is a new client for us and one we have convinced with our technical concept," said Dr Rene Umlauft, CEO of MAN Diesel & Turbo.