India: HeidelbergCement India’s half-year results have benefitted from improved markets in building materials in central India including Uttar Pradesh. Its sales volumes of cement rose by 10.5% year-on-year to 2.39Mt in the six months to the end of September 2018 from 2.17Mt in the same period in 2017. Its revenue rose by 19.4% to US$138m from US$116m. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 47% to US$32.1m from US$21.9m.

The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement said that although fuel prices rose in the latest quarter this was offset by a waste heat recovery system. The company operates two integrated plants and one grinding plant with a cement production capacity of 5.4Mt/yr.

Russia: Germany’s Aumund has held a technical seminar to mark the opening of its new office in St Petersburg. Previously, the conveying and bulk storage company operated an office in Moscow but it decided to relocate to be nearer to Russian design institutes and engineering companies based in St Petersburg. The official opening of the site was held in late August 2018.

Nepal: Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer has received an order via KHD to supply an MPS 225 BK vertical mill to grind coal for Samrat Cement. The cement company is building a new integrated production line at a plant in the Dang region.

The mill, with a drive power of 370kW, will grind 35t/hr of coal to a product fineness of 15% R 90µm. At the same time, the coal, which may have a feed moisture of up to 10%, is dried in the mill. An SLS 1800 BK integrated classifier will separate the ground coal into fine product and coarse product, with the latter being returned to the grinding zone to be again. The classifier will also allow petroleum coke to be separated to fineness degrees of <1% R 90µm.

The order was received via Gebr. Pfeiffer’s subsidiary in India. It will supply the main equipment for the mill and associated equipment for the grinding plant.

Republic of Congo: The Congolese Ministry of Industry says that it is ready to inaugurate the Diamond cement plant. The new plant is located in the district of Mindouli, about 200km south of Brazzaville, according to Agence de Presse Africaine. The 0.1Mt/yr unit started production in early 2018 at a cost of around US$100m. The project had previously been delayed by four years due to local security issues. The plant will be the fifth cement plant in the country and will bring local cement production capacity to over 3.0Mt/yr.