Global Cement News

Kenya: The Nairobi Securities Exchange has suspended trading of ARM Cement following the company going into administration. The suspension took effect from 20 August 2018 and will last for seven days, according to Reuters. On 18 August 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the cement producer had been placed into administration following the resignation of its chief executive officer (CEO) Pradeep Paunrana. However, Paunrana intends to remain on the board of the company. PricewaterhouseCoopers has appointed Muniu Thoiti and George Weru as joint administrators.

In June 2017 ARM Cement reported that its net loss more than doubled to US$55m in 2017 due to poor demand in Kenya and Tanzania. UK-government investor CDC Group, which holds a 41% stake in the company, then forced the replacement of board members Ketso Gordhan and Pepe Meijer with Sofia Bianchi and Rohit Anand.

Tanzania: The Petroleum Development Corporation (PDC) and Dangote Industries Tanzania have signed a 20-year deal to supply gas to Dangote Cement’s plant at Mtwara. The cement plant will produce up to 35MW of electricity from natural gas and this will later increase to 45MW, according to the Daily News newspaper. The energy supply will allow the unit to increase it production capacity to 6000t/day from 2000t/day and reduce its production costs.

At the ceremony marking the signing, Dangote Industries chief executive officer (CEO) Jagat Rathee said the company has been using an average of 106,000l/day of diesel to produce 2000 – 2500t/day of cement. The 3Mt/yr plant was commissioned in 2015 and is supported by 500Mt of limestone reserves. It is hoped that the new gas deal will reduce the price of cement in the country.

UK: Aggregate Industries has signed a Euro3.3m deal with Siemens for technology and training services.

The agreement positions Siemens as Aggregate Industries’ preferred technology supplier across the company’s 330 UK sites. The partnership is intended to improve efficiency, make maintenance savings, and reduce the company’s carbon footprint. Siemens technology solutions include inverter drives, gearboxes, motors and control panels.

Siemens will also provide access to training and education facilities for all Aggregate Industries apprentices at Stephenson College in Coalville, Leicestershire. The focus on training will be supported regionally with Siemens supplying safety panels, which are to be utilised for staff training sessions across Aggregate Industries’ regional site network.

“This agreement positions Siemens as our preferred UK technology supplier, ensuring that we benefit from enhanced operational efficiencies over the long-term. This will deliver cost savings and improve system reliability. The technology solutions we will install will also help us reach our sustainability goals, as we seek to reduce the impact we have on the environment,” said Gerard Cantwell, Head of Procurement Europe at Aggregate Industries.

UK: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita says that its cement and lime segment was ‘flat’ in the first half of 2018. It blamed this on on-going low capacity utilisation in China and Brazil and ‘some’ market share losses due to its prices. The adjusted sales revenue of its Industrial Division, including cement and lime, rose by 14.3% year-on-year to Euro413m in the first half of 2018 from Euro362m in the same period of 2017. Overall, the company reported a 24.6% increase in revenue to Euro1.51bn from Euro1.21bn.

In a separate release RHI Magnesita subsidiary Magnesita said that the company’s revenue rose by 81.6% to US$133m. This was attributed to sales to the cement business in North America and higher deliveries in Europe in 2018. However, Magnesita’s services business suffered from a poor cement market in Brazil.

India: Wonder Cement, a part of the Rajasthan-headquartered RK Group, has announced that it will set up a 2Mt/yr clinker grinding unit in Dhule, Maharashtra at a cost of US$64.7m. The plan marks the company’s first foray into the state. This is in addition to the earlier-announced plan to invest US$359m by the end of the 2020 financial year.

“The Dhule plant will distribute cement mainly across Maharashtra, while a minimal quantity will be supplied to Madhya Pradesh,” said Managing Director JC Toshniwal, who added that the company is also in the process of developing a railway siding for the unit.

Following the commencement of the Dhule facility, Wonder Cement’s production capacity will increase to 8.75Mt/yr from the present 6.75Mt/yr. The clinker required for the unit will be supplied from Nimbahera plant in Rajasthan. Gypsum, another raw material used for manufacturing cement, will be procured from Gujarat and fly ash from a nearby thermal power plant.

In addition to the plants in Nimbahera and Dhule, Wonder Cement is in the process of setting up a third clinker facility of about 2.5Mt/yr in Nimbahera, Rajasthan. “The civil works for the third clinker unit is in full swing,,” confirmed Toshniwal. “We will commission it by mid-2019. This will help to increase our cement production capacity to 11Mt/yr.”

Under its expansion plans, the company will look at setting up two more clinker units. One will be in Madhya Pradesh, but the location for the other is yet to be finalised.