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Habesha Cement inaugurates Holeta plant 21 April 2017
Ethiopia: Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn has inaugurated Habesha Cement’s 1.4Mt/yr plant at Holeta in Oromia. The US$140m unit was built by Chinese contractor Northern Heavy Industry, according to the Ethiopian Herald newspaper. Dessalegn said that the new plant is part of the national plan to surpass local cement production of 27Mt/yr by the end of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) that will end in 2020. The plant is now expected to create 600 jobs in its operational phase.
The subsidiary of PPC is the third international project the South African cement producer has completed over the last year. On 17 April 2017 PPC Barnet in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) despatched its first truckload of saleable cement from the plant near Kimpese in the Kongo Central. The 1Mt/yr cement plant was commissioned in February 2017.
"With the completion of the plants in the DRC and Ethiopia we have achieved two significant milestones in our quest to become a major player in the cement industry across Africa" said Njombo Lekula, Managing Director, International operations, PPC. “Both plants have been built using the latest technologies, in line with international standards.”
UK: Flexicon has launched its Bulk-Out bulk bag discharging system for use in explosive environments. The model features a pneumatically-powered hoist and trolley to raise and position the bag inside the discharger frame, reducing the risk of potential sparks from electrical equipment or fork trucks that might be otherwise used for this function.
A Spout-Lock clamp ring forms a dust seal between the clean side of the bag spout and the clean side of the equipment, while a Tele-Tube telescoping tube maintains downward tension on the bag as it empties and elongates, promoting complete discharge of free- and non-free-flowing material from the bag. The all-stainless-steel construction is designed to withstand corrosive environments and allows rapid, thorough wash down with caustic cleaning solutions. The unit is available with a hopper and pneumatically-driven flexible screw conveyor, a tubular cable conveyor or a rotary airlock valve to feed material into a pneumatic conveyor line.
Saudi Arabia: Yamama Cement’s net profit fell by 66% year-on-year to US$13.5m in the first quarter of 2017. Its revenue fell by 41% to US$59m. according to Trade Arabia. The cement producer’s cement sales fell by 25% to 1.24Mt. The result has been blamed on low cement sales and prices.
Tanzania: Kibo Mining has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mbeya Cement, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, to collaborate regionally and to share materials in the Mbeya and Songwe regions. The agreement includes arrangements to supply coal, limestone, fly ash, electricity and cement between the parties. It also includes plans to bring together local development bodies to develop the region.
Kibo Mining operates a thermal coal deposit at Mbeya and it is developing a 250 – 350MW coal power plant at the site with the help of Chinese contractors.
Tajikistan: Cement producers exported around one third of the country’s cement production in the first quarter of 2017. Cement production in January to March 2017 rose by 12% year-on-year to 426,000t of cement, according to the Asia Plus news agency. The country exported 120,400t of cement to Afghanistan, 10,000t to Uzbekistan and 2700t to Kyrgyzstan in the period.
The country has 13 cement plants with a total production capacity of 4.7Mt/yr. Tajik-Chinese joint ventures Huaxin Gayur Cement, Chzhungtsai Mohir Cement and Huaxin Gayur Sughd Cement accounted for 38%, 28% and 16.6% of the local production in the first quarter of the year.