Global Cement News

Thailand: Amir Reza Sinai has been appointed as the managing director of Beumer Group’s subsidiary in Thailand. The local company, which has 59 employees, acts as Beumer’s regional headquarters in South East and East Asia, where it covers the divisions Conveying & Loading Systems and Palletising & Packaging Systems. It also provides solutions for the cement industry.

Prior to working for Beumer, Amir Reza Sinai was the chief executive officer of the Indonesian subsidiary of a global plant engineering and construction company. He joined Beumer’s Thai subsidiary in early 2017, and for almost a year he headed the company’s office in Jakarta, Indonesia. He took up his current post on 1 January 2018.

Rwanda: Upgrade work at Cimerwa’s plant at Bugarama has led to local cement prices rising by up to nearly 50%. The plant has been shut for nearly a month for improvements to its mill, heat exchanger bypass, clinker cooler plate, bag filter and limestone weigh feeder, according to the New Times newspaper. However, the work has been delayed by bad weather and delays waiting for imported parts to arrive.

The total cost of the upgrade project is US$3.3m. An unnamed German contractor has been involved with the work. The plant has a nominal production capacity of 0.6Mt/yr but it currently produces 0.5Mt/yr. Normal supply from the plant is expected to resume by the end of May 2018.

Pakistan: GE Power has won a contract to design, manufacture and deliver a 132/6.3kV air-insulated switchgear (AIS) grid station to support a new production line being built at Power Cement’s plant in Nooriabad. The project is expected to be completed in early 2019. It will supply the cement plant with a reliable electricity supply from the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company.

India: The state government of Uttar Pradesh has identified land on which Jaiprakash Associates will have to plant a plantation as a penalty for conducting mining in a forest. The decision follows a National Green Tribunal order in 2016, according to the Times of India newspaper. UltraTech Cement purchased the Dalla plant from Jaiprakash Associates in 2017 but it has been unable to use the site fully due to legal issues. It will be able to use the site fully once the conditions of the government proposal have been completed. Other conditions of the government deal will force Jaiprakash Associates to pay four times the actual cost of land for its acquisition and to maintain the plantation for 10 years.

Trinidad & Tobago: Union members from the Trinidad Cement branch of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union have protested at the Port of Chaguaramas over cement imports from Turkey. A union member claimed that a batch of imported cement had no import duties paid, according to the Trinidad Guardian newspaper. Trinidad Cement has taken legal action in the Caribbean Court of Justice against Turkey’s Sonmez Cimento for breaking local tariff rules. In 2016 Trinidad Cement made an official complaint to Caricom, the Caribbean Community organisation, about tax concerns for a cement import from Turkey.