France: Aumund has won an order to supply equipment for an upgrade at LafargeHolcim’s Martres-Tolosane cement plant. Aumund Fördertechnik is supplying a package including belt bucket elevators to feed the 96m tall heat exchanger and the raw meal silo at the plant. Two Aumund BWZ chain bucket elevators will be used to convey raw meal and filter dust, and for silo feed. An Aumund KZB pan conveyor with a vertical lift of 9m will be installed under the clinker cooler.

Seven Aumund Louise-type drag chain conveyors with short centre distances of 13 m and conveying capacities between 7 and 50t/hr will extract filter dust. Two Centrex machines (25 – 250t/hr) will be extracting a mixture of limestone and clay as well as iron ore from silos up to 7m high.

The Euro100m modernisation project at the Martres-Tolosane works is part of LafargeHolcim’s Euro300m investment project in France. Once upgraded, the plant will be equipped to burn alternative fuels, and energy consumption and CO₂ emissions will be reduced. Work on the project will start in the final quarter of 2018 and be completed by mid-2020.

Philippines: Big Boss Cement has appealed against a decision by the Board of Investment (BOI) denying its application for registration because it lacked ‘proof of concept’. Big Boss’ president Gilbert Cruz said that the new cement company’s application was turned down in 2017 because it was not producing clinker, according to the Manila Bulletin newspaper. It plans to open a cement grinding plant in Pampanga in March 2018.

France: Cem'In'Eu intends to open its first cement grinding plant in May 2018. The 0.24Mt/yr plant is located at Tonneins in Lot et Garonne, according to Les Echos newspaper. It has had an investment of Euro18m. The company is planning to open new grinding pants at the rate of one per year.

New locations include Chalon-sur-Saone in Saone-et-Loire, Portes-lès-Valence in Drôme, Montreuil-Bellay in Maine-et-Loire and Mulhouse-Ottmarsheim. Internationally the company is also considering new plants in London in the UK, Poland, Switzerland and Germany. Financing for the company is provided by Pergam, a French private equity firm that has already raised Euro33m.

Algeria: Entreprise des Ciments et Dérivés d’El Chellif (ECDE) plans to open a new 2Mt/yr production line at its plant in Chlef in June 2018. The project covers an area of 15ha and has been presented as a new cement plant, according to the El Watan newspaper. Overall the new line will increase the plants production capacity to 4Mt/yr. The company plans to increase its exports to make a return on its investment.