Global Cement News

Angola: Sinoma International has ordered Loesche's complete grinding series for the Nova Cimangola SA cement plant in Luanda, Angola. These will be the first Loesche vertical roller mills in the country.

The order includes one cement raw material mill of the type LM 48.4 with a capacity of 400t/hr and two cement mills of the type LM 46.2+2 C/S which are designed to have a capacity of 150t/hr each. Loesche's coal mill of the type LM 24.20 DC completes the order. Further equipment like rotary star feeders, metal detectors, the engineering for the cyclones, classifier motors and the control system are also in Loesche's scope of supply, as well as a two-year operation spare parts contract.

The coal mill and the cement raw material mill are scheduled to start operation in the middle of 2016. The cement mills will follow with a production start by the end of 2016.

Angola: China International Fund's (CIF) cement plant in Luanda will provide 50MW of electricity to the Angolan public grid, under a presidential order authorising the purchase of energy. The order said that the power purchase agreement would be valid for ten years, but gave no figures for the amounts involved in the purchase of electricity by state-owned Rede Nacional de Transporte (National Transmission Grid).

"Given that the studies conducted to assess the supply and demand for electricity in the Luanda region indicate a deficit of 400MW, this contract is authorised until structural projects that are underway start operating," said the order authorising the contract with CIF.

The government of Angola is working on several projects that will increase national electricity production, including the construction of two dams by Brazil's Odebrecht. This is the case of the US$4.3bn Lauca hydroelectric facility in Cambambe, Kwanza Norte financed by a credit line from Brazil. From 2017 it will produce 2,070MW of electricity and serve five million people. Another of the works involves increasing the power of the Cambambe hydroelectric facility, in the same municipality, which will increase from 180MW to 700MW and be put into operation in stages during the second half of 2016.

The future Soyo combined-cycle plant, the construction of which is the responsibility of the China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) and that will cost the Angolan state more than US$900m, will provide electricity to the capital, Luanda, and north of Angola from 2017 onwards.

Saudi Arabia: A new on-site power plant at United Cement Industrial Company's (UCIC) cement plant in Saudi Arabia will be operated and maintained by MAN Diesel & Turbo. MAN Diesel & Turbo was also responsible for building the 54MW power plant, near Jeddah, where five MAN 20V32/44 CR diesel engines provide electrical power for the new cement plant. A five-year contract with UCIC for operation and maintenance includes the option of an extension for another five years.

Ireland: CRH has gone to the High Court to seek the return of documents seized by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in a raid in May 2015.

The CCPC, supported by the Gardai (Ireland's police force), raided Irish Cement's offices as part of a probe into alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Euro50m bagged cement industry. CRH has denied the charges.

CRH has lodged court proceedings seeking a declaration that certain sections of the files seized by the CCPC were not related to the Irish Cement investigation. A spokesman for CRH said that it was seeking to have documents that were of no use to the CCPC returned to the company. "Irish Cement fully facilitated the inspection and is continuing to co-operate fully with the CCPC. In undertaking this inspection, the CCPC removed documents that are unrelated to Irish Cement and clearly outside the scope of its inspection. CRH and Irish Cement have issued proceedings to retrieve these documents from the CCPC," said a company spokesperson.

Saudi Arabia: Arabian Cement Company (ACC) is planning to build a new 10,000t/day brownfield cement line in Rabigh.

In order to increase the cement grinding capacities in phase 1, prior to the completion of the new line in Phase 2, ACC placed an order with China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) for a grinding plant, including two Loesche vertical roller mills.

The project execution will be done on a fast-track concept, which ensures a project schedule of only 13 months. Loesche will supply two large vertical roller mills of Type LM 63.3+3 with a table diameter of 6.3m and a main drive size of 7400kW. Under the fast-track concept, Loesche will not only supply the mills, but also all process related equipment like process filters, process fans, hot gas generators, as well as the complete basic engineering of the grinding plant to ensure a state-of-the-art plant design.