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Cable maker CMI acquires FLSmidth’s Haryana plant 17 September 2015
India/Denmark: Specialty cable manufacturer CMI Ltd has acquired one of Denmark-based FLSmidth's manufacturing plants in Bawal, Haryana to cater to the growing demand of its products.
CMI plans to invest US$3.02m on the acquisition, which is expected to significantly augment the company's production capacity. The company intends to start production in the new facility within the current financial year. The facility possesses all the necessary clearances and equipment required for industrial production. CMI's net profit rose by 168% to US$429,133 in the quarter that ended on 30 June 2015 and its revenues were US$20.7m.
CMI, which was formerly known as Choudhari Metal Industries, was incorporated in 1967. The company was initially engaged in copper metal trade and copper melting and rod casting and later diversified to the cables business. It currently makes different types of cables to meet the demand of core infrastructure sectors in India like telecommunication, railways, shipbuilding and petrochemicals.
Vortex announces Mespo as new representative in Denmark 17 September 2015
Denmark/UK: Vortex has appointed Mespo ApS as its exclusive agent in Denmark. Mespo sells high quality components, machines and customised solutions for powder handling manufacturers like cement producers.
"We are very pleased to add Mespo to our line of representatives," said Laurence Millington, Vortex's director of international business. "Mespo has a great cooperation with many manufactures of powder processing equipment around Europe. With its convenient location in Ringsted on Zealand, Mespo can respond to our Danish customer needs in a short amount of time."
Ecuador: Gebr. Pfeiffer Inc, a subsidiary of Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, was recently contracted to supply a complete grinding unit to replace aging ball mills at the Hormicreto clinker plant in Ecuador.
The new grinding unit helps reduce energy consumption and improves the overall grinding efficiency, allowing the plant to increase production from a single mill. Gebr. Pfeiffer supplied the following components of the new grinding station:
• MPS 2500 BC swing mill with 'Lift and Swing' technology;
• SLS 2250 BC classifier;
• Bucket elevator;
• Reject conveyor belt;
• Chutes and divert chutes;
• Reject silo;
• Weigh feeder;
• Dedusting unit;
• Metal detector;
• Separator;
• Rotary locks;
• Bag filter;
• Mill fan;
• Ducting, expansion joints and dampers;
• HML 1250 Pfeiffer hot gas generator;
• MCC, control and instrumentation;
• Related engineering services.
Delivery of the grinding unit is expected to be complete by December 2015.
Argentine cement sales set to grow in 2015 despite setbacks
Written by David Perilli, Global Cement
16 September 2015
Cement shortages have been reported again in western Argentina this week. The story has been simmering over the summer in Mendoza and San Juan Provinces with local construction firms becoming irate with delays to their projects.
The cause is reported by local media to be a broken raw mill at Holcim Argentina's Capdeville cement plant north of the city of Mendoza. Production has been reduced by 2400t/month of cement from the 0.66Mt/yr capacity plant. Unfortunately, cement plants in neighbouring states have lowered their deliveries. Subsequently prices are estimated to have risen by 8 – 10% in July and August 2015 alone..
To put some perspective on the cement shortage, the Cuyo region of Argentina (comprising Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis Provinces) consumed just over 1Mt of cement in 2014 compared to 11Mt for the entire country. However all three provinces in the region are above the national mean cement consumption of 271kg/capita.
Despite the bottleneck in the provinces, the Asociacion de Fabricantes de Cemento (AFCP) recently revised its cement sales forecast for 2015 upwards to over 12Mt, the highest level on record. It attributed the rise demand to public infrastructure projects, house building and the Argentina Credit Programme (ProCreAr). Total despatches to the end of August 2015 were 7.99Mt, a rise of 8.73% or 641,664t from 7.35Mt in August 2014.
This followed a poor year in 2014 when national cement consumption fell by 3.5% year-on-year according to local press. The AFCP reported a fall in production by 4.1% to 11.4Mt.
Notably for the current news story, San Juan Province saw one of the biggest sales drops in 2014 at 10.5%. As InterCement (through its subsidiary Loma Negra) commented in its annual report, the country suffered both a gross domestic product (GDP) contraction of 1% in 2014 and instability in its financial markets that adversely affected consumption. Both the other major cement producers, Cementos Avellaneda (a subsidiary of Cementos Molins) and Holcim Argentina, also reported poor sales in 2014. Under these conditions it is unsurprising that consumers have angered due to localised cement shortages. There should be lots of cement available!
Into 2015, Holcim reported increased cement volumes in the first half of 2015 due to high demand in the Cordoba Province that neighbours Mendoza Province. By contrast, InterCement forecast in its 2014 annual report that it expected sales to remain lower than the high set in 2013. However it also expected continued demand for cement to reflect a response to the economic situation in Argentina with private investors moving to real estate for security.
InterCement and the rest will be monitoring Argentina's economy very closely for the remainder of 2015. Presidential elections are due in October that may change the current scenario. For the moment though the country remains in recession but it has managed to bring in foreign investment. Regardless of this though, the quicker Holcim Argentina and the others address the shortage in Mendoza the better. Demand may not last forever.
Zambezi Portland Cement on the backfoot following Dangote launch 16 September 2015
Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) says it has been losing US$2.5/bag (50kg) of cement it has sold since Dangote Cement entered the market. Operations director Daniele Ventriglia said that, despite maintaining its market share, the competition in the cement business was stiff.
Ventriglia said that ZPC would invest US$4m in new state-of-the-art block-making machinery, which will provide a higher proportion of value-added products. "The machines are expected to arrive from Italy in the next three months, before the year ends. Production of blocks will increase by 20%. An additional 25 people will be employed," he said. Ventriglia added that ZPC had remained competitive in block production because its product was of high quality and at an affordable price.