Global Cement News

India: The Danish cement plant supplier FLSmidth has reported that it has received an order worth around US$35.5m from the Indian cement manufacturer Orient Cement Limited for the supply of main equipment for a greenfield cement plant to be located in the state of Karnataka in southern India. The plant will have a capacity of 6000t/day. The order will be booked by the Cement division and contribute beneficially to FLSmidth's earnings until the end of 2014.

The order covers engineering and supply of main equipment from limestone crusher to packing plant. Included in the scope of supply are key components for raw material crushing equipment, limestone, coal and additive stores, raw material grinding system using roller press technology, vertical mill for coal grinding, ILC pyro processing system with Cross-Bar Cooler, two vertical mills for cement grinding as well as packing and loading system for trucks and rail wagons.

"Orient Cement is a well-known customer to FLSmidth. In 2007, we supplied the company with a pyro-processing system with a capacity of 4000t/day for a brownfield project. This new order from Orient Cement is based on a close and successful customer relationship and is furthermore a good example of FLSmidth's leading position in the Indian cement market," said Group Executive Vice President Per Mejnert Kristensen.

India: The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a cement company to use the plastic waste generated across the state as fuel for its manufacturing plant. Vasavadatta Cement, a company with its plant in Karnataka, would procure the plastic waste collected by the state agencies and villages in Goa.

State Environment Minister Alina Saldanha said that the plastic waste collected from the highways and other internal roads would be baled before being handed over to the cement company. Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation, a state run agency, has already taken up the task of collecting garbage from the highways, while villages would be asked to clean up their own roads.

"Two baling machines have already been installed one each in North and South Goa to treat the plastic before handing it over to the cement company," said GSPCB Chairman Jose Manuel Noronha. "The state requires six such machines to bale all of its plastic waste."

Vietnam: Cement companies in Vietnam sold 19.15Mt of cement in the domestic market in the first five months of 2013, up by 9% from the same period of 2012, according to the Ministry of Construction. The country produced 23.8Mt of cement between January and May 2013, fulfilling 41% of Vietnam's whole-year target, including an on-year rise of 19% in May 2013.

Le Van Toi, director of the Building Material Department under the ministry said that the increase in cement sales in the first five months showed a recovery in the country's economy thanks to the government's stimulation packages to support the real estate market. It also signals an increase in demand for other building materials in the construction season, he added, noting that many cement grinding firms had had difficulty buying clinker in the first half of May 2013 as domestic demand surged.

Vietnam's cement output is expected to reach 79.45Mt in 2013, 81.56Mt in 2014 and 83.86Mt in 2015, according to the ministry.

DR Congo: Pakistan-based cement producer Lucky Cement has announced plans to begin construction of a US$240m plant in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in June 2013. Lucky Cement has a 50-50 agreement with the Rawji Group, a banking company, to start production via a company called Nyumba Ya Akiba (NYA), according to Reuters.

"Now's the time to reconstruct a country that was destroyed by civil war," said Sajid Feroze, NYA's chief financial officer.

The proposed factory, to be located around 250km from the capital Kinshasa, is due to come online in late 2015 and will produce 1.2Mt/yr, more than double the current total production in Congo. The country currently consumes just 15kg/capita/yr. Neighbouring Angola uses 300kg/capita/yr and the global average is 400kg/capita/yr said Feroze.

Earlier in May 2013, South African cement firm PPC announced it would build a US$200m cement plant in Congo.

Egypt: ASEC Minya (formerly the Arab National Cement Company), part of ASEC Cement, has started the production of clinker at its 2Mt/yr cement plant in Minya. Cement production at the US$360m plant is expected to start by the end of June 2013.

"We are extremely proud to have been able to see this project through to completion despite the challenging operational environment," said ASEC Cement CEO Giorgio Bodo. "Security issues, fuel scarcity and a general environment of instability resulted in major setbacks and required us to come up with creative ways of ensuring that the project did not come to a halt." Construction on the plant began in December 2010 but work was interrupted by the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011.

ASEC Minya will produce Portland Grey cement using limestone in Minya governorate. The plant has created 400 direct and 800 indirect jobs in Minya.

ASEC Minya will be connected to the national grid via a 42km transmission line that connects the plant to the Samalloot power station. A slow regulatory approval process will not allow the plant to have a connection to the electrical grid until the end of 2013 but in the meantime ASEC Minya has come up with a temporary solution with rented generators to provide power to the plant.

ASEC Minya is the second greenfield cement plant to be launched by ASEC Cement in five years. The first was Takamol Cement in Sudan, a 1.6Mt/yr plant that began production in November 2010.