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PPC Zimbabwe domestic sales drop 5% 06 June 2014
Zimbabwe: PPC Zimbabwe reports that its domestic sales for the first five months of 2014 have fallen by 5% compared to the same period in 2013. Managing director Njombo Lekula blamed the drop on a decrease in housing projects.
"For the past few years there has been significant growth in housing, which boosted cement demand, however, the current economic situation is beginning to have an impact on home building activities," said Lekula in comments reported by The Herald.
PPC Zimbabwe now intends to sell its excess production in neighbouring countries. However, Lekula pointed out that Mozambique has a 'very competitive' market due to imports from the Far East via the port of Beira. In addition the cost of logistics to reach this market is an issue for the cement producer. PPC Zimbabwe are also considering targeting Zambia but logistics and the fluctuating price of the Kwacha have posed challenges.
PPC Zimbabwe intends to start building a US$200m cement plant in the north-east of Zimbabwe in 2014. The company has also started constructing clinker grinding plants near Harare and Tete, Mozambique. Currently, PPC Zimbabwe has a cement production capacity of 0.76Mt/yr. The new projects are expected to increase capacity to 1.2Mt/yr.
Germany: Holcim has received unconditional clearance by the European Commission (EC) for its proposed acquisition of Cemex West in Germany. The decision follows a detailed Phase II review by the EC. Closing of the transactions is expected for the second half of 2014.
The acquisition in Germany is part of Holcim's strategic portfolio optimisation in Europe that includes a series of transactions together with Cemex, which is separate from the intention to merge with Lafarge.
Holcim said that the decision marks a further milestone towards the optimisation of its strategic portfolio in Europe, which was announced in 2013. It will allow Holcim to create value through an optimised footprint in north-western Germany. It will also allow it to further improve the service and support of existing and new customers.
The transaction includes one cement plant and two grinding stations with a total cement production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr, one slag granulator, 22 aggregates locations and 79 ready-mix concrete plants. They would be combined with Holcim's existing Northern German operations.
India: According to the latest data from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), the utilisation of hazardous waste as an alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) in cement kilns has increased by a factor of 35 since 2009 – 2010 from 15,693t/yr to 543,569t/yr in 2013 - 2014.
This follows the GPCB's measures to strike a balance between the disposal of toxic hazardous wastes, environmental protection and economic interests. Safe disposal of toxic hazardous waste posed a major challenge before the state pollution regulator took up disposal through cement kilns under controlled conditions.
In 2011 Gujarat State generated 109Bnt/yr of incinerable waste, 1107Bnt/yr of land-fillable waste and 577Bnt/yr of recyclable hazardous waste. These included plastic waste, spent carbon, tar, mixed waste liquid, pharmaceutical waste, tyre chips, agricultural waste, solid waste, chemical gypsum, iron sludge, copper slag and fly ash.
The GPCB encouraged major industrial clusters and cement plants to provide waste collection centres and pre-processing facilities for hazardous waste for co-processing. "It is a recovery of energy and material from waste," said Hardik Shah, member secretary of the GPCB. "The challenging task was to convince the top management of cement plants." The GPCB facilitated cement makers with access to its data on the waste generated in the State via Extended Green Node (XGN) software, which ensured the supply of suitable wastes.
"This involves some additional investment, but in the long run it repays as there are savings on fuel costs," said an Ambuja Cement spokesperson. Ambuja has invested US$16.7m to set up a pre-processing facility of solid/semi-solid waste at its Ambujanagar plant in Junagadh District, Gujarat State.
Similarly, Sanghi Industries is in the trial phase for using hazardous waste. "From a legal standpoint, we need to get clearance from the GPCB for co-processing any new waste material in our plant," said Alok Sanghi, director of Sanghi. "We have submitted the results of the trials conducted and are awaiting clearance from them." Sanghi has been doing trials for last 18 months.
"The use of alternative fuel in Indian cement industries has been limited," said GPCB's Shah. "The thermal substitution rate (TSR) in the cement industry is less than 1% in India as against 10% in Japan and 40% in European nations. The GPCB has set a target of three years to achieve a TSR of 10% by using AFR."
Germany: The European Commission (EC) is expected to give the green light to Holcim's planned acquisition of Cemex's German operations without conditions, according to Reuters, which cited two knowledgeable sources.
The transaction is part of several interconnected deals between the companies that were agreed in August 2013. The EC is currently examining the agreement to determine whether it could threaten competition and prompt price hikes. Its decision is due by 8 July 2014.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cemex will combine its cement, ready-mix and aggregates operations in Spain with those of Holcim and will hold a 75% stake in the enlarged firm. In addition, Cemex will take over Holcim's operations in the Czech Republic. Holcim will spend a total of Euro70m in cash on the deals.
In April 2014 the EC started an in-depth probe into Cemex's deal with Holcim in Spain and is due to unveil its decision until 5 September 2014. The local anti-trust watchdog approved the transaction in the Czech Republic in March 2014.
India: According to local media, the Jammu and Kashmir State government has ordered an enquiry of the managing director of JK Cement regarding the alleged embezzlement in the purchase of polypropylene bags. According to the allegations, US$156,857 was to be shared by JK Cement's managing director and a few of his trusted lieutenants.
JK Cement had placed an order to purchase cement bags from a factory outside of the state at exorbitant rates. The company had earlier ordered 3 million bags at a price of US$0.156/bag (US$469,052 total), of which 33% was to be supplied by Gopinath Enterprises Ahmedabad. The remaining supply was yet to be determined. The managing director of JK Cement later allegedly approved the purchase of 4 million bags from Bihar Raffia at a rate of US$0.18/bag (US$720,000 total). The former supplier, Gopinath Enterprises, was asked to stop the supply.