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Hima Cement completes bag filter upgrade 10 July 2013
Uganda: Hima Cement has completed the installation of new bag filter technology at its Kasese plant. The US$3.2m bag filter technology investment is geared towards bringing the stack emissions in line with the global environmental standards.
"We invested significant resources to conduct environmental impact assessments to ensure that the plant operations met all the required environmental standards for its manufacturing processes and operations," said Peter Robson, Hima Cement's Plant Manager.
Hima Ciment, part of Bamburi Cement that in turn is a subsidiary of Lafarge, expects the plant's target emissions to be below Lafarge's industrial targets. Further testing is expected to be completed by the end of July 2013. Project manager Jackson Molo added that Bamburi Cement achieved 0.01mg/m3 emissions with the same technology at a plant in Mombasa in 2012. The Kasese plant has a cement production capacity of 0.85Mt/yr.
UltraTech Cement plans US$415m plant in Tamil Nadu 10 July 2013
India: UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla Group, is working on environmental clearance for a new US$415m cement plant in Tamil Nadu, according to Indian media. The project will have a cement production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr, a clinker production capacity of 4.5Mt/yr, a 75MW captive power plant (with additional power from diesel generating sets of about 18MW) and a 15MW waste heat recovery facility.
The public hearing for the project was conducted in May 2013 as part of the environment impact assessment and management plan. The plant is intended to two have two production lines. The total project area is about 263 hectares with a plant area of about 86 hectares.
UltraTech is one of the largest cement producers in India with a total capacity of around 52Mt/yr.
Kenya: ARM Cement's pre-tax profits for the first half of 2013 have risen by 28% year-on-year to US$11.5m driven by a rise in cement sales, according to Reuters. The Kenyan cement producer has also forecast a strong performance for the second half of 2013.
CRH releases 2012 sustainability report 10 July 2013
Ireland: Irish building materials supplier CRH has shown continued improvements in most of its cement sustainability initiative key performance indicators in its 2012 sustainability report.
Of note, CRH improved its net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product by 5% to 637kg/t. Fuel substitution rose to 20.8% from 17.3%. The Lost Time Incident (LTI) rate per million man-hours for direct employees fell from 2.54 to 1.49. Particulates per specific g/t of clinker fell to 108 from 328.
However, CRH's emission for SOx per specific g/t of clinker rose to 304 from 204. CRH blamed this rise on an increased use of alternative fuels in some plants.
In his forward to the report chief executive office Myles Lee commented that CRH's Materials Division had substantially increased alternative fuel usage in its European cement operations in 2012 that softened cost inflation in energy-related inputs.
Azerbaijan: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has opened a cement production line at a new 1Mt/yr cement plant in Gazakh. The project is a joint investment between Akkord Industrial Construction Investment Corporation and the International Bank of Azerbaijan. Construction began at the plant in 2010.
Construction of the plant has been planned in two stages, starting with the commissioning of cement first followed by gypsum production. Construction work on the cement production line was completed in March 2013. The plant has a planned clinker production capacity of 2500t/day.