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Otto Jung retires from Gebr. Pfeiffer
Written by Global Cement staff
27 June 2012
Germany: Dipl.-Ing. Otto Jung will retire from Gebr. Pfeiffer SE on 30 June 2012 after nearly 40 years with the company. Dr.-Ing. Robert Schnatz will take over Jung's technical responsibilities on the executive board.
Jung started his career as a development and project engineer. In 1988, he became head of the projects and sales department processing and then in 1996 he was appointed to the Executive Board of Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, a position he held for 16 years. During this time a number of innovateive new projects were launched for the cement industry.
Loesche supplies largest ever cement mill in Europe 27 June 2012
Turkey: Nuryol Çimento has decided to use Loesche GmbH as the supplier of all mills for its new 4000t/day cement plant project in Karasu, around 150km east of Istanbul. Loesche will supply mills for coal grinding, cement raw material grinding and clinker grinding. The complete project execution and coordination will be done by Sintek Mining Machinery Industry Construction, which is based in Ankara.
Loesche will supply one Loesche mill type LM 46.4 to grind cement raw material at a rate of 330t/hr to a fineness of 12% R90u and a Loesche mill type LM 28.2 D to grind coal. The design capacity of the coal mill is 30t/hr, to a fineness of 3% R90u.
For cement grinding Nuryol has purchased a Loesche mill type LM 63.3+3, including process filter and fan. The mill is designed to grind OPC cement with a capacity of 240t/hr to a fineness of 3800cm2/g according to Blaine. This Loesche mill represents the largest vertical roller mill for cement grinding in Turkey as well as in the whole of Europe. It will have a table diameter of 6.3m and will be driven by a motor with a rated capacity of 7200kW.
Loesche's innovative Compact Plant design for cement grinding plants was an important factor that Nuryol says led it to choose a Loesche vertical roller mill for cement grinding. Compact Plant design eliminates the need for a large and expensive mill building, leading to massive savings in the required plant plot, in cost for structural steelworks and civil works as well as in erection time.
MP opens new bagging plant at Lafarge site 27 June 2012
UK: MP for Rushcliffe and UK Government Cabinet member Ken Clarke has visited Lafarge Cement UK's Barnstone cement blending plant in Nottinghamshire to officially open a new state-of-the-art cement packer at the site. As well as significantly increasing the plant's output, the packer will also secure the future of some 60 local jobs and provide a boost to the local economy.
Supplying the local market with a range of 26 ready-to-use cements, Barnstone also exports specialist cements to 27 countries. Over recent years Lafarge has invested Euro8.5m at Barnstone, expanding production facilities, refurbishing offices and improving safety.
Clarke said, "I was very impressed by the professionalism of all (those that) I met at the plant. Lafarge should be congratulated for its most recent investment in the area and I'm proud the company has this site in my constituency."
The Barnstone plant manager Chris Stephens said, "While the (UK) construction industry currently faces real challenges, our new sophisticated packer will support new secured business and provide capacity and flexibility for future business."
Lafarge to axe a further 97 jobs at home 27 June 2012
France: On 22 June 2012 Lafarge announced that it expected to cut a further 97 jobs in France as part of a plan to merge its three French divisions, based around its different product lines, into one national unit to be headquartered in the Paris region.
The move came just a week after the cement maker unveiled plans to cut costs by Euro1.3bn and boost profits over the next four years as it seeks to cut its debt and regain an investment-grade rating. At the start of 2012 the group, which employs a total of 68,000 people around the globe, said that it would cut 460 jobs worldwide, including 90 in France, as part of corporate reshuffling.
Lafarge details expansion plan at Exshaw 27 June 2012
Canada: Lafarge Canada is planning to develop a community outreach plan as part of the plant expansion and modernisation project set to begin at its Exshaw plant in Alberta in the autumn of 2012. The Canadian unit of French cement giant Lafarge is looking to build a new kiln line on the western side of the current facility and intends to increase production by 60%. It will do this by replacing outdated technology at the 107-year-old cement facility.
The company submitted its development permit application at the start of June 2012 in order to begin constructing the necessary foundations to support the new equipment, including a five-stage preheater, precalciner tower and a new rotary kiln. The Alberta government has already given Lafarge permission to proceed with the project.
On 19 June 2012 Exshaw plant manager Heinze Knopfel said that the community outreach plan would address how Lafarge intends to keep residents informed and address the negative effects of constructing a large industrial plant could have on Bow Valley communities, specifically Exshaw.
"Over the next three years during the construction phase we anticipate that there is going to be additional traffic and extra contractors on site. We will be sharing regular updates with the community and will continue to respond as quickly as possible to complaints," said Knopfel. "Our neighbours are really important to us. We recognise it is a partnership. We meet regularly with the surrounding communities. We want to understand how they feel about their operations and what we can do to improve their life or lifestyle."
Lafarge expects that the construction will take approximately three years with the foundation work beginning in the autumn of 2012. Knopfel said that he expects that this first phase would not have a significant effect on traffic or noise as the number of contractors working on site would be low with only cement trucks and the drilling contractor coming to the site. Two cranes will also be working to move equipment stored on the project site.
Construction on the kiln line itself will likely begin in 2013 with the peak of activity seen in 2014. At that point, Knopfel said he expects there could be 200-350 contractors at the site. He added that the plant's expansion and modernisation project would also provide a good opportunity to improve traffic flows at the plant. Instead of having resource and product trucks enter the plant at the same point, which is what currently occurs, trucks will leave the plant through the current main entrance and enter through a new gate to the west of the plant.
"Instead of the entrance, which is a real bottleneck, we're going to streamline the flow of traffic, which we know will mitigate a lot of the concerns of the community," he said. The upgrade will also increase the amount of cement leaving the plant by rail.
Overall, Knopfel said that he expects the project to have a positive effect in the Bow Valley, environmentally, socially and economically. "I expect the plant expansion will provide tremendous benefits for the community."
Environmentally the standards will be raised beyond the new Alberta requirements. "We're consciously aware of where we are relocating equipment and we're trying to relocate the equipment as far away as possible from the community," Knopfel said. "(The new kiln) is going to be state of the art as far as technology is concerned. It is going to be the newest and the best technology on the market," he said.
The Municipal Planning Commission for the MD of Bighorn is scheduled to review Lafarge's municipal development permit application on 18 July 2012.