Cement News tagged: International
Sephaku Aganang works launches clinker production
Dangote subsidiary, Sephaku Cement (SepCem), launched clinker production at its integrated Aganang plant on 20 August 2014, the company confirmed in an operational update. This follows the announcement on 13 August 2014 on the completion of the hot commissioning of the plant. The first consignment from Sephaku's flagship works in Northwest Province, South Africa, will be delivered to the co...
Venezuela government to centralise cement plant administration
The Venezuelan government is currently looking at plans to unify the administration of the cement works owned by Corporación Socialista del Cemento (CSC). At present, while the cement works are subsidiaries of the CSC, they each have their own administration. CSC includes Venezolana de Cementos, Industria Venezolana de Cementos, Fábrica Nacional de Cementos and Cemento Andino. Three out of f...
Venezuela: state companies to restrict cement sales
Venezuela's state cement companies have started to regulate the sales of cement. Building companies can only buy cement from plants near their building sites. Due to the declining output, builders were buying the product wherever available, regardless of location. According to information supplied to the construction sector, Invecem will sell product to companies carrying out work in Arag...
Saudi imports 3.1Mt in past nine months
Saudi Arabia imported some 3.1Mt of cement in the past nine months valued at SAR750m, according to a financial report quoting data released by Customs Department. The rise is attributed to the increased pace of project implementation and heightened government spending on infrastructure, a source in the national committee of cement companies at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) told Al-Eqtis...
FLSmidth selected as supplier for Holcim (US) Ada modernisation
FLSmidth has been selected to supply the major equipment pieces needed as Holcim (US) looks to modernise its Ada, Oklahoma, plant. The modernisation of the pyroprocess is expected to deliver lower emissions of nearly all air pollutants while anticipating an increase in the plant’s capacity. The contract includes a dryer crusher, a single stage preheater with an ILC-calciner, a dedusting cy...
Vicem cement output rises 4.7% YoY
State-owned Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem), the country’s leading cement producer, produced 10.24Mt of cement in the first seven months of this year, rising 4.7 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Clinker output, however, fell one per cent YoY to 9.43Mt during the period. In July, Vicem’s cement output rose 7.8 per cent YoY to 1.54Mt, while the corporation’s clinker ou...
Lafarge Zambia considers review of headcount
Lafarge Zambia is considering reducing its workforce of 670 employees by around 30 per cent, according to a memorandum circulated by a group of unionised workers. A sales report from Lafarge dated 12 August 2014, Emmanuel Rigaux, CEO of Lafarge Zambia, stated: “The recent trend in our costs though is not favourable, partly as a result of negative currency impact. We must take action to conta...
Birla HomeTech mulls Kurnool plant project, India
Birla HomeTech are considering setting up a cement factory in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh (AP). N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of AP, assured Birla HomeTech officials during a recent visit to discuss the new plant that the state government would help the company with the resources. He added that the southeastern Indian state is rich in minerals and that the output from the ...
CRH returns to first-half pretax profit
CRH's first half turnover advanced by four per cent to EUR8,324m and the EBITDA improved by 27.2 per cent to EUR505m. The trading profit jumped from EUR41m to EUR171m and after a net interest charge 2.7 per cent higher at EUR150m, the pre-tax result went from a loss of EUR71m to a EUR61m profit. The net attributable result went from a EUR57m loss to a EUR46m profit. Net debt at the end of J...
Peru cement sales fall 3.9% in July
Cement dispatches in Peru reached 845,907t in July, representing a 3.9 per cent decline YoY, according to Asocem, the country's cement producers' association. In the year to date, the latest figures reflect a 0.11 per cent increase YoY while output in domestic cement plants edged up 0.66 per cent to nearly 6Mt. Exports in the first seven months were up 0.64 per cent, surpassing the 5.8Mt ...
Essroc's Nazareth plant earns Energy Star® certification
Essroc’s cement plant in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, has earned the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® certification which signifies that the facility performs in the top 25 per cent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meets strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA. “Essroc is pleased to accept EPA’s ENERGY STAR certification in recognition...
Iran exports surpass 6.6Mt in first four months
Iran exported approximately 6.62Mt of cement and clinker in the first four months of the current Iranian year (21 March - 22 July 2014), a cement industry official has said. "We have exported a sum of 6,620,958t of cement and clinker in the first four months of the current year," Secretary of Iran's Cement Industry Employers Guild Association Abdolreza Sheikhan said. Iran exported approxima...
Eurocement first-half shipments rise, Russia
In the first half of 2014, Eurocement Group shipped over 450,000t of PC 500-D0-N grade cement, 24 per cent higher than the previous year. PC 500-D0-N cement is actively being used in the construction of road projects and is seeing particularly strong demand in the Moscow market. Projects using this Portland cement type include the high-speed M-11 highway from Moscow to St Petersburg, the M-4...
Cemex Latam to build new cement works
Cemex Latam Holdings is to invest around US$340m in building an additional cement works in Colombia. The new plant will be built in the Antioquia department, which is enjoying good economic growth. The first phase will include a grinding centre and should be completed during the second quarter of next year. The second, and final, phase is scheduled for completion during the second half o...
US first-half shipments reach 39.5Mt – preliminary data
Total shipments of blended cement in the US and Puerto Rico including imports in the first six months of 2014 reached 39.5Mt, preliminary data from the US Geological survey shows. Total dispatches comprised 36.42Mt of domestically-produced volumes while imports accounted for 3.09Mt. Domestic shipments during June 2014 alone were 8.31Mt, of which 7.61Mt were supplied from US plants and 707,92...
Corporate restructuring at FLSmidth
FLSmidth has announced a number of organisational structure changes, as well as adjustments to the Group Executive Management. The new organisation will consist of the four divisions. The Material Handling and Mineral Processing divisions will be merged into a Minerals division. Cement and Customer Services will be maintained as separate divisions. A new Product Companies division will be cre...