Suez Cement diversifies fuel sources

Suez Cement, part of the Italcementi group, is working towards diversifying its fuel sources with coal to be used in one of its factories before year-end. 

The company will begin using coal next November at its factory in Suez, company CEO Omar Mehanna said. Two of its other factories in Tora and Helwan will start in two years,

"We will begin using coal to generate energy for cement production cement in our Katameya factory by the end of this month in order to produce 3Mta," he said.

Wind farm project
Meanwhile, Italgen, a subsidiary of global cement producer Italcementi Group, is in the process of acquiring the permits for the second phase for its wind energy park, Giuseppe De Beni, managing director of Italgen told Daily News Egypt.

In June 2013, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company signed a contract with Italgen to produce electricity from wind energy. The contract allowed Italgen to be the first private investor to enter the Egyptian National Grid, a wind energy park in the area of Gulf El-Zeit.

De Beni said the first phase of the project will be completed by the end of the year.

The investment in the project’s first phase amounts to 120-130m. It will equal an installed capacity of 120MW, and is expected to cover around 40 per cent of Suez Cement’s power needs. After the completion of the second phase, electrical energy is estimated to reach a capacity of 400MW.

"We could be in operation by 2017," De Beni said.