McInnis Cement breaks ground on US cement terminal
McInnis Cement officially broke ground at the new cement company's first US terminal in the Port of Providence. The overall cost of the project is expected to reach US$22m when completed by year-end. Construction will begin shortly on the existing ProvPort warehouse, which will be transformed into a world-class receiving and storing facility. McInnis Cement will also build a modern rail and truck station for loading purposes.
“We are proud to commence construction of our first terminal in the United States in the Port of Providence,” said Jim Braselton, senior vice president, marketing, sales and distribution for McInnis Cement. “Thanks to the partnerships we’ve developed with state and city officials, our high-quality product will be able to efficiently and dependably reach customers throughout New England - an area that currently and routinely in the past has had challenges with reliable supply.”
Port of Providence is a deep-water port provides access to large, ocean-going ships and the Providence terminal will serve the entire New England construction market, including the metropolitan areas of Providence and Boston as well as the rest of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
McInnis will deliver ships with payloads of over 30,000Mt to the Providence terminal from the company’s plant in Port-Daniel-Gascons, Canada. The terminal’s facility will have the capacity to load about 100 trucks and around 10 railcars per day with cement.
New ecologically-efficient cement carrier
McInnis Cement, has also announced plans to utilise a first-of-its-kind, ecologically-efficient, self-discharging dry-bulk cement carrier.
The 15,000dwt vessel will be time chartered by the company under a long-term agreement. The ship, which was built in 2011, is currently undergoing conversion in China to a cement carrier by its owner NovaAlgoma Cement Carriers Ltd. The conversion will include the installation of a state-of-the-art cement unloading system delivered by Van Aalst Marine & Offshore, as well as, a hybrid exhaust gas scrubber system capable of operating in both fresh and salt waters.
