Sephaku Cement experiences second kiln stoppage

South Africa’s Sephaku Cement has experienced a further kiln stoppage, unrelated to the previous event announced on 30 September 2021.

This second plant stoppage began on 16 October 2021 and is expected to finish on 26 October. The outage has been necessitated by the repair of kiln internals to prevent damage to major components. The kiln was inspected in previous maintenance stoppages and therefore, this damage was unexpected. However, a long-term solution to this issue has now been identified, according to the company.

Sephaku Cement had previously resumed production on 6 October 2021 following an unplanned plant outage in September. This stoppage had resulted from preheater refractory damage caused by a corrosive element in one of the raw materials. The raw material was subsequently replaced with an alternative.

The latest outage is expected to impact Sephaku Cement's sales volumes, while the full impact on performance is being assessed.