Dandot Cement completes Punjab plant upgrade

Muhammad Kamran, company secretary of Dandot Cement Co Ltd, has stated that commercial production is expected to resume in the first quarter of the next financial year upon completing Balancing the Modernisation of Replacements (BMR) of 504,000t capacity at the Jehlum cement plant in Punjab, Pakistan.  

A regulatory filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and the last financial report adds that to meet the legal standards and to avoid any adverse action from Environmental Department, the company has decided to close its operations during FY19-20 and move towards upgrading it through BMR. To achieve this, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Tianjin Cement Industry Design and Research Institute Company Ltd (TCDRI) from China. The revised total financial outlay of the BMR has been estimated at PKR6.21bn (US$21.58m), including US$14.92m for the import of new machinery and equipment.

Under the BMR programme, the following activities have been carried out so far:
• Approximately 95 per cent of the plant and machinery arrived at the factory premises. The remaining equipment will arrive at the port in April 2023.
• Major civil works have been completed and handed over to the mechanical erection contractor to execute the erection work.
• The mechanical erection works of raw material dosing, raw meal transport to silo, kiln feed, and pre-installation of raw coal bins have been completed.
• Erection works for limestone pre-blending, preheater, klin, clinker dust collection, and clinker cooler are underway.
• The contract for the steel structure fabrication has been awarded, and its completion stage is 50 per cent.
• A contract for refractory work has also been awarded. The contractor is fully mobilised and has started the refractory works.
• The local electric utility has accepted the application for electricity load enhancement, and the department official of the Planning Division visited the factory site for implementation.
• The rehabilitation and modification of the grid station are also in progress
• A 5MW solar power plant, construction activities comprising civil works and the installation of panels have been completed. Cable work is in progress
• The management has injected equity of PKR555m during the quarter (Jan-March 2023). The total equity investment to date by the administration for BMR is PKR2.972bn.
• Commercial production is expected to resume in the first quarter of the next financial year.

After the BMR, the company will attain production efficiencies for long-term financial viability with environmental compliance.