egc 2009-09 september nonsubs

gl bal cement MAGAZINE

globalcement .com

SEPTEMBER 2009

Global cement news German cement focus Boom town Baku Improving silo isolation Retrofi tting of ESPs Transport round-up

Even with a small

Loesche mill you have

a large turnover

Loesche mill

delivered to site pre-assembled.

Mill capacity from

5 t/h to 25 t/h.

titel_GlobalCement_08_11.indd 1 17.08.2009 11:53:41 Uhr

http://www.loesche.com

http://www.airsteaminc.ca

gl bal

This month’s front cover...Loesche has developed a special series of mills, tailored to the grinding of industrial minerals. The throughput ranges from 5t/h to 25t/h with product fi neness in the range of 1% R25μm to 1% R300μm. The mills of this series will be delivered pre-assembled or turn-key.

Mill parts normally with long with long delivery times are being held in stock. For all these mills, planning documenta-tion is available. For these reasons, such a grinding plant can be erected on site and commissioned promptly without any delay. For more information visitwww.loesche.com

ISSN: 1473-7940

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Forumgl balcementMAGAZINE www.globalcement .com

Dear Readers,

I hope you had a chance for a holiday during the summer (Northern Hemisphere) or winter (Southern Hemisphere). Now it’s back to work for everyone, or perhaps not everyone. We’ve been receiving news reports that redundancies are continuing in the cement industry around the world, as cement companies strive to cut costs yet further. Fift y jobs here, a hundred there: that is a lot of expertise that is being laid off , and it’s always the case the some of it won’t come back. Doubtless some of those workers will land jobs in other cement companies and in the service companies that will inevitably be brought in to do the work when the cement companies fi nd that they can’t do the work without the people during the next boom (2010 onwards?). But there will be people who are lost to the cement industry forever. Let’s hope that they go out into the wider world as ambassadors for our industry, and that they have good things to say about their bosses, their colleagues and the industry as a whole. It’s a good question – if you left the industry tomorrow (I hope you don’t!) would you recommend it to anyone else?

In this month’s issue we continue to examine the factors that are shaping our industry through these tough times. On page 8 Aumund looks at the current thinking behind modifi cations and upgrades of existing equipment in a cement plant. On page 15 Simatek looks at the possibility of retro-fi tting ESPs with bag-fi lters, with a number of new features that surpass the currently-available technology. On page 17 Larox explains how pinch valves can provide lower lifetime costs for silo isolation, while we also feature articles on the use of kiln CO2 emissions to grow algae (which can then be processed to provide fuel – and CO2 emissions credits), the WBCSD’s approach to emissions reduction in the cement industry (page 14) and the use of alternative raw materials in cementitious products (page 30). As well as all the latest global cement, lime, slag and alternative fuels news, we also feature country reports on Azerbaijan and on Germany.

Here at Global Cement we have been busy preparing for the autumn and for 2010. As well as the rescheduled conference in Iran (see below) and the Global Slag Conference in Brussels in November, a number of new events are scheduled for 2010, including Global Boards (concerning mainly cement-based boards), Global Cement Wear and Maintenance, Global Ash and the fi rst-ever Global Cement and Concrete Conference in Saudi Arabia. We are – as we all are – looking forward to the global economic recovery. Full details of these events are on page 6. Enjoy the issue.

Dr Robert McCaff reyEditor

Global Cement Magazine is printed on Forest Stewardship

Council (FSC) certifi ed papers by

Wyndeham Grange, a company

with ISO 14001:2004 environmental

accreditation.


globalcement .com

SEPTEMBER 2009

Global cement news German cement focus Boom town Baku Improving silo isolation Retrofitting of ESPs Transport round-up

Even with a small


a large turnover

Loesche mill


Mill capacity from

5 t/h to 25 t/h.

http://www.loesche.com

http://www.propubs.com/iran

TITAN PENNSUCO UPGRADEDan Crowley*, Fred Preis**, Peter Windmöller**, Titan Pennsuco,* AirStream Systems Inc.**

In 2003 Titan began the construction of a new 1.8Mt/y plant at Pennsuco, Florida. Soon after the contractor

delivered the main process fans, concerns arose about the fans’ light construction. Therefore, Titan invited AirStream Systems Inc to make a technical evaluation of the fans’ suitability for handling the highly abrasive dust that was a result of the raw materials native to the region.

The relationship between Titan and AirStream began more than ten years ago when four large process fans were successfully upgraded at Titan’s Roanoke Cement plant in Virginia. The project increased the fans’ wear life while reducing the plant’s power use by 1804kW.

At the Pennsuco site, AirStream ex-amined the raw mill, preheater and coal mill fans. The find-ings indicated that all fan rotors would need some improve-ments if they were to attain a reasonable life. In particular, the raw mill fan was identified as the most likely to need repairs

before completing the first year of op-eration. As shown in Figure 2, wear protec-tion was minimal and consisted of partial liners of ribbed plate. The gas velocity in the rotor inlets was extremely high and topped 13,000fpm.

Wear rates are proportional to the square of the dust velocity and as a re-sult, wear during the first year of operation (2004-2005) was severe. Uneven material loss often caused the fan vibration levels to rise above normal. Over the course of several repairs, the liners were changed to chromium carbide (CrC) and increased in size, and structural rein-forcements were added to the blades as recommended by AirStream. Nevertheless, the fan still required monthly weld repairs to manage the wear (Figure 3).

On site performance tests revealed that the fan speed was close to the maximum, although fan pressure was only at 82% of the design value. AirStream proposed a rotor upgrade that could restore full performance while

Raw mill fan upgrade at Titan Pennsuco Titan’s 6000hp raw mill fan was upgraded by AirStream in 2008. This joint paper describes how its improved design has provided a large efficiency increase and a greatly reduced wear rate, as well as reduced the need for heavy maintenance. As a result, the project also won the Global Fuels 2009 Most Innovative Technology for Electrical Energy Efficiency Award.

12 globalcement MAGAZINE September 2009

right): AirStream’s rotor

upgrade.

Figure 2 (top right):Original fan rotor in 2004.

The lack of sufficient wear

protection was a primary

factor in its failure.

Figure 3 (left): Repaired original fan

rotor in 2006. It is clear

from the image that there

was a significant wear

problem.

Figure 4 (left): The AirStream Rotor in

2009 after 10 months

of operation showed

virtually no wear.

TITAN PENNSUCO UPGRADE

reducing power use by 787kW.

Throughout 2006-2007, frequent repairs of the CrC surfaces continued. In late 2007, Titan contracted AirStream to deliver a turnkey upgrade project of the raw mill fan. The project was very economical, reus-ing all fan components

except the rotor and inlet cones, and needed only minor modifications to the fan housing. The installation took

place during Titan’s outage in early 2008 and the verifi-cation performance test was successfully completed in May 2008.

The new rotor has a diameter of 3.6, is wider and has larger inlet areas, resulting in much lower dust veloci-ties. All surfaces subject to wear are fully protected with liners.

In 2009, after 10 months of operation, the fan rotor was inspected by Titan and AirStream. Virtually no wear was evident (Figure 4). Titan concluded that: “This was an excellent investment for the company. We saved what we expected, and the maintenance people love the equipment as it does not need heavy maintenance!”



CONTENTSSubscribe Ad Index

Global technology & trends 6 Diary dates

8 Cement plant modifi cation

12 Raw mill fan upgrade at Titan Pennsuco

14 A sectoral approach to emissions reduction

15 Retrofi tting of electrostatic precipitators

20 Bulk fl ow enhancement with Martin Engineering

24 Bulk material transport round-up

Alternative fuels for cement 26 Using algae in cement kilns to reduce CO2

emission levels

29 Alternative fuels for cement news

Alternative raw materials for cement 30 Blending of would-be landfi ll materials turns out

greener cement-based products

33 Alternative raw materials for cement news

European cement 34 German cement focus

41 View from Brussels

42 European cement news

North & South American cement 48 North and South American cement news

Asian cement 51 Boom town Baku – funded by ‘black gold,’ built

with cement

55 Asian cement news

Middle Eastern and African cement 58 Global Cement Conference Iran preview

60 Middle Eastern and African cement news

63 Global cement prices

64 Subscription form

65 The Last Word

66 Advertisers index

1212BULK FLOW ENHANCEMENT

Above: The world’s third

largest city, Istanbul.

Right: Big Blaster® XHV

Air Cannons with Tornado

Exhaust Valves were

installed to improve flow

and reduce blockages in

the preheater at Aslan

Çimento, near Istanbul.

Right: The battery of

air cannons installed

on the preheater at the

Aslan Çimento plant were

installed by technicians

from Martin Engineering

Turkey.


Martin Engineering

To supply the needs of Istanbul, the world’s third larg-est city, the Aslan Çimento plant produces 3700t of

clinker per day from one line. Located about 60km (37 miles) southwest of the city centre in Darica Kocaeli, the facility is Turkey’s oldest cement plant.

But operations in the plant were not as smooth as hoped, jeopardising its output. The air cannons installed on the preheater were not work-ing properly, leaving material buildups that required manual cleaning for at least two hours every shift, as well as a monthly slowdown for a major cleaning.

The plant – which was then a business unit of Lafarge and now part of the Oyak Cement Group – agreed to a trial of one of Mar-tin Engineering’s Big Blaster® Air Cannon with Tornado Ex-haust Valves, to compare with the performance of the installed air cannons. After the trial, the plant’s production manager was impressed; he requested that Martin Engineering air cannon experts provide a detailed pre-heater survey looking for ways to improve performance.

On 28 February 2008, the survey was completed, and a proposal was made to upgrade the air cannons on the lower portion of the preheater tower with Martin En-gineering air cannons with a tentative installation date in mid-April. Yet only one day later, on 29 February

2009, officials from the plant called Martin Engineering Turkey’s office in Istanbul, explaining that the plant had to shut down its kiln due to refractory problems. The plant hoped to use the eight-day outage to install the ad-ditional air cannons immediately.

Martin Engineering Turkey rose to the challenge, delivering 31 high temperature nozzles, 20 air cannons

and a variety of airline compo-nents and control systems to the plant within three working days. On the third day (5 March 2009) two Martin Engineer-ing Service technicians arrived at the Lafarge site to begin the installation.

The Martin Engineering technicians worked through the night; until the following Monday (March 10) and never left the Lafarge kiln site. During this time, they supervised the installation of the air cannon systems, and helped to program the firing sequences for the new air cannons. In addition, they were able to supervise the instal-lation of 10 new belt cleaners on the plant’s belt conveyors.

The Aslan plant started its kiln on 9 March 2009, right on

schedule. The plant was able to use all 31 air cannons on 14 March 2009, as the kiln was back in full production.

In a follow-up visit, the plant identified an additional problem with material blockages at the feed shelf. A

Martin Engineering Turkey helps Aslan Cimento meet outage scheduleUnreliable equipment in a cement plant is not only costly in terms of repairs but also in the amount of time needed for experts to fix the problem in hand. This article from Martin Engineering explains how the expertise of its Turkish operation enabled Aslan Çimento to resume production of its 3700t/d facility on schedule after an eight-day outage, helping it to get back on-line and supply Turkey’s construction industry with the materials it needed.

Right:The battery of air

canons.

Right: Martin Engineer-

ing’s Big Blaster.

Above: The Aslan Cement

Plant in Darica Kocaeli,

near Istanbul is now part

of the Oyak Cement

Group, Turkey’s largest

cement producer.

competitor’s existing air cannon in the upper portion of the preheater was not working, allowing the kiln inlet to become almost completely blocked. Within three hours, Martin Engineering Turkey was able to clear the blockage with the combination of a Martin Engineering air cannon and some manual cleaning.

Officials at Aslan Çimento expressed gratitude to Martin En-gineering Turkey, as they had not expected that any company would be able complete this project in such a short period. Martin Engineering Turkey completed delivery and instal-lation on short notice, to fit the outage schedule and meet customer needs.

Since the completion of the installation in 2008, no manual cleaning has been needed in the lower part of the preheater. Aslan plant personnel provided positive references to another Lafarge plant in Turkey, where ad-ditional air cannon systems have now been installed.

More recently, the Aslan plant has installed four ad-ditional Big Blaster Air Cannons. Two air cannons were placed in the clinker cooler, to improve the control of ‘snowmen’ – buildups of material in the cooler. The sec-ond two were installed at the kiln inlet.

In May 2009, Lafarge sold many of its cement, con-crete, and aggregate operations in Turkey – including the plant in Darica Kocaeli – to the Oyak Cement Group, the leading producer of cement in Turkey.

BULK FLOW ENHANCEMENT


TRANSPORT

Right: PPC’s trademark

elephant ‘breaking

through’ the side of

the tanker creates a

striking and memorable

brand identity for the

South African cement

manufacturer.

Left: Spitzer has a

worldwide reputation

for manufacturing bulk

material tankers that

meet the needs of each

individual client. On the

left are a range of tankers

that have been produced

for Goradze Cement,

Maxit and Holcim, as well

as it’s Spitzer’s own brand,

Spitzer-SK.


Editorial staff, Global Cement Magazine

As global economies begin to recover after one of the worst financial meltdowns in history, it is becom-

ing increasingly important for companies in a range of industries to gain competitive advantages. In the field of bulk cement transport, companies such as Pretoria Port-land Cement and Spitzer are using innovative branding campaigns and increasingly advanced technological solutions in order to stay one step ahead of the competi-tion.

Pretoria Portland Cement South Africa’s first 3-D branded cement tank-ers have been launched nationally by leading cement company, Pre-toria Portland Cement (PPC). The tankers showcase PPC’s inno-vation and brings its well-known elephant icon to life in a fresh way on a new medium.

“PPC’s elephant icon is the core of our logo, symbolising PPC Ce-ment’s strength, great stature and dependability, with its powerful associa-tions of wisdom, maturity, family-orientation, caring and loyalty,” says Sibongile Mooko, PPC’s marketing services manager. Jonathan Stacey of Hirt & Carter, a creative agency and production house that worked on the concept, said that the objective is to make use of the enormous fleet of tankers to communicate the brand in a creative way while still reflecting the core values of

strength and reliability.PPC’s new 3-D branded tankers tie in with the

‘Kambuku’, value-based management philosophy that the company adopted in 1998, which emphasises its people as integral to the success of everything it does, and through PPC’s ongoing commitment to uplifting the communities in which it operates.

“‘Kambuku’ is derived from a Tsonga word mean-ing ‘great tusker’ – referring to an elephant bull, whose characteristics of tenacity and loyalty encapsulate PPC’s value-based management philosophy,” adds Mooko.

The new 3-D tanker branding ensures a new visual impact for one of South Africa’s most-recognised and trusted brands and has been seen on South Africa’s roads since 20 July 2009.

SpitzerSpitzer has a global reputation for sup-plying tankers with state-of-the-art technology and long life times, especially dry bulk tankers for the transportation of pulverised and granulated materials.

Spitzer, which was founded in 1872, was the first manufacturer and pioneer in the pro-duction of aluminium vessels for dry bulk tankers. In 1950, the first dry bulk tanker for the transportation for cement and soda was designed and produced, and at the end of the 1960s Spitzer concentrated on the

design and production of road tankers. Since then numerous patents have been registered.

The overall area of the Spitzer group of companies is approximately 780,000m2 and all of its existing pro-duction facilities are being extended continuously. The group of companies consists of more than 700 employ-ees and approximately 1500 road tankers are produced

Bulk material transport Despite construction sites around the world beginning to empty on the back of housing markets collapsing and the lowering demand for cement, efficiency and reliability are of paramount importance to bulk transport firms whilst maintaining good relationships with their customers. This article focuses on two firms which are innovating their way out of the global recession.

yearly. Spitzer operates worldwide through numerous daughter companies, agents, and licensees.

According to the company, “Each and every order for Spitzer dry bulk tankers is discussed and clarified in close co-operation with the customers and the road tankers are produced individually in conformity with the customer’s requirements. Such a close co-operation guarantees the design and production of products with highest possible quality and long life time, as well as high payload and low tare weight.”

In 2006, Spitzer presented the latest new design of a plastic vessel with a volume of approximately 60m3 made from reinforced carbon fibre. Ten of these dry bulk tankers are presently being operated in Europe for testing purposes.

Spitzer’s delivery programmeNon tipping semi-trailers with a volume of 25–64m3;Tipping-type semi-trailers with a volume of 40–89m3;Full trailers with a volume of 18–33m3;Truck mounted vessels with a volume of 16–35m3;BDF and Spitzers interchangeable systems;ADR semi-trailers with a volume of 38–66m3;Vacuum semi-trailers with a volume of 40 and 59m3;Tipping container chassis;Pressure containers;Special designs according to individual customer requirements.


TRANSPORT

GERMAN CEMENT INDUSTRY

The German cement industry is facing tough times as the global recession undermines national demand as well as export prospects. The crisis comes at the end of a decade-long slump in demand after the post-Unification boom came to an end. Continued capacity rationalisation is bringing the industry closer to the level required by demand, but further factory closures cannot yet be ruled out. The industry’s multinational figureheads have been hobbled with huge debts after buying capacity at the top of the market, and are now struggling to survive.


German cement industry faces tough times despite end of recession

The German cement industry is going through a very tough time at the moment - there are no two

ways about it - although the first signs of a tentative recovery can now be detected.

Thanks to state aid and infrastructure spending programmes, the German cement industry expects business to be stable in 2009. Cement demand is ex-pected to be similar to the 27.3Mt of 2008. Had there been no economic programme, sales would have been expected to fall 3-4% further, even after the already steep drops seen through 2008. The impetus that pub-lic spending programmes will provide will translate into demand of 1.5Mt in 2009 and up to 2Mt in 2010.

Current status of the industryAccording to the BDZ, the Federal Association of the German Cement Industry, “The continuing drop in residential construction in Germany is being clearly reflected in the most recent trends in cement usage. The erection of detached and semi-detached family homes as well as apartment blocks has become the most significant area of cement consumption decline. In both 2007 and 2008, non-residential construction took the lead. The domestic cement consumption for residential construction dropped significantly from 33% of the total in 2006 to 25.4% in 2007 only to fall further in 2008 to around 23%. The largest sector for the consumption of cement was non-residential con-struction which, at 39.4% in 2007 and even 41.4% in 2008, was larger than the underground-works sector for the first time in at least a decade. This segment, at

around 35%, has remained largely stable since 1998. The tendency of many companies to shy away from investing as a result of the current financial crisis and its consequences should – as initial data from the end of 2008 and early 2009 show – lessen this effect further in favour of non-residential construction. What is pos-sible, at least in the short-term, is a notable increase in the importance of underground-works, which will be revitalised not least due to the federal government’s economic programme.”

“Of the total cement consumption in 2008 (27.3Mt) 15.1Mt of cement was used for production of ready-mixed concrete, (compared to 12.3Mt the previous year) and building-site concrete (2.8Mt). Around a third (8.4Mt) went to pre-cast concrete elements and 5.1% (2.4Mt) was utilised for production of mortar, rendering plaster, screed and building chemical prod-ucts. The rest (0.8Mt) was employed for various areas of application such as sprayed concrete, floor founda-tions, mining products and cement injections.”

Although Federal stimulus packages may offer some hope for the industry, the cement sector has other wor-ries - this time of its own making. In July 2009 a court in Düsseldorf decreased a fine previously imposed on the largest German cement producers for price-fixing, from Euro661m to Euro329m. The original size of the fine had been specified by the Federal Cartel Office in 2003. The cut resulted from efforts made by the com-panies to fill in ‘information gaps’ that existed before. HeidelbergCement (HC) now has to pay a whopping Euro170m fine, Schwenk Euro70m, Dyckerhoff Eu-

Dr Robert McCaffrey Global Cement Magazine

Above: Lafarge’s colourful

Wössingen plant, lit-up for

the commissioning celebra-

tions (see page 36).



ro50m, Lafarge Euro24m and Holcim Euro14.6m. As well as being hit with the largest fine, HC has some other matters to worry about.

HeidelbergCement toughs it outHeidelbergCement is at the painful end of a number of sharp blows from the lead-lined boxing glove of ill-for-tune. At the core of its misfortune is the fact that it is a cement company with much of its production capacity in the previously-mature and now-declining German and wider European area. Secondly, it had burdened it-self with large debts after taking advantage of the Asian Crisis to buy-up assets ‘on the cheap.’ Thirdly, it spent Euro11.2bn to buy Hanson (another company with the bulk of its assets in mature markets) at the top of the market in 2007. With the rug pulled from under its feet during the Credit Crisis (its debt has been rated as ‘junk’ for years) and revenues faltering, the major shareholder and controller of the company, Adolf Merckle, tragically took his own life in January 2009. Adolf named his son Ludwig as the sole heir of his businesses in his last will, including include firms Ratiopharm, Kässbohrer, Phoe-nix and VEM Group, some of which are now up for sale. Ludwig has reduced the family’s shareholding in HC to 72.4% from 80%, and continues to fight for the compa-ny’s survival. However, it is a tough fight.

At the end of August, Schwenk Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG sold its final shares in HeidelbergCement. Sch-wenk has been a business partner of HeidelbergCement for about 100 years, and has been a major shareholder for a long time. The Schwenk family sold its last 2.4 million shares for Euro83m, having already sold stakes totalling over 3.3m shares, and despite being relatives with the other major shareholders, the Merckle family.

Prudent move or fire sale?In order to find the cash to get through this difficult pe-riod, the company has had to look at all options - even those that are unpalatable. HC has announced plans to sell all non-core assets to raise cash and pay down debt.

HeidelbergCement is in the ‘early stages’ of selling non-core operations at its Hanson UK businesses. Ac-cording to David Weeks at Hanson UK, “It’s a long-term strategy. It may make more sense to hang onto them for another couple of years. The UK brick market has fallen by nearly 50%.” The bulk of Hanson UK Building Products operations, which makes up around 20% of turnover and includes its brick unit, will be sold. According to local reports, Cementir Holding SpA has ex-pressed an interest in acquiring the assets. However, Hanson’s aggregates, cement and concrete businesses will not be sold, after being identified as core areas by the parent company in May 2009.

Private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC, CVC Capital Partners Ltd. and 3i Group PLC have shown interest in buying HC’s Malaysian assets, according to sources close to the deal, assets with a value of

Recent cement industry projects

Spenner ZementIn cooperation with the parent company Tran-sorga Cement AG in Zürich, Intercem was granted the contract to convert a grinding plant in Erwitte for Spenner Cement. For the team from Oelde in Münsterland, this was the break-through in Germany. In the past few years the consolidated Intercem/Transorga companies have succeeded in achieving an international reputation through work such as the conversion of a cement kiln for the Sharjah Cement Factory in Dubai. Less well known, by contrast, is the fact that Intercem has, in the meantime, planned 13 grinding facilities and supplied the major portion as semi-turnkey projects.

The Spenner project was also offered as a semi-turnkey project. The electrical equipment was provided by the operator, Spenner. The project comprises conversion of a centre dis-charge mill with drying chamber for raw mix into a two-chamber mill with final discharge for granulated clinker. The existing mill has a diameter of 3.2m and is 9.75m long. The new components supplied include a third generation diaphragm, the complete filter equipment, a fluidised bed drier and the required dust extrac-tion lines in the present mill building. Transport equipment for the finished material to the three present silos as well as connection of a new hot gas line to the present clinker cooler is included in the scope of delivery. The total capacity of the mill is 30t/hour of granulated clinker, with a fineness of 3000 Blaine.

The affiliate company, Intercem Installation GmbH, was granted the contract for complete disassembly of all present old equipment in the mill building as well as complete installation of all system components to be supplied including the required steel construction.

Intercem distinguished itself particularly through use of a 3-D scanner system and its

Right: A Sehring ready-mixed

concrete truck delivering a

fresh load to a large construc-

tion site in Frankfurt.

Robin Ackroyd

Apartment and office blocks rise daily from dusty, traffic clogged streets; labourers perch precariously

on springy wooden scaffolding, rattling in the wind, and the air is tarry with the scent of oil. In the near distance, Soviet-era nodding-donkeys pump ‘black gold’ from on-shore oil fields; in the relative shallows rusting rigs dot the Caspian Sea, and a helicopter flight away oil plat-forms exploit vast reserves in far deeper waters.

This is Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, reaping huge revenues from oil and gas under the Caspian, the world’s largest inland body of water. Its capital, Baku, is known as the City of Winds, with ferocious gusts spo-radically bowling dust along its leafy central avenues and sprawling suburbs, but Baku is famous for one thing above all else – oil.

More than 1% of the world’s oil now comes from Azerbaijan. It is pumped to the west along the 1768km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline connecting the capital to the Mediterranean Sea via Georgia and Turkey after the country signed the ‘deal of the century’ with a BP-led consortium to harvest the offshore wealth of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field in the Caspian. The country has seen double-digit GDP growth since 2003 (10.8% in 2008), making it one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Baku has seen an oil boom before – its population was just 5000 a little over 100 years ago – and the mag-nificent mansion blocks from the time of the Nobels and Rothchilds still stand, if encroached and dwarfed by high-rise buildings – some gleaming, some with ques-tionable urban planning and structural safety. Baku’s population has risen three-fold to 3million in little over a decade, and with that expansion has come rapid mod-ern construction, and the need, of course, for cement.

Fighting the downturnThe global economic downturn, and the fluctuating price of oil, has naturally slowed construction projects in the

capital and economic growth is predicted to decelerate this year, albeit from a high rate. The credit expansion has come to a halt. One investor’s service, Moody’s, said in June 2009 that the slowdown, coupled with funding constraints, is likely to adversely affect the asset quality and liquidity of Azerbaijani banks and ultimately their capitalisation.

However, private housing projects and major State building schemes are still in the pipeline in this country where the government is keen to expand the non-oil sector. Domestic production of cement has consistently been shy of demand and the country has been reliant on imports from Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.

The majority stakeholder in Azerbaijan’s leading cement works, Garadagh Cement, is the Swiss giant Holcim. Garadagh currently produces 1.3Mt of cement a year – 40% of the market consumption in Azerbaijan (which stood at 3.2Mt in 2007) but more than six-times the plant’s output of just 170,000t in 1999. Clinker pro-duction capacity has similarly risen from 120,000t/y to 790,000t/y.

The company predicts that the country’s demand for cement could, in spite of the economic downturn, still be heading for more than 4Mt by 2011. Production capacity, with four wet kilns based on 1940s technology, has however reached its limits. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to invest some Euro170m to expand Garadagh’s capacity by 30%, with the introduction of a new dry kiln proc-ess. The total capital investment for the project is an estimated Euro300m.

The director of the EBRD business group for south-ern and eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Oliver Descamps, said earlier this year: “Investing in one of the largest cement plants in the Commonwealth of Independent States is an important signal for the diversification of the economy.” It is a message in line with the Azerbaijan government’s thinking – the non-oil

Boom town Baku – funded by ‘black gold,’ built with cementRobin Ackroyd reports from Azerbaijan’s capital on a remarkable construction boom, now slowing in the economic downturn, and the expansion and upgrading of the country’s only cement and clinker manufacturing plant. As construction booms go, it has been nothing short of staggering.


BOOM TOWN BAKU BOOM TOWN BAKU

sector has to further develop to diversify the economy, according to ministers.

The EBRD holds a 10% stake in Garadagh, after investing US$10m in 2007 to finance an environmen-tal and efficiency upgrade designed to reduce dust emissions in line with European Union standards. The Azerbaijan Investment Company also holds a 10% stake in the company; private shareholders own 10.6%, and Holcim 69.4%. Holcim is the country’s biggest direct foreign investor outside the oil and gas sector.

Holcim entered Azerbaijan in 1999 with its successful tender for the for-merly State-owned Garadagh, 34km south west of Baku on the Salyan high-way near Sahil, the apartment-block settlement where most of the 550 work-ers live. The office workers tend to travel in from the capital. ‘Sahil’ means ‘shore’ in Azeri, and the cement plant is a kilometre from the edge of the Caspian, set amidst unprepossessing semi-arid scrub.

Peter Gysel, external communica-tions director of Holcim, explained: “Holcim had a vision that it would expand into eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at a time when we had perestroika, and Holcim went in fairly aggressively. It had a very ad-vanced strategic vision. Holcim went in full swing – there were a lot of privatisations, and one of them was in Azerbaijan.”

Cost reductions and environmental benefits through plant modernisationHolcim’s initial acquisition of 86% of the share capital of Garadagh Cement was tied to contractual investments and social obligations totalling US$23m over five years, all of which were fulfilled. Electrostatic precipitators reduced kiln dust and emissions, new bag filters were installed, and more efficient material and energy management led a drop in CO2 emissions from 770kg/t of cement to 645kg/t.

An environmental side benefit has been the use of ‘produced water’ from BP’s nearby oil terminal at San-gachal in the cement production process. Produced water – that separated from oil – has to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, a challenge for BP. The oil giant relied on a combination of storage and trans-porting tanker loads of water to Garadagh in an effort to dispose of up to 80,000 barrels a day at peak production, while plans were set in motion to process it and re-inject it deep into the Azeri offshore reservoir through a sub-sea pipeline. At one point, 60t of produced water a day was being delivered from Sangachal to be used in slurry for the cement process.

Peter Gysel says: “As a global company, one thing that Holcim is interested in is waste disposal. It solves two issues: it saves fuel and of course it gets rid of waste, and so we are interested in using that (oil industry) waste.” Furthermore, on the environmental front, a programme of planting 1000 trees a year around the Garadagh site has been in place since 2003.

Further modernisation of Garadagh’s 52-hectare (520,000m2) site is set to increase cement production

to 1.7Mt/y. Clinker production capacity will rise from 2616t/d to 4000t/d, and significant energy savings will be reaped through the use of dry technology.

Garadagh currently uses four wet process kilns, each four metres by 160m, fired with gas from the Caspian Sea. The equipment uses a simple cooling system and dates from 1951, but gradual upgrades have seen each kiln fitted with a Siemens gas analyser to control CO2 levels, and a gas station to regulate the pressure of the gas going into each kiln.

Two slurry basins run 24 hours a day and pump directly to the kilns. An on-site laboratory checks the moisture content, set at 34.5% for the wet process,

and also calibrates quarry material. Limestone waste after stone cut-ting comes by rail from the plant’s own nearby quarry. In Soviet times, quarry stone was crushed at the plant, but now there is a crusher in the quarry.

The clinker, heated to 450-500°C, also relied on a transporter from the Soviet era until recently, but this was upgraded in 2007 to a modern clinker transporter by Aumund. Garadagh is the only clinker producer in Az-erbaijan, but has to import upwards of 150,000t/y from another Holcim plant at Volsk, in Russia, to maximise

cement output. Five grab cranes, each with a 10t capacity, work in the clinker storage area. Ga-radagh has two modern grinding mills. Grinding media comes from Magotteaux in Belgium, when previously it was bought from Russia, Ukraine or local companies.

In 2007, new substation equipment from Siemens to control compressors and feeders was installed at a cost of US$1.5m. Garadagh uses three Schenck feeders for limestone, clay and iron, balanced at 75%, 20% and 5% respectively. Eight cement mills, each with 25t/h capac-ity, were installed in 2003. Around 90% of the dust is currently pumped back to the kilns, and the remainder is sold to companies for use in asphalt.

The plant has 18 cement silos, each with a 2000t capacity, and uses three bagging lines from Haver & Boecker for 56% of its cement, the remainder of which is sold in bulk. Third party companies deliver 89% of the product to customers, and the rest is collected from the site. Garadagh achieved sales worth Euro110m in 2007.

Right: Construction

workers at a building site

in the north of Azerbaijan.

Right: Workers beside

the wet process kilns that

are to be replaced by dry

kilns as part of Garadagh

cement’s improvement

plans.


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SubscribeContents Ad IndexCEMENT PLANT MODIFICATIONSebastian Maerz, Aumund

Plants are not static. Changing market conditions, diff erent product types, changes to the production

process and strategic decisions lead to the permanent need to adopt a plant’s production process to current demands.

One of the most signifi cant changes to a plant is when the overall output is increased by means of either install-ing a further kiln line or through an improvement to the installed kiln(s) (See Stage 1 in Figure 1). Th is, of course, requires a readjustment of all related processes before and aft er the kiln in order to match the new output rate. However, this does not necessarily mean that one has to spend signifi cant amounts of capital on new equipment. Th e capacity of existing conveyors and storage facilities can be increased or modifi ed in order to accommodate the increased kiln output or even support a further kiln line. A bucket elevator can also be extended in order to feed a pre-heater with an additional cyclone stage.

Even without an output increase of the plant it may possible that, due to changed product specifi cations, the composition of raw materials and additives (Stages 2, 3 in Figure 1) needs to be modifi ed or even completely changed, leading to higher quantities of certain materials or a demand for materials with diff erent specifi cations. Th e same applies to a change in the type of secondary fuels used, when the amounts or specifi cations for them are subject to changed needs (Stage 4 in Figure 1). Again, by means of a conversion, the conveying lines and stor-age facilities can be adapted to changing requirements.

Minor process alterations may also lead to new requirements for the installed equipment, such as an unavoidable increase of material temperature that turns a once well running belt bucket elevator into a unsuit-able installation.

Finally, strategic decisions, such as additional clinker intake from or other plants or delivery to alternative lo-cations (Stage 5, Figure 1), the installation of a new silo or the rearrangement of a storage hall with a pivoting pan conveyor will lead to the need for modifi ed material handling and conveying equipment. Th is could include modifi cations such as increasing the length of a plant’s conveyors to reach a diff erent discharge point, or split-ting one pan conveyor into two connected ones in order to create a further discharge point to feed an additional line in between the initial start and end locations.

Further situations, such as changes in legal condi-tions, environmental requirements, or having to alter the amount of time certain plant processes are in operation are all factors that can change equipment requirements. Th e list of contributing factors is endless!

Cost effi ciencyAn older plant in particular may fi nd itself in a situation in which it has to acquire spare parts for one of its con-veyors, but the supplier which initially sold this piece of equipment may no longer operating in the market. Th is can be overcome by converting existing equipment to meet new standards, allowing the introduction of up-to-date components.

However, even if the required spare parts are still available, it may turn out that due to further develop-ment, a conversion will off er a signifi cant price advantage compared to investing in older technologies.

Over the last few years, the dedicated department for conversion and modifi cation of Aumund Fördertechnik has conducted hundreds of conversions, half of which have been carried out on competitors’ equipment. Th e main reason for these conversions and modifi cations

Modifi cation and upgrade of existing Modifi cation and upgrade of existing equipment in a cement plantequipment in a cement plantBroadly speaking, conversions of conveying equipment are carried out from a need or motivation for anything from a capacity increase, the need to upgrade equipment or adapt to a shortage of spare parts, as well as working within availability constraints of necessary equipment. Aumund’s Sebastian Maerz describes in this article that while capacity increases, geometric adaptations and technology updates are a result of changed process conditions in the plant, an improvement of spare part shortages and the equipment availability are driven by cost effi ciency considerations.


CEMENT PLANT MODIFICATION

has been due to operational reliability. Since the convey-ing equipment is the plant’s link between various process stages, it has a signifi cant infl uence on the overall plant output and therefore on the overall plant performance. Almost every plant operator can surely imagine the im-pact of a conveyor that simply does not fulfi l its function, be it due to poor quality of components or improper de-sign with regards to the required process specifi cations.

Conversions do off er a chance to resolve such problems through the introduction of high quality com-ponents and/or redesign of the equipment in order to match the conveyor to the actual needs.

Conversion advantagesNow that we have seen in which situations a conversion can assist in the improvement of plant performance and the ways in which it can be a viable addition to any change in project requirements, it makes sense to have a closer look at the six advantages a conversion can deliver – reduced investment, less dis- and reassembly, higher availability, updated safety standards, state-of-the-art technology and reduced operational costs.

Reduced investmentAlthough sourcing decisions should be based upon a total cost of ownership analysis, the issue of whether to directly invest in a conversion (and if so, how much) is the most time consuming aspect for a management team to consider when carrying out a conversion. Since achieving the maximum possible effi ciency while uti-lising a minimum number of new components is the maxim for all conversions, these projects generate a general cost advantage compared to the investment into new equipment by keeping as many original parts as possible.

Let us take chain bucket elevators as an example to explain and prove the cost advantage compared to purchasing new equipment. Th e analysis starts with splitting up the cost structure of this equipment covering two diff erent extremes of design: a small elevator with a centre distance of 10m at a capacity of 50t/h and on the opposite, a centre distance of 75m at a capacity of 400 t/h. Th e costs in this case are related to the subassem-blies’ steelwork (head, casing and boot), drive shaft , drive unit, tension station and fi nally chain and bucket.

Furthermore, when converting bucket elevators, at least the steelwork is kept when introducing new components, therefore the saved costs related to this subassembly can be considered as the minimum savings potential.

Figure 2 illustrates the proportion of the cost for the afore mentioned components relative to the total pur-chase price for a corresponding new elevator (100%) for the two design parameters. Th erefore, all chain bucket elevators with specifi cations between 10-75m and 50–400t/h will have a cost split similar to that shown in Figure 2. Depending on each individual case, the amount saved can be further increased by reusing the existing motor, gearbox, shaft , bearings and other components, provided that they are suffi cient for the future use of the equipment.

Although exact fi gures may slightly change depend-ing on the nature of local manufacturing and the related costs in varying countries, it is evident that conversions can generate signifi cant cost advantages. Th e given

Figure 1 (left): Diagram

of a cement plant site

in which savings can be

made at various stages

(1-5).

Figure 2 (left): This

fi gure illustrates the cost

portion of the mentioned

components relative to

the total purchase price

for a corresponding new

elevator (100%) for the

two design parameters

taken as a basis.

Figure 3 (left): An

indication of further

factors to be considered

when searching for

potential savings:


CEMENT PLANT MODIFICATION

example can easily be transferred to other product types, such as pan conveyors, stackers and reclaimers, through chain conveyors, bucket apron conveyors and heavy apron feeders where components like the existing steel- or framework and, depending on the specifi c case, a certain amount of internal parts can be kept.

Dis- and reassemblyBesides the enormous cost advantages, conversions allow for much shorter commissioning time frames, due to the simple fact that fewer components have to be introduced. Naturally, this provides a further sav-ing, since less work needed leads to less spending for such projects. In addition, it may transpire that this is the only valid solution for a plant if it is forced to realise its altered project within the scheduled and available downtime.

Higher availabilityWhenever a plant suff ers from poor availability of a conveying line, caused either by changed process speci-fi cations – which lead to a situation in which the existing conveyor is no longer suitable for the current applica-tion – or caused by poor quality of the initially supplied parts, the conversion to a suitable design and/or higher quality, and therefore more reliable components, is in-valuable for the performance of the aff ected plant.

Updated safety standardsOverfi lled conveyors as a result of increased capacity demand without proper modifi cation and upgrade of ex-isting equipment always bear the risk of failure. A further risk of chain breakage and the consequent high prob-ability of work related accidents and diminishing health and safety standards can be avoided by utilis-ing conversions.

State-of-the art technologyBack in the 1970s, a slow-running double strand round link chain elevator was an up-to-date solu-tion for vertical transport, but nowadays the central chain has proven its benefi ts. Th ese include the utilisation of segmented drive rings, larger and cap-sulated bearing surfaces, four-point contact between the chain and drive ring to lower contact pressure and to increase velocity to allow for larger capacities within the same casing dimensions.

Lower operational costsTh e operational cost benefi ts achieved through con-versions is an issue that also includes the previously mentioned increase of availability and the implemen-tation of state-of-the-art technology. However, it also includes many other factors.

Th e operational costs are determined by the amount of maintenance required, the frequency of maintenance, the price of spare parts and above all, by the lifetime of

the components plus costs that occur due to production losses caused by either unplanned stops or – even worse – by complete failures. Th e entire range of possibilities to reduce operational costs cannot be summarised, therefore a cou-ple of examples are described below:

In one plant improvement, the installation of a segmented drive ring made maintenance work much easier. Th e previous design, which had fi xed drive wheels, always required a complete disassembly of the whole drive shaft when maintenance work needed to be

carried out.Figures 5a and 5b are pictures taken from a recently

conducted conversion in Turkey. Th e customer expe-rienced continous breakdowns on the plant’s clinker transport equipment behind the cooler, which were mainly caused by improper designs in combination with poor quality components.

ConclusionAs has been described in this article, the possibilities for conversions are numerous and the benefi ts are signifi -cant. Due to the large variety of the potential projects it is impossible to describe them all in their entirety. Th e intent of this paper has been rather to provide a gen-eral overview of the market potential for conversions.

Th e intent of the paper has also been to make it clear that conversions are a valuable addition for realising necessary plant adjustments and improving overall effi ciency.


Figure 4a (right):Before

conversion.

Figure 4b (right):After

conversion.

Figure 5a (right) andFigure 5b (inset):

Pictures taken from

a recently conducted

conversion in Turkey

for a customer having

breakdowns on his clinker

transport behind the

cooler every two weeks

which were mainly caused

by improper design in

combination with poor

quality of components.

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TITAN PENNSUCO UPGRADEDan Crowley*, Fred Preis**, Peter Windmöller**, Titan Pennsuco,* AirStream Systems Inc.**

In 2003 Titan began the construction of a new 1.8Mt/y plant at Pennsuco, Florida. Soon aft er the contractor

delivered the main process fans, concerns arose about the fans’ light construction. Th erefore, Titan invited AirStream Systems Inc to make a technical evaluation of the fans’ suitability for handling the highly abrasive dust that was a result of the raw materials native to the region.

Th e relationship between Titan and AirStream began more than ten years ago when four large process fans were successfully upgraded at Titan’s Roanoke Cement plant in Virginia. Th e project increased the fans’ wear life while reducing the plant’s power use by 1804kW.

At the Pennsuco site, AirStream ex-amined the raw mill, preheater and coal mill fans. Th e fi nd-ings indicated that all fan rotors would need some improve-ments if they were to attain a reasonable life. In particular, the raw mill fan was identifi ed as the most likely to need repairs

before completing the fi rst year of op-eration. As shown in Figure 2, wear protec-tion was minimal and consisted of partial liners of ribbed plate. Th e gas velocity in the rotor inlets was extremely high and topped 13,000fpm.

Wear rates are proportional to the square of the dust velocity and as a re-sult, wear during the fi rst year of operation (2004-2005) was severe. Uneven material loss oft en caused the fan vibration levels to rise above normal. Over the course of several repairs, the liners were changed to chromium carbide (CrC) and increased in size, and structural rein-forcements were added to the blades as recommended by AirStream. Nevertheless, the fan still required monthly weld repairs to manage the wear (Figure 3).

On site performance tests revealed that the fan speed was close to the maximum, although fan pressure was only at 82% of the design value. AirStream proposed a rotor upgrade that could restore full performance while

Raw mill fan upgrade at Titan PennsucoRaw mill fan upgrade at Titan Pennsuco


Figure 1 (bottomright): AirStream’s rotor

upgrade.

Figure 2 (top right):Original fan rotor in 2004.

The lack of suffi cient wear

protection was a primary

factor in its failure.

Titan’s 6000hp raw mill fan was upgraded by AirStream in 2008. This joint paper describes how its improved design has provided a large effi ciency increase and a greatly reduced wear rate, as well as reduced the need for heavy maintenance. As a result, the project also won the Global Fuels 2009 Most Innovative Technology for Electrical Energy Effi ciency Award.

Figure 3 (left):Repaired original fan

rotor in 2006. It is clear

from the image that there

was a signifi cant wear

problem.

Figure 4 (left):The AirStream Rotor in

2009 after 10 months

of operation showed

virtually no wear.

TITAN PENNSUCO UPGRADE

reducing power use by 787kW.

Th roughout 2006-2007, frequent repairs of the CrC surfaces continued. In late 2007, Titan contracted AirStream to deliver a turnkey upgrade project of the raw mill fan. Th e project was very economical, reus-ing all fan components

except the rotor and inlet cones, and needed only minor modifi cations to the fan housing. Th e installation took

place during Titan’s outage in early 2008 and the verifi -cation performance test was successfully completed in May 2008.

Th e new rotor has a diameter of 3.6, is wider and has larger inlet areas, resulting in much lower dust veloci-ties. All surfaces subject to wear are fully protected with liners.

In 2009, aft er 10 months of operation, the fan rotor was inspected by Titan and AirStream. Virtually no wear was evident (Figure 4). Titan concluded that: “Th is was an excellent investment for the company. We saved what we expected, and the maintenance people love the equipment as it does not need heavy maintenance!”



A SECTORAL APPROACH TO EMISSIONS REDUCTIONRoland Hunziker, WBCSD

Independent modelling, commissioned by the CSI to examine CO2 output as a consequence of global ce-

ment production, examined a variety of diff erent policy scenarios. Th e results compare possible options ranging from; a global cap on emissions, setting global emissions effi ciency goals, to emissions caps in a limited number of countries.

Although cement production is set to more than double by 2030, primarily driven by the need for infra-structure in developing countries, CO2 emissions might be as much as 25% less than a scenario where there are no commitments to carbon reduction, according to the CSI’s programme director, Dr Howard Klee.

“Th e adoption of a sectoral approach where a spe-cifi c industry, such as cement, embarks on co-ordinated action to address the impact of greenhouse gases, can deliver signifi cant benefi ts in terms of constraining CO2 emissions, as the results of model-ling now show,” Dr Klee explained. “To be successful, a sectoral approach still needs to have sector-specifi c policies and measures put in place at a national level. We expect these may diff er from country to country to account for dif-ferences in national circumstances, materials availability and other factors.”

Sectoral approaches are regarded as potentially a more viable solution to greenhouse gas mitigation than the imposition of a global cap on emis-sions, which many experts believe is unlikely to be accepted by developing economies. Unlike any global carbon reduction legislation, specifi c actions diff er depending upon the industry sector, with large energy users working

alongside individual host governments to agree sector goals. Th e benefi t of a sectoral approach, which is also being considered in other industries including alumin-ium and steel, is that it includes the use of cap-and-trade emissions trading, emissions effi ciency goals and other regulatory approaches.

Th e economic modelling work was commissioned by the CSI, and delivered by independent consultants to examine potential regulatory and technological ap-proaches to reducing global CO2 emissions. Th e CSI’s work – which has also involved stakeholder consulta-tions in the US, Japan, India, China and Europe – is understood to be the most comprehensive modelling of its type for the sector. It examines a range of diff erent scenarios, using data gathered from numerous sources, including over 800 cement manufacturing plants around the world.

A sectoral approach to emissions reductionA sectoral approach to emissions reductionA sectoral approach to managing the greenhouse gases resulting from cement manufacturing could provide a signifi cant reduction in global CO2 emissions compared to business-as-usual, according to fi gures released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). This article explains how such an approach could be implemented.


Right: Modeling shows

the relative impact of

diff erent policy choices on

CO2 emissions.


RETROFITTING OF ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORSChristian Anderson, Simatek A/S

Until recently, ESP technology has been thought of as the optimum particle separation method to

fulfi l the legal emission requirements of the time. Today, a large number of ESPs around the world are subject to a requirement of retrofi tting with or being replaced by up-to-date technology, such as modern pulse-jet bag fi lters.

ESPs are in operation in a wide range of industrial segments, with a dominant presence within the cement industry, as well as power plants and smelting furnaces. Many plants are heavyweights, operating with gas vol-umes of more than 1Mm3/h.

Climatic considerations: fossil and biomass fuelsTh e ongoing discussions of how to combat climate change oft en bring about the improvements that can be made by replacing fossil fuel by more CO2-neutral fuels, such as biomass. Looking at this from a fundamental basis, it is a complicated task for an ESP to ensure an effi cient cleaning of the fl ue gas from a biomass combus-tion process compared to the fl ue gas from a coal-fi red kiln. If there is an explicit demand for a marked reduc-tion of the emission from an existing ESP plant, there are essentially three possible solutions:

Demolition and replacement of the existing ESP with • a new pulse-jet bag fi lter;Retrofi tting into a pulse-jet bag fi lter (existing hous-• ing and steel structures are reused);Retrofi tting into a combined ESP and pulse-jet bag • fi lter (a hybrid fi lter in existing housing).

Pulse-jet bag fi ltersSelf-cleaning and temperature-resistant pulse-jet bag

fi lters have been in operation in fl ue gas cleaning appli-cations for several years now. Technical improvements of the fi ltering fabric, as well as the cleaning systems (typically pulse-jet cleaning of the fi lter bags by com-pressed air), have put the pulse-jet fi lter technology in a position at the forefront of the tightened legal emission requirements.

Today’s fi ltering fabrics are fully applicable in the high-temperature fl ue gas environments and economi-cally ensure a long lifetime of the fi lter bags. Th e applied membrane and micro fi bre technology ensures an effi -cient separation of even sub-micron particles.

Furthermore the pulse-jet bag fi lter technology is relatively easily combined with processes for sorption of acid gases, heavy metals and dioxins.

Demolition of the existing ESP and its replacement with a new pulse-jet bag fi lterTh e space available will oft en form the basis when de-ciding on the size of fi lter. Depending on the fl ue-gas fl ow, the choice will be between square or cylindrical, modular fi lter designs.

Th e features of the pulse-jet system range from tradi-tional high-pressure systems to advanced low-pressure systems with a high pulse energy. Th e latter system con-sumes only very little energy, which may have a decisive infl uence on large fi lter plants.

Retrofi tting into a pulse-jet bag fi lter In recent years, a large number of ESPs have been ret-rofi tted into pulse-jet bag fi lters. By means of a typical retrofi tting, the internal parts (discharge electrodes and collecting plates) of the ESP are removed to be replaced by fabric fi lter bags. Finally you have a custom-designed

Compendium - retrofi tting of electrostatic Compendium - retrofi tting of electrostatic precipitatorsprecipitators

For decades, electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) have been identifi ed as the traditional solution for particle fi ltration of substantial gas volumes, especially within the fi elds of power plants and the cement industry. Here, Christian Anderson describes how in spite of continuously optimising and expanding the ESP concept, ESP technology now seems to have been caught up by restricted emission requirements, resulting from the authorities’ focus on a targeted reduction of industrial air pollution over the past years.


RETROFITTING OF ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS

Right: Diagram of the

ESP and bag fi lter system.

layout including a traditional pulse-jet cleaning system with conventional pulse-jet valves.

Th e task of creating suffi cient fi lter area within the frames of the existing fi lter housing may pose a chal-lenge, as an ESP housing usually off ers plenty of height, but only a limited cross-sectional area. In such cases the capability of providing an effi cient pulse-jet cleaning of long fi lter bags is crucial.

Retrofi tting into a combined ESP and pulse-jet bag fi lterWhen retrofi tting existing ESPs, a natural consideration is to evaluate the possibility of combining the ESP facili-ties with the pulse-jet bag fi lter facilities in one unit. As it is not particularly costly to maintain part of the ESP – and the pulse-jet bag fi lter could benefi t from a pre-separator – the transformation into a so-called hybrid fi lter is obvious.

Th e hybrid fi lter has obvious advantages over the common pulse-jet bag fi lter:

A reduced dust load on the fi lter bags, which leads to • a longer lifetime of the fi lter bags;A lower pressure drop across the fi lter bags;• A reduced fi lter area;• Protection against sparks;• Better gas distribution.•

Most ESPs are built in modules of serial fi elds. When-ever possible, the fi rst serial fi eld at the inlet section is maintained and the other fi elds are replaced by pulse-jet bag fi lter modules.

Th e transformation into a hybrid fi lter including part of the existing ESP, places high demands on the design of the pulse-jet bag fi lter as well as its ability to pulse-jet clean extra long fi lter bags.

Next generation of pulse-jet bag fi lter technologyState-of-the-art fi lter technology for retrofi tting of ESPsSimatek A/S recently introduced the next generation of pulse-jet bag fi lter technology, which has been distinguished as the most advanced technology in the market for the re-placement and retrofi tting of ESPs. Th is state-of-the-art fi lter technol-ogy has a number of features that allows it to surpass existing tech-nology, which are essential for the retrofi tting of ESPs.

Th e conventional pulse-jet valves have been ex-• changed by new technology ensuring an effi cient cleaning of very long fi lter bags - typically of 16m length.Servo-controlled indexing system facilitating clean-• ing of more than 10,000m2 fi lter area per pulse valve.Massive reduction of energy consumption for clean-• ing of the fi lter area.Intelligent cleaning function, automatically adapt-• ing the jet-pulse profi le and energy to the actual demand.Modular system for easy retrofi tting of almost any • kind of ESP.

Hybrid fi lter – combined ESP and pulse-jet bag fi lter unit Unlike traditional fi lter technology, the SimPulse 3CS fi lter modules provide for the required fi lter area without any need to expand the existing ESP housing. Th e Sim-Pulse 3CS fi lter modules are vacuum resistant – there is no need for the extraordinary pressure-reinforcement of a traditional walk-in plenum. Th e concept is based on standard modules which are easily implemented in existing ESPs, involving only minor engineering work.

SimPulse 3CS – PADs for ESP integrationServo-controlled pulse-jet systems are available in modular design for fl exible and easy integration into Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs). Th e concept ensures a uniform cleaning of all fi lter bags at the exact same high pulse-jet energy at a low cleaning pressure (0.3-0.5bar).

Th e PADs are available in 6 diff erent standard sizes to match diff erent ESP layouts and most capacities. Typi-cally, 2-6 PAD modules will meet the needed capacity within the frame of the ESP.

Flue gas in

ESP discharge

electrodes and

collecting plates

Pulse air distributor (PAD)

Bag filter penthouse

Bag filter

Clean air - walk in plenum

Flue gas out


SubscribeContents Ad Index PINCH VALVE SILO ISOLATIONJani Akkila, Larox Flowsys Oy

In years gone by, cement companies have oft en had no choice but to make do with the process equipment

that was originally supplied with its plants when they were built. However, due to technological advances, there are now numerous alternatives available that are more effi cient and user-friendly.

With regards to shut-off and control solutions, pinch valves are one of the best technologies for the isola-tion of pneumatically conveyed cement. For example, many Asian cement plants have recognised the benefi ts of a pinch valve and have not only replaced old valve technologies with pinch valves, but are also using pinch valves as standard for their new terminal projects across the continent.

Diverter and knife gate valves in silo isolation A diverter valve has been a commonly used valve type for many years and produces satisfactory results. However, this type of valve is oft en subject operational problems over time. Over long periods, the mechanical fl apper in these diverter valves is usually the main cause of any problems that occur. Th e problems typically experienced are:

Increased force required to switch the fl apper 1. from one side to another; No longer tight shut-off when switched; 2. Th ese types of valve typically 3. need to be repaired every year.

Th e other type of valve that is widely used for silo isolation is a knife gate valve. Th ese valves are good for pneumatically conveyed materials and they also are one of the least expensive alternatives. Unfortunately, they are also the one type

of valve that needs replacing more frequently than any other type of valve used in these systems. What will typi-cally happen to a knife gate valve is that a small pinhole leak occurs in the seating area. Th e cement and air blow through this tiny hole at high velocity and slowly gouge a larger hole. Th e entire knife gate and body are typically destroyed in a short space of time.

Pinch valves are the best solution Th e opinion of many today is that the best available technology for silo isolation at cement plants is a pinch valve. A rubber tube or sleeve is pinched by steel bars on the centre line of the valve to close it. Self-cleaning pinch valves provide 100% tight shut-off , even if solids have built up on the sleeve wall. When compressed, any crystallised particles fl ake off the sleeve surface and are washed downstream. Figure 1 illustrates pinch valve operation.

Improving silo isolation with pinch valves Improving silo isolation with pinch valvesSilo isolation can be a challenge if the incorrect type of valve for the top of a cement plant’s silos is used. This article by Jani Akkila explains how the cost of selecting a wrong valve can be huge, consequently resulting in contaminating a full silo of valuable cement due to a leaking valve. He describes how the use of state-of-the-art pinch valve technology provides plant operators with a low cost, high quality and low maintenance alternative for their silo isolation requirements.

Figure 1 (leftt): Adiagram of a pinch valve

in operation on a cement

silo.


PINCH VALVE SILO ISOLATION

Th e operating principle of a pinch valve is simple. In the open position, the valve is at full bore with no fl ow restrictions thus making the valve an integral part of the pipeline. During closing, two pinch bars squeeze the sleeve shut on the centre line.

Elastic sleeve – the core of the pinch valve Th e core of the pinch valve is the sleeve. It has to be made from three layers: a wear resistant inter layer, a fi bre reinforcement layer and a protective outer rubber layer, as shown in Figures 2a and 2b, above. Th is con-struction guarantees long lifetime of the sleeve. Th ere can be found some copies with molded one layer sleeves, but they provide only 10% of quality sleeve lifetime.

A pinch valve itself is rather simple to build, however, the sleeve is not. Making a quality sleeve demands a wide knowledge of elastomer technology to mix the right rubber for each application. In today’s markets there are only three pinch valve companies that manufacture layered and reinforced sleeves. Buying pinch valves from anyone other than these manufacturers is comparable to fi tting bicycle tyres to an 18-wheel truck. Tyres are cheap but you would constantly need to stop the vehicle to repair the tyres.

Why are elastomers better against abrasion than hard materials?Th e reason why pinch valves are better for abrasive du-ties than metal or ceramic valves is due to the fact that energy from particles impactng against each other is absorbed by diff erent materials in diff erent ways. Metal, for instance, absorbs the impact energy of particles to itself. Each time particles hit the metal they take a small piece of metal surface away with the fl ow. Th at eventu-ally causes a hole or a sealing leak. Soft er materials allow the abrasive particles to bounce off the surface without destroying it, therefore, the energy of the particle im-pacts is used to maintain the fl ow instead of wearing the valve. Figure 3 illustrates this point.

For this reason, pinch valves are steadily taking more market share from conventional valves in cement applications where very coarse slurries and abrasive pneumatically conveyed materials are handled. A pinch valve also off ers protection against problems such as

clogging and jamming, which can occur with other valves in cement services. Many valves, such as knife gates or diverter valves with stellite or harder coatings, might be able to withstand the abrasiveness of pneu-matically conveyed cement. However, they are subject to jamming or clogging since they have cavities that allow for material collection.

In conclusion, many cement companies have agreed that high quality pinch valves are the best valve solu-tion for silo isolation due to the fact that they have long service intervals, they are easy to operate, are easy to repair and generally have very low cost of ownership. Even if the pinch valve sleeve is beginning to fail, the valve sleeve can still be closed in order to prevent silo contamination.

Figures 2a (right) and2b (far right): The core

of a pinch valve – the

sleeve – is made from

three layers: a wear

resistant inter layer, a

fi bre reinforcement layer

and a protective outer

rubber layer.

Figure 3 (right):Diagram demonstrating

that rubber coated

pinch valves have wear

advantages over metal

or ceramic valves when

operating in abrasive

environements.

Opening tags

Reinforcing cords

Wear-resistant inner lining Mandrel

Prtotective surface

Reinforcing cords

Wear-resistant inner lining


http://www.cefisa.es


Above: The world’s third

largest city, Istanbul.

Right: Big Blaster® XHV

Air Cannons with Tornado

Exhaust Valves were

installed to improve fl ow

and reduce blockages in

the preheater at Aslan

Çimento, near Istanbul.

Right: The battery of

air cannons installed

on the preheater at the

Aslan Çimento plant were

installed by technicians

from Martin Engineering

Turkey.



Martin Engineering

To supply the needs of Istanbul, the world’s third larg-est city, the Aslan Çimento plant produces 3700t of

clinker per day from one line. Located about 60km (37 miles) southwest of the city centre in Darica Kocaeli, the facility is Turkey’s oldest cement plant.

But operations in the plant were not as smooth as hoped, jeopardising its output. Th e air cannons installed on the preheater were not work-ing properly, leaving material buildups that required manual cleaning for at least two hours every shift , as well as a monthly slowdown for a major cleaning.

Th e plant – which was then a business unit of Lafarge and now part of the Oyak Cement Group – agreed to a trial of one of Mar-tin Engineering’s Big Blaster® Air Cannon with Tornado Ex-haust Valves, to compare with the performance of the installed air cannons. Aft er the trial, the plant’s production manager was impressed; he requested that Martin Engineering air cannon experts provide a detailed pre-heater survey looking for ways to improve performance.

On 28 February 2008, the survey was completed, and a proposal was made to upgrade the air cannons on the lower portion of the preheater tower with Martin En-gineering air cannons with a tentative installation date in mid-April. Yet only one day later, on 29 February

2009, offi cials from the plant called Martin Engineering Turkey’s offi ce in Istanbul, explaining that the plant had to shut down its kiln due to refractory problems. Th e plant hoped to use the eight-day outage to install the ad-ditional air cannons immediately.

Martin Engineering Turkey rose to the challenge, delivering 31 high temperature nozzles, 20 air cannons

and a variety of airline compo-nents and control systems to the plant within three working days. On the third day (5 March 2009) two Martin Engineer-ing Service technicians arrived at the Lafarge site to begin the installation.

Th e Martin Engineering technicians worked through the night; until the following Monday (March 10) and never left the Lafarge kiln site. During this time, they supervised the installation of the air cannon systems, and helped to program the fi ring sequences for the new air cannons. In addition, they were able to supervise the instal-lation of 10 new belt cleaners on the plant’s belt conveyors.

Th e Aslan plant started its kiln on 9 March 2009, right on

schedule. Th e plant was able to use all 31 air cannons on 14 March 2009, as the kiln was back in full production.

In a follow-up visit, the plant identifi ed an additional problem with material blockages at the feed shelf. A

Martin Engineering Turkey helps Aslan Martin Engineering Turkey helps Aslan Çimento meet outage scheduleÇimento meet outage scheduleUnreliable equipment in a cement plant is not only costly in terms of repairs but also in the amount of time needed for experts to fi x the problem in hand. This article from Martin Engineering explains how the expertise of its Turkish operation enabled Aslan Çimento to resume production of its 3700t/d facility on schedule after an eight-day outage, helping it to get back on-line and supply Turkey’s construction industry with the materials it needed.

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To power your operation while lowering consumption we provide you with stable, highly efficient electrical energy supply, distribution and conditioning. To increase productivity and engineering efficiency, ensure environmental compliance and main-tain product quality, apply our automation and CPM solutions. To improve dynamic performance and reduce power losses, we provide high-tech drive systems. Lower your operation costs by installing our heat recovery system to generate your own power. Maximize the return on project investment through our vast knowledge, know-how and extensive experience. Using quality ABB products helps you achieve industry leading productivity. www.abb.com/cement

© 2009 ABB. All rights reserved.

ABB_Ins_A4_Cement_EN.indd 4 10.07.09 15:46

http://www.abb.com/cement

Right:The battery of air

canons.

Right: Martin Engineer-

ing’s Big Blaster.

Above: The Aslan Cement

Plant in Darica Kocaeli,

near Istanbul is now part

of the Oyak Cement

Group, Turkey’s largest

cement producer.

competitor’s existing air cannon in the upper portion of the preheater was not working, allowing the kiln inlet to become almost completely blocked. Within three hours, Martin Engineering Turkey was able to clear the blockage with the combination of a Martin Engineering air cannon and some manual cleaning.

Offi cials at Aslan Çimento expressed gratitude to Martin En-gineering Turkey, as they had not expected that any company would be able complete this project in such a short period. Martin Engineering Turkey completed delivery and instal-lation on short notice, to fi t the outage schedule and meet customer needs.

Since the completion of the installation in 2008, no manual cleaning has been needed in the lower part of the preheater. Aslan plant personnel provided positive references to another Lafarge plant in Turkey, where ad-ditional air cannon systems have now been installed.

More recently, the Aslan plant has installed four ad-ditional Big Blaster Air Cannons. Two air cannons were placed in the clinker cooler, to improve the control of ‘snowmen’ – buildups of material in the cooler. Th e sec-ond two were installed at the kiln inlet.

In May 2009, Lafarge sold many of its cement, con-crete, and aggregate operations in Turkey – including the plant in Darica Kocaeli – to the Oyak Cement Group, the leading producer of cement in Turkey.



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Phone +33 (0)3 89 32 47 00 - Fax +33 (0)3 89 60 21 34 - Internet www.appalette.com - e-mail [email protected] Your contacts: Mr Luc RIEFFEL / Mr Hervé HELLER

For any project, consult a specialist which guarantees

the smooth running of your installation

Shredded tyres

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Plastic pellets

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http://www.appalette.com

TRANSPORT

Right: PPC’s trademark

elephant ‘breaking

through’ the side of a

Feldbender/Transport &

Equipment Engineering

Co. Ltd tanker creates a

striking and memorable

brand identity for the

South African cement

manufacturer.



Editorial staff , Global Cement Magazine

As global economies begin to recover aft er one of the worst fi nancial meltdowns in history, it is becom-

ing increasingly important for companies in a range of industries to gain competitive advantages. In the fi eld of bulk cement transport, companies such as Pretoria Port-land Cement are using innovative branding campaigns and increasingly advanced technological solutions in order to stay one step ahead of the competition. Spitzer also updates our readers on its latest range.

Pretoria Portland Cement South Africa’s fi rst 3-D branded cement tank-ers have been launched nationally by leading ce-ment company, Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC). Th e tankers showcase PPC’s innovation and brings its well-known elephant icon to life in a fresh way on a new medium.

“PPC’s elephant icon is the core of our logo, symbolising PPC Ce-ment’s strength, great stature and dependability, with its powerful associa-tions of wisdom, maturity, family-orientation, caring and loyalty,” says Sibongile Mooko, PPC’s marketing services manager. Jonathan Stacey of Hirt & Carter, a creative agency and production house that worked on the concept, said that the objective is to make use of the enormous fl eet of tankers to communicate the brand in a creative way while still refl ecting the core values of

strength and reliability.PPC’s new 3-D branded tankers tie in with the

‘Kambuku’, value-based management philosophy that the company adopted in 1998, which emphasises its people as integral to the success of everything it does, and through PPC’s ongoing commitment to uplift ing the communities in which it operates.

“‘Kambuku’ is derived from a Tsonga word mean-ing ‘great tusker’ – referring to an elephant bull, whose characteristics of tenacity and loyalty encapsulate PPC’s value-based management philosophy,” adds Mooko.

Th e new 3-D tanker branding ensures a new visual impact for one of South Africa’s most-recognised and trusted brands and has been seen on South Af-rica’s roads since 20 July 2009.

SpitzerSpitzer has a global reputation for sup-plying tankers with state-of-the-art technology and long life times, especially dry bulk tankers for the transportation of pulverised and granulated materials.

Spitzer, which was founded in 1872, was the fi rst manufacturer and pioneer in the pro-duction of aluminium vessels for dry bulk tankers. In 1950, the fi rst dry bulk tanker for the transportation of cement and soda was designed and produced, and at the end of the 1960s Spitzer concentrated on the design

and production of road tankers. Since then numerous patents have been registered.

Th e overall area of the Spitzer group of companies is approximately 780,000m2 and all of its existing pro-duction facilities are being extended continuously. Th e group of companies consists of more than 700 employ-ees and approximately 1500 road tankers are produced

Bulk material transportBulk material transport

Left: Spitzer has a

worldwide reputation

for manufacturing bulk

material tankers that

meet the needs of each

individual client. On the

left are a range of tankers

that have been produced

for Gorazdze Cement,

Maxit and Holcim, as well

as it’s Spitzer’s own special

-liveried Spitzer-SK.

Despite construction sites around the world beginning to empty on the back of housing markets collapsing and the lowering demand for cement, effi ciency and reliability are of paramount importance to bulk transport fi rms whilst maintaining good relationships with their customers. This article focuses on two fi rms which are innovating their way out of the global recession.

yearly. Spitzer operates worldwide through numerous daughter companies, agents, and licensees.

According to the company, “Each and every order for Spitzer dry bulk tankers is discussed and clarifi ed in close co-operation with the customers and the road tankers are produced individually in conformity with the customer’s requirements. Such a close co-operation guarantees the design and production of products with highest possible quality and long life time, as well as high payload and low tare weight.”

In 2006, Spitzer presented the latest new design of a plastic vessel with a volume of approximately 60m3 made from reinforced carbon fi bre. Ten of these dry bulk tankers are presently being operated in Europe for testing purposes.

Spitzer’s delivery programmeNon tipping semi-trailers with a volume of • 25–63m3;Tipping-type semi-trailers with a volume of • 40–89m3;Full trailers with a volume of 18–33m• 3;Truck mounted vessels with a volume of 16–35m• 3;BDF and Spitzers interchangeable systems;• ADR semi-trailers with a volume of 38–66m• 3;Vacuum semi-trailers with a volume of 40 and 59m• 3;Tipping container chassis;• Pressure containers;• Special designs according to individual customer • requirements.


TRANSPORT

ALTERNATIVE FUELS SubscribeContents Ad Index

Climate change has been recognised as one of the most signifi cant challenges for the next several

decades, largely due to the negative eff ects of green-house gases (GHGs), whose levels are expected to rise along with the growing global population and increas-ing GDP. A concerted eff ort in curbing GHGs will result in ways to mitigate their negative eff ects on the global climate.

Th e world releases 32Bnt of CO2 per year, 17Gt of which are re-absorbed by the planet, leaving the remaining 15Gt in the atmosphere. In an algae-rich environment, over 29.3Mt of oil can be produced from 1Bnt of CO2. Th is highlights the fact that a 1Mt/y clinker facility could produce around 25,245t of oil from the 850,000t of CO2 it produces each year. Th e concentra-tion of CO2 in fl ue gases is 25% or higher compared to the atmosphere – where most growing algae take CO2 – which has an estimated concentration of 0.394%, highlighting that there is great potential to use algae farms to extract CO2 from the waste gases.

A cement kiln is a very valuable source of CO2 where an algae farm can operate as a profi table business solu-tion while reducing CO2 and NOx emissions. Cement kiln fl ue gas contains the CO2 from the burner plus the CO2 from the decarbonation of the limestone. A rule of thumb is that for each 2t of CO2, 1t of dry algae biomass can be produced. Furthermore, 27kg of triglyceride oil

with an algae strain that retains 30-40% of its oil can be produced from 454kg of algae (dry weight). Triglyc-eride is a vegetable oil with an estimated combustion value as high as coal that can be returned to the kiln as an alternative fuel.

Th e most common and most cost-effi cient method of growing algae is a pond system using photosynthesis as a conversion of unusable sunlight into usable energy. Algae absorb CO2 and water to create a lipid. Th e use of a photo-bioreactor is considered an expensive way but reduces the risk of contamination.

A hybrid algaes pond system (HAPS) may present the best option. Th e HAPS algae system is a state-of-the-art, enclosed algae pond farming system, which addresses the key issues of high volume, high quality algae biomass production. Th e HAPS algae system also addresses cost eff ectiveness, ease of construction and ongoing pond system support for maintenance and operations.

A cement kiln is a 24/7 process operation with very high CO2 concentration in fl ue gases. Returning the algae as biomass to the kiln is a completely diff erent process than a natural algae growth process. Th e obvi-ous benefi t of algae’s ability to absorb CO2 is the ability to turn CO2 as a clinker production by-product into a supplementary fuel and a valuable economic and envi-ronmental ‘carbon neutralisation’ solution. However, in

Gerald Lefebvre*, Russell Krinker**, EcoSource International*, Southern California Edison**

Using algae in cement kilns to Using algae in cement kilns to reduce COreduce CO22 emission levels emission levelsAlgae are among the oldest life forms on the planet, representative of the origin of the fossil fuels that are being extracting today. This paper addresses the positive eff ects of microalgae, as opposed to macroalgae (seaweed), which are highly effi cient biological factories capable of consuming carbon dioxide (CO2), and converting it into high-density natural oil through photosynthesis. They have a high lipid content (60% triglyceride and 40% carbohydrates), generally grow at a fast rate (usually a few hours) and can absorb large waste CO2 resources from fl ue gases, making them an ideal method of reducing CO2 emissions from cement kilns.

26 globalglobalcement cement MAGAZINE MAGAZINE September 2009

.

http://www.wtwamericas.com


order for this to happen, some challenges ahead must be addressed:

Th e plant operator must choose what purpose the • algae farm must respond to. Is it CO2 reduction and/or supplemental fuel production? Th e growth of algae with CO2 absorption is one phase of the farm-ing; the production of oil as supplementary fuel is another phase;Is farming under sunlight the only acceptable eco-• nomic and environmental solution? Ammonia sequestration can provide a response at night time and restituting the captured CO2 during the photo-synthesis hours;What type of algae string should be used to optimise • the purpose of the farm?;What type of pond design and features must be • installed? A multiple pond system with a modular approach may be considered;Will the new implementation of emissions regula-• tions and the enforcement of penalties entice the future of algae growth technology?; Th e plant operator must consider how to maximise • solutions for sustainable algae growth with high value co-products such as cattle feed, biodegradable lubricants, therapeutic proteins and/or co-services, such as soil remediation and waste water treatment; How to reduce the environmental foot print of the • algae farm, its initial capital cost and operational cost while simultaneously optimising the engineering of the harvesting, de-watering of algae and the feeding of the kiln with an alternative fuel;How to profi t from the cap and trade of CO• 2 emis-sions as derivative revenue.In conclusion, as one of the most energy intensive •

industries in the world, the global cement industry is facing a real challenge in reducing its CO2 emission levels. Using algae farms to absorb waste CO2 from the cement production process not only reduces emission levels, but also provides the means to pro-duce alternative fuels that can be fed back into the kilns, therefore reducing fossil fuel consumption.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS

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NEWSALTERNATIVE FUELS for CEMENT

Schenck Process expands its alternative fuel feeding capabilities with a new Live Bottom Stationary BinGermany: According to Schenck Process, its new Live Bottom Stationary Bin is designed to easily discharge materials such as wood chips, shredded tyres, auto fl uff , paper, and saw dust as part of its cement industry alter-native fuel feeding system. Utilising four 12’’ (304.8mm) diameter screws positioned at the bottom of the 16m3 bin allows waste materials to be fed on to a conveyor that is coupled to the live bottom bin via a side bolt fl ange.

The bin is symmetrically designed, eliminating any right- or left-hand configurations providing the fl exibility to be mounted on either side of the conveyor. Fu r t h e r m o r e , a ground level installation elimi-nates the need for pits or extensive civil work.

The four auger screws have a variable pitch design to achieve optimal mass fl ow for waste materials in sizes up to 100mm. When using recommended variable fre-quency drives, the auger screw speeds can be adjusted to accommodate diff erent feed rates. Viewing windows on both sides of the bin provide observation of the sys-tem operation. According to Schenck Process, feed rates of up to 186m3/hour and unloading capacities of 15t/h are attainable with the new Live Bottom Stationary Bin.

Cement plants in Catalan use sludge as an alternative fuelSpain: Results from a Spanish environmental impact assessment have shown that using sludge from waste water treatment plants as a partial alternative fuel can enable cement plants to reduce their CO2 emissions while maintaining profi ts. Dependency on oil and coal could be coming to an end since researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) have analysed the environmental and human health impacts of solid waste fuel from water treatment plants.

Scientists have carried out the fi rst study into this method at a cement plant in Vallcarca, Catalonia, which has been producing ce-ment for more than 100 years, and they confi rmed that it is the best option for disposing of sludge that would have otherwise had to be dumped elsewhere, while also powering the plant. “As this sludge is already waste, burning it does not enter into the atmospheric CO2 emissions assigned to each country under the Kyoto Protocol”, José Luis Domingo, lead author of the study and director of the Toxicol-ogy and Environmental Health Laboratory at the URV said in an interview.

The Catalan plant, at which the study was carried out, has now substituted 20% of its fossil fuel energy for the sludge from waste water treatment plants. That 20% has led to a 140,000t reduction in CO2 emissions between 2003 and 2006, which has impacted on both the environment and the health of people living near the plant. With the reduction in pollution, especially CO2 emissions, the potential deaths from exposure to chemical pollutants will have been reduced greatly. The study shows that using this green fuel would reduce the cancer rate by 4.56 per one million inhabitants, which is good news for more than just the cement industry.

However, the researchers are hesitant to say that using the sludge will be benefi cial for all cement plants, claiming that it is important for each plant to carry out its own studies. However, if anything can be gleaned from this, it is that using sludge from waste water treat-ment plants in cement factories is an excellent solution.

Austria/Ireland: Due to successful commissions and award-winning products, leading RDF/SRF technology providers, Mach Tech Systems and Linder Recyclingtech have had their most successful years to date. Ten Power Komet and ten Standard Komet secondary shredders for RDF/SRF production are now in operation in the UK and Eire, the territory served by Mach Tech Services on behalf of Lindner Recyclingtech GmbH of Spittal, Austria.

The Lindner machinery, which won the coveted First Prize in the ‘Most innovative technology for alternative fuel produc-tion’ category at the Global Fuels Conference 2009 has a long and decorated history since the company’s foundation in 1948. Its continued R&D within the alternative fuel shredding sector has led to the multi-award winning Komet range of shredders, the high volume and low wear costs pre-shredder, the Jupiter, and its bespoke Heavy Fraction Separator.

David Ingham of Mach Tech Services Ltd said of the previous 12 months, “The sales volume of both new and reconditioned machinery has allowed us to invest in the area of the company that we feel most passionate about. Both Joe Hoyle, the Mach Tech MD, and myself come from a service and maintenance

background, so the service department has been the fi rst to see an increase in its budget with extra engineers, new fully-kitted vans and the best tools available. After the sale of a machine, it’s more often than not that a customer’s main dealings with our company will be through our service teams, a strategy that seems to be working, since we have just received our fi rst repeat order from a major Dublin-based waste management company currently operating a Power Komet 2800.”

“Our colleagues in Austria have more experience within this particular type of shredding than any other manufacturer, with installations at major cement works including Holcim, HeidelbergCement, Cemex and Lafarge amongst over 100 other installations worldwide dedicated to the shredding of waste to produce RDF/SRF. Because of this experience they have been able to advise and to their credit to assist us with the stocking of the most commonly used wear parts for their machinery, a decision which sees approximately £60,000 worth of wear parts available for immediate despatch at our premises and the for-mation of a dedicated department to oversee this part of our operation.”

Schenck Process’ new Live Bottom Stationary Bin

Mach Tech Services and Lindner Recyclingtech have most successful year to date


Contents Subscribe Ad Index

ALTERNATIVE RAW MATERIALS

Blending of would-be landfi ll turns out Blending of would-be landfi ll turns out greener cement-based productsgreener cement-based productsThe vision of a greener future for the construction industry motivates Andrew Dennis, an architect from Las Vegas, Nevada, who founded a company dedicated to producing environmentally friendly cement-based products. This article describes how GigaCrete has made use of new technology to improve the environmental credibility of cement manufacture.

Instead of the heavy aggregates found in standard concrete, the materials made by GigaCrete Inc. in-

clude non-silica based sands and by-products of coal combustion, fl y-ash, bottom-ash and recycled glass that are usually dumped into landfi lls. Th e recycled materi-als are mixed with GigaCrete’s own mineral cement formulation, which requires less water and yields less carbon dioxide (CO2) in production than Portland ce-ment, according to the company. In addition, GigaCrete claims that its materials are lighter and easier to handle than conventional cement based materials.

GigaCrete makes several cement-based building products that are packaged in 23kg bags and shipped in dry-powder form to users who mix them with water at con-struction sites. Th e bagged products include:

PlasterMax IND; a one-• step decorative interior plaster coating providing high strength and abra-sion resistance when used as a protective fi nish over gypsum-based drywall;PlasterMax ICF; a two-• coat interior plaster system replacing drywall, providing fi re, abrasion and im-pact resistance;GigaFloor-IN; a stamped concrete overlay featur-• ing fast installation, high compressive strength, and crack resistance;StuccoMax-ICF; an impact-resistant stucco product • used as an exterior fi nish over insulated concrete forms.

In addition, GigaCrete makes a wet mixture used in the production of its PanelSystem construction product,

which includes lightweight panels cast in GigaCrete’s plant and delivered to job sites ready for installation. Th e system also includes patented steel connectors and components for door and window openings.

GigaCrete products comprise two parts cement binder and up to three parts fi ller, which can be sand of diff erent grain sizes or ash of various grades. Th e products are typically made using 80% fi ller and 20% binder.

Each ingredient is supplied in 1361kg bulk bags and unloaded by one of fi ve bulk bag dischargers to make a batch, depending on recipe. Th e dischargers are supported on load cells, which measure weight

loss as fl exible screw conveyors move material from hoppers below the dischargers, into a common, horizontal aero-mechanical conveyor at ground-level. Th e material is fed into a vertically-oriented, 3.7m aeromechanical con-veyor, which elevates the material before discharging it into a dry or wet mixer, de-pending on recipe.

Blending the ingredientsBoth the dry and wet mixers are loaded with a 907kg batch of binder and fi ller material, with water in the wet mixer adding an extra 20% to the weight of the charge. For dry blending operations, GigaCrete uses a 0.57m3 Rotary Batch Mixer from Munson Machinery, con-sisting of a horizontal rotating drum with a stationary inlet and outlet at opposite ends. As the drum rotates, internal mixing fl ights and lift ers tumble, fold, cut and turn the material in a multi-directional manner. Th e

Bob Seeley

Right: Andrew Dennis,

chairman and founder of

GigaCrete Inc., displays a bag

of PlasterMax ICF building

product, based on cement

and recycled materials. In the

background are a Munson

rotary batch mixer (L) and

continuous paddle blender

(R).



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gravity-driven process produces a 100% uniform mix in just two minutes, regardless of the diff erence in bulk densities of the ingredients.

Th e lift ers in the continuously rotating drum elevate the material, preventing segregation of the batch upon discharge through the stationary plug gate valve, as well as promoting total evacuation with no residual. Th e discharged blend falls through a ‘pant leg’ chute into a hopper and then into a turbopacker that can fi ll as many as four 23kg bags a minute.

For the wet panel mix, GigaCrete uses a 2.8m3 con-tinuous paddle blender, also from Munson, consisting of a stationary mixing trough with rotating paddles that are driven through the material. Th e blender’s horizon-tal shaft rotates inner and outer paddles with reversed pitches that move materials in opposing directions. A 2:1 agitator length:width ratio optimises mixing perform-ance, agitating the material during loading, 10-minute blending of solids and liquids, as well as discharge. Th e paddle blender also carries out secondary duties as an additional dry mixer and has a mobile impeller bagging machine beneath the output valve for that application.

Th e blender’s design limits its maximum mixing ca-pacity to approximately 80% of the total vessel volume, leaving suffi cient space for material fl ow on the upswing side of the agitator. Th is also allows the spray manifold to be properly distanced from the material bed surface, which ensures an even distribution of liquids added to mixtures.

Other key features include the stationary mixing trough’s heavy-gauge walls and reinforced end panels, providing suffi cient rigidity for tight agitator-to-vessel wall tolerances that minimise the ‘heal’ of residual material aft er discharge.

Wet concrete mixtures are gravity discharged from the paddle blender into a hopper, from which they are pumped 9-15m into mould boxes measuring 0.6m by 2.7m by 108mm. Aft er a day of curing, the panels are removed from the mould boxes and are ready for ship-ment.

GigaCrete’s goal for the plant is to produce 558,000m2 of panels per year and 300,000 bags of dry material per eight-hour shift per year. Th ese estimates were provided to Munson personnel, who used them to select mixing devices capable of meeting GigaCrete’s output require-ments. GigaCrete also provided Munson with material samples so that the supplier could observe how the dif-ferent densities aff ected the equipment considered for the dry and wet applications. Other than its corporate offi ce in Scottsdale, Arizona, and its GigaLabs plant and R&D centre in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company is ex-pecting to open four more plants across the US.

“Th is is the pilot factory,” Dennis says of the Las Vegas facility. “Th e goal is to refi ne the process here and then to use the fi nal process in the next four plants.”

Right: An operator fi lls a

bag from the turbopacker

below the rotary batch mixer.

Far right: A 0.57m3 rotary

batch mixer (left) performs

the dry blending of building

products. To its right, a 2.8m3

continuous paddle blender

prepares GigaCrete’s wet

PanelSystem construction

product.

Far right: A powder

transfer system, consisting

of fi ve bulk bag dischargers,

prepares a batch, as

aeromechanical conveyors

transport material to one of

the two mixers.

Right: From the rotary

batch mixer, the blend

discharges into a hopper and

then into the turbopacker.

ALTERNATIVE RAW MATERIALS


NEWSALTERNATIVE RAW MATERIALS for CEMENT

MultiServ’s lockout continues

US: As steel producers in Hamilton, New Jersey, ramp up production, MultiServ workers who handle slag at the plants remain locked out by their employer. The lockout at MultiServ, a company that recycles the steel byproduct, is now entering its third month.

“Although the company and the worker’s union have been in ne-gotiations, those talks broke off last on 28 August 2009,” said Steve Duvall, president of United Steelworkers Local 7577. The union ex-pects to hear back in a few weeks from Harsco Corp., the Pennsylvania company that owns MultiServ.

Meanwhile, union leaders have said that the company – which op-erates units at Dofasco and at both former Stelco plants – has been staffi ng its operations with salaried staff .

Harsco secures US$3.6m Middle East contractsUAE/SaudiArabia: Worldwide industrial services company Harsco Corporation has announced its receipt of new contracts in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia totalling US$3.5m to support the re-gion’s expanding investment in major infrastructure projects.

Harsco’s engineered formwork systems have been selected for the reconstruction of the Mafraq Interchange, a key gateway for motor-ists entering Abu Dhabi’s Al Gharbia western region. When completed in 2010, the project, which includes road expansion, a bridge and two fl yovers, is expected to support widespread development in the region, where the government has said it plans to invest some US$27bn on infrastructure, tourism and economic development projects to stimulate growth. Harsco’s rental formwork will be used throughout the onsite construction of the project’s concrete bridge piers and other large concrete structures. Harsco’s formwork has also been chosen for the construction of new highway bridges at Al Ain, the fourth largest city in the United Arab Emirates.

In Saudi Arabia, Harsco’s formwork has been selected for the con-struction of the new Princess Noura bint AbdulRahman University for Women. The project, a prestigious new 26,000-student facility being built north of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city, will create the largest university for women in the world. Meanwhile, Harsco’s Cuplok scaf-folding rentals will support the fi nal phase of work in the multi-level expansion of the famous Jamaraat pedestrian bridge near Mecca, where tens of millions of pilgrims converge each year for religious observances.

Fly ash used to create fi reproof concrete for Australian homesAustralia: As Australia becomes hotter and drier, the country will be increasingly threatened by ferocious bushfi res. After 173 Victorians were killed on ‘Black Sat-urday,’ it became obvious that Australians need better ways to protect themselves and their homes. Fireproof bunkers may now not be far away thanks to the devel-opment of a new type of ultra strong concrete.

The geopolymer, developed by William Rickard and a team from Curtin University of Technology, can with-stand temperatures of over 1600°C for at least an hour – heat that would rip through regular walls. The ‘super concrete’ can also defend people from less natural types of fi re – its resilience makes it ideal bomb shelter ma-terial. In addition to scorching fl ames, the geopolymer can withstand almost three times more pressure than run-of-the-mill concrete. In perspective, one could stack 8000t on a square metre of the material without any cracks forming.

The material may sound like something from a NASA budget, but it will actually be cheaper than regular ce-ment due to the fact that it is manufactured from fl y ash. The ash, which is usually dumped into landfi ll or dams, is the reason the material is so tough. “We already knew that geopolymers were strong, but making them with fl y ash gave them excellent fi re resistance,” said Rickard.

The environmental benefi ts of the material don’t stop at cleaning up power stations’ waste – the geopolymer is made using signifi cantly less heat (1330°C less to be precise) than traditional concrete, cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. “Around 5-8% of the world’s emis-sions come from manufacturing cement, so not only can we reuse industrial waste, we can help to reduce the impact of global warming,” said Rickard.

Since the new geopolymer will be used primarily as a safety product, there is a lot of testing to be done, but Rickard is optimistic it will be available and saving lives within two years. “The potential is huge – we have cre-ated resilient materials in the past, but the fact that this fi reproof concrete is also sustainable and cheap makes it an ideal building block of the future,” he said.

JSW to set up US$391m cement plant by 2011

India: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group has said that its ‘multi-locational’ US$391m cement plant with an annual production capacity of 5Mt will start production by the end of next fi nancial year. The company will use two vital raw materials for making cement – slag and fl y ash from its steel business. While slag is a by-product of the process of making steel, fl y ash comes from burning coal.

“The 5Mt/y plant will come become operational in next 18 months,” JSW Group CFO Seshagiri Rao told Indian press in an interview. The proposed cement unit will be present in two states, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. JSW Cement, a group subsidiary, which is undertak-ing the project, has already tied up US$308.8m in debt for the venture, he said, adding that the rest will be provided by the group.

Fireproof concrete could save many lives from bushfi res that often plague

Australia.



SubscribeContents Ad IndexGERMAN CEMENT INDUSTRY

The German cement industry is facing tough times as the global recession undermines national demand as well as export prospects. The crisis comes at the end of a decade-long slump in demand after the post-Unifi cation boom came to an end. Continued capacity rationalisation is bringing the industry closer to the level required by demand, but further factory closures cannot yet be ruled out. Germany’s largest cement producer, HeidelbergCement, has been hobbled with huge debts after buying capacity at the top of the market, and is battling for survival.

34 globalglobalcement cement MAGAZINEMAGAZINE September 2009

German cement industry faces tough German cement industry faces tough times despite end of recessiontimes despite end of recession

The German cement industry is going through a very tough time at the moment - there are no two

ways about it - although the fi rst signs of a tentative recovery can now be detected.

Despite state aid and infrastructure spending programmes, the German cement industry expects business to decline slightly in 2009. Cement demand is expected to be lower than the 27.3Mt of 2008. Sales are expected to fall at least 3-4% further, even aft er the already steep drops seen through 2008. Th e impetus that public spending programmes will provide will translate into demand of 1.5Mt in 2009 and up to 2Mt in 2010, partially compensating for the strong decline in the housing and commercial sectors.

Current status of the industryAccording to the BDZ, the Federal Association of the German Cement Industry, “Th e continuing drop in residential construction in Germany is being clearly refl ected in the most recent trends in cement usage. Th e erection of detached and semi-detached family homes as well as apartment blocks has become the most signifi cant area of cement consumption decline. In both 2007 and 2008, non-residential construction took the lead. Th e domestic cement consumption for residential construction dropped signifi cantly from 33% of the total in 2006 to 25.4% in 2007 only to fall further in 2008 to around 23%. Th e largest sector for the consumption of cement was non-residential con-struction which, at 39.4% in 2007 and even 41.4% in 2008, was larger than the underground-works sector

for the fi rst time in at least a decade. Th is segment, at around 35%, has remained largely stable since 1998. Th e tendency of many companies to shy away from investing as a result of the current fi nancial crisis and its consequences should – as initial data from the end of 2008 and early 2009 show – lessen this eff ect further in favour of non-residential construction. What is pos-sible, at least in the short-term, is a notable increase in the importance of underground-works, which will be revitalised not least due to the federal government’s economic programme.”

“Of the total cement consumption in 2008 (27.3Mt) 15.1Mt of cement was used for production of ready-mixed concrete, (compared to 12.3Mt the previous year) and building-site concrete (2.8Mt). Around a third (8.4Mt) went to pre-cast concrete elements and 5.1% (2.4Mt) was utilised for production of mortar, rendering plaster, screed and building chemical prod-ucts. Th e rest (0.8Mt) was employed for various areas of application such as sprayed concrete, fl oor founda-tions, mining products and cement injections.”

Although Federal stimulus packages may off er some hope for the industry, the cement sector has other wor-ries - this time of its own making. In July 2009 a court in Düsseldorf decreased a fi ne previously imposed on the largest German cement producers for price-fi xing, from Euro661m to Euro329m. Th e original size of the fi ne had been specifi ed by the Federal Cartel Offi ce in 2003. Th e cut resulted from eff orts made by the com-panies to fi ll in ‘information gaps’ that existed before. HeidelbergCement (HC) now has to pay a whopping

Dr Robert McCaff rey Dr Robert McCaff rey Global Cement MagazineGlobal Cement Magazine

Above: Lafarge’s colourful

Wössingen plant, lit-up for

the open day and summer

festival (see page 36).

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Euro170m fi ne, Schwenk Euro70m, Dyckerhoff Eu-ro50m, Lafarge Euro24m and Holcim Euro14.6m. As well as being hit with the largest fi ne, HC has some other matters to worry about.

HeidelbergCement toughs it outHeidelbergCement is at the painful end of a number of sharp blows from the lead-lined boxing glove of ill-for-tune. At the core of its misfortune is the fact that it is a cement company with much of its production capacity in the previously-mature and now-declining German and wider European area. Secondly, it had burdened it-self with large debts aft er taking advantage of the Asian Crisis to buy-up assets ‘on the cheap.’ Th irdly, it spent Euro11.2bn to buy Hanson (another company with the bulk of its assets in mature markets) at the top of the market in 2007. With the rug pulled from under its feet during the Credit Crisis (its debt has been rated as ‘junk’ for years) and revenues faltering, the major shareholder and controller of the company, Adolf Merckle, tragically took his own life in January 2009. Adolf named his son Ludwig as the sole heir of his businesses in his last will, including include fi rms Ratiopharm, Kässbohrer, Phoe-nix and VEM Group, some of which are now up for sale. Ludwig has reduced the family’s shareholding in HC to 72.4% from 80%, and continues to fi ght for the compa-ny’s survival. However, it is a tough fi ght.

At the end of August, Schwenk Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG sold its fi nal shares in HeidelbergCement. Sch-wenk has been a business partner of HeidelbergCement for about 100 years, and has been a major shareholder for a long time. Th e Schwenk family sold its last 2.4 million shares for Euro83m, having already sold stakes totalling over 3.3m shares, and despite being relatives with the other major shareholders, the Merckle family.

Prudent move or fi re sale?In order to fi nd the cash to get through this diffi cult pe-riod, the company has had to look at all options - even those that are unpalatable. HC has announced plans to sell all non-core assets to raise cash and pay down debt.

HeidelbergCement is in the ‘early stages’ of sell-ing non-core operations at its Hanson UK businesses. According to David Weeks at Hanson UK, “It’s a long-term strategy. It may make more sense to hang onto them for another couple of years. Th e UK brick market has fallen by nearly 50%.” Th e bulk of Hanson UK Building Products operations, which makes up around 20% of turnover and includes its brick unit, will be sold. According to local reports, Cementir Holding SpA has expressed an interest in acquiring the assets. However, Hanson’s aggregates, cement and concrete businesses will not be sold, aft er being identifi ed as core areas by the parent com-pany in May 2009.

Private-equity fi rms Bain Capital LLC, CVC Capital Partners Ltd. and 3i Group PLC have shown interest in buying HC’s

Recent cement industry projects

Spenner ZementIn cooperation with the parent company Tran-sorga Cement AG in Zürich, Intercem was granted the contract to convert a grinding plant in Erwitte for Spenner Cement. For the team from Oelde in Münsterland, this was the break-through in Germany. In the past few years the consolidated Intercem/Transorga companies have succeeded in achieving an international reputation through work such as the conversion of a cement kiln for the Sharjah Cement Factory in Dubai. Less well known, by contrast, is the fact that Intercem has, in the meantime, planned 13 grinding facilities and supplied the major portion as semi-turnkey projects.

Th e Spenner project was also off ered as a semi-turnkey project. Th e electrical equipment was provided by the operator, Spenner. Th e project comprises conversion of a centre dis-charge mill with drying chamber for raw mix into a two-chamber mill with fi nal discharge for granulated clinker. Th e existing mill has a diameter of 3.2m and is 9.75m long. Th e new components supplied include a third generation diaphragm, the complete fi lter equipment, a fl uidised bed drier and the required dust extrac-tion lines in the present mill building. Transport equipment for the fi nished material to the three present silos as well as connection of a new hot gas line to the present clinker cooler is included in the scope of delivery. Th e total capacity of the mill is 30t/hour of granulated clinker, with a fi neness of 3000 Blaine.

Th e affi liate company, Intercem Installation GmbH, was granted the contract for complete disassembly of all present old equipment in the mill building as well as complete installation of all system components to be supplied including the required steel construction.

Intercem distinguished itself particularly through use of a 3-D scanner system and its

Right: A Sehring ready-mixed

concrete truck delivering a

fresh load to a large construc-

tion site in Frankfurt.

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Malaysian assets, according to sources close to the deal, assets with a value of at least US$200m that it acquired through the Hanson purchase. HC has 40 ready-mixed concrete plants, 17 aggregate quarries and 20 asphalt plants in Malaysia.

In mid-June 2009 HC raised US$312m from the sale of a 14.1% stake in PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa. Aft er the divestment to international institutional inves-tors, HC’s share in Indocement had been reduced to 51%. HC has also said it will sell its operations in Israel in a deal worth about Euro120m.

In the fi rst half of the year, HeidelbergCement sold off non-core operations in transactions totalling Euro324 m. But CEO Bernd Scheifele reiterated that despite the weak economic environment there will be no ‘fi re sales’ of the company’s assets. Holcim Ltd. ‘has no immediate plans to buy assets’ of HeidelbergCement according to Chief Executive Markus Akermann. He said that further steps “will depend on whether any HeidelbergCement assets will be on sale.”

Results point the wayHeidelbergCement has said that its cost-cutting meas-ures helped it to post second-quarter net profi t well above expectations and it now plans full-year cost sav-ings of almost double its initial target. Net profi t was Euro333m in the second quarter, below the Euro410m a year earlier, but signifi cantly higher than analysts’ ex-pectations of Euro134m.

Earnings improved sharply aft er the traditionally weak fi rst quarter, during which the company suff ered a loss of Euro63m. Operating profi t was Euro446m, well above the fi rst quarter’s Euro11m, and was Euro635m before write-downs, according to CEO Scheifele. It goes without saying that Heidel-bergCement slashed its dividends for 2008. A dividend payment of Euro0.12 per share was proposed at the general annual meeting, aft er Euro1.30 per share was paid for 2007. HC now aims for cost-savings of Euro470m through 2009, well in excess of an initial

target of Euro250m. Th e company said it still expects a decline in 2009 revenue and operating profi t for this year, despite some signs of recovery in specifi c markets. Due to its strong presence in the USA and in the UK, the company hopes to profi t strongly from any economic rebound there. At the same time, the company will pur-sue restructuring measures, particularly in the UK and North America, he added.

Lorenz Naeger, CFO of HC, said the company hopes to implement measures to strengthen its capital “sooner rather than later”. During a recent ‘Roadshow’ the com-pany probed sentiment among the bigger investors in Frankfurt and London, and is said to have encountered active interest.

HC’s supervisory board has extended the contract of CEO Bernd Scheifele by fi ve years: Scheifele’s contract



state-of-the-art 3-D planning. Th is project will be completed by the end of 2009.

Phoenix Zement

A cement packing machine went into operation in April at the Phoenix Zementwerke Krogbeum-ker GmbH & Co. KG in Beckum. Th e machine is the Haver Roto Classico with 12 fi lling spouts, which is the latest development from its decades-long partner Haver & Boecker in Oelde. Th is new compact fi lling system was integrated into Phoenix’s existing packing line. At the same time the discharge line was modernised. Th e installation was carried out in just ten days, two days of which were needed for disassembling the old packer. Fine adjustments were carried out during operation.

Lafarge’s Wössingen plant

Th e main burner on the modernised kiln line in Wössingen was lit on March 20th this year. Aft er 19 months as a building site and half a million hours of work, the major project came to frui-tion. Around 400 workers covering ten diff erent nationalities worked on site and thanks to a comprehensive safety-at-work concept no acci-dents occurred.

Two days aft er kiln start-up the new installa-tion produced its fi rst clinker. Th e modernised plant, with its 108m tall preheater tower, can be seen from afar and is one of Germany’s most effi -cient plants. Fuel requirement per produced ton of cement can now be reduced by 25% along with corresponding CO2 emission reductions.

In the months leading up to the kiln line modernisation, sales personnel were in close contact with its customers, fi ne-tuning the ‘recipes’ of the cement scheduled to be produced in the new kiln.

In addition to the kiln, a new administration building containing offi ces, a canteen and social club was also built.

On the 26th and 27th June, the plant cel-ebrated a summer festival with 800 customers and local stakeholders, off ering a plant tour, a wide range of entertainment and safety work-shops. A spectacular high-level rescue of a person on the preheater tower formed part of this (see left ) while the local Walzbachtal volun-tary fi re-brigade demonstrated how a car fi re is extinguished. A Lafarge team also showed in a simulator how people, safely secured with seat-belts, can survive a mild car accident where the vehicle is turned over.

Th e absolute highlight of the celebrations was reportedly the illumination of the preheater tower which dazzled onlookers with a sea of colour over four evenings, creating a unique ambience.

Above: The spectacular

high-level simulated rescue of

an injured worker during the

summer festival at Lafarge’s

Wössingen plant.

Lafarge Cement Wössingen Preheater tower 102m high Steel structure: 1900 tons Claddings: 4500m2 Walkways: 140 tons Railing: 2200m 5 Cyclone stage: 150 tons Hot gas duct: 80 tons Combustion chamber: 20 tons Mixing chamber: 30 tons Stack: 103 tons Bucket elevator: 110 tons Tertiary air duct: 63 tons Meal pipes: 30 tons Construction time: April 2008 to 1 April 2009

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would otherwise have expired in January 2010. It is obviously useful to have a steady and experienced hand on the tiller of the ship when it is in stormy waters.

Despite all of its eff orts in the capital markets, HC has also considered taking state aid. According to sources close to the company, HC has considered an application for aid from a German state Euro100bn fund to resuscitate German industry. “State help is something that HeidelbergCement is looking at,” said the source, adding that no talks had yet been started with the gov-ernment. “If needed it could be part of the fi nal refi nancing solution.”

Hope for the future?HC’s creditor banks had unanimously agreed to grant it a bridge loan of Euro600m in mid-May, to ensure its survival. Th e deal came with the price of a hike in borrow-ing costs, with interest rates expected to be

about 4% above Euribor, up from below 1% previously. In August, HC then won a lifeline from than 50 lenders when it restructured Euro8.7bn in loans, giving it until the end of 2011 to sell assets and cut costs to overhaul its strained fi nances. Existing fi nancing covenants were also brought to a level which corresponds with the changed economic environment.

Although HC still has a long way to go before it posts the sparkling results of its post-Unifi cation 1990s heydays, its strenuous eff orts to reform itself fi nancially seem to be paying off . For example, Unicredit upgraded its stance on HC to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ and kept the share price target at Euro27.60, on the basis that signs from the fi rst fi ve months of the year contains hope for a recovery (the fall in sales in April and May 2009 was less than in 1Q 2009), and due to the fi rst signs of improvement which are ‘already observable in markets such as China, India and Australia.’ Perhaps as a sign of optimism in the future trend of the value of shares in HC, German HypoVereinsbank acquired 6.4% in HC in June 2009.

At the end of June, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) affi rmed the B- long-term and the B short-term credit rating of HeidelbergCement with a negative outlook, although it was taken off the watch list, where it was put with negative implications last October. Th e reaffi rmed rat-ing refl ects the successful refi nancing of debts, while the negative outlook is based on the risk of weakening the company’s liquidity. Fitch Ratings has done the same thing, but notes that HC’s credit metrics are likely to re-main weak in the coming 24 months and also views the concentration of the debt maturity profi le in December 2011 as a key rating risk.

OutlookTh e worst seems to be over in the German cement in-dustry, and the surviving companies in the sector will emerge from the recession leaner, fi tter and hopefully more profi table. By mid-2010, we should see moderate but sustainable growth. Let’s hope so.

Above: A Feldbinder-supplied

tanker operated by Laszig

Baustoff e und Silotransporte

at the Kalkwerke Breckweg

lime plant in Rheine, north-

ern Germany.

On behalf of Lafarge, Wössingen plant man-ager Lutz Weber, took the opportunity to express his thanks to the local community in the form of a donated automatic external defi brillator. He also expressed special thanks to all employees, “in particular the construction site team which invested great commitment, time and passion in the project.”

Märker Zement

A new Polab® laboratory automation system has been ordered from Polysius by Märker Zement, Harburg. Nine complete sampling and dispatch stations are to be used for obtaining samples (raw meal, preheater feed meal, hot meal, clinker and fi ve cement samples). A new pneumatic delivery system will be installed for the cement sampling systems, while the other samplers will be connected to the existing pneumatic delivery tube network.

Th e Polab® ACT laboratory automation system is to be installed in the laboratory for process samples. An additional Polab APMplus will be integrated for the purpose of manual sample feeding. Th e sample preparation systems will be linked-up to existing analysis systems.

Commissioning of the new laboratory auto-mation system is planned for the start of 2010.

PSA Automation

PSA Automation of Heidelberg has fi nished a job, ‘Step 1, renew control system in German ce-ment plant from Cemat V4 to Simatic PCS7 V7 and Cemat V7,’ at an un-named German cement plant, in July 2009.

Dyckerhoff ’s Göllheim plant

In 2008 Aumund Foerdertechnik of Rheinberg, Germany, received an order to supply three ro-tary discharge machines in low profi le design for the transport of dihydrate, anhydrite and lime-stone to the Göllheim plant of Dyckerhoff AG where they have now been commissioned. Th e new discharge machines replace a system that had already been equipped in 1964 with portal-type rotary discharge machines of Aumund’s sister company Louise Fördertechnik.

Th e rotary discharge machines with a convey-ing capacity of 20–200t/hour and a travelling dedusting fi lter installed in each of them, will be used to discharge and meter additives in the form of dihydrate, anhydrite and limestone from a storage hall.

In addition to the discharge systems, the supply scope for Dyckerhoff ’s Göllheim plant comprises one belt conveyor (1m/s conveying speed and 250t/hour conveying capacity) and three belt weighers including the complete con-trol package for the system.

Long aft er the deadline for pre-registration had passed – and therefore being too late to ensure legal certainty

– a fi rst draft of the guidelines for the application of Annex V of the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) legislation has now been produced by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). It will now have to be approved by Competent Authorities for REACH and CLP (CARACAL) and will then be offi cially published by ECHA.

For the European cement industry, this is an important document and an encouraging sign that Cembureau’s perception of the issues at stake in Annex V was correct. Firstly, the guidance document explains which substances are covered by the entry ‘cement clinker’ in Annex V.10, and are thus exempt from registration.

Th e text explicitly lists examples such as Portland cement clinker and aluminous cement clinker. Th e de-scription of Portland cement clinker also covers white cement clinker. Although not explicitly mentioned, and as the examples given in the list are not exhaustive, it may be convincingly argued that sulpho aluminate cement clinker is also exempt from registration. Further good news is that petcoke is also exempt from registration. Petcoke is very widely used in large volumes as a fuel in the cement industry. Th e exemption is therefore welcomed.

A third and more diffi cult step has been made with respect to hydrated substances. If the manufacturer or importer registered the anhydrous form, the downstream user in the same supply chain can change the hydration level of the substance without additional registration. Th is logical solution has prevailed over an earlier internal draft version that would have required the registration of hemi-hydrate calcium sulphate, which is produced in the cement manufacturing process as a result of gypsum dehydrating when mixed with hot clinker.

With regards to the European cement industry, it looks as though REACH is not going to prove an insuper-able task. It will, however, remain a complex one and one which will lead to extra costs and resources, such as, for example, the case of registration of cement clinker dust being placed on the market, or having to comply with in-formation exchange requirements, which will apply to all cement producers.

Th e direct burden of REACH will be far greater in other sectors and it is hoped that this will not lead to cer-tain productions being discontinued at the risk and the

expense of downstreamers, such as the cement and con-crete industries.

Th e revision of Annex V of REACH, followed by the much needed guidance that is now in draft form, will make REACH a safer ground for the cement industry. But is it the last touch? Th e problem with REACH is that each problem seems to lead to a new unanticipated diffi culty. No doubt, more surprises are in store.

EU Emission Trading Scheme Directive and CCS Directive enter into forceTh e Directive that set out to amend Directive 2003/87/EC – which seeks to improve and extend the EU greenhouse gas emission allowance trading system (EU ETS) – and the Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide (CCS) have been published in the EU’s Offi cial Journal along with the rest of the climate change package.Th e EU ETS Directive, which was put in force on 25 June 2009, revises the emissions trading system as of 2013.

Meanwhile, the CSS Directive provides a legal frame-work for carbon capture and storage. It states that Member States will determine the areas to be made available for storage, specify the condition for site use and include provisions governing exploration. EU leaders have agreed to spend Euro1.05bn on developing carbon capture and storage plants as part of a Euro5bn stimulus package that will be taken from the 2009-2010 EU budget and will be spent on energy and broadband technology projects. Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK will each receive Euro180m, while Italy will receive Euro100m and France Euro50m.

CO2 trading to triple by 2016Th e price of carbon in the EU is likely to increase from around Euro15/t to Euro40/t by 2016, according to market analysts. Such an increase is vital in order to meet the EU’s current emission reduction targets of 20% below 1990 lev-els and any possible increased reduction targets that may be discussed at the UN’s Copenhagen summit in Decem-ber 2009. By creating a surplus of allowances however, the current economic crisis could make it politically easier for the EU to commit to a 30% cut in Copenhagen.


The View from Brussels

Jean-Marie Chandelle Chief Executive of CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association

VIEWPOINT

globalglobalcement cement MAGAZINE MAGAZINE September 2009 41


NEWSEUROPE

Start-up Novacem raises UK£1m to fund eco-cement ventureUK: A British start-up company developing a cement that absorbs carbon dioxide has raised UK£1m to fund its work, underscoring the growing interest in eco-friendly construction ventures. Novacem, a spin-off from Imperial College London, is one of a number of young companies tapping new technologies to reduce the cement industry’s notoriously large carbon footprint.

With an annual production of more than 2.5Bt, conventional Port-land cement is responsible for an estimated 5% of global CO2 emissions – more than the airline industry. Novacem believes its ‘carbon-negative’ cement answers the problem because it absorbs more carbon dioxide over its life cycle than it emits. The trick is to make cement from mag-nesium silicates rather than calcium carbonate, or limestone, since this material does not emit CO2 in manufacture and absorbs the green-house gas as it ages.

Novacem estimates that for every tonne of Portland cement re-placed by its product, around three-quarters of a tonne of CO2 is saved, turning the cement industry from a big emitter to a big absorber of carbon. Novacem chairman Stuart Evans said that the cash injection from Imperial Innovations, the Royal Society Enterprise Fund and the London Technology Fund would help fund a pilot plant that should be up and running in northern England in 2011.

CTP Team secure order for Halyps cement plantGreece: CTP Team, part of the Bedeschi Group, has re-cently secured an order for Halyps cement plant which is part of Italcementi Group in Greece. The scope of work is relevant to the upgrade of the existing condi-tioning tower and the supply of the process fi lter for kiln and raw mill ex-haust gas dedusting, including a new lime injection system for SOx reduction.

The project includes a new com-pressed air station, lime dosing silos, ducting, a fi lter fan, the dismantling of ex-isting equipment and the erection of the new ones. The electrical feeding facilities and automation system have also been supplied. The lime injection system has been designed to reduce the SO2 concentration at the stack to 300mg/Nm3.

Ukraine: ABB Switzerland Ltd has announced that it has won an order from International building group CRH to deliver electrical and automation equipment for Podilsky Cement’s new produc-tion line no 7. The order was booked in June 2009.

Once the project is completed, the new cement produc-tion line will have a daily output of 7500t. The Podilsky Cement factory, located in Kamanyets-Podilsky, approximately 500km southwest of Kiev, was constructed in the 1970s and is one of the biggest cement plants in the Ukraine.

The expansion project will help the plant to decrease the emissions from fossil fuel combustion by changing the technol-ogy of the cement production from a wet production process to

a state-of-the-art dry production process.According to a press release, ABB will supply electrical and

automation equipment including intelligent motor control centres MNSiS, instrumentation and System 800xA for com-plete plant control. Also included in this package is Knowledge Manager from the cpmPlus suite of solutions for more effi cient production management. ABB will also supply site services and customer training.

According to the company, this order has enabled ABB to build upon existing working relationships with the customer and end-user. In 2007, ABB delivered and installed the automa-tion system for the Podilsky Cement coal conversion project.

Cimpor’s stake in C+PA up for sale

Portugal: Portuguese cement producer Cimpor has announced that it still wants to sell its 48% stake in C+PA after the failure of its sale agreement with builder Teixeira Duarte in May 2009. Teixeira Duarte is the holder of the other 52% in C+PA, which holds cement assets and a shareholding in commercial bank Millennium bcp.

Cimpor included the stake in C+PA among the assets for sale in its report for the fi rst-half earnings presented at the end of August 2009. C+PA had a negative eff ect of Euro4.249m on Cimpor’s results for the period.

Cimpor did not provide information on the value of C+PA. However, in May 2009, it was expecting to receive Euro47.2m for its 48% stake in the company from Teixeira Duarte.

Eurocement Group to supply cement for 2013 Universiade in KazanRussia: According to a company statement, Eurocement Group will supply cement for the construction of facilities for the 2013 Summer Universiade to be held in Kazan. Eurocement Group President Mikhail Skorokhod and Rustam Minnikhanov, the prime minister of the con-stituent republic of Tatarstan, have signed an agreement for cement supplies for the Universiade.

The Universiade is an international multi-sport event organised every two years in a diff erent city by the International Univer-sity Sports Federation.

ABB wins order to supply equipment to Podilsky Cement plant

The Halyps cement plant in Greece

The Halyps cement plant in GreeceArtist’s impression for the 2013 Universiade sports complex


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NEWSEUROPE

European news in brief

UK: Lafarge Cement UK has submitted plans to put up a warehouse at a cement works in Works Lane, Barnstone, Nottingham. Rushcliff e Borough Council has said that it will make a decision about the ap-plication once public consultation comes to an end on 11 September 2009.

Greece: The Siemens Industry Solutions Division of Siemens AE Greece has won an order from the Cyp-riot cement producer Vassiliko Cement Works Public Company Ltd. to supply the electrical and automa-tion equipment for a new kiln line and cement mill. An energy monitoring system integrated into the PCS7-based process control system will constantly monitor energy consumption in the plant. The order is worth some fourteen million euros. The new pro-duction line is due to go on stream in January 2011.

UK: Construction Knowledge has added Mike Bridges to its network of international associates. Mike has spent the last 20 years in the building materials sec-tor either in industrial roles or as a sector analyst with major banks. Early in his career, Mike spent fi ve years as a process engineer in a Blue Circle cement plant, gaining invaluable experience on the fundamentals of the cement industry.

Russia: According to a press release, Sberbank of Russia and Mordovtsement have concluded a gen-eral agreement for a Euro44m credit line for seven years. The funds will be spent to cover the building of a new Mordovtsement plant. Mordovtsement is one of the largest cement makers in Russia with pro-duction capacity of 4.46Mt/y and its products have been used in the construction of hydro power plants in various regions in Russia.

Italy/Brazil: In the past few months, Greco has sup-plied several systems now operating in Brazil, France, and Tanzania among other countries. The company has also been hired to supply its combustion sys-tems to cement plants in Brazil, Africa and Europe. A technological partnership was also signed with the Italian company CTP, one of the most important companies supplying dedusting systems for the ce-ment and lime industries in the world.

UK: As part of the Heritage Open Days scheme – a series of events celebrating Coventry and Warwick-shire’s rich architecture and culture – people with a head for heights can take a rare trip up a 400ft chim-ney at Cemex’s Lawford Road cement plant, giving visitors the opportunity to take adavantage of unri-valled views of Rugby town. The Lawford Road plant is one of dozens of venues across the region – which are normally closed to the public or which charge an entrance fee – off ering free admission between 10-13 September 2009.

Lafarge Cement announces half-year results

France: French cement producer Lafarge has announced its fi nancial results for the fi rst half of 2009. Free cash fl ow improved by Euro746m year-to-date. Net debt declined by Euro2.3bn in the second quarter Lafarge continued to implement signifi cant cash generation actions by reducing costs, improving working capital and limiting capital expenditures.

According to Lafarge, the economic slowdown negatively impacted volumes and margins, particularly in developed markets, for both the quarter and year-to-date. Lafarge benefi ted from the well-positioned geographic portfolio of its cement assets, including new plants started in 2008, recording strong operating income growth in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Bruno Lafont, chairman and chief executive offi cer of Lafarge, said: “Lafarge achieved a strong increase in cash generation in the fi rst half of 2009, despite a decline in current operating income. Our operational performance in reducing costs, sustaining capex, and improving work-ing capital along with the benefi t of our well-balanced geographic portfolio has enabled the Group to better weather the downturn. We have already made substantial progress in the action plan launched in February.”

“Approximately Euro750m in divestments have been secured to date, the Euro1.5bn capital raising was fi nalised and debt refi nancing has been completed on competitive terms. All these actions have reduced net debt, eliminating the related debt covenant and have extended the group’s debt maturity profi le.”

“Although some positive signals start to be seen, our priority is to continue to successfully implement our action plan and to be fl exible in responding to the challenging market trends. The eff ects of our op-erational improvements in combination with our focus on innovative products and development projects will enable us to continue to lead the sector at the time of the economic recovery.”

BaselCement may face Euro4.4m fi neRussia: Russia’s BaselCement-Pikalyovo, a unit of BaselCement, may face a fi ne of about Euro4.4m for an antitrust violation, according to Denis Davydov, an offi cial of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. A press release from the Federal Antimonopoly Service says that it will consider the company’s case on 7 September 2009.

In January 2009, the antimonopoly service found BaselCement-Pika-lyovo guilty of violating antimonopoly laws by stopping supplies of raw materials to the Pikalyovsky Cement plant, a unit of the Russian cement holding Eurocement Group and of reducing supplies of raw materials to Metakhim in 2008.

These actions resulted in a halt of production at the Pikalyovsky Ce-ment plant and reduced output at Metakhim. Since the companies are major employers in the city of Pikalyovo in the Leningrad Region, their problems have deteriorated the social situation in the city.

In July 2009, the Moscow Arbitration Court supported the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s decision on BaselCement-Pikalyovo. The com-pany then fi led a complaint to the Ninth Moscow Arbitration Court of Appeals against the ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court, according to court records obtained by Russian press.

BaselCement is the cement production unit of Russian holding Basic Element.


NEWSEUROPE

Three E and ProTex at Filtech 2009

Germany: The latest developments in the fi ltration and sepa-ration technology will be presented to the public at the Filtech 2009 in Wiesbaden from 13-15 October 2009. The conference, which also has a parallel trade fair, off ers an excellent platform for the exchange of experience within the fi ltration industry. Intensiv-Filter will take this opportunity to introduce for the fi rst time a fundamental new development. The innovation enables an increased reduction of the energy consumption of jet-pulse baghouse fi lters of up to 40%. Dr Gunnar-Marcel Klein, Intensiv-Filter’s technical director, will introduce the new Intensiv-Filter Three E fi lter technology and the new ProTex fi lter media to the ‘fi ltration community’ at the conference.

Holcim announces 51% drop in H12009 profi tsSwitzerland: Holcim has raised its cost-cutting target as it posted a 51% drop in fi rst-half net profi t due to weak con-struction demand in Europe and the United States. Net profi t for the period fell to Euro323m, but this was ahead of the aver-age estimate of Euro322.5m in a Reuters poll. The group said it was now aiming to cut fi xed costs by Euro396m in 2009 after previously targeting cuts of Euro247m.

‘’Holcim’s strong footprint in the emerging markets par-tially off sets the negative EBITDA development in the mature markets,’’ the group said in a statement. ‘’In Europe and North America, the government stimulus programmes will have a positive impact on demand, building up gradually over the next year,’’ it said.

The economic downturn and a harsh winter have caused property prices to slump, choking off growth in the construc-tion industry, especially in maturer markets, but more resilient demand in emerging markets has helped Holcim to cope with the slowdown.

According to Holcim, markets such as the US, the UK, Spain and Eastern Europe are expected to remain challenging in the second half of 2009. In contrast, Asia and India in particular, will likely continue to show growth. In Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, Holcim expects business to likewise fol-low a favourable trend.

Therefore, according to the company statement, “Holcim will continue to concentrate its strengths on factors that it can infl uence. This includes focusing on the continued rapid reduction of production capacity in all segments to changes in the market environment and the consistent implementa-tion of the cost-cutting programmes. The targeted reduction in fi xed costs in 2009 has been increased from Euro247m to Euro395.4m. Furthermore, continued high priority is given to the fi nancial strength of the group. Investments will continue to be kept to a minimum, and current assets will be strictly managed.”

http://www.hardtop-gmbh.com

Germany: HeidelbergCement has published a sustainability report for the third time, transparently highlighting in detail the Group activities relevant to sustainability. The Sustainabil-ity Report 2009 provides information on the crucial progress HeidelbergCement has made in central fi elds of the Group sustainability strategy in the years 2007 and 2008: Both with respect to climate protection and preservation of resources, the targeted goals were, in part, clearly exceeded. For instance, the Group made a commitment to reducing direct net specifi c CO2 emissions by 15% by 2010 compared with 1990. In 2008, a reduc-tion by 18% was already achieved. With a proportion of 17.5%, HeidelbergCement continues to be the industry front-runner in the use of alternative fuels. Biomass accounts for around one third of the total alternative fuel rate.

Furthermore, HeidelbergCement strives to establish its lead-ership role in promoting biodiversity in quarrying sites – through the implementation of Group-wide standards and guidelines, among other things. Sustainability also plays an increasingly im-portant role in product development: With innovative products, the Group makes tangible contributions towards sustainable building.

“We have achieved a lot and made considerable progress,” explains Dr. Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board. “With our Sustainability Ambitions 2020, we have set ourselves

ambitious goals on the path to greater sustainability.”The focal topics of HeidelbergCement’s Sustainability Ambi-

tions 2020 are defi ned by the core business:Giving highest priority to occupational health and safety: • HeidelbergCement strives for zero accidents, injuries and oc-cupational illnesses;Protecting the climate: HeidelbergCement works continu-• ously to minimise its greenhouse gas emissions and delivers solutions for adaptation to climate change;Delivering a prominent positive contribution to biodiversity: • HeidelbergCement aims to establish a leadership position in the development of biodiversity at its mining and quarrying sites;Working for sustainable construction: HeidelbergCement • works to deliver sustainable building materials, which positively contribute to the welfare of our society and to our environment – during and after their lifetime;Using waste as a resource: By viewing waste and by-products • as a resource, HeidelbergCement minimises the use of natural resources and off ers solutions for sustainable waste manage-ment;Further reducing other environmental impacts: HeidelbergCe-• ment aims to be best in class in managing and minimising its environmental impacts.


NEWSEUROPE

HeidelbergCement publishes Sustainability Report 2009

HGH awarded ‘Product of the Year Award’ 2008France: HGH, an expert in infrared optronics for over 25 years, has received the “Product of The Year 2008” award from the prestigious US magazine ‘NASA Tech Briefs.’ The prize was awarded to HGH for its innova-tive Vigiscan (IR Revolution 360) panoramic infrared camera, which enables 360° surveillance and detec-tion across large areas. HGH proposes a very fl exible off er for VIGISCAN, its thermal panoramic camera. The sensor is available in OEM confi guration for integra-tors or standalone confi guration for end users.

The visualisation software allows the creation of a multitude of polygonal detection zones within the 360° image. The detection of intrusions can also be achieved over the full panoramic image. The detec-tion sensitivity and alarm fi ltering parameters can be fully customised by the operator via a user-friendly GUI. Moreover, the user can modify at will the display confi guration, such as the number of panoramic image strips, zoom windows and 360° annular views.

All videos can be transmitted in real time via secured networks or via the Internet after data compression. The sensor can be remotely controlled from the software. Contrary to conventional thermal cameras mounted onto pan and tilt tripods, Vigiscan enables continuous day and night visualisation, de-tection and the tracking of an unlimited number of targets over 360°.

Readymix announces Euro6.9m loss for H12009Ireland: Cement fi rm Readymix has reported a pre-tax loss of Euro6.9m for the fi rst half of the year and has warned that demand has continued to contract amid ‘exceptional weakness’ in the housing and commercial construction markets. Shares in the company closed down nearly on 18 August 2009 after it said that revenue slumped 45% to Euro41.6m for the six months to the end of June 2009.

Majority owned by Mexican cement giant Cemex, Dublin-headquar-tered Readymix said in an interim trading statement that cost reduction initiatives had failed to off set a ‘serious reduction’ in revenues, leading to Euro7.1m of operating losses being recorded for the fi rst six months of 2009.

The group, which also operates in Northern Ireland as Cemex NI, has also had to avail itself of a fi nancial crutch from a Cemex subsidiary, se-curing a cash facility of up to Euro15m, but continues to have a strong balance sheet. The operating loss for the period was an improvement, however, on the Euro9.7m fi gure reported for the fi rst half of 2008. The company has cut 10% of its workforce since the end of 2008 due to market conditions.

It said that it is focusing on appropriate asset allocation, and noted that a series of major investment projects, which commenced in 2007, are now operational, including the Millennium Readymix plant in Dub-lin and its Titanic Quarter plant in Belfast.

The company added that revenue from its aggregates unit tumbled 30% year-on-year in the fi rst half of 2009, while turnover from the sale of concrete blocks, and other revenue, was 52% lower.

The number of houses being built in the country has slumped from record highs and led to a glut of rental property on the market. Readymix said that it expects ‘very demanding’ trading conditions for the remainder of 2009 to continue into 2010.

Schenck reveals FloMaster Circular Bin DischargerGermany: Schenck Process has revealed its latest techno-logical development in the form of the FloMaster Circular Bin Discharger. According to a press release, “the FloMaster is a compact and totally enclosed positive discharge aid for hoppers and silos where the material to be handled has char-acteristics that make it diffi cult to discharge or control. A rotating arch breaker arm travels around the hopper bottom section of the silo, breaking any bridge of material which may have formed. This ensures that a fl ow of material to the discharger is supplied to the single, twin or three stage units off ered by Schenck Process, suiting the characteristics of the material to be handled and the throughputs required.

Fabricated in mild steel, the FloMaster is designed to handle a wide variety of materials ranging from ash to coal. Capacities of up to 200t/h are achievable with the two stand-ard bin sizes of 32 and 40 inches in diameter.

Schwenk family sells out participation in HeidelbergCementGermany: Schwenk Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG has sold its participation in Germany’s highly indebted cement producer HeidelbergCement. Schwenk has been a business partner of HeidelbergCement for about 100 years and has been a major shareholder for a long time.

The Schwenk family sold its last 2.4 million shares for Euro83m over the counter and has thus pulled out of HeidelbergCement completely. Towards the end of August 2009, the family had already sold stakes totalling over 3.3 mil-lion shares.

Eurocement to build new Euro352m plant

Russia: Major cement manufacturer Eurocement Group has announced plans to build a Euro352m cement factory in the country’s Voronezh region. The plant is reportedly to be located in the region’s Podgorensky district. The plant’s projected capacity is up to 2Mt/y of cement. Construction is scheduled to begin in August 2009 and last up to two years.

NEWSEUROPE

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NEWSNORTH and SOUTH AMERICA

News in brief

US: National Cement Company of Alabama, Inc. (NCC-AL) was featured in an article in the July-August 2009 edition of Global Cement Magazine (p. 50). The article spotlighted NCC-AL’s current Blue Springs Nature Preserve (BSNP) project, however the fi rst paragraph of the article stated that NCC-AL is based in Rag-land, Illinois, when in fact the company’s corporate headquarters are actually located in Birmingham, Alabama, and its cement plant facilities and the BSNP are located in Ragland, Alabama. Secondly, in paraphrasing Mr Brocheton’s comments, the sec-ond paragraph mistakenly reported that NCC-AL is owned by Lafarge. NCC-AL is owned by Vicat, which is headquartered in France. Global Cement Magazine apologises for these editorial discrepencies.

US: A cement plant described as the largest in the US has opened in eastern Missouri, about 50 miles south of St Louis in St Genevieve County. The US$1bn plant was built by Holcim US and production at the plant began on 17 August 2009. Despite a low demand for cement and recent plant closures in Dundee, Michi-gan, and Clarksville, Montana, as well as temporary closures in Mason City, Iowa, and Artesia, Mississippi, Holcim US has said that it is looking forward to bet-ter times.

US: A penalty for air-quality violations at Waco’s (Texas) Lehigh Cement Co could help to improve the air quality on some local school buses. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has recently approved a US$160,140 order with the plant. Regula-tors said that the plant exceeded the permitted level of emissions of nitrogen oxide and failed to submit various required emissions reports between 2004 and 2007. Of the fi ne amount, US$55,590 will be granted to a ‘supplementary environmental project’ that will retrofi t diesel school buses in the Waco area to reduce emissions.

Venezuela: The former Venezuelan branch of Cemex, nationalised in 2008, has posted record production at one of its plants, totalling 240,925t in July 2009. Production at Anzoátegui state’s Pertigalete plant was the highest since 2003, and was the result of an increase in the company’s operating hours and the purchase and installation of four compression facilities.

According to the report, improvements and maintenance carried out on the facility’s equipment also contributed to the results. The improvements came as part of the government’s eff orts to recover the plant’s operating and technical capacity after a period of insuffi cient investment, the report said. Cemex initially rejected the nationalisation of its as-sets at the time but then agreed to hand them over to the state.

ABB enhances process analyser series with green house gas monitoring capabilitiesUS: ABB has announced the release of a range of upgrade solutions for the popular Advance Optima AO2000 Series Continuous Gas Analyser (CGA), which expands monitoring capability to include the measurement of CO2 green house gas emissions in light of the expected US EPA environmental compliance requirements. The regulations will impact reporting require-ments for cement kilns, nitric acid plants, power generation, incinerators, refi neries and petrochemical plants.

In a press release, ABB stated that a full range of upgrade options have been made available to meet site and application specifi c requirements, and upgrade options for non-ABB analysers are also available in order to meet the imminent environmental legislations.

The release stated: “For over 20 years, ABB has demonstrated its com-mitment to providing technical solutions for environmental compliance measurements. With its US Analytics Product and Service Centre in Hou-ston, Texas, access to global support resources, R&D and factory support, and partners in all areas of the US, ABB has proven expertise and expe-rience in understanding and meeting the global requirements of green house gas (GHG) reporting, as well as assisting with the most convenient and economical solutions. “

“ABB continuous gas analysers accurately measure emissions at very low levels to establish, maintain and prove compliance. Built for reliabil-ity, ease of maintenance, sensitivity, and fl exibility, these analysers are engineered to work with the plant’s specifi c stream compositions and within designated measurement ranges.”

Cemex announces second quarter results

Mexico: Cemex has announced that its consolidated net sales decreased to US$4.2bn versus US$6.3bn in the comparable period of 2008, repre-senting a decrease of 34%, or a decrease of 20% when adjusting for the exclusion of its Venezuelan operations, the sale of its assets in the Canary Islands, and currency fl uctuations. EBITDA decreased 41% in the second quarter of 2009 to US$812m from US$1.4bn in the same period of 2008, or 27% when adjusting for divestments and currency fl uctuations.

According to Cemex, lower sales in the quarter were primarily attribut-able to lower volumes, mainly from its US and Spanish operations, as well as the exclusion of its Venezuelan operations, and the sale of its assets in the Canary Islands, which were partially mitigated by price stability in most of the company’s markets. The infrastructure sector was the main driver of demand in most of the markets Cemex serves, despite the fact that it has not yet seen the positive impact of stimulus packages around the world.

Free cash fl ow after maintenance capital expenditures for the quarter was US$456m, down 38% from US$739m in the same quarter of 2008. Operating income decreased 54% during the quarter compared with the same period last year, reaching US$411m.

Hector Medina, Cemex’s executive vice president of fi nance and legal, said: “During the second quarter of 2009, we continued to face a chal-lenging business environment. In response to the diffi cult times we are facing, we are fi rst and foremost committed to reducing our debt level through the realisation of our global cost-reduction eff orts and our right-sizing initiatives. Cemex will continue to pursue its disciplined eff orts to become a leaner and more agile organisation, and to regain its fi nancial fl exibility in order to strategically position itself for future growth when the global economy stabilises.”


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NEWSNORTH and SOUTH AMERICA

Guyana loses cement tariff battleGuyana: On 20 August 2009, Guyana suff ered a legal defeat when the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that the government was in breach of norms governing the common external tariff of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). The court argued that Guyana violated Caricom norms when in 2006 it took the unilateral decision to remove the common external tariff on cement imported from outside Caricom.

The case had been brought by Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL). Guyana had argued that it had been entitled to lift the common external tariff on the grounds of TCL’s supposedly infrequent cement supplies, but the court dismissed this ar-gument. Guyana has now been given 28 days to re-instate the common external tariff on cement.

The ruling comes on the heels of another CCJ judgement involving TCL. On 10 August 2009, the CCJ dismissed TCL claims against Caricom for suspending the common external tariff s on cement imports in two cases. TCL had argued that both Caricom decisions were ultra vires, but this argument was rejected by the court. In its ruling, however, the CCJ set criteria for the Caricom Secretary General to follow in future cases.

Taken together, the cement case rulings could pave the way for clarifying the rules governing the common external tariff . This in turn is expected to strengthen Caricom’s legal framework. Given the mostly positive reception of the rulings from business associations, the cases are also expected to strengthen the role of the CCJ in upholding Caricom law.

US: According to the Portland Cement Asosciation (PCA), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will have a minimal impact on cement consumption and concrete output in 2009, owing to bureaucratic delays in releasing stimulus highway project funds and long lags between outlays and con-struction. In its most recent economic forecast, PCA projects a 22% decline in 2009 cement shipments against 2008 fi gures, but tempering that decline will be ARRA-fuelled projects and residential building recovery in 2010 and 2011, for which the association sees cement shipments rebounding 10.9% and 13.1%, respectively.

“The letting of ARRA dollars has been slower to develop than expected. A sustained and dramatic escalation of outlays must

occur if a sizeable increase in highway construction is going to materialise in 2009,” says PCA chief economist Edward Sullivan. “The residential sector has largely run its course as a signifi cant cause of cement consumption declines and will start to be a strong contributor to growth in late 2010, early 2011. Nonresi-dential construction will continue to be a drag until then end of 2011.”

“Public construction, typically accounting for 50% of cement consumption, has been hampered by large state budget defi -cits,“ he added, refl ecting a perfect storm of adverse economic conditions, unemployment and attendant tax revenue declines. “As jobs are created and consumer spending returns, public construction spending will rebound, but not until 2011.”


US: Eagle Materials Inc has announced a number of senior man-agement team appointments. D Craig Kesler has been promoted to executive vice president of fi nance and administration and CFO. William Devlin has been promoted to senior vice president, controller and chief accounting offi cer. Robert Stewart joins Eagle Materials as executive vice president, strategy, corporate development and communications, reporting to Steve Rowley, president and CEO.

Mr Kesler, who joined Eagle in 2004, has served as vice presi-dent, investor relations and corporate development since 2005. Mr Devlin joined Eagle Materials in 2004 as director of internal audit, and has served as vice president, controller since 2005. Mr

Stewart joins Eagle Materials from Centex Corporation where he served as an executive offi cer with responsibility for strategy, marketing, sales, corporate development and communications.

“These promotions, along with the addition of Mr Stewart strengthens Eagle’s senior management team and greatly adds to our capacity to implement our growth strategy while we maintain and extend our low cost producer positions,” said Mr Rowley. “I am confi dent that we have the best team in place to not only weather the current business cycle, but to emerge from it more competitive and with improved operating margins and earnings.”

Eagle Materials Inc announces promotions and new additions to the executive team

ARRA to have minimal eff ect on cement consumption, says PCA

UNICON cements savings with Shell lubricants

Peru: Leading South American concrete supplier, Unión de Concreteras (UNICON), has achieved a signifi cant estimated cost saving of US$46,319 per annum following the successful implementation of high performance diesel engine oil, Shell Rimula X, and oil and equipment condition monitoring service Shell LubeAnalyst, from Shell Lubricants.

Peru-based UNICON’s previous lubrication supplier off ered a solution that incorporated an ineffi cient used oil analysis report that was frequently delayed and had a slow turnaround time. This resulted in increased costs for the company due to high oil consumption and non-scheduled corrective maintenance.

To address the issue, Shell Lubricants implemented its glo-bal oil and equipment analysis service, Shell LubeAnalyst, for the company’s fl eet. It also extended the company’s oil drain interval (ODI) using Shell Rimula X, which led to savings across the board by signifi cantly increasing the availability of equip-ment.

“Since UNICON started using Shell Rimula X and Shell’s LubeAnalyst service, the ODI for its mixers, cement pumps, load-ers, gen sets and auxiliary equipment has been extended from 250 to 300 hours, with a total reduction of 222 maintenance hours per year across the fl eet,” comments Tom Crockford, glo-bal mining marketing manager at Shell Lubricants.


Robin Ackroyd

Apartment and offi ce blocks rise daily from dusty, traffi c clogged streets; labourers perch precariously

on springy wooden scaff olding, rattling in the wind, and the air is tarry with the scent of oil. In the near distance, Soviet-era nodding-donkeys pump ‘black gold’ from on-shore oil fi elds; in the relative shallows rusting rigs dot the Caspian Sea, and a helicopter fl ight away oil plat-forms exploit vast reserves in far deeper waters.

Th is is Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, reaping huge revenues from oil and gas under the Caspian, the world’s largest inland body of water. Its capital, Baku, is known as the City of Winds, with ferocious gusts spo-radically bowling dust along its leafy central avenues and sprawling suburbs, but Baku is famous for one thing above all else – oil.

More than 1% of the world’s oil now comes from Azerbaijan. It is pumped to the west along the 1768km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline connecting the capital to the Mediterranean Sea via Georgia and Turkey aft er the country signed the ‘deal of the century’ with a BP-led consortium to harvest the off shore wealth of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil fi eld in the Caspian. Th e country has seen double-digit GDP growth since 2003 (10.8% in 2008), making it one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Baku has seen an oil boom before – its population was just 5000 a little over 100 years ago – and the mag-nifi cent mansion blocks from the time of the Nobels and Rothchilds still stand, if encroached and dwarfed by high-rise buildings – some gleaming, some with ques-tionable urban planning and structural safety. Baku’s population has risen three-fold to 3million in little over a decade, and with that expansion has come rapid mod-ern construction, and the need, of course, for cement.

Fighting the downturnTh e global economic downturn, and the fl uctuating price of oil, has naturally slowed construction projects in the

capital and economic growth is predicted to decelerate this year, albeit from a high rate. Th e credit expansion has come to a halt. One investor’s service, Moody’s, said in June 2009 that the slowdown, coupled with funding constraints, is likely to adversely aff ect the asset quality and liquidity of Azerbaijani banks and ultimately their capitalisation.

However, private housing projects and major State building schemes are still in the pipeline in this country where the government is keen to expand the non-oil sector. Domestic production of cement has consistently been shy of demand and the country has been reliant on imports from Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.

Th e majority stakeholder in Azerbaijan’s leading cement works, Garadagh Cement, is the Swiss giant Holcim. Garadagh currently produces 1.3Mt of cement a year – 40% of the market consumption in Azerbaijan (which stood at 3.2Mt in 2007) but more than six-times the plant’s output of just 170,000t in 1999. Clinker pro-duction capacity has similarly risen from 120,000t/y to 790,000t/y.

Th e company predicts that the country’s demand for cement could, in spite of the economic downturn, still be heading for more than 4Mt by 2011. Production capacity, with four wet kilns based on 1940s technology, has however reached its limits. Th e European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to invest some Euro170m to expand Garadagh’s capacity by 30%, with the introduction of a new dry kiln proc-ess. Th e total capital investment for the project is an estimated Euro300m.

Th e director of the EBRD business group for south-ern and eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Oliver Descamps, said earlier this year: “Investing in one of the largest cement plants in the Commonwealth of Independent States is an important signal for the diversifi cation of the economy.” It is a message in line with the Azerbaijan government’s thinking – the non-oil

Boom town Baku – funded by ‘black gold,’ Boom town Baku – funded by ‘black gold,’ built with cementbuilt with cementRobin Ackroyd reports from Azerbaijan’s capital on a remarkable construction boom, now slowing in the economic downturn, and the expansion and upgrading of the country’s only cement and clinker manufacturing plant. As construction booms go, it has been nothing short of staggering.


BOOM TOWN BAKU

BOOM TOWN BAKU

sector has to further develop to diversify the economy, according to ministers.

Th e EBRD holds a 10% stake in Garadagh, aft er investing US$10m in 2007 to fi nance an environmen-tal and effi ciency upgrade designed to reduce dust emissions in line with European Union standards. Th e Azerbaijan Investment Company also holds a 10% stake in the company; private shareholders own 10.6%, and Holcim 69.4%. Holcim is the country’s biggest direct foreign investor outside the oil and gas sector.

Holcim entered Azerbaijan in 1999 with its successful tender for the for-merly State-owned Garadagh, 34km south west of Baku on the Salyan high-way near Sahil, the apartment-block settlement where most of the 550 work-ers live. Th e offi ce workers tend to travel in from the capital. ‘Sahil’ means ‘shore’ in Azeri, and the cement plant is a kilometre from the edge of the Caspian, set amidst unprepossessing semi-arid scrub.

Peter Gysel, external communica-tions director of Holcim, explained: “Holcim had a vision that it would expand into eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at a time when we had perestroika, and Holcim went in fairly aggressively. It had a very ad-vanced strategic vision. Holcim went in full swing – there were a lot of privatisations, and one of them was in Azerbaijan.”

Cost reductions and environmental benefi ts through plant modernisationHolcim’s initial acquisition of 86% of the share capital of Garadagh Cement was tied to contractual investments and social obligations totalling US$23m over fi ve years, all of which were fulfi lled. Electrostatic precipitators reduced kiln dust and emissions, new bag fi lters were installed, and more effi cient material and energy management led a drop in CO2 emissions from 770kg/t of cement to 645kg/t.

An environmental side benefi t has been the use of ‘produced water’ from BP’s nearby oil terminal at San-gachal in the cement production process. Produced water – that separated from oil – has to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, a challenge for BP. Th e oil giant relied on a combination of storage and trans-porting tanker loads of water to Garadagh in an eff ort to dispose of up to 80,000 barrels a day at peak production, while plans were set in motion to process it and re-inject it deep into the Azeri off shore reservoir through a sub-sea pipeline. At one point, 60t of produced water a day was being delivered from Sangachal to be used in slurry for the cement process.

Peter Gysel says: “As a global company, one thing that Holcim is interested in is waste disposal. It solves two issues: it saves fuel and of course it gets rid of waste, and so we are interested in using that (oil industry) waste.” Furthermore, on the environmental front, a programme of planting 1000 trees a year around the Garadagh site has been in place since 2003.

Further modernisation of Garadagh’s 52-hectare (520,000m2) site is set to increase cement production

to 1.7Mt/y. Clinker production capacity will rise from 2616t/d to 4000t/d, and signifi cant energy savings will be reaped through the use of dry technology.

Garadagh currently uses four wet process kilns, each four metres by 160m, fi red with gas from the Caspian Sea. Th e equipment uses a simple cooling system and dates from 1951, but gradual upgrades have seen each kiln fi tted with a Siemens gas analyser to control CO2 levels, and a gas station to regulate the pressure of the gas going into each kiln.

Two slurry basins run 24 hours a day and pump directly to the kilns. An on-site laboratory checks the moisture content, set at 34.5% for the wet process,

and also calibrates quarry material. Limestone waste aft er stone cut-ting comes by rail from the plant’s own nearby quarry. In Soviet times, quarry stone was crushed at the plant, but now there is a crusher in the quarry.

Th e clinker, heated to 450-500°C, also relied on a transporter from the Soviet era until recently, but this was upgraded in 2007 to a modern clinker transporter by Aumund. Garadagh is the only clinker producer in Az-erbaijan, but has to import upwards of 150,000t/y from another Holcim plant at Volsk, in Russia, to maximise

cement output. Five grab cranes, each with a 10t capacity, work in the clinker storage area. Ga-radagh has two modern grinding mills. Grinding media comes from Magotteaux in Belgium, when previously it was bought from Russia, Ukraine or local companies.

In 2007, new substation equipment from Siemens to control compressors and feeders was installed at a cost of US$1.5m. Garadagh uses three Schenck feeders for limestone, clay and iron, balanced at 75%, 20% and 5% respectively. Eight cement mills, each with 25t/h capac-ity, were installed in 2003. Around 90% of the dust is currently pumped back to the kilns, and the remainder is sold to companies for use in asphalt.

Th e plant has 18 cement silos, each with a 2000t capacity, and uses three bagging lines from Haver & Boecker for 56% of its cement, the remainder of which is sold in bulk. Th ird party companies deliver 89% of the product to customers, and the rest is collected from the site. Garadagh achieved sales worth Euro110m in 2007.

Right: Construction

workers at a building site

in the north of Azerbaijan.

Right: Workers beside

the wet process kilns that

are to be replaced by dry

kilns as part of Garadagh

cement’s improvement

plans.


http://www.aucbm.org

BOOM TOWN BAKU

Th e upgrade of the plant will see the four wet kilns replaced by a 72m long, dry process rotary kiln as early as the second quarter of 2011. Th ere may be an overlap, with two wet kilns running alongside the state-of-the-art new kiln for 5-10 years, but with an environmental upgrade.

Raw material accessAn unused limestone quarry, Shakhgaya-West, 15km inland and closed in Soviet times, is set to re-open to provide suffi cient extra raw material for increased clinker production for the next 50 years. A new crusher facility and the train loading station will be located there. Furthermore, an abandoned railway track will be reinstated to bring the limestone – about 35% of the plant’s demand – to Garadagh. On-site clinker produc-tion capacity will increase to 1.2Mt annually.

Th e kiln fuel will be imported hard coal – or petcoke if available, and from Azeri refi neries if possible – but fi ring with natural gas will also be possible. A coal mill, coal storage and fi ne coal silos have been envisaged. Filtering will control coal mill dust emissions, and solid fuel waste will be entirely incorporated into the clinker as raw material. Th e dry process will halve thermal en-ergy consumption for clinker production (from 6369kJ/kg clinker to 3200kJ/kg clinker), but it is envisaged that electricity consumption will rise by 16% due to raw ma-terial grinding in place of slurry, and due to coal, which also needs grinding, replacing natural gas for fuel.

Dust problems and emission level solutionsGaradagh Cement concedes that the plant, in spite of improvements aft er privatisation, is a major source of dust in the area with an emission plume visible from far away. Th e modernisation of the plant is designed to reduce that, with effi cient bag fi lters, particularly to capture dust from the dry kiln’s preheater and the grate cooler. Nitrogen oxide emissions will be reduced by using low-nitrogen oxide burners and by selective non-catalytic reduction.

Modern, housed storage will replace open storage areas and reduce airborne dust. Th e aim is to keep all emissions within national and international standards, but in spite of the new technology, CO2 emissions per tonne of cement will be reduced by only 9% because of the move from gas to coal as fuel. CO2 emissions during the fi rst year of full operation, 2013, are projected to be 587kg/t of cement produced.

Looking forwardHolcim has said that the project is being planned and will be constructed and operated according to interna-tional best practice and standards, including its own and the EBRD’s environmental policies and the guidelines for the cement industry issued by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). With these guidelines being implemented, Baku’s construc-

tion boom, which is slowing naturally due to the vagaries of the global banking system and the fl uctuating oil price, will have a fi rmer founda-tion to continue.

All content and images are copyright of Robin Ackroyd.


Key installations and modifi cations planned for Garadagh Cement:

A dry process rotary kiln, 72m long, replacing the four •

existing 160m long wet kilns;

A fi ve-stage cyclone pre-heater with in-line pre-•

calciner;

A new 140m high stack, replacing the three existing •

65m high stacks;

A new grate cooler for 4000t/d clinker production, •

equipped with shock blowers to avoid material

clogging;

A closed 10,000t storage hall, and a 24t/h vertical •

roller mill for solid fuels (coal and pet-coke);

A circular 24,000t storage hall for the pre-blending of •

diff erent qualities of limestone;

A pre-blending storage hall for clay and iron correction •

(eg bauxite);

A vertical 355t/h roller mill for raw material grinding;•

A 8000t homogenisation silo for raw meal;•

A 75,000t clinker silo to account for seasonal demand;•

A 16,000t cement silo, and two bulk truck loaders to •

increase cement storage capacity to 34,000t;

A new high voltage substation;•

Improvements to internal infrastructure to accom-•

modate the new kiln; for example: water, drainage,

power, process control;

Extension of existing internal railway tracks and a new •

train unloading station. Two tracks each with1500t/h

capacity for unloading incoming raw materials, and

one track for solid fuel unloading;

Slurry mills and basins will become obsolete. The •

modernised plant will only use fresh water from the

existing public supply. Other existing facilities at the

plant will remain;

A new crusher at Shakhgaya West limestone quarry •

will have a 750t/h processing capacity;

Natural disaster risks, including storms and •

earthquakes (the region’s geology is characterised

by moderate to high levels of seismic activity), will

be considered and addressed in the design and

construction.

Right: A view of the

52-hectare Garadagh

Cement site, which,

with the planned

improvements , will be

producing 1.7Mt/y of

cement by 2013.

NEWSASIA

Cherat Cement Company Limited (CHCC) profi ts jump by 14 times for FY09India: Cherat Cement Company Limited (CHCC) has announced its fi nancial results for the year ending 30 June 2009 (FY09), according to which, the com-pany has announced a profi t after tax of US$3.26m as compared to US$212,000 during the same period of 2008.

Lower coal prices, which remained at around US$70/t for the most part of the fi nancial year, mainly contributed to the company’s jump in earn-ings. On the other hand, CHCC’s net sales surged to US$92m in the period under review as against US$61.6m during the same period in 2008, showing a 50% jump, which consequently resulted in a major increase of 17% in dispatches with a decent price per bag.

The sales cost of the company remained at US$79.6m with a 14% gross profi t margin in FY09, while the fi nancial cost of the company hiked to US$2.3m in FY2008-09 as compared to a reported US$1.7m during the corresponding period of 2008.

Steppe Cement Limited announces pretax loss of US$19.49mKazakhstan: Steppe Cement Limited, a cement producer in Kazakhstan, has announced its interim results for H12009, and has announced that it has made a pretax loss of US$19.49m compared with a 2008 profi t of US$21.13m.

The company’s consolidated turnover was US$24.8m against 2008’s US$52.2m and reported a loss of US$0.15 per share, while in 2008, it experienced a profi t of US$0.13 per share. Steppe Cement’s operating loss totalled US$2.71m, whereas in 2008 it saw an operating profi t of US$22.10m.

According to a press release, Steppe Cement had taken measures to signifi cantly limit production and operational expenses during the fi rst half of 2009 to preserve cash and as a result of these initiatives, Steppe Cement managed to reduce US$1m in labour costs during the fi rst half of the year. The number of employees declined from 1546 to 1199 as at the end of June 2009.

Semen Kupang to resume operation

Indonesia: State cement producer PT Semen Kupang has announced that it will resume production as soon as plantation company PT Sarana Agro Gemilang commits investment for the next ten years. In the fi rst phase, Sarana Agro will inject US$19.8m into Semen Kupang, which has now been idle since September 2008.

“The money will be allocated for Semen Kupang’s capital, recruitment of employees and factory revitalisation,” said company president Abdul Madjid Nampira. “The important thing is how to revive this company,” he continued, adding that after Semen Kupang resumed cement produc-tion by the end of 2009, it will only receive 7.5% of total sales revenue, while the rest will go to Sarana Agro.

Semen Kupang, which has a 300,000t/y cement production capacity, plans to restructure its US$59m debts to state bank PT Bank Mandiri. Bank Mandiri has a 38% stake in Semen Kupang, which was formerly a subsidiary of the country’s largest cement maker PT Semen Gresik.


Virgo Cement pays ransom for the release of its offi cialsIndia: An offi cial source at Virgo Cement has re-vealed that a ransom amount of between US$20,500 and US$30,600 was paid for the release of two plant employees. On 29 August 2009, militants from the Viper Army of Rabha Hasong (VARH) freed Virgo Cement plant manager Sambu Danuka and chief engineer P K Hore in Rongjuli in Assam’s Goalpara district.

The VARH, which operates on the Meghalaya-Assam border, was formed with the help of the banned ULFA. The two cement offi cials were taken hostage on 21 August 2009 from their vehicle at the Meghalaya-Assam border in East Garo Hills. The militants, however, re-leased Nirmal Rabha, the driver, before taking over the vehicle of an offi cial and speeding away towards the dense jungle of the Garo Hills.

‘’We are inquiring into this, but the plant authori-ties are not revealing how much ransom money was paid for liberation of their two offi cials,’’ Meghalaya director general of Police B Kezo told Indian press.

China Resources Cement to expand after US$516m off eringChina: China Resources Cement Holdings, a spin-off from China Re-sources Holdings, has stated that it aims to boost its annual capacity by 1.7 times by the end of next year, fuelled by a proposed Hong Kong initial public off ering early in October 2009, a research report said. The fi rm plans to sell 1.64bn new shares, or 25.5% of its outstanding share capital, to raise up to US$516m from the long-awaited off ering. Most of the proceeds will be used to build production lines, according to the research report.

China Resources Cement aims to sell the shares at about 10-13 times the value of the fi rm’s 2009 earnings, slightly lower than its listed peers, which are trading at about 13-18 times earnings.

As the largest cement producer in southern China with six production bases in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan, the company hopes to raise cement production capacity from 14.2Mt/y to 38.8Mt/y, the re-search report stated. The report also said that the recovering property sector would generate tremendous demand for cement in the coming years.

Members of the VARH, who took Virgo

Cement employees hostage.


NEWSASIA


Gebr. Pfeiff er’s orders for MPS mills continue to be placed by Shree Cement LimitedIndia: Having only just commissioned the grinding plants for kiln unit No. VII, Kolkata-based Shree Cement Limited placed a further repeat order. This time RAS works will see Gebr. Pfeiff er AG and its Indian subsidiary Gebr. Pfeiff er (India) Pvt. Ltd. supply a grinding plant for raw meal and a grinding plant for petroleum coke for its kiln unit No 8.

An MPS 3750 B with a power rating of 1600kW will form the core of the raw meal grinding plant. The mill is designed to grind 215t/h to a fi neness of 2% R212μm. For the produc-tion of the pulverised petroleum coke, with which the cement kiln will be fi red, an MPS 225 BK vertical roller mill has been chosen for a capacity of 15t/h at a fi neness of 2% R90μm. This high degree of fi neness will be attained by passing the mate-rial through an SLS-BK high-effi ciency classifi er of the latest generation integrated in the MPS mill.

According to the company, “the fact that Shree Cement Limited again opted to buy Pfeiff er equipment refl ects his sat-isfaction with the performance of the MPS mills. In fact, this is the 11th and 12th mill ordered from Gebr. Pfeiff er AG and its Indian subsidiary.

Aumund Asia opens distribution centre in Hong KongHong Kong: According to Aumund, the fast and reliable supply of spare parts plays a critical role in any production environ-ment. Aumund has recognised this with the establishment of its new distribution centre in Hong Kong.

A press release from Aumund stated that customers in the Asia-Pacifi c region can now experience quicker de-liveries and therefore much shorter overall lead times than previ-ously, when all previous shipments were from Europe. This has major benefi ts in reducing down time and maximising production, especially in urgent or emergency situations.

According to Aumund, its selection processes ensure that a key range of spare parts are available, and it will supply only genuine Aumund parts, with their guaranteed long service life, accuracy of fi t and perfect functionality.

The Hong Kong facility further improves the service levels of the global Aumund network, adding to already established distribution centres in Rheinberg, Germany, and in Atlanta, US. Two more centres are in the advanced planning stage, in India and Brazil.

“Needless to say, the customer service teams in all locations are linked by a worldwide IT network, enabling us to optimise the availability of parts and respond to any of our customers’ requirements on an international level,” the company said in its statement.

Aumund Asia (H.K.) Limited’s spare parts store is

conveniently located in a modern warehousing and

distribution centre with direct access to the Port.

Every Pakistani cement plant to be fi ned for unfair trade

Pakistan: Pakistan’s National Competition Commission has fi ned all Pakistani cement plants for unfair trade. All plants have received an announcement and a request for payment. The fi nes are calculated as 7.5-15% of the total turnover of the cement plants in fi nancial year 2007. The cement plants will fi le a protest at the National Competition Court. Pakistan’s cement industry is suff ering at the moment from a massive decrease in cement prices.

The world’s fi rst 16-spout Haver Rotoseal Classic® goes to IndiaIndia: The newest generation of packers from Haver & Boecker is now moving into markets worldwide. It’s the most up-to-date Haver cement packing machine and the fi rst of its kind on the market. Since the fi rst 12-spout Haver Roto Classic was put into operation at the Phoenix Zementwerk in Germany early in spring 2009, the fi rst Seal-version of this newly devel-oped packer with 16 spouts is now being installed in India.

According to a press release, “Grasim Birla White has had nothing but complete satisfaction over the last two years in using its 8-spout Rotoseal equipped with a sealing system, and as a result, the company was not about to go without the sealing technology when it ordered the newest genera-tion machine of the high-speed line of packers for its plant in Kharia Khangar. The machine makes Grasim Birla White the fi rst Indian company to reap the benefi ts provided by a Roto Packer which is equipped with an ultrasound sealing system for producing tightly closed bags for sales to customers. At the same time it’s taking advantage of the system’s fl exibil-ity, compact size, ease of maintenance, operator friendliness and low energy consumption. Furthermore, because of the packing machine’s modular design, stoppage times can be reduced to a minimum. Grasim has opted for operational reli-ability, cleanliness and environmental protection.”

The 16-spout Haver Rotoseal Classic (16 RCC-U) is designed to fi ll white cement and white cement products into paper and polypropylene bags. In addition to its high-speed packing ca-pability – 4000 bags/h with 25kg bags and 3200 bags/h with 50kg bags using manual bag application – the packer needs about 33% less space when compared to a conventional 16-spout packer, due to its modular design.

According to Haver, the valve sealing system ensures that bags do not get soiled and the product remains protected, which eliminates contamination and dust in the surrounding environment. Meanwhile, costs arising from cleaning, mainte-nance and wear are signifi cantly reduced, all the while greater fi lling weight accuracy is achieved. These advantages pro-vide Grasim Birla White with additional sales and marketing advantages.

News in brief

India: Lafarge India has revealed plans to acquire small cement units in South India. Lafarge has 5.5Mt/y capacity plants in Jharkhand and Chhattis-garh. According to a press release, the company plans to invest US$1bn over the next fi ve years in order to take its overall capacity to over 20Mt. The company plans to set up plants in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Meghalaya with a cement production capacity of 2.5Mt/y each.

India: The Aditya Birla Group has registered a 32.15% jump in its August 2009 cement dispatches.The Group has despatched a total 2.89Mt of cement dur-ing the month. The Group’s cement production has surged by 38.30% to 2.93Mt/y.

Since the start of FY2009-10, its cement produc-tion has increased by 20.30% to 15.18Mt from 12.62Mt during April-August 2008. Similarly, dispatches have increased by 19.85% to 15.09Mt during April-August 2009 from 12.59Mt in the same period of 2008.

India: ACC Ltd, India’s largest cement producer has revealed that it is looking to raise about US$61.5m via a combination of either bonds or loans. The company, in which Holcim holds a stake of more than 46%, has written to banks asking for quotes on fi ve- and seven-year bonds and loans, three banking sources have said.

China: BBMG Corporation has announced that on 30 August 2009, it signed a non-legally-binding memo-randum of understanding with its 45.27% holding shareholder, BBMG Group, to acquire the 60.64% equity interest in Zhenxing Cement for US$57.8m. Zhenxing Cement is principally engaged in manu-facturing and sale of cement products, and is one of the largest cement companies in Tianjin.

Thailand: The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has released cement data for July 2009, which shows an improve-ment in the domestic market but a weak export market. Domestic cement demand remained strong with positive growth for the second consecutive month of 2.9%, in comparison to July 2008, and ce-ment price increases for July and August.

Meanwhile, export cement demand was still weak, dropping 5.9% year-on-year, and export cement sell-ing prices declined slightly due to price competition. Looking ahead, the low base for demand in 2H2008 and the improved investment sentiment along with economic recovery will help support cement de-mand in both the domestic and export markets in the short-term.

China’s cement industry to suff er from periodic oversupplyChina: Statistics from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Tech-nology (MIIT) show that investment in the cement industry has reached US$11.6bn in 2009, up 65.8% compared to the fi rst seven months of 2008. By mid-August 2009, 65 cement production lines boasting 80Mt of production capacity per year had entered into operation, churning well beyond what downstream market demand can absorb.

Some industry insiders believe that oversupply pressures will be se-vere over the next two years. They also warn that the current oversupply problem will worsen when the government enacts stricter regulations. At that time, companies adopting a capacity expansion growth model will struggle while companies with merger and acquisi-tion growth models will benefi t.

Based on this warning, the MIIT is determining under what conditions new production lines may enter the cement industry. According to the initial draft, production lines with average capacities of less than 1Mt/y will not be permitted during the period of the 12 Five Year Plan (2011-2015). Moreover, the MIIT is planning to restrain capacity expansion by setting standards on resources, energy consumption, and the qualifi cations of companies.

Indocement aims to increase profi t by 52%

Indonesia: According to company estimates, as a result of optimised cost effi ciencies, the end-of-year net profi t for PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk is set to increase to US$262m – an increase of 51.8% in com-parison to the same period of 2008. The company has also planned to construct a cement mill with a 2Mt/y capacity in Citeureup, Bogor, worth US$100m.

“The growth of In-docement’s net profi t up to the end of the year is estimated to be similar with the net profi t growth in the fi rst half of 2009, if compared to the proceeds in the same period of 2009,” said Indocement’s fi nance director Christian Kartawijaya. The company has also stated that it is not planning to increase the average sale price of Indocement cement. “Our cement average sale price is not going to change from 2008 prices and we have not planned to change the pricing,” said Mr Kartawijaya.

Indocement’s cement production capacity currently stands at 18.6Mt/y with additional production capacity of 1.5Mt/y from its cement mill in Cirebon.

Despite a huge oversupply of cement, the current economic crisis

has caused many Chinese construction sites to empty, worsening the

eff ect of the oversupply problem

NEWSASIA


A tranquil view over Cirebon, where Indocement currently oper-

ates a 1.5Mt/y cement production facility.

The Global Cement Conference returns to Iran after its fi rst event in Tehran in 2006, which attracted around 450 participants. The industry is now commissioning a wave of new capacity, and is moving into a new phase of optimisation, production and profi tability. The event provides the best opportunity to make contacts within the huge Iranian cement industry.

Main themes

• Commissioning

• Production optimisation

• Wear and maintenance

• Analysis options

• Control systems

Who should attend?

• Cement producers

• Project managers

• Commissioning engineers

• Maintenance managers

• Cement executives

• Traders

• Export managers

• Equipment producers

• Academics

CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION IRAN 2009

gl bal cement

Organised by:


Firuzkhu Cement plant, Iran

IRAN

12-13 OCTOBER 2009 Tehran, Iran

From construction

towards profi tability

In cooperation with

www.IranCement.com

2nd Full details at www.propubs.com/iran

Cultural Complex of the Ministry of Labour and Social Aff airs

International hotel: Esteghlal Hotel



The conference addresses the many changes that have taken place in the industry since 2006, with much new capacity in the country now commissioned and producing cement, but against the background of lower subsidies for energy. Iran’s highly developed cement industry now has the capacity to produce around 65Mt/year, but this is set to increase to around 90Mt/year by 2013 according to some industry observers. With a predominantly-young population of close to 72 million, and the second largest natural gas and oil reserves in the world, Iran is set for unprecedented economic growth in the next decade.

Monday 12 October (exhibition open 9am-7pm) Tuesday 13 October (exhibition open 9am-7pm)Cement market trends Grinding technology

09.00 Conference introduction and official welcome ‘Sustainable development in grinding technology for efficient mill performance,’ Dr. Martin Botsch, Christian Pfeiffer Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Beckum, Germany

09.45 ‘Global economic and cement industry overview,’ Dr Robert McCaffrey, editor, Global Cement Magazine

Grinding process control in cement mill , Mr. Mohammad MehdiKhuzestani, Namadin sanat Co.

10.00 ‘A review on cement consumption in Iran ( 2009-2015)’ Mr.A.S. Alavi, Senior analyst from Ministry of Industry and Mine, Iran

‘Loesche grinding technology and references in Iran,’ Stefan Baaken, Loesche

10.30 Coffee break + networking Coffee break + networking

Commissioning and plant upgrades Handling

11.30 ‘Low cost upgrades and optimised commissioning,’ Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Brand, TransTech Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG

‘Case studies of clinker conveying,’ Gambarotta

12.00 ‘Role of PM in increasing productivity (mathematical equa-tion of relation of energy consumption and rate of defect)’ Mr. A.Naghi-loo, Mr. H. Farzane, Energy and Environment Dept. Azad University, Tehran

‘Environmental consideration cement packing and transportation,’ Mr. K. Mohammadi , Senior Analyst in packaging

12.30 ‘Solutions for modification and upgrade of existing material handling equipment in a cement plant,’ Sebastian Maerz, Aumund Foerdertechnik, Rheinberg.

‘Solutions for handling of difficult bulk materials,’ Mikolaj Popowicz, MHC Engineering

13.00 Lunch + networking Lunch + networking

Energy efficiency, alternative fuels and the environment in the Iranian cement industry

Towards profit: Adding value

14.00 ‘Investigation on green house gas emission from cement industry in Iran and emission reduction scheme,’ Mrs. S. Shahraz,Senior Analyst, Environment Div. Ministry of Industry and Mine

‘Application of slag in Iranian cement industry,’ Mr. M. Najafi, Plantmanager, Kordestan cement co.

14.30 ‘New challenges for the Iranian Cement Industry,’ Dr. Lotfali Bakhshi, IranCement.com

‘Benefits of using dry premix mortars in modern construc-tion: Improving construction and living standards by means of using new construction materials,’ Michael V. Kamp and Andreas Michelfelder, m-tec mathis technik gmbh

15.00 ‘The EMC concept for reduction of energy consumption incement plants,’ Scheuch

‘Concrete roads, a new application in Iranian cement market,’ Mr.A.H. Goudarzi, Senior analyst in cement and concrete, Payvaseh-peyman Co.

15.30 Coffee break + networking Coffee break + networking

16.00 ‘Solutions for electrical energy efficiency and life time cost,’ Kumars Taheri-Tafreshi, Siemens AG Österreich

‘Export terminals’ Marcel van Rangelrooij, Kovako

16.30 ‘Application of improvement of consumption method in Iranian cement industry,’ Mr. M. Janat, Dy Manger of quality andresearch Div. Urmia cement Co.

‘Recommendation of new Types of cement for production in Iran (Reasons and proof )’ Mr. Raeisi, Senior analyst, Elm & SanatTechnical University, Tehran

17.00 ‘Using old tires as supplement fuel in Tehran Cement Co.’ Mrs. T. Rahimi, Research and Development Dept. Tehran Cement Co.

On-line particle-size analysis of cement using state-of-the-art tech-nology based on laser diffraction including representative sam-pling and dry powder dispersion,’ Axel Pankewitz, Sympatec

17.30 ‘Production of white cement,’ Stephan Pallmann, Polysius

Evening event: Gala Dinner Farewell party + Prizegiving + Official close

“Without a doubt, the best exhibition we’ve ever been to: Exceptional” UK-based representative of German multinational equipment company

Provisional programme, subject to change

Sunday 11 October Exhibition open 11am-7pm, Gala Opening 2pm

++ Bonus day due to local demand ++ Saturday 10 October Exhibition opens 3pm

Wednesday 13 October Field trip to Iranian cement plant.


NEWSMIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

News in brief

Morocco: The Siemens Industry Solutions Division has received an order from the Moroccan company Ciments du Maroc, Casablanca, to supply electrical equipment for the new cement works at Ait Baha near Agadir, Morocco. The order, valued at around nine million euros, also includes installation serv-ices. Commissioning is scheduled for the end of August 2009.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer Arabian Cement Company registered a decline in its net profi t for the fi rst half of 2009 to US$49.7m from US$54.9m in the same period of 2008. ACC has at-tributed the lower bottom line fi gure to a rise in operating expenses, coupled with losses booked by affi liate companies during the six-month pe-riod. The company’s earnings per share stood at US$0.62, down from US$0.69 in 2008, while operat-ing profi ts also decreased in the fi rst six months of 2009 to US$51m from US$55.9m a year earlier. For the second quarter of 2009, the company posted a net profi t of US$22.1m, down 8.6% year-on-year.

Namibia: The Industry Solutions Division of Sie-mens Ltd. India, Mumbai, has won an order from Polysius AG, Beckum, to supply the complete turn-key electrical equipment to Ohorongo Cement in Otavi, Namibia. Ohorongo Cement is to be set up as a subsidiary of the German Schwenk Ze-ment KG and is the fi rst cement works to be built in Namibia. It is scheduled to come on stream by December 2010.

Kenya: The East African Community Council of Ministers has resolved to reduce the common external tariff (CET) on cement from 35% to 25%. Andrew Luzze, the Uganda Manufacturers As-sociation (UMA) policy offi cer explained that the resolution is aimed at increasing cement imports into the region to mitigate the current high ce-ment prices. “High prices have caused the sector to decline in both constructing new buildings and reduction in the sector’s contribution to GDP, which has fallen from 18% downwards in Uganda, for example, and possibly in the whole region,” he said. “Since governments cannot allow the contri-bution to decline further, they have reduced the tariff from 35% to 25%. This will boost cement sup-ply and result in price reductions,” he said. Luzze said a report released by the East African Cement Producer’s Association in June indicates that there will be a growing demand for cement in the region for the next seven years. The report says Kenya’s consumption is projected to grow from 2.4Mt in 2009 to 3.8Mt in 2015.

Egypt cement imports hit 1Mt in August 2009

Egypt: Egypt imported 512,000 tonnes of cement from January to 5 Au-gust 2009 and the fi gure doubled to 1Mt by the end of August, the Trade Ministry has said. Rising local demand for cement had prompted the min-istry to extend a ban on cement exports fi rst introduced in April 2009 until October 2010.

Housing demand in Egypt remains buoyant even as hundreds of billions of dollars worth of construc-tion projects have been put on hold elsewhere in the Middle East since the fi nan-cial crisis curbed property investment.

Cement producers had said in July 2009 that they were ready to import around 1Mt in the next two months to help meet the growing demand for the product. Suez Cement, one of Egypt’s largest cement makers, has also post-poned planned maintenance work in order to continue producing at full capacity, the Trade Ministry said in a statement. The ministry had warned cement producers in mid-August 2009 not to carry out any work that would cut production in the coming period.

Suez Cement, which produces 900,000t per month for the local market, had contracts to import 90,000t of clinker and bagged cement for August 2009 delivery, of which around 25,000t arrived from Ukraine and Turkey. The Egyptian operations of Greek cement maker Titan also had contracts to import 250,000t of clinker and cement for delivery in August and Sep-tember 2009, according to the ministry. Of that total, 170,000t have already arrived in Egypt.

Saudi cement sales increase by 33.4%Saudi Arabia: According to a press release, cement sales in Saudi Arabia rose by 33.4% in July 2009, with some producers reporting their highest-ever monthly sales. Saudi investment company, NCB Capital said that total sales stood at 3.45Mt for the month, compared to 2.66Mt for the same period in 2008. It added that sales rose by 4.7% when compared with June 2009.

The fi gures back up reports earlier in August 2009 which said that the Saudi construction industry had been less impacted by the global down-turn than other Gulf nations. Less than 80 active projects, with a total value of around US$20bn, have been put on hold or cancelled in Saudi Arabia, Dubai-based research house Proleads Group stated. By contrast, more than 400 projects with a total value of over US$300bn have been suspended or cancelled in the UAE. The Saudi study examined more than 720 con-struction projects with a total budget of more than US$430bn across the commercial and retail, education and healthcare, leisure and entertain-ment and residential sectors.

Yamama Cement and Saudi Cement reported their highest-ever monthly sales in July 2009. They said that cement exports rose 56% to 109,000t in July 2009, compared to 70,000t in 2008, boosted mainly by Northern Region Cement Co (NRCC). NCBC said that cement fi rms produced 3.61Mt of cement in July 2009, up 34.6% on the same period of 2008 and an 8% increase over June 2009.

Egypt’s cement imports have topped 1Mt since January 2009.



NEWSMIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Sephaku Holdings to build 2.1Mt/y cement plantSouth Africa: South African diversifi ed mining ex-ploration fi rm Sephaku Holdings has unveiled plans to build a new cement plant. Sephaku CEO Neil Craff ord-Lazarus told reporters that the company was in the advanced stage of planning the cement plant, which would have a capacity of 2.1Mt/y once it reached full production in the second quarter of 2012. Craff ord-Lazarus said Sephaku was in talks with South African, Chinese and European fi nanciers to fund the plant.

“We have raised US$54.4m and we are currently discussing with specifi c investors to raise a further US$104m for our cement business,” he said. “We are not going to place any shares on the market to fi -nance the project.”

The cement plant will be at 30% of its production capacity by 2011 and will then ramp up to 2.1Mt/y, which would give it a 16% share of South Africa’s ce-ment business.

Craff ord-Lazarus said that China’s Sinoma unit would build the plant over 21 months and would begin construction once fi nancing had been set-tled. “We see our cement business as a proxy for our other commodities. We believe we have a strong core competence in bringing assets up the value curve,” Craff ord-Lazarus said.

Bamburi Cement Group sees 49% profi t increase

Kenya: Leading cement producer Bamburi Cement Group has announced a 49% increase in operating profi t from US$38m in 2008 to US$56.4m for the period ended 30 June 2009. The group’s turnover climbed by 41.5% to US$212.5m, up from US$150.8m in 2008, driven by a strong resurgence of the domestic market despite the challenges faced during the same period in 2008, as well as improved export sales to inland Africa markets.

Bamburi Cement Group chairman, Richard Kemoli said: “The strong results over the six months to 30 June 2009 demonstrates the group’s resilience, particularly in the diffi cult economic conditions spurred by global economic downturn, increased competition and the negative impact of the fl uctuating rate of local currencies against major hard currencies.”

During the period under review, production costs increased by 52.2%, primarily as a result of the surging cost of fuel, the infl ationary trends due to the depreciation of the local currencies and the poor and erratic power quality and supply in Uganda. Mr Kemoli said: “These trends were partly mitigated by a 22.9% decline in distribution costs arising from signifi cant improvements in effi ciencies in the distribution system and also the lower use of purchased clinker in Uganda due to increased productivity.”

Earnings per share in the company went up by 55.1% to US$0.11. The group’s tax charges payable to both the Kenya and Uganda governments increased by 52.6% to US$17.6m. The board proposed an interim divi-dend of US$0.02 per ordinary share totalling US$7.15m, which is payable on 23 October 2009.

According to a press release, the construction of a US$91.8m new clinker and cement plant in Uganda is progressing well and is expected to be commissioned by mid 2010. The company will use more of its inter-nally generated cash to fi nance the remainder of the project.

Commenting on the results, group managing director Hussein Mansi said: “Although we have been operating in an environment that has pre-sented considerable challenges both to our business and the industry in general, Bamburi Group has continued to realise positive results due to the business model that we will continue to follow both in good times and in diffi cult conditions.’’

Mr Mansi reiterated the group’s commitment to upholding good safety standards and practices for staff and contractors alike as a route to achieving the group’s vision 2010. “We recognise that improving the safety and health of our staff and contractors has a positive impact on their working conditions and safety practices have a direct bearing on business performance. The group invested about US$852,000 (which represents 2% of the company’s profi ts after tax) to drive its safety agenda in the region,” said Mr Mansi.

During the six months under review, Bamburi continued to invest signifi cantly towards various environmental, educational and commu-nity initiatives. The group disbursed about US$984,000 towards these initiatives, which is part of the US$2.6m corporate social responsibility commitment for the 2009 fi nancial year. At the start of 2009, the group responded to an appeal by the government of Kenya to support national famine relief eff ort with a donation of US$65,600. The group committed a further US$183,600 worth of cement to support the Ministry of Educa-tion in the rehabilitation of schools that were aff ected by the post election violence. Furthermore, in Uganda, the group has committed US$262,300 to support the Hima Community Malaria Control Programme, which tar-gets about 28,000 residents in Hima.

Sephaku Holdings’ CEO, Neil

Craff ord Lazarus

Cemtech Sanghi to build 1.2Mt/y ce-ment plant in KenyaKenya: India-based cement producer Sanghi Group, whose subsidiary Cemtech Sanghi has been granted exclusive mining rights by the Kenyan government for a project in the Pokot district near the Kenya-Uganda border, will produce over 1.2Mt of cement a year. Initially, the company had proposed in its busi-ness plan to produce over 600,000t/y in the initial phase and to expand to over 1Mt in the subsequent phases, subject to the availability of additional lime-stone.

The upward revision was made by the company’s board members in mid-August 2009 after the suc-cessful completion of a nine-month geological evaluation study conducted by two international fi rms.

The factory uses modern technology developed and supplied by Fuller International of the US. Indus-try players say the entry of Cemtech into Kenya will increase competition in the region’s cement sector, especially at this time when producers are expand-ing their capacities.

NEWS GLOBAL LIME AND LIMESTONE

Tororo Cement loses Kenyan limestone battle

Kenya/India: Tororo Cement Industry has lost a limestone tussle to an Indian fi rm, almost three years after it expressed interest to exploit the rich deposits in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province. Multibillion dollar Indian Sanghi Group is now set to invest US$80m in a cement plant in one of Kenya’s most arid areas. The group’s local subsidiary, Cemtech, with the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is also seeking to invest in a 1Mt cement factory in Pokot District, and its offi cial launch is expected to be soon.

In early 2007, Uganda’s Tororo Cement factory expressed interest in exploiting the extensive limestone deposits and has since then been tussling with Rift Valley’s Pokot District authorities for approval to extract the precious rocks. The authorities, which had earlier rejected the industry’s proposal since Kenya’s Ministry of Trade and Industry had plans to establish a state-owned cement fi rm in the area allowed Tororo Cement to bid again after the exercise was re-advertised.

The Indian fi rm’s construction work is expected to last for slightly more than two years and will become East Africa’s second largest ce-ment producer after Mombasa’s Bamburi Cement. Bamburi Cement controls the largest market share in the region. The loss to Tororo Cement leaves the Ugandan cement manufacturer and local market controller with one opportunity to exploit Kenya’s resources since the factory is awaiting a fi nal pronouncement of the fi rm that will win the bid to exploit limestone sediments at Eastern Kenya’s Mutumo District.

Pokot District, where the limestone is located, is one of the most underdevel-oped areas in Kenya and the Sanghi Group has sought to upgrade the area’s road and railway network. Ac-cording to a Kenyan source, Tororo Cement had equally promised to rehabilitate the area’s infrastructure in case it won the bid. However, Tororo Cement’s managing director, Brij Gagrani said in a statement that the cement manufacturer had not expressed interest in the limestone.

“No, we do not have any interests in Kenyan limestone,” he said, adding that there was adequate limestone in Uganda to supply the input to the factory. Mr Gagrani also denied that Tororo Cement had expressed interest in exploiting Mutumo District limestone although sources and media reports hint that the industry was among fi rms bid-ding for Eastern Kenya’s granite.

Currently, Tororo Cement extracts limestone as far as Karenga in Karamoja along the Uganda-Sudan boarder to cushion the declin-ing deposits in Tororo District. The depletion in limestone deposits in Tororo District has compelled the cement plant to stretch to remoter resources, a development projected to increase costs of production and subsequently cement prices.

Cement prices in early April 2009 registered an 8% increase from US$12.66/bag to US$13.68/bag, a hike that Tororo Cement’s managing director Mr Gagrani attributed to the eff ect of factory maintenance and instability in the Uganda shilling, which he said was temporary.

Tororo Cement controls the largest share in the market with a 55% stake followed by western Uganda-located Hima Cement. Despite the existence of the two cement fi rms in the country, cement remains one of the industrial products that Uganda imports from the regional market.


Maerz successfully completes Vapenka Vitosov conversion to coal fi ring op-erationCzech Republic: In March 2008, Vapenka Vitosov s.r.o from Zabreh, Czech Republic, placed an order with Maerz for the supply of engineering, license, knowl-edge, equipment and supervision services for the installation of a solid fuel fi ring system on its existing 600t/d natural gas-fi red PFR kiln of type R4P. Upon completion of the conversion project, the kiln should be able to operate either on 100% natural gases, 100% coal dust or a mixture of both fuels.

After completion of the erection and commission-ing work on the kiln, a guarantee test run was carried out. The following quality and performance param-eters were achieved:

According to Maerz, the fi nal acceptance test run will be carried out as soon as increased market de-mand allows for operation at full production capacity.

Limestone mine to supply new cement venture for 100 years

India: Maruti Cement Limited, the largest cement fac-tory in India has launched 53 graded Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) named Maruti Cement. The cement fac-tory, which has been a major clinker producer in the country for the last two years, is aiming to supply 11% of the total national demand of cement that currently stands at 200Mt.

Addressing a press conference on to announce the launching of the cement venture, managing director of the factory Jeevan Nepal said that the limestone mine that the factory has acquired will supply limestone for the next 100 years. “We have maintained a stock of 400,000t of limestone to deal with unexpected ob-struction in collecting limestone and the stock will be enough to support normal production for nine months,” Nepal said.

Nepal said the factory has no immediate plan to go public but didn´t rule out such possibility in the days to come. As an uncertain power supply has been the major challenge for the factory, Arun Rathi, director of the factory urged the government to pay due attention to ensure smooth power supply for major industries, such as the cement factory. Maruti Cement holds the ISO 2001 and ISO 14001 Quality Standard Marks.

Daily production (t/d) 320

Heat consumption (kcal/kg) <890

Residual CO2 in the lime (%) <1.0

Reactivity of burnt lime (seconds) <60

Part of the Tororo Cement industry

Global Cement Magazine’s regular review of global cement and fuel prices by GC staff and GC’s global pricing correspondents

Here Global Cement Magazine presents its monthly review of global cement and fuel prices, in US$ for easy comparison. The fullinformation in this article (including the latest information on prices and market trends throughout Asia, the Americas and the rest of the world) is only available to subscribers of Global Cement Magazine. To receive the LATEST news, you should subscribe. See page 64.

Cement price correspondents required

Do you have your fi nger on the cement and fuel price pulse? Can you supply

reliable monthly cement price reports in your location (or further afi eld)?

If so, we need you!

In return for supplying this information on a monthly (and anonymous)

basis, you will be rewarded with a subscription to Global Cement Magazine,

including all the global cement pricing data collated by the magazine

(and if you are not a paid subscriber, there’s no other way to get it).

Please apply to Dr Robert McCaff rey, GC’s editorial director, at:

[email protected]

Prices are for cement, unless stated otherwise. Where a source has given a range,

the published price is the minimum value.

FOB {+ the named port of origin} = Free On Board: The delivery of goods on

board the vessel at the named port of origin (loading), at seller’s expense. Buyer is

responsible for the main carriage/freight, cargo insurance and other costs and risks.

CIF {+ the named port of destination} = Cost, Insurance and Freight: The cargo

insurance and delivery of goods to the named port of destination (discharge) at the

seller’s expense. Buyer is responsible for the import customs clearance and other

costs and risks.

ASWP = Any safe world port

Conversion rates: Euro 1 = US$1.55, US$1 = Euro 0.65

Thailand: (August 2009) Siam Cement (SCC) has increased its cement price for Tiger Brand by Bt360/tonne (US$10.58) in mid-August, including an extra Bt60/tonne rebate. SCC had already increased its cement prices by Bt300/tonne

(US$8.82) at the start of August. The total increase for August is thus Bt660/tonne (US$19.4). The price of the El-ephant brand increased by Bt280/tonne, or Bt620/tonne, if earlier price hikes in July and August are included.

India: (August 2009) The weak monsoon has taken its toll on cement prices which are down Rs 8-10 (US$0.16-0.20) a 50-kg bag in the southern market and by Rs 3-5 (US$0.06-0.12) in the western and east-

ern regions. Prices were more or less stable in the North on the back of good demand for projects relat-ing to the Commonwealth Games and Metro. “We were not able to raise prices in the northern region despite good demand because of cheap imports from Pakistan,” said an executive of a Delhi-based

cement company. The average cement price across the country is now Rs 265 (US$5.41) a bag.Mr Vinod Juneja, Managing Director, Binani Cement, said the prices in the North would also start falling if the rains continued to play truant. “The poor monsoon has also led to erratic power supply in Rajasthan where many cement companies are located. Though there is

captive power back-up, we cannot completely depend on it,” he added.Besides the dismal rains, the additional capacity of nearly 50 million tonnes expected to be commissioned by the end of this fi scal will exert pressure on prices. The Aditya Birla Group companies, UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries, together commis-sioned 4.1 million tonnes in the fi rst quarter of this fi scal year. Ambuja Cement has

targeted completion of its 4.4 million-tonne clinkerisation project at Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh by September-end. ACC is planning expansion of seven

million tonnes at its plants in Bargarh in Orissa, Wadi in Karnataka, and Chanda in Maharashtra.

Russia: US$183.54/t (CEM I 42.5, fast freeze, bulk, commercial plants) (August 2008)Russia: US$166.15/t (CEM II/A 42.5H, bulk, commercial plants) (August 2008)

Russia: US$57.41/t (Portland cement 400, 20% additives, bulk) (January 2009)Russia: US$73.8-106.3/t (Portland cement 500, 0% additives, bulk) (January 2009)

Russia: US$76.77/t (Portland cement 500, 20% additives, bulk) (January 2009)Ukraine: US$84.30/t (Portland cement 400, 20% additives) (January 2009)

Ukraine: US$87.31/t (Portland cement 500) (January 2009)Latvia: US$122/t (bulk, DAF Russian border) (August 2008)Belarus: US$7.23/50kg bag (Portland cement) (May 2009)Belarus: US$3.72/25kg bag (Portland cement) (May 2009)Azerbaijan: Garadagh Cement’s Ekspert brand US$129/t.(May 2009)Armenia: US$70/t (April 2009)Oman: US$78/t (June 2008)

Lebanon: US$85/t (bulk) + US$85/t (big bags) FOB (May 2008)Turkey: US$100.96/t (CEM I 42.5N/R, big bag) (December 2008)

Aman Tuleyev, governor of Russia’s Kemerovo Region, has urged cement pro-ducer Siberian Cement to lower its cement prices, according to a copy of a letter

sent Tuesday by Tuleyev to Oleg Sharykin, president of Siberian Cement. Tuleyev said he would instruct the relevant authorities to probe Siberian Cement’s pricing

policy. He also said he believed Siberian Cement’s cement price, which amounts to 3,500 rubles per tonne (US$109.81), was unjustifi ed. Tuleyev added that equivalent cement made

by other producers cost between 2,700 rubles and 3,000 rubles (US$84-94).

GLOBAL CEMENT PRICES




globalcement .com

SEPTEMBER 2009

Global cement news German cement focus Boom town Baku Improving silo isolation Retrofitting of ESPs Transport round-up

Even with a small


a large turnover

Loesche mill


Mill capacity from

5 t/h to 25 t/h.

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Contents Ad Index

I had an interesting experience the other day, which may shed some light on the way that the world is going. I

decided to buy a garden truck, which is a trolley on four wheels that you pull along with a handle, and into which you can put all sorts of garden articles (compost, pavings stones, cement: that sort of thing). Th e fi rst thing I did, of course, was to go online to see what the options were. Pretty quickly I found out that there was one particularly sort that seemed to be the best option. It was being of-fered for around £90 by an on-line gardening shop.

Being an old-fashioned sort of a chap, I decided that I would like to try to see one of these things before buy-ing it. So, online, I found a shop nearby that stocked it. I called them up to make sure that they were open, and that they had it in stock, but it turned out that it was only available in another branch 40 miles away. It would have cost an extra £13 in petrol and the shop was selling it for £120. Needless to say, I did not need to see it before buy-ing it that much (£43 extra), so I went back to the fi rst web site that I had come across on my initial web search and bought it from there. It took less than a minute to go through the sales process, and I didn’t think twice about buying online. Th e garden truck will turn up in the next couple of days in the back of a van, and everyone will be happy (apart from the shop, which will still have to pay its fi xed costs, but now with £120 less revenue).

Two or three years ago, I would have done it all dif-ferently - I might well not have had the option of buying this item online, or might have baulked at the security implications. Now it is second nature.

In the same way, many of us go to the internet for our news, probably in addition to reading a paper version, or listening to the radio or watching TV. When I do have a chance to read a newspaper, I am oft en struck by how old the news is! ‘Th at’s yesterday’s news’ I oft en say to myself. And of course it is - since the news probably happened the previous day, was written up on a news web site an hour or two aft er it happened, and then was eventually printed in ink onto paper, trimmed, packed, transported, unpacked bought and fi nally read by me more than 24 hours later. Old news is no longer news!

However, things are starting to change once again. Rupert Murdoch, the big boss at News International, has recently announced that his myriad web sites will soon start to charge for access. A number of them do already, but for specialised business information, such as the Wall Street Journal. Henceforward, his other newspa-

pers will start to do the same. ‘Newspapers’ is perhaps a broad term, since some of them don’t specialise in news so much as in gossip, celebrity tittle-tattle and exposés. However, for those gossip-mongers and celebrity addicts out there, he may well be right - they may be willing to pay something.

Th e question is, ‘How is he going to make people pay?’ I guess that he will have to generate exclusive con-tent somehow, so that if you want it, you need to go to him to get it. But he also needs to be able to physically (or electronically) get the money off people. Here we start to have some relevance to the cement industry.

Micropayments are not new, since they have been spoken about since the 1960s, but it seems that only in the last few years have they started to become a reality. Th e internet has allowed companies to collect many small payments and to not have to pay a credit card fee on each transaction. Th ere are a couple of ways of doing it: either you get the money from people beforehand (say $10), and then decrease their total by a few cents for each transaction, or you get their credit card details and charge them whenever their total builds up to a pre-ar-ranged level (eg $10). Murdoch is likely to plump for one of these two business models, rather than the subscrip-tion models that are used on the WSJ.

How does this have any relevance to the cement in-dustry, you might ask? Well, in those countries where bagged cement for the home improver is still important, it might yet be the case that you could buy your cement online. Perhaps your customers will pre-load their ac-count with you with $10 (for a reasonable discount from the producer), and then ask for a single bag to be de-livered as and when they need it. Or maybe you’ll just charge them when their total gets to $10.

Another alternative is a ‘Microdosh.com’ model, which would be where a PayPal, eBay, Microsoft or Google-type company comes up with a universal pay-ment system (‘Microdosh’): Customers pay money into a Microdosh account, make purchases from your site using a ‘Microdosh.com’ code, and then you are paid by the Microdosh micropayment provider. Th is way, of course, the money is made by Microdosh, and there is no customer loyalty to you and your product.

Such is the interest in this growing area of business that we are organising a conference on it in December 2009 in London. Should you want to know more, you can fi nd details at www.Microdosh.com (!)

Dr Robert McCaff rey Editor, Global Cement Magazine


The Last Word Buy cement on the internet? That’s so 2001...or is it?

THE LAST WORDSubscribeContents Ad Index


ABB 21

AirStream Systems Inc. IFC

Appalette Tourtellier Systèmes/Walter Materials Handling 23

7th AUCBM 53

CEFISA 19, IBC

Cementis Consulting 23

Demag Cranes & Components GmbH 5

Ferro Duo GmbH 35

Hardtop Giessereitechnologie GmbH 45

Imco Alloys Pvt. Ltd 5

Global Ash Conference 2010 37

Global Boards Conference 2010, London 43

4th Global Slag Conference & Exhibition 2009, Brussels 31

Hilgefort GmbH 39

Hotel Alt Vellern 35

Kalenborn Kalprotect 47

KRC Mining Consultants 6

Lindner Recyclingtech GmbH 37

Loesche GmbH FC

Menzel Elecktomotoren GmbH 49

MHC Engineering Fördertechnik GmbH 29

Pfister GmbH 11

Russig GmbH 6

Spitzer Silo-Fahrzeugwerke GmbH OBC

Teutrine GmbH 7

WTW Americas Inc. 27

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SPITZER SILO-FAHRZEUGWERKE GmbH

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m

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SPITZER SILO-FAHRZEUGWERKE GmbHBrühlweg 10D-74834 Elztal Dallau/Mosbach

Tel.: +49 (0) 62 61 / 80 05 -0Fax: +49 (0) 62 61 / 80 05 -60

E-Mail: [email protected]

www.spitzer-silo.com

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