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Volume 48: Number 12
December 2017
ISSN 02636050
THIS MONTH’S COVER
April 2018
CONTENTS03 Comment
05 News
88 Five minutes with... Koen CoppenholleChief Executive, CEMBUREAU.
REGIONAL REPORT: SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
10 Sub-Saharan CementTrond Waerp, Africa Consulting Services, discusses thecement industry of Sub-Saharan Africa.
18 Return to Africa Moisés R. Nunez, Cemengal, discusses the supply of two modular cement grinding plants to Ndovu Cement in Kenya.
22 Cement in the SavannahRobert Ndegwa, Savannah Cement, discusses the growth of cement production in Kenya.
MODULAR GRINDING PLANTS
26 Rapid Market Entry Tom Neckel and Jannik Schmalenberger, Gebr. Pfeiffer, discuss the company’s compact grinding plants.
33 A European NetworkVincent Lefebvre, Cem’In’Eu, discusses the growth of cement plants in Europe.
39 Move and Shake Olaf Michelswirth, Dr Harald Moeser, and Martin Bollongino, InterCem, discusses modular and portable grinding plants as an alternative to large-scale production.
CEMENT STORAGE
43 New Zealand’s New Cement SiloMatt Horton, Tank Connection, and Ben Marsh, Golden Bay Cement, detail the processes behind the implentation of a new cement handling plant in New Zealand.
47 Coating Me, Coating YouDennis Blauser, Marietta Group, and Tim Thieman, USA Silo Service, examine common cement silo roof coating materials that prevent water penetration and detail a concrete silo roof coating replacement process.
LOGISTICS & DISPATCH
52 Transporting Alternative FuelsRick Martens, N+P Waste Logistics, discusses developments in the transportation of alternative fuels.
HANDLING ALTERNATIVE FUELS
57 A question of character Dr Dominik Aufderheide and Dr Luigi Di Matteo, DI MATTEO, discusses the characteristics of alternative fuels, and suitable preparation and dosing concepts.
WORLD CEMENT PLANT TOUR
63 Partnership on the Nile Essam Badawi, Dr Mohamed ELSaidy, and Wael Shokry, Wadi El Nile Cement, and Soritis Valsamakis and Martin Paterson, FLSmidth, discuss the success story of a partnership in the production of a new Egyptian cement plant.
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
67 Eradicating NOX
Matteo Giavazzi and Luca Maiocchi, Boldrocchi, discuss how redesigning the components of deNOX systems helps futher reduce emissions.
WORLD CEMENT INTERVIEW
73 Sixty Years Strong Francesco Ferrandico, CEO and Managing Director of FLSmidth Ventomatic, talks to World Cement about the company’s sixty-year history and its future ambitions.
AUTOMATION & PROCESS CONTROL
77 The Whole Truth Johanna Kiesel, Aucotec AG, explains how a single source of truth unites disciplines, increases data quality, and saves time.
81 Productive PredictionMichael Tay and Manoel Morales do Nascimento, Rockwell Automation, discuss performance reporting and leveraging under new analytic technologies.
85 Improving the Industry Thomas Walther, Siemens, discusses the necessary growth of digitilisation in the cement industry.
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Last month, CEMEX announced that it had become the fi rst company in the cement industry to successfully operate plants by remote control. From its Centro de Control Cemento (C3) in Monterrey, Mexico, the company is able to track live data from 14 cement plants, 25 kilns, and 86 grinding mills across the company. It also monitors a cement plant in Colombia and the US.
C3 is however able to do more than just monitor operations. “The system’s uninterrupted monitoring
provides information about each stage of the production process, as well as the performance of equipment installed in the cement plants,” the company explained. “This enables C3 operators to not only monitor but also take immediate corrective actions, in coordination with the company’s local operations staff, and have access to the installed intelligent control systems to minimise any deviation from safety, environmental effi ciency, and product quality targets.”
Operating large-scale industrial facilities by remote control is not new. In the mining industry, for example, Rio Tinto has led the way with its Mine of the Future programme. This allows the company to operate its remote Pilbara iron ore mining operations from a single centre in Perth. Running since 2008, the Mine of the Future programme includes autonomous truck haulage and drilling, as well as plans for the world’s fi rst fully-autonomous heavy-haul railway.
The benefi ts for adopters of remote and autonomous operation are easy to see. The application of best practice across a network of plants improves effi ciency and reliability (CEMEX claims to have seen a 50% reduction in the number of operational incidents since the start-up of C3). There are also safety benefi ts to the remote control of equipment in hazardous working environments.
Moreover, when it comes to attracting talent, there are potential advantages to centralising operational activities in a central convenient location. The iron ore mines of Western Australia are a remote and harsh operating environment: Perth is a much easier ‘sell’ for potential employees – especially those of younger generations for whom the use of technology is so natural. The C3 in Monterrey presumably has a similar potential draw to new entrants into the cement industry.
On a similar theme, global lime producer, Carmeuse, recently announced that it had purchased a CAT simulator to train new employees to operate heavy equipment. The simulator covers Caterpillar’s loaders, haul trucks, graders, and dozers, allowing new recruits to become familiar with the equipment before being let loose on the real thing.
What was perhaps most interesting, however, was Carmeuse’s plans to take the simulator to job fairs and high schools in an attempt to attract the next generation of heavy equipment operators into the profession. As Glen Williams, CAT Training Programme Manager at Carmeuse, noted, the simulator could be an important marketing tool to young employees.
“The lack of young people going into the skilled trades has created a gap,” said Williams. “We are hoping that the right technology and programmes will close the gap within Carmeuse.”
There are dangers to the use of technology: the loss of valuable operating experience at the local plant level should not be underestimated – particularly in an industry where every plant has its own idiosyncrasies. The times are clearly changing, however, as is the talent cement companies must attract. CEMEX has shown the industry one potential future. We wait to see who follows.
April 2018 / 5World Cement
WORLD NEWSGlobal LafargeHolcim launches new growth strategy as writedown hits bottom line
LafargeHolcim’s new leadership set out its stall for reviving the company, as the company booked a CHF3.83 billion writedown in 4Q17. New CEO Jens Jenisch said the company would cut costs, target fewer markets, and sell assets as part of a new strategy for building growth.
The impairment charge was booked following a reassessment of the company’s portfolio of assets. Two-thirds of the impairments were concentrated in Algeria, Malaysia, Iraq, Brazil, Indonesia, and Egypt.
Under its new Strategy 2022 – Building for Growth, Jenisch said the company would target annual net sales growth of 3 – 5%, annual recurring EBITDA growth of at least 5%, improvement in free cash fl ow to over 40% of recurring EBITDA, and an improvement on return on invested capital to more than 8%.
“The strategy is underpinned by a new set of targets that centres on growth, improving profi tability, increasing cash generation, and producing more attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders,” Jenisch said.
As part of the new strategy, the company will streamline its corporate structure, focusing greater accountability on the local leadership, while merging
corporate business functions into one business area. Two corporate offi ces – in Singapore and Miami – will also be closed.
In addition to the corporate restructure, a fourth business area will be built to include “products and applications that are closer to the customer”, such as precast and other concrete products, asphalt, mortars, and contracting and services. This segment already has net sales of CHF2.1 billion.
Acquisitions will be selective and bolt-on to existing country-based organisations. Funding for M&A and other growth activities will be funding by the sale of assets worth at least CHR2 billion. CAPEX will meanwhile be kept below CHF2 billion per year.
Including the impairment charge, the company booked a loss of CHF1.68 billion in 2017. Like-for-like earnings were up 6.1% at CHF5.99 billion, while like-for-like sales were up 4.7% at CFH26.90 billion.
Like-for-like sales of cement were up 3.3% at 209.5 million t – the strongest growth from the company’s three business areas. Like-for-like sales of aggregates were up 0.3%, while sales of ready-mixed concrete were down 2.8%.
Global CRH announces another year of growth in 2017
CRH announced earnings of E3.3 billion in 2017, compared to E3.13 billion in 2016, on increasing underlying demand in the Americas and positive momentum in Europe.
“Despite hurricane activity and record levels of rainfall during the year, our Americas operations benefi tted from the continuation of stable market fundamentals in the US and good underlying demand,” the company said in its full year results. Organic sales were up 3% in its Americas Materials Division, with cement volumes also up 3%.
Cement prices were also marginally up on the previous year, supported by stronger demand in the US.
“Against the backdrop of favourable US price environment, Americas Materials continued to optimise its terminal network and market penetration by repositioning more volumes to the US from Canada, where competitive market conditions remain, especially in Quebec.”
CRH is expanding its presence in the US cement industry, completing the acquisition of Suwannee
American Cement in November 2017. Meanwhile, its acquisition of Ash Grove Cement is scheduled to close in this year. Following the two deals, CRH is expected to be fourth largest cement producer in the US, according to a recent note from Jeffries, with 11.7 million t of capacity.
Europe also provided mostly good news for the Irish multinational. Cement volumes rose in Ireland, France, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia, while UK cement operations were stable and price increases in Ukraine offset lower volumes, boosting operating profi t.
In Asia, the cement market in the Philippines remained challenging, but there was better news from India and China.
Looking ahead, the company expects 2018 “will be a year of continued growth for the group,” Albert Manifold, CRH’s CEO said, built on improving economic fundamentals in Europe and the US. Challenges will remain in the Philippines, however, although some stabilisation in the cement market there is anticipated.
IN BRIEF
EVENTS
April 20186 \ World Cement
WORLD NEWSCementtech 2018
11 – 13 April 2018Chengdu, China
www.cementtech.org/eng/news.
Africa CemenTrade Summit 2018
18 – 19 April 2018Dakar, Senegal
www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=180415&
PetroChem 201822 – 24 April 2018
St Petersberg, Russiawww.petrocem.ru
IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference
06 – 10 May 2018Nashville, USA
www.cementconference.org
Hillhead 201826 – 28 June 2018
Buxton, UKwww.hillhead.come
International VDZ Congress 26 – 28 September 2018
Düsseldorf, Germanywww.vdz-online.de/en/latest-
news/events
ILA General Assembly and Information Exchange Forum
10 – 12 October 2018Cape Town, South Africa
www.internationallime.org
Global Buzzi Unicem reports positive 2017
Buzzi Unicem reported a 4.4% increase in cement sales in 2017. The Italian multinational sold 26.8 million t of cement and clinker, compared to 25.6 million t in 2016, following positive trends in Italy, Central and Eastern Europe.
In Buzzi’s home market, cement and clinker volumes jumped 19.5% on the back of the full consolidation of the Zillo group into the results, as well as growth in exports and clinker sales. Italian cement consumption fi nished the year up marginally, ending a decade of market contraction.
In Central Europe, Germany – Buzzi Unicem’s largest European market – also provided positive news for the company, with lively demand for oil well cements and hydraulic binders in particular. In Luxembourg and the Netherlands, cement and clinker volumes closed the year up 4.5% on a strong latter end to the year. Volumes in the Czech Republic were also up strongly (+8.2%) on higher levels of investment in construction across the private and public sectors.
Poland and Russia showed more marginal volume growth. Despite acceleration in Polish economic growth to 3.8% last year, cement volumes were up only 0.7% – although pricing also improved. Speciality oil well cements helped underpin a 1.7% growth in sales volumes in Russia, which came out of two years of recession during 2017. In Ukraine, volumes were down 1.5% on the previous year, as the pace of economic recovery remained modest.
Across the Atlantic, in the US, Buzzi Unicem’s largest market, volumes were steady with the previous year, after a year of challenging weather conditions. Revenues were up marginally at E1.12 billion. Meanwhile, south of the border in Mexico, where Buzzi jointly owns Corporación Moctezuma with Cementos Molins, cement volumes achieved “adequate growth”. Corporación Moctezuma reported a 12.7% rise in revenues to E686 million.
Overall, net sales were E2.8 billion, a 5.1% increase on the previous year. In addition to the rise in cement and clinker sales, ready-mixed concrete sales were up 3.1%.
Algeria FLSmidth to supply new cement plant
FLSmidth is to deliver a complete cement plant for ETHRB Group, located in Relizane, Algeria, in partnership with Beijing Triumph International Engineering Co., part of CNBM Group. The plant will have a capacity of 12 000 tpd and supply cement to the North African market.
The E100 million contract will see the Danish company supply engineering, equipment, construction supervision, commissioning and training for two clinker production lines. Beijing Triumph Engineering will be responsible for construction of the plant.
Main equipment will include two hammer impact crushers, one additive crusher, two circular storage areas, one longitudinal storage area, two ATOX raw mills, two CF silos, two preheaters, two kilns, two Cross-Bar coolers, a clinker silo, three OK cement mills, four cement silos, and six packing lines. The order will be fully executed by the end of 2020.
This is the second recent order FLSmidth has received rom the Algerian market. Last February, the company received an order from SARL Amouda Ingineering for a 6000 tpd greenfi eld cement plant in El Beida, Algeria.
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April 20188 \ World Cement
IN BRIEF
IN BRIEF
WORLD NEWSMexico CEMEX to operate plants by remote control
Turkey BILIM Makina orders two more Pfeiffer mills
BILIM Makina has ordered two more Pfeiffer mills for its new Dincer Cimento project in Bilecik, Turkey. The order continues a long-standing relationship between the companies: in 2014, the company bought an MPS 250 BK petcoke mill for a cement plant in Elazig, which has been operating to full satisfaction since its commissioning.
The new mills include another MPS 250 BK mill for petcoke, as well as an MVR mill for grinding raw meal, the fi rst time BILIM Makina will install the vertical mill technology.
Featuring drive power of 3800 kW, the MVR 5000 R-4 mill will grind 425 tph of raw meal to a fi neness of 12% R 90 µm. In addition to the mill, Gebr. Pfeiffer will supply the high-effi ciency cyclone collector, the mill fan, and some shut-off fl aps and control dampers.
The MPS 250 BK is designed to grind petcoke at 30 tph to a fi neness of 3% R 90 µm. Both mills are due to be commissioned in early 2019.
CEMEX has become the fi rst cement company to successfully operate cement plants by remote control. From the company’s Centro de Control Cemento (C3), it can operate a number of different cement plants across Mexico in real time. It can also monitor a cement plant in the US and Columbia.
CEMEX created the C3 to more effectively unify the control systems of all its cement plants to allow real-time optimal decisions, more conveniently share best practices, and to maximise operating performance as well as management of energy and resources.
The system’s uninterrupted monitoring provides information about each stage of the production process, as well as the performance of equipment installed in the cement plants. This allows C3 operators to not only monitor but also take immediate corrective actions in coordination with the company’s local operations staff.
Morocco thyssenkrupp to supply new plant
German engineering company, thyssenkrupp, is to supply a production line for a LafargeHolcim cement plant in Morocco. The new production line is set to have a 3500 tpd cement clinker production.
The project will cover the engineering, procurement and construction of the new greenfi eld facility. The line will be built in the Souss Massa region near Tidsi, situated near the regional capital Agadir. The plant is scheduled for 2H20.
The main components include a 1000 tph primary crusher, a longitudinal additives storage facility, a circular stockpile with a storage capacity of 12 000 t, and a blending silo of 4600 t. The kiln system consists of a fi ve stage, single-string Polysius preheating tower, a two-pier rotary kiln, and a POLYTRACK clinker cooler. The line is completed by a ball mill for solid combustibles and clinker storage facility with a total capacity of up to 65 000 t.
A team of fi ve companies led by CarbonCure Technologies has demonstrated the world’s fi rst integrated CO
2 capture and utilisation from a cement plant kiln for subsequent use in concrete production. The project took place at the Argos Roberta cement plant near Calera, Alabama. CO2 was captured using Sustainable Energy Solutions cryogenic capture technology. The CO2 was than transported by Praxair for reuse at Argos’ Glenwood concrete operations in Atlanta, Georgia.
Vicat Group is to expand its Indian operations, according to local news reports. The French building materials fi rm will set up a new cement grinding plant in Vizianagaram in the state of Andhra Pradesh, as well as expanding its existing plant at Kalaburagi, Karnataka. The investment will raise the capacity of the Kalaburagi plant from 2.75 million tpy to 5 million tpy. The new Vizianagaram grinding will have a capacity 1.75 million tpy.
Equiom, a specialist in the production and distribution of building materials, has chosen Fives to revamp its kiln at the Lumbres plant, France. The work by Fives will include the replacement of 42.2 m of kiln downstream shell, including tyre. This revamping is part of EQIOM’s project to adapt the Kiln 5 to enable the installation of a new cooler.
10 \
/ 11
Sub-Saharan Cement
Trond Waerp, Africa Consulting Services, discusses the cement industury of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
Population The total population of Africa in 2016 was approximately 1.2 billion, with Sub-Saharan Africa accounting for just below 1 billion. Using the present growth rate of about 2.6% (the average of the last four years), the Sub-Saharan population will reach 1.1 billion by 2020 and 1.25 billion by 2025. Regionally, the split is roughly shown in Figure 1.
The highest growth rate, well above 3%, is found in the Southwest, while Southern Africa has the lowest growth rate with approximately 1.5%. It is worth noting that growth rates of the African population – and Sub-Sahara in particular – are higher than in any other part of the world.
April 201812 \ World Cement
Cement consumption In 2016, cement consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa was 109 million t, while the total for the continent was approximately 235 million t. Therefore North Africa, with 16% of the population, accounts for 54% of the cement consumption.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, growth in cement consumption has been relatively stable at 5 – 10% annually for 15 years. Periods with slower growth in some countries have been compensated for by
higher growth in other regions. The growth is expected to continue, however, at a steady pace of 6% annually. This is based on the assumption that, with the exception of South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa is characterised as developing.
Normally, in developing countries, the consumption of cement increases by 1 – 2% more than the GDP growth rate, due mainly to necessary infrastructure investments. With a 3% increase in population, in order to achieve positive GDP development per capita, the growth rate has to reach 4 – 5% annually.
On a per capita basis, Sub-Saharan Africa consumed an average of 109 kg of cement in 2016, while North Africa consumed 635 kg. For the Sub-Saharan regions, development since 2014 is illustrated in Figure 2.
The very high consumption per capita in Southern Africa is due to this region’s domination by South Africa, which is a more developed economy than the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. West Africa’s cement consumption per capita is roughly double that of East Africa and the Southwest.
Traditionally, the economies of the East have been more focused on agriculture, while the West’s have been a little more based around industry and mining. In the Southwest, countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola are very rich in natural resources. However, the political situation has long prevented these countries from efficiently developing their economies.
Assuming that the GDP growth is on average 1.5 – 2% above the population growth rate, the future cement consumption can be estimated as indicated in Table 1.
Predicting the future cement consumption is very difficult. Political unrest, changing oil prices, and the effects of global warming may have a significant impact on the development in some countries. Further, incidents such as the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa and famine in East Africa, can continue to have negative consequences. On the other hand, support from China has contributed positively to the economic growth.
Figure 1. African population 2016.
Figure 2. Cement consumption per capita.
Table 1. Cement consumption and production capacity.
Total for Sub-Sahara Africa 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Cement consumption (thousand t) 82 460 93 493 108 494 121 317 138 486
Growth rate (%) 8.63 10.06 9.94 5.93 6.34
Cement consumption per capita (kg) 92 99 109 116 126
Population (million) 898 946 996 1049 1100
Population growth (%) 2.52 2.71 2.54 2.55 2.43
Total clinker capacity (tpy) 57 684 71 260 98 645 111 909 128 215
Total cement capacity (tpy) 92 499 107 859 154 120 186 725 212 495
Cement surplus (tpy) 10 093 14 366 45 626 65 408 74 009
Clinker surplus (tpy) - 4161 1140 17 275 20 922 24 350
April 201814 \ World Cement
On average, a growth rate of 5 – 6% annually is assumed to be realistic, barring major social or political unrest or natural catastrophes. This is a stronger growth than can expected in any other part of the world.
During the last decade, the highest average growth rate has been seen in the Southwest. Even though production is still low in nominal terms, the growth rate has been quite strong over the last few years.
Cement productionFigure 3 shows the estimated consumption of cement and the cement production capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa 2012 – 2020. It is diffi cult to fi nd reliable statistics showing historic data, and even more so when it comes to what to expect for future years.
To a large degree, Sub-Saharan Africa was traditionally dependent on import of cement and clinker to cover its needs. During the last decades of the 20th Century, several cement mills were put up; however, until the beginning of the 2000s,
integrated production capacity was primarily developed in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, Benin, and Nigeria.
Over the last 15 years, major investments have been made in cement production capacity and new clinker plants have been erected wherever there is limestone available. The result is that now there is a large surplus in production capacity. Again, there are uncertainties related to the figures presented, regarding both the time of completion and rated capacities. In addition, in many countries the realistic capacity to produce is reduced due to lack of electrical power, unstable supply of kiln fuel for clinker production and for generators, and periodic unavailability of transport.
Despite the surplus capacity of 45 million t of cement and 17 million t of clinker in 2016, new investments are announced on a weekly basis. Some of the projects may not be realised at all, be downscaled, or delayed, while new projects may be introduced. The surplus production capacity for both cement and clinker will increase, at least for the next 3 − 4 years.
Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa
East African supply and demandThe cement production capacity in East Africa has gone from a deficit in 2013 to a situation with considerable theoretical surplus of approximately 13 million t in 2016 (Figure 4).
The development was rather slow until around 2010 when major expansion projects were undertaken in all countries. Some of the smaller markets, such as Southern Sudan, Central African Republic, Burundi, and Malawi, are likely to stay net importers of cement, while others, such as Mozambique, have a capacity that is twice the current demand.
There is some leakage of cement from Uganda and Tanzania into the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as from Zambia into the southern part of the country.
West African supply and demandThe main expansion of production capacity in West Africa started around 2000 with Wacem/Diamond in Togo and Ghana, and the first line of Ciments de Sahel in Senegal. After massive expansion of the integrated capacity in Nigeria, the region was in principle self-sufficient in both cement and clinker. By 2020, cement capacity is expected to be approximately 40 million t higher than demand (Figure 5).
There is also a considerable surplus clinker capacity of around 15 million t. However, the main importers of clinker, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, do not belong to the groups with clinker surplus in Nigeria and Senegal and prefer importing from other sources overseas.
Figure 3. Sub-Saharan cement supply and demand.
Figure 4. East African supply and demand.
Figure 5. West African supply and demand.
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In West Africa, the landlocked countries, Mali and Niger, will stay net importers of cement, while Burkina Faso has a developed grinding capacity but needs imported clinker.
Southwest African supply and demandThe expansion of the cement capacity in Southwest Africa has taken place by way of investments in cement mills in Cameroon and integrated plants in Angola and Namibia. Lately, new integrated plants have also been developed in the Republic of Congo.
In the coming years, the majority of new cement capacity is expected to materialise in Cameroon. Dangote, LafargeHolcim, Cimaf, and Medcem all plan major expansions, which will almost double the
capacity from 2016 to 2020 (Figure 6). The grinding plants will mainly have to be supplied with clinker from overseas. In addition, new integrated capacity will come in from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Southern African supply and demandThe demand for cement in Southern Africa (Figure 7) has experienced growth rates of around 3% annually. The increased cement capacity is mainly related to the Sephaku plant provided by Dangote with a capacity of 3 million t.
The future growth, until 2020, will come from Zimbabwe, where the new political situation may lead to stronger growth in the demand for cement.
Balance of supply and demandIt seems clear that the cement industry of Sub-Saharan Africa has developed a considerable surplus capacity, and the gap between supply and demand will increase further in the coming years. When presenting new projects, it is frequently stated that there will be capacity for export. However, it is difficult to see where in Sub-Saharan Africa such export can go. Import is only needed in a few countries with quite small markets for cement. Export to markets overseas does not seem realistic.
With limited possibilities of finding alternative markets for their product, and instead of leaving the production lines idle, individual cement producers tried to use price to achieve higher market shares. The result is that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have seen a significant drop in the net sales prices per tonne. There are significant variances in price levels between countries but, on average, prices have dropped some 30 – 40% since 2012.
Cement suppliersUntil the end of the 1990s, the cement industry of Sub-Saharan Africa was characterised by the presence of some of the major international groups including the following:
Heidelberg in West Africa and Tanzania.Lafarge in East Africa, Nigeria, and Cameroon.Holcim in West Africa, South Africa, and Tanzania.Cimpor in Mozambique and South Africa.
The big cement producers have not expanded much geographically. The exception may be Heidelberg, which via Italcementi has developed a large new presence in North Africa. In addition, there were independent local producers and, since the late 1990s, new groups without prior cement investments have started emerging.
The fi rst of the new groups was WACEM/Diamond with the acquisition of the CIMAO clinker plant in Togo and the subsequent start of grinding operations in Togo and Ghana. Today the group has
Figure 6. Southwest African supply and demand.
Figure 7. Southern African supply and demand.
Figure 8. BUA Group’s Obu Cement Ltd in Edo State, Nigeria. The photo shows the FLSmidth 3.0 million tpy production line, as well as the construction of another 3.0 million tpy CBMI production line.
a production capacity of approximately 10 million t in 10 different countries.
The next was Ciments de Sahel with an integrated plant in Senegal in the early 2000s. Today, Ciments de Sahel has expanded the Senegal plant and erected a large new integrated plant in Benin, bringing the total capacity to 4.8 million t.
Dangote started trading cement in Sub-Saharan Africa around 2000, and commissioned the first integrated plant in Nigeria in 2005. Dangote has expanded very rapidly, first by new production lines and new plants in Nigeria and, in recent years, by investments in terminals, grinding plants, and integrated plants in all regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. The combined production capacity of the group is around 45 million tpy.
The latest entrant is the Moroccan company, Cimaf, a member of the Moroccan Sefrioui Group and affi liated with the construction/real estate development group Addoha. Cimaf has grown rapidly in West Africa. The fi rst grinding plant operation commenced four years ago. The group has invested in production facilities in four countries in West Africa, Cameroon, and Gabon (acquired from HeidelbergCement and expanded). Cimaf is one of the groups that will still aim to increase its presence in West Africa by way of investments in Ghana and possibly some of the smaller countries.
Among the local groups, the South African PPC is prominent. It is by far the biggest in Southern Africa, and has started expanding into new regions. For some time, PPC has been a possible candidate for a take-over attempt; however, it seems that the group will continue to be independent and focus on independent expansion.
Conclusion The cement industry of Sub-Saharan Africa will, in the coming years, be characterised by surplus capacity, intensified competition, pressure on prices, and a relatively low capacity utilisation. New plants are continually growing and expanding; however it must be kept in mind that conditions, such as supply of fuel, may make it impossible to achieve the run-times normally associated with cement plants.
The demand for cement is going to grow faster than in any other part of the world. It is likely that the demand will eventually match production capacity but, even with the relatively high growth rate, that will take a few years.
About the author Trond Waerp is a partner in African Consulting Services AS in Norway. He has extensive experience from working in and with Africa. He has lived in Africa for a number of years, and has held held various managment positions in operating companies in Africa, as well in European parent companies.
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