AFRICA NEWS
Algeria will stop importing cement in 2017, according to minister of industry and mining, Abdessalem Bouchouareb. The statement was made during the minister’ s inspection visit to the Timegtane commune’ s cement plant, located in the sub-prefecture of Aoulef, 260km east of Adrar.
Commissioning of the plant, which is the product of an Algerian – Chinese partnership, was expected by the end of 2016. This will bring the country’ s total annual production capacity to six million tonnes.
Kenya’ s Savannah Cement plans to double its annual cement output to 2.4 million tonnes by upgrading its Athi River grinding plant, according to the Business Daily newspaper. The company, currently seeking approval from the National Environmental Management Agency( Nema), expects the additional capacity to be in place by mid-2018. According to managing director Ronald Ndegwa, Savannah is hoping to issue the tender for the project in early 2017. The project will involve installing an additional cement grinding mill and packing plant, allowing the company to expand its cement range, particularly its hydraulic road binder blend.
Egypt’ s Industrial Development Authority( IDA) has awarded the tender for three cement licences to El Sewedy Cement, South Valley Cement, and Cement Egypt, according to a report in Daily News Egypt. The licences to build the new cement production facilities were sold for a total of EGP500-million( USD28-million), and are expected to attract investments worth EGP10-billion( USD560-million), according to the country’ s minister of industry and trade, Tarek Kabil. The new licences are expected to provide close to 1 000 jobs. Production capacity of the three plants will reach six million tonnes, increasing the country’ s total annual production capacity to 60 million tonnes.
India’ s Lake Cement will be adding a new USD150-million cement manufacturing plant to its stable in Tanzania. Construction of the plant will start mid-2017 and will take two years to complete. The new plant, which will be built in the Chalinze-Tarawanda area in Bagamoyo, will have an annual production capacity of 1.4 million tonnes. Lake Cement has one manufacturing plant, its Kimbiji plant, in the Kigamboni District, where it produces its Nyati Cement brand. The Kimbiji plant has an annual production capacity of one million tonnes of cement per year, which is sold countrywide and exported to Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Tanzania, Dangote Cement reach deal for natural gas
Tanzanian President John Magufuli has confirmed that an agreement with Nigeria’ s Dangote Cement has been reached on the supply of natural gas to the firm’ s manufacturing plant, according to Reuters. The USD500-million, three million tonne annual capacity cement factory in Mtwara, set up in 2015, runs on expensive diesel generators and sought government support to reduce costs. But the negotiations stalled, with the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation( TPDC) saying the company was seeking‘ at-the-well prices’. After meeting with Aliko Dangote, Magufuli blamed‘ middlemen’ for interfering with supply plans and said the issue has now been resolved, with gas supplies to be sold at a‘ reasonable’ tariff. Magufuli told journalists after the meeting that
Dangote Cement would now buy natural gas directly from TPDC instead of going through intermediaries.
In February 2016, Tanzania announced that it had discovered an additional 61.4 billion cubic metres of possible natural gas deposits in an onshore field, raising its total estimated recoverable natural gas reserves to more than 1.6 trillion cubic metres.
Dangote
Dangote Cement will now buy natural gas directly from the state-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation( TPDC).
QUARRY SA | JANUARY 2017 _ 9 QUARRY SA | JANUARY 2017 _ 9